We live in an area with a relatively low cost of living and — due to help from my mom with a down payment — we were able to buy a house in 2016, which now has a monthly mortgage, insurance and property-tax payment of $1,600 a month. We bought the house for $169,000 and it’s currently worth $300,000.
We have been bringing in $60,000 a year for the last couple years, until this October, when I was laid off. I have $1,500 in a 401(k). I’m 43 and my husband is 35, and this is the only savings we have at the moment (some unexpected major house repairs ate up what we would have been able to save).
I know we’re not in a good spot. We also have $8,000 in credit-card debt and would appreciate any suggestions on the best way to get our savings on track. We were doing a good job at paying the debt down until this happened; right now, we’re making just a bit more than the minimum payments, which I hate.
‘We also have a friend that would like to rent a bedroom room from us for $400 a month.’
I was able to pick up a job immediately after being laid off, but I’m only making $12.50 an hour full-time versus the $20 an hour I was making, which is more than unemployment would have provided. My husband makes the same per hour, but is only able to work 32 hours a week right now. We both work for a hotel.
Currently, we work two miles from home and own both our cars, so insurance and gas costs are low. We also have a friend that would like to rent a bedroom from us for $400 a month, which would also help make up some of the loss from my wages. He wouldn’t be home too often, and we know him well.
My immediate goal is to find another job that pays as much or more than I was earning before, but in the meantime, I need to do something with the 401(k). I’d like to have an account where we can still contribute something each month pretax, but our current employer doesn’t offer any kind of benefits or retirement plan.
Falling Behind
Related: ‘I don’t want to stop her from moving on with her life’: My second wife is younger than me. If I die first, how do I make sure she doesn’t cut off my children?
Dear Falling,
Survival first. Career and retirement second.
Picking up another job, any job, was a smart move. You are earning money — you don’t have to put every job on your résumé — and you are looking for other ways to earn passive income. Fidelity Investments suggests you should have double your salary saved for retirement by the time you’re in your 30s and three times by the time you’re in your 40s; these kinds of goals usually freak people out because millions of them are just trying to make it to their next payday.
You don’t have a job with a 401(k) now, but if you get through this rough patch, you will both get to where you need to go if you keep your eye on the ball. It’s tough to strike a balance between planning for retirement and — in part, due to that forward thinking — believing that you are so far behind that you are never…
Read More: I was laid off. I’m 43 and my husband is 35. I have $8,000 in credit-card
I was laid off. I’m 43 and my husband is 35. I have $8,000 in credit-card
We live in an area with a relatively low cost of living and — due to help from my mom with a down payment — we were able to buy a house in 2016, which now has a monthly mortgage, insurance and property-tax payment of $1,600 a month. We bought the house for $169,000 and it’s currently worth $300,000.
We have been bringing in $60,000 a year for the last couple years, until this October, when I was laid off. I have $1,500 in a 401(k). I’m 43 and my husband is 35, and this is the only savings we have at the moment (some unexpected major house repairs ate up what we would have been able to save).
I know we’re not in a good spot. We also have $8,000 in credit-card debt and would appreciate any suggestions on the best way to get our savings on track. We were doing a good job at paying the debt down until this happened; right now, we’re making just a bit more than the minimum payments, which I hate.
I was able to pick up a job immediately after being laid off, but I’m only making $12.50 an hour full-time versus the $20 an hour I was making, which is more than unemployment would have provided. My husband makes the same per hour, but is only able to work 32 hours a week right now. We both work for a hotel.
Currently, we work two miles from home and own both our cars, so insurance and gas costs are low. We also have a friend that would like to rent a bedroom from us for $400 a month, which would also help make up some of the loss from my wages. He wouldn’t be home too often, and we know him well.
My immediate goal is to find another job that pays as much or more than I was earning before, but in the meantime, I need to do something with the 401(k). I’d like to have an account where we can still contribute something each month pretax, but our current employer doesn’t offer any kind of benefits or retirement plan.
Falling Behind
Related: ‘I don’t want to stop her from moving on with her life’: My second wife is younger than me. If I die first, how do I make sure she doesn’t cut off my children?
Dear Falling,
Survival first. Career and retirement second.
Picking up another job, any job, was a smart move. You are earning money — you don’t have to put every job on your résumé — and you are looking for other ways to earn passive income. Fidelity Investments suggests you should have double your salary saved for retirement by the time you’re in your 30s and three times by the time you’re in your 40s; these kinds of goals usually freak people out because millions of them are just trying to make it to their next payday.
You don’t have a job with a 401(k) now, but if you get through this rough patch, you will both get to where you need to go if you keep your eye on the ball. It’s tough to strike a balance between planning for retirement and — in part, due to that forward thinking — believing that you are so far behind that you are never…
Read More: I was laid off. I’m 43 and my husband is 35. I have $8,000 in credit-card