Trouble Maker Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I max my 401k to company match, then max a Roth Ira, then decide where to put excess if there is any. This. Sit down and make a budget. In that include all of the above and savings accounts for big things you will want/need to buy, and obviously your bills/expenses. Think of things like future cars, vacations, toys, whatever. Oh, and get an emergency fund (6 months expenses or whatever you feel comfortable with). I'd do that before 'investing'. Even putting $100 or $200/month into an account, it can really grow over a few years. One of our ideas of living within your means is to have a big chunk of money for a down payment. If you think you will want to be in a house in 2, 3, 5 years; it can take a long time to save up xx% for a down payment. Assuming a 100k house, a 20% down payment is 20k, that over 5 years is $333/month! So imagine a more expensive house or shorter timeline. If you save up a reasonable down payment and don't want to be in a house yet, you can always sit on that knowing when you are ready to buy, you have it. At some point if you feel comfortable with it and have some other liquid you can put some of these long term savings into 'safe' investments and (it should) make more money than a savings account. We are about to do this with our emergency fund and car savings since we shouldn't need to touch those. At least this is our plan. We sat down with a financial adviser the other day and he said it sounded like a sound plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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