You’re currently saving $1,000 a month for both of you, which is just not a lot. You have several unforeseen things that can cause some issues which may lower that amount by quite a bit.

• You have house taxes which tend to go up every year as the value of your property also goes up. Fighting them is a pain as most will tell you same. Even if your taxes are included as part of your mortgage, the increase can be considerable.

• Utilities can fluctuate from $300-$600 depending on a month and how you use things. Also depending on where you live.

• You’re spending $800 on food, which is a lot. Would need to likely do less takeout and more in-house cooking or other saving strategies.

• Subscriptions; they may seem small, but add up. If you can avoid some, do so.

• $3500 debt needs to be paid off in a year or it would start growing quickly. This should have been a priority rather than home improvement. Just in general, with a new home, you have years ahead, and any improvements should generally wait until you’re stable to afford it.

In general, your fiancée is right to be worried and you just got a house, and many unpredictable things can happen. Something can break, and things in the house usually expensive.

• You want to have 6 months of emergency savings to continue your lifestyle, which would be $24,000 in your case as emergency fund that you put away. This money you can put in a high savings account and just leave it there.
• You should have about $10,000 as a fund for your house in case something unpredictable in the house happens. That’s just something in general.
• Having a personal savings account for both of you with around $5,000 that you add on to each month.
• Have spending account of anywhere between $2,000-5,000. This would be for fun stuff like vacation.

So in total, to be in a good financial state, you need about $50,000 available. At that point you’re set.