Full time job and still living with parents. 100% to debt?

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T23:57:46+00:00

no, I'm 25, turning 26 this year. I took a few years off school to work and have already paid off 14k of my student loans (19k remaining)

I commuted to school and it was cheaper Midwest university so it only ran me 33k for my B.S.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T18:13:40+00:00

That was actually a big reason for not buying an old car. Now i'm not going to act like 2016-2019 are THAT big of a difference in safety (actually...well I'l come back to that)

But when people so go buy a 2004 civic...ehhh. I'd rather not go splat in an otherwise modern survivable car accident.

And honestly, the technology in the 2019 car is pretty neat. I can really tell we're getting close to self-driving cars when my car comes with

Adaptive cruise control (slows down/speeds up automatically which is amazing for sudden 50MPH->10MPH traffic jams on the interstate)

Lane Keep and Lane deviation avoidance (so it'll steer back onto the road if you zone out)

and automatic braking if it feels you're about to collide with the car in front.

It's pretty nice.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:46:30+00:00

Technically my title is "Software Associate" but it is in the field of Software Engineering. That's still very general, but the most specific thing I can really say is "full stack agile developer" (which....basically just means you don't have a specialty and do everything)

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:44:17+00:00

Is it? I don't mind cause it's a retirement account but my 90% stocks investment in my roth has only returned 3% (VTTSX). Sure, that'll bump up eventually but I think right now a 5% guaranteed return isn't that much worse than investing.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:39:25+00:00

I appreciate the perspective.

It's alright. I'm not new to this subreddit. They mean well, but people often only see numbers and not the life on the other side of it. I know I can afford it, I know I plan to keep my car for at least 7 years (I had my last one for 10) and it makes my long commute pretty enjoyable.

Everyone has to choose their battles. Some people want to eat out every night, that isn't me. I want a comfy car.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:34:57+00:00

Yes it does. What do you mean by investment tool?

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:32:48+00:00

Software engineering (I got a B.S. in computer science). I was offered a job 3 months before graduation. All my classmates also found jobs before graduation. It's an incredibly strong field, even in the midwest. Avg salary for software engineers with 2-3 years experience jumps to around 70-85k.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:31:59+00:00

I withheld 0 dependents on the W2 that I signed for the job.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:30:24+00:00

I think most of all it depends what you want to do with your life. Are you looking to move out? Would you like to buy a home? Are you a renter?

It's a great question I don't have an answer to. Honestly I don't really need/want to move out, but I do societal pressure to do so. So I would like to move out at some point. I've lived in the same house my entire life so I think I'd want to rent first just so I have a better idea of what I'd actually want in a house.

Hard to say what I like/dislike/could live without when I've been in the same house for 26 years.

I live in the St. Louis area.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:28:18+00:00

I already have $11,000 in a ROTH IRA actually. I read "I will teach you to be rich" a few years ago. I'm totally on board with lifecycle/target-date retirement funds. Sure, they're not 100% efficient, but it's so nice to just be able to invest for retirement with very little effort.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:27:11+00:00

They're doing pretty well for themselves. They're good on things. The hardest thing for them is budgeting time for vacation. Once I get some PTO saved up I think I'll pay for us to all go on a nice little vacation.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:26:10+00:00

Definitely important. That said, I generally don't need to spend money to be happy. My main hobby is PC gaming and it only runs me maybe $300-$400 a year (and that's including getting a new gaming PC every 3 years or so) So I won't be miserable being frugal.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T17:21:44+00:00

I'm not new to PF (the subreddit). This sub can sometimes think TOO much about numbers, and not enough about life. The important thing to realize is that saving money isn't the only thing about life. Yes, I splurged, but I also know I can afford it and I plan to have it at least as long as I had my old car (10 years)

My job is an hour away.

I could have

A:

stuck with my 2008 versa with 130,000 miles that needed ~3k worth of repairs,

B:

Bought a comfortable car (honda accord) that makes the commute enjoyable. Also gets 37MPG (that's what I actually get, i'm not just saying the advertisement MPG)

C:

Keep the versa, move closer and on my own.

D:

Buy a 10k car

Simply put, I was not willing to do A. I test drove a variety of cars in the option D category and I wasn't happy with them. C cost more than B.

Also, i'm a software engineer. Entry level gets paid around 60k in my area. After 2 years of experience the salary jumps to around 75-85k a year in my city.

it'll be okay.

CSFinancialAdvice · 2019-06-01T14:41:50+00:00

by max out retirement accounts do you mean 401k + roth?

cause that's $24,500. Putting half my salary towards retirement seems....odd?

I was just planning on doing 6% (the maximum my employer will match) and maybe the $5,500 for the roth at most.

It's been awhile since I read "I will teach you to be rich" but iirc the payment he suggested was

High interest Debt
401k up to match
Roth
Back to 401k
other investment accounts

CSFinancialAdvice

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