worth looking for a higher paying job? i think that question is totally up to you. with your current finances and maxing out the 401k annually, you're doing fine. but if you have the motivation to look for a better job, there's nothing wrong with that!

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This seems like a dream situation. You can always make more money, but that always come at a price and even then you may feel like oh i wish we could save more. I would absolutely just stay at your current job in your situation. That is just my two cents.

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In 2021 we made $180 gross. We are not even close to $250k this year. The market adjustment occurred in Oct, so it’s only been 2.5 months of that.

Likely we will be around $210 gross for 2022.

Six figure income, good credit, no debt, 6 months of savings. I’m just looking at the operating values of these exceptions is all

Got it. I would just separate those facets from the need to have EJ

It never hurts to look. You have a job you seem to be happy with, you can be picky. Interviews can help you find out of the companies you work for are as flexible as you need.

Have you compared the bills?

You’ve included essentially none of the important details like price per kilowatt or usage

> Every asset class you just mentioned is already included in OP's two funds

While that is true, the long term performance of US Total Stock Market and S&P 500 is virtually identical, with a difference in return of 0.01%. (Yes I know VTWAX is total-world, just using US for simplicity's sake). Point being, the small/mid/value for example, are not a large enough percentage of the portfolio to make a meaningful difference.

Having said that, OP is perfectly fine as-is and need not change anything. However, a 10% "tilt" to US Small Cap Value (for example) would have produced an additional $300,000 in returns over the period 1972-2022. Link

This is what I think too. And making even $20k more isn’t worth loosing that flexibility to me, at least at this stage of my life.

Regardless of what a family grosses, it's important to a lot of people to be paid what they're worth.

Always worth doing a budget audit, especially for the new year, but 3 kids, med-high COL adds up.

Very true! I am considering looking once they are all in school. I love the flexibility.

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I dont understand why anyone would pay someone else to invest their money when you could literally just buy VTI and fall asleep at the wheel and come out of your dream a millionaire.

What was the weather this past couple months versus last year? If colder that could cause it.

Does your provider allow you to look and track usage by day/hour? Some do on the website. That could help identify the issue.

See https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/q8gadf/comment/hgpcfvr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 who had a similar problem and some advice.

Using money from retirement funds is not something I would do. It will cost a lot more from compounding in the future. I don’t borrow from the “future me” anymore. If you’re that jammed for a down payment, I believe that means you aren’t ready yet. Home ownership is always more costly than people expect.

I’d Cash flow the down payment and leave the retirement alone.

Are your gas and electric on the same bill?

You should definitely max them both, even if you need to cut other saving. Your income will be much higher in future and having tax free retirement savings in future will be a major boon.

I would hold onto your job for dear life right now. You guys should budget. The flexibility is great. I’m sure you could make more money elsewhere for a lot more hours and a lot less flexibility. Can your husband take kids to appointments? This seems like a scenario where it makes sense for you to partner and he makes the greater money so you can do the higher amount of childcare duties. Once kids are older in around five years have the conversation again. Or ask for a raise at some point?

Ah gotcha. Yea, two different ways of thinking I suppose. You could say he did it right. Lived the life he wanted to and didn’t wait for the retirement he never would have seen anyway. He nailed it. However, he did say he failed my mom at the end. Which leads me to believe he did not feel he did a good job including her in a retirement plan which relied quite a bit on him getting a salary at the end.

Appreciate your perspective!

WCI is the reason i negotiated my mortgage so well :) I haven't read the whole book though, but I know I should. I'm a little hesitant to fully follow WCI since they are so against crypto.

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is there a specific section of the website you think I should start off with though?

I'm gonna go through H&R block this year as opposed to trying to do taxes myself through TurboTax. i appreciate this comment, I'll definitely be asking about this when I file!

will definitely try! biggest concern is maxing out both while also appropriately funding an emergency savings account

I'll give this a read later, thank you! I was specifically wondering about emergency savings as well especially given that I have a house to take care of now. Luckily, no high interest debts or credit card debt at all here. just about 2k in student loans (once biden's forgiveness goes through).

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haha I can respect a side eye :) its an asset class I personally believe in and want it to be a part of my portfolio