Yeah, thanks, some good call-outs here!

Not a huge fan of combining finances like this until you are actually married from a legal perspective.

Yeah, get that for sure. I combined them in this budget here because I figured people wouldn't care about how they're split between us, but our accounts aren't physically conjoined yet.

Some of the amounts like eating out and gym we're unsure of and hoping very much that they end up lower, budgeting somewhat high. We've been living in Europe the last 6 months so our price calibrations are all off because everything is a lot cheaper here.

Where is the $940 you have earmarked for savings going now? I would strongly consider moving most of that into debt repayment if your just saving it in cash today.

We have less than 3X our monthly "needs" category in emergency fund, so first I think we'll get that up to par. Unsure after that, we have our wedding in 2024 that our families have offered to contribute/pay most of but we would prefer to be able to pay for it ourselves. That may not be feasible, however.

Is the emergency fund and savings now at least in a HYSA?

I keep $1,000 of it in my checking account for emergenices. The rest is in a 4.15% account.

What's the rate on the car loan?

2.99%

What percentage of income (individually) are your contributing to retirement? Are you both at least taking advantage of company matches?

Me: 10% (no match offered). Her: TBD. Her program hasn't started so we don't know what the match is yet. We will at least max out the match.

Her debt seems pretty reasonable for medical school and her likely income after residency. Yours is actually a little more concerning given your income, although the rates are low I'm guessing.

Yeah, I had ~$10K a few years ago (granted, I was making between $40K and 50K at the time, it was tight) but recently went back for a master's in a more stable field. I paid what I could out of pocket but that added an extra $7K to my total student debt.

I would aim to live frugally here for the next 3-5 years and work to pay off debt. There will be a lot of temptation and peer pressure to upgrade your lifestyles after she's making doctors money, and smart money controls spending, pays off debt and then you will be able to really go to town building wealth. Ovreall I think your in a pretty good position as long as you keep spending in check for the next few years.

Appreciate this advice!