some marriage and finance advice?
April 26th, 2008 | by admin |michaels baby asked:
My fiance and I are getting married next April. We are getting a place at the end of the month three bedroom two bath mobile home for only $ 550.00. He is a Welder making $ 600.00 a week. He will soon be working for PPL making $ 1200.00 a week. He also got afford a second job as a mechanic. (don’t know how much) i will be working Cleaning making about $ 400.00 every two weeks. He has a lot of back bills and two loans to pay off but not that much yet to go.
My fiance and I are getting married next April. We are getting a place at the end of the month three bedroom two bath mobile home for only $ 550.00. He is a Welder making $ 600.00 a week. He will soon be working for PPL making $ 1200.00 a week. He also got afford a second job as a mechanic. (don’t know how much) i will be working Cleaning making about $ 400.00 every two weeks. He has a lot of back bills and two loans to pay off but not that much yet to go.
Questions?
- do you think it is a good idea to have all these job so we can pull in some extra money so we will be comfortable.
- do you think that after we are married and comfortable and have a child we should knock one of the jobs of given the fact we will rarely be home to see each other (and i don’t really like day care or babysitters)
- or do you think we should keep the jobs and continue to live comfortable so we don’t worry about getting behind on bills.
some good advice from people in this situation or people that have been in this situation would be nice, but anyone can help.
5 Responses to “some marriage and finance advice?”
By Sift on Apr 27, 2008 | Reply
It sounds like he is the one with all the jobs, so you better ask him. You may never see him and it may hurt your relationship.
By tfblechris on Apr 29, 2008 | Reply
Instead of you working for little or no money. Why don’t you finish school and become a teacher. You would have a good income 2 1/2 months off a year. You would be able to afford a house instead of a mobile home your husband could quit his second job and you could spend more time with your kids and not have to worry about money so much.
By Brother Otter on May 2, 2008 | Reply
Good for you for planning to be responsible and keep up with your bills!!
1) Continue generating all the income you both can. His back bills become the responsibility of *both* of you once you combine households. Get them paid off as quickly as possible, and then start saving. Do not start thinking of “comfortable” until all the bills are paid and you are solidly on your feet.
2) I urge you to wait to have a child until you’ve been married five years. There are several reasons – work out your marriage before introducing the stress of a child, get finances in order (children are expensive).
3) Keep the jobs and build your financial situation. Save money and plan to move up; don’t get “comfortable” at just the level you start.
There are several other factors to keep in mind. While a mobile home can be a good start, they don’t hold their value. It’s not like buying a little house in a good neighborhood. I urge you to start saving up a 20% downpayment to purchase a nice little house as soon as you reasonably can.
You will want to save up and put aside a $1000 emergency pad as quickly as possible. This is intended to cover *real* emergencies like insurance deductibles after a car accident, or the refrigerator konking out. Your pad is absolutely not for predictable expenses or vacations or gifts; it’s for emergencies.
Start saving for retirement as soon as you can. Remember – you will live 20 years after you retire. You can’t save up 20 years income AND cover living expenses in just a few years. (Social Security is only a supplement). If you or your husband don’t get some kind of retirement saving plan at work, go find an Edward Jones Investments advisor and at least open a Roth IRA.
By penelope on May 5, 2008 | Reply
The best advice that I can give you is to see a financial adviser, they are not as costly as some people think, and can actually help you at having a successful marriage, as contrary to some peoples beliefs, the number one reasons most marriages crumble is due to money problems.
By Invisigoth on May 6, 2008 | Reply
his $1200 a week job is already a good one and really the two of you could live comfortably on that if all of your debt is paid off. With occasional/seasonal overtime pay the $1200 a week job can support a family of 4 (unless you live in NYC, Washington DC or LA). If his second job is short term for debt repayment then that is fine, but it’s no good for a permanent situation.
as to you, can you work more hours to make more money at your job? if not it would make more sense for you get an entirely new job that pays more.
your next thing is to get on a budget you can live with. I’ll explain the budget I use in a minute.
I’ve worked mulitple jobs and it is exhausting and it kills relationships. Extra money should come from overtime and only from a second job for short term. Second jobs are not long term permanent solutions for people who want to live well and enjoy it.
BUDGET: that is the solution to a great deal of your problems.
the one I use is called the 60% solution or the 60/40 plan. It’s flexible and can be adapted to any budget. I used it when I was making minimum wage and in debt and I use it now when the only debt I have is a mortgage payment.
1. you live on 60% of your take home pay each payday.
2. split the remaining 40% this way (this is the basic set up for the 40%)
1/4 for entertainment–movies, vacation, dvds, cds, concerts, computer games, etc–if it can go in the entertainment catagory then this is where you take the money for it. Plan for your fun stuff and you don’t be tempted to dip into your bill money or any of the savings plans
1/4 for emergency savings–keep putting money into this savings until you have 6 months salary. YOU DO NOT TOUCH THIS MONEY UNLESS IT IT AN EMERGENCY. (emergencies are unexpected car repairs, medical emergencies, home repairs, job loss, etc.) When you get 6 months salary then you can take the money you were putting in here and start another savings account for something you want, like a new car or a down payment on a house or toss it into another one of the funds in the 40% catagory. If you dip into your emergency funds then you need to start adding to it again until it is back up to 6 months salary. if you can help it, you never want this fund to go below $1000.
1/4 retirement fund–if 10% or more of your pretax $ are going to a pension or retirement fund at work then you can skip this or start an extra retirement fund or have a different type of savings account.
1/4 regular savings/investing fund. this is the account that you use to save up for big ticket items or for investing or whatever you want to eventually use the money for. a savings for when you have kids and you want to stay home with them.
DEBT REPAYMENT (set the 40% up this way)
1/4 entertainment–remember, if you budget for it, you won’t take the money from some place you really need
1/4 emergency savings–always deposit to this account until you have 6 months cushion
1/2 debt repayment–you hit your smallest bill the hardest and pay minimums on the larger bills. when the smallest bill is gone then you take the money that went to the small bill and apply it plus the minimum to the next smallest bill while paying minimums on all the other bills. You keep doing this until you only have one massive payment going to the largest bill.
hitting the smallest bills the hardest gets them paid off faster and gives you a sense of accomplishment to see your debt go down. things start to snowball pretty fast. the same thing with the savings, you’ll see results there pretty quickly if you are disciplined.
also if the place you are now living has a really high cost of living, then consider moving to a more affordable area. If you need an education to improve your skills then get it. There are all kinds of scholarships and grants that can be applied to just about any type of school (college, university, apprenticship programs, trade schools, etc.)
general rule:
your rent/mortgage should be 30% of your income or less–this includes insurance and utilities
your transportation costs (car, bus, cab, bike) should be 15%-20% or less, including insurance
this leaves 10%-15% for food and misc bills.