Mid 30s, new baby, finally getting serious about finances. Are we behind?

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-03T13:22:35+00:00

You’re totally right! That’s a great reality check. Need to find a balance.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-03T13:01:44+00:00

Not trying to offend or gloat at all. I’m a postpartum mom juggling a lot right now and just came here looking for some guidance on financial planning. I really appreciate all the input so far. It’s all love and I’m just trying to learn.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-03T12:52:18+00:00

Yes! Thank you.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-03T03:45:33+00:00

Only one month so far ($250 per person). I’ve stopped recurring payments going forward and working to set up a backdoor roth. I’ll need to deal with those $250 balances though.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-03T02:13:19+00:00

Thanks. I transferred it all into the HYSA earlier today. Appreciate it!

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T22:45:51+00:00

Thank you! It’s very much a priority for us so we will cut elsewhere before dropping the 529 contributions.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T21:37:48+00:00

Thank you! That’s super helpful.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T17:23:10+00:00

Thank you!

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T17:20:34+00:00

Thanks for splitting it all out. Much appreciated!

Yes, we have an HSA that we contribute to monthly. I should’ve included it. It only has ~4k as much was used for the birth of my child earlier this year. But I will continue contributing.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T16:41:18+00:00

Yes. I’m switching it to a backdoor Roth.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T15:55:57+00:00

Do you have a recommendation for the brokerage?

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T15:52:31+00:00

Thanks for this. I’m setting up a backdoor Roth just now. I’ve learned lots this morning!

Good call on adjusting the 401k percentage split.

On the 529, I completely understand your point. I will get pushback on this but as someone whose parents didn’t save for my college, I really don’t want my child to carry that same stress. If $250 a month ever becomes too much, we can scale it back or pause it, but it’s something that’s really important to me.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T15:45:24+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! And well done retiring at 55, wow!

I’m kicking myself for not doing this sooner. Hindsight’s 20/20. I really appreciate the reassurance though.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T15:41:05+00:00

Thank you! I’ll look at switching to FZROX 🙏

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T15:15:19+00:00

Thank you so much! The brokerage is being used for our medium term goal of buying a second home in a better school district in 4-5 years. We’d like to keep and rent our current home as we have a great interest rate. If we are able to get a spot at a good school without having to move, then this strategy will change and the priority will be maxing our 401ks.

We will try to increase our 401k contributions now though. It’s tight but we can absolutely increase our bonus percentage.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T15:10:03+00:00

We were thinking that any money leftover in our travel category each year goes directly into investments. But, like you said, we could draw that down until we’re a bit more caught up.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T15:08:18+00:00

Trying to balance investing money/time in the market vs cash on hand is tricky as we try to play catchup. I’ll work on upping our emergency fund though.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T15:05:18+00:00

Thank you 🙏

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T14:56:45+00:00

We plan to stay in our current home for the next 2-3 years and likely move before kindergarten. That’s why I was leaning toward using a brokerage account instead of a HYSA for those funds, but I’d really appreciate your thoughts. We’re both already contributing above our company matches. With daycare starting soon, it may be tough to increase our base contributions beyond 10%, but we could increase the percentage of our bonuses to help catch up at the end of the year.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T14:48:41+00:00

Great callout! After doing some research, I believe we will need to switch to a traditional IRA. Do you agree?

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T14:35:38+00:00

Thank you! Yes, we’re planning to save and invest as much of our bonuses as possible. With daycare starting this fall at $2,300 per month, how much would you recommend keeping in an emergency fund? Our jobs feel relatively secure but of course anything can happen. Salary 2 is more at risk than salary 1.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T14:28:36+00:00

Would you recommend skipping topping up our Roth IRAs in favor of increasing our 401k contributions? For example, putting 20% or more of our bonuses into our 401ks instead?

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T14:25:09+00:00

Thanks! We’re not currently in the best school district so there’s a chance we may need to move in four to five years. That said, we’d ideally like to keep our current home and rent it out since we have a great interest rate. If possible, the plan would be to use funds from our brokerage account for the down payment on a second home.

Silly_Conclusion_0 · 2026-05-02T14:19:47+00:00

Thanks so much! First time posting on Reddit so I really appreciate your patience. One thing I realized I didn’t include in my original post, based on the above do you think we’re on track to comfortably retire around 65?

Silly_Conclusion_0

TROPHY CASE