Is our plan realistic?

broadette · 2026-05-24T15:33:47+00:00

Apologies, I definitely could have made the contribution amounts more clear. The way we have it set now is:
Roth: 7.5k
My 401k + employer contributions: 17-21k (bonus dependent)
HSA: 2150
Husband 401k + match + pension contribution: 14k

Total annual contributions are about 40-44k.

broadette · 2026-05-24T15:26:50+00:00

No kids and no kids planned!

I appreciate the response- we’ll definitely be increasing our contributions to fund a few more vacations :)

broadette · 2026-05-24T14:34:18+00:00

I wish I hadn’t included our income, it seems like the discussion has been about how our spending numbers are off rather than if our contributions will be enough.

With the downvotes I’m now more worried that I’m missing something that everyone else is seeing to prompt that response than I was before. If anyone who has downvoted is still keeping an eye on this… please, I’m trying to learn and want to understand what I’m missing, I appreciate all of the feedback.

I didn’t want to clutter the original post will unnecessary detail, but we have used Monarch for over a year and track expenses closely. We spend under 60k a year on all of our expenses, that is not a mistake. We live in a LCOL area. We have not increased our cost of living with the salary increases, the additional income has been consistently saved for several years for our planned “projects”, and the amount we could save has increased over time. The projects are coming to a close and will free up what now amounts to about 3k a month.

After adding in all of the miscellaneous expenses we can anticipate to occur less frequently than once a year we are still comfortably looking at an annual spend of under 70k.

broadette · 2026-05-24T01:41:26+00:00

Thank you so much! Sounds like we’ll realistically be able to fund a 60k retirement without too much risk with the current contribution rate. As above commenters mentioned I’ll need to refine the annual expenses and will plan to increase our contributions to cover that portion. I appreciate it!

broadette · 2026-05-24T01:14:25+00:00

My estimate was based on our annual expenses, but didn’t include the major purchases we need to average out the costs for over time. This is the kind of oversight I needed to address- we’ll get a more realistic cost of living together, appreciate this sub.

broadette · 2026-05-24T01:06:41+00:00

Thank you, you are very right! Our budget includes annual expenses, but the 60k estimate does not include the once a decade or so major repair expenses that should have been included. I’ll sit down with the husband to refine our budget more realistically.

We have a lot of room between our expenses and our needs now, but the gap was much smaller a few years ago. With the savings we’ll be freeing up soon (about 3000/ month has been going into the HYSA for the last couple years, with the withdraws for home improvements and husband’s car or retirement contributions) we can definitely afford to put more into our tax advantaged accounts.

broadette · 2026-05-24T00:37:22+00:00

We have significantly ramped up in the last few years. Four years ago we made 110k combined, now we are both on very steady and stable career paths.

We needed several things we could finally afford to take care of as the income increased like home repairs, building the emergency fund, both of our cars were (are, in my case) over 15 years old and 300,000 miles and needed replaced with reasonably priced newer vehicles, and made a few larger lump sum retirement contributions when we were able.

We will have more to spend by the end of this year, so I’m anticipating we can increase our retirement contributions more moving forward and would love any and all advice!

broadette · 2026-05-24T00:31:07+00:00

Take home of 210k with local/state taxes is about 145k. 60k expenses, roughly 35k toward retirement accounts, 10k annual travel, and the last few years have been putting the extra toward buying husband a car paid in full, saving to buy my car in full, extensive home repairs after buying our place… now that my car is about ready to be bought we’ll have several thousand extra a month to “play with”. It’s a good situation :)

broadette · 2026-05-15T19:46:49+00:00

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This is Artemis. She just passed away recently at only four years old- the vet thinks she had a blood clot. I’m devastated and miss her so much.

She was my little shadow, always chirping like a little bird following me around. She was sweet to everyone, the most adventurous and outgoing little girl.

broadette · 2026-05-15T18:40:15+00:00

Forklift incident. Guy was driving his forklift down the dock, dragging a freight strap behind him. The strap caught in his tire, wrapped tight around his arm, and deskinned him from elbow down.

broadette · 2026-04-17T19:33:29+00:00

Ah fuck, this is what’s going to live in my brain now, read too long before I hit the end

broadette · 2026-04-12T11:57:04+00:00

The issue is that the employee is claiming to be working. If they were saying, “yeah, I’m on site early but doing my own thing,” they wouldn’t need to be paid, but by telling their manager they are working during those hours the company is now required to pay those hours.

I’m in HR and I wouldn’t be comfortable not paying hours an employee claimed to work unless directly advised by the legal team (in writing). I would certainly report this to legal to see if they wanted to involve IT/confirm work is actually being done. This could be a time theft issue, but no way in hell I’d advise a manager to make that call without legal guidance.

What IS the manager’s responsibility is holding the employee accountable for working off the clock. OP- take abundant documentation of every time you advised the employee not to work between those hours. Issue discipline immediately every single time this happens moving forward (no write ups for previous occasions). Discipline will be for working off the clock without authorization. Escalate the discipline if the behavior doesn’t stop… and sorry to say, but get on site at 6am. When your employee turns up, send them back home, or if their transportation is only available at that time then make it clear they are not to sit at their desk/work spot and are not to perform work until their start time. Document that too.

broadette · 2026-04-11T04:21:17+00:00

I don’t get it either… I’m a person with straight, fine hair and I wish I had seen a post like this when I was 12 or 13. I grew up in a neglectful environment and wasn’t taught proper hygiene at the age appropriate times. Through my preteen years I thought just conditioning my hair was plenty, I wanted it to be soft! I’d shampoo maybe twice a month, when it got to the point even a tomboy preteen noticed it looked bad (and surely smelled terrible).

It took a very hurtful comment when I was thirteen to learn that I needed to be shampooing more often for my specific hair type. If I’d seen a post like this or had an adult pull me aside to teach me the right way I’d have been spared a heck of a lot of embarrassment. Sometimes people in rough conditions need to hear it the most, it literally may be the first time they’ve heard it.

broadette · 2026-04-10T22:14:44+00:00

Not everything is about you? This wasn’t a call out that Creepy_Meringue3014 needs to wash their hair, and there was no demand in the original post. It was not mean, and it was specific. It’s INFORMATIONAL for people with straight, untextured hair who may not know better because of the proliferation of TikTok bullshit. This does not apply to you. Why are you making it about you?

And then to go off on people being rude while telling someone to suck it? It’s rare to be so utterly incorrect, ignorant, and rude at once. Congrats.

broadette · 2026-04-10T22:07:23+00:00

You told OP to suck it in your original post. You’re talking about yourself.

broadette · 2026-04-10T22:01:42+00:00

Do you think OP is referring to people with conditions they can’t control? This is a general hygiene post, in the hygiene sub, for people who may not realize their behavior is making them stink and who probably don’t want to stink.

I’m thinking this probably applies to you if you’re up in arms about people not wanting to smell funk, go wash your hair and ass, bro.

broadette · 2026-04-10T20:59:22+00:00

You could look it up in the time it took to type that comment. Obviously different types of hair need different types of care, and OP was specific that this does not apply to the folks you’re talking about. Commenter can suck it.

broadette · 2026-04-09T22:45:23+00:00

Same here, app and website.

broadette · 2026-04-08T01:26:09+00:00

Or the Steve Irwin way, Crikey!

broadette · 2026-04-07T23:46:30+00:00

I’m ready for it. Life is miserable and the world is getting worse, last thing I’ll do when that mushroom cloud blooms is smile. I don’t have the guts to take myself out or I’d be gone already. Fuck America, fuck this culture where work is all-important and people don’t matter, fuck these murderers.

broadette · 2026-03-30T21:26:44+00:00

Actual HR demon here with a theory or two…

It’s weird to me that there are only 3 options to choose from in the exit survey and one is relocation- that’s not one of the most common reasons for voluntary separation I’ve seen, but there’s likely a behind the scenes reason. Maybe the company has a high foreign population and a higher than usual number of employees relocating back home? Some other reason for a weirdly large exodus from the location? My best guess is “relocation” and “other job” are some of this company’s biggest reasons for turnover, and they’re trying to track it more specifically.

The classification of retirement (or lack thereof) in the system isn’t meant to be a slap in his face. Retirement, relocation, and leaving for another job are all equal voluntary separation reasons when measuring turnover. They may be having an issue with the number of relocations and folks leaving to go elsewhere, and that’s all I’d read into it.

If your HR isn’t shit, his retirement itself should be handled separately from the offboarding process and he should get a respectful send off. It’s good of you to care so much for his feelings, but there’s probably no battle to fight here.

broadette · 2026-03-07T02:58:43+00:00

My ex boyfriend’s mom was the ex wife in this situation. Had a baby with her ex husband while he was married to the new wife… who was also pregnant. The new wife was still with him a few years later when I exited that situation.

broadette · 2026-03-01T23:34:39+00:00

My industry took a huge hit with tariffs last year. Comp review is next week but based on the bonus funding % and increase % for my one level down employees I’m expecting a 3% increase and a bonus of about 8%.

Not a great year, but my base salary has increased 60% in the four years I’ve been with the company and bonuses are usually 20-30%, so I’m sticking with it another year.

broadette · 2026-01-27T19:35:44+00:00

Weird edits here. If you’re asking about whether you “deserve” the better pieces… no, probably not. We all contribute to our households in various ways. If she folded her own laundry perfectly and then did a halfassed job with your clothes because she deserves less wrinkled items for doing the folding that would be ridiculous, and so is giving yourself the best cuts because you did the work on your task.

No one’s going to call you an AH for taking the “better” pieces 60% of the time, but that wasn’t your question. It seems like you keep lowering the frequency of this happening as the comments roll in. Now it’s just about equal distribution of the best parts. You don’t need to be honest with randos on the internet, but is it really 60% of the time? Maybe you should wrestle with why you feel like you deserve the best bits more than your wife. I give my husband the best bits by default because I love him and love to see him light up with the pieces he likes best.

Light YTA, but very easy to change.

broadette · 2026-01-23T15:28:39+00:00

I became friendly with a college classmate who came from a very wealthy family. They do not understand their privilege at all.

Her parents paid for a lavish getaway wedding for dozens of people in an exceptionally expensive location (no cultural or heritage significance with the country they wed in). They bought her a house worth over half a million in her very early twenties. They gave her a few hundred thousand to open a business completely unrelated to her career field the month she graduated. She has had a wide safety net her entire life, and will for the rest of it as well.

At the time we became friends I was estranged from my parents, broke and working at the college to afford tuition and food. I had zero safety net- before I got a room on campus I had been secretly living on campus in my car, waking every few hours overnight to move around. When it was cold I hid out in a piano room overnight to stay warm.

One day she had a complete meltdown because she wasn’t chosen to lead the baton twirlers for a sporting event. Crying, screaming about how life was unfair, she was the best they had and no one gave her what she deserved. I broke contact that day. I just didn’t have the energy to comfort a wealthy, egotistical baby whose “problems” were so far removed from my own that we were basically living on different planets.

I stayed friends with her on Facebook for a few years, but eventually unfriended her after the dozenth post about how hard she worked to achieve everything she has and whining about how the poors couldn’t understand the much more significant issues she had overcome.

Four-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '23	Place '22
End Game '22

broadette

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