I'm with geico and I'm still a young male so my insurance is normally expensive.

Awesome I appreciate that.

Hmm. So what if your car catches fire? Gets broken into? Get stolen and someone takes it on a joy ride? Some one hits it at night and takes off......

Really you want to drop insurance?

Thanks! I've already made the first 5k transfer. I'll wait till it posts, then I'll do the whole thing. Can't wait to close my wells Fargo checking.

I can’t speak for other states but I can’t imagine it being too different. In PA, you are legally required to carry liability coverage on any car that is registered. You can reduce the coverage to the minimum amount of liability coverage and drop all other coverage (comprehensive, collision, etc).

If you are financing the car then the financier may require you to keep comprehensive and collision coverage in case something happens to the car while you’re away.

When I travelled, I would drop liability to the lowest level and keep comprehensive coverage in case anything happened while it was parked. It usually came in less that $50 a month.

Also: The rules of the state the car is registered in come into play. For example, in my state, you can completely drop insurance on a car - only if you cancel the car's registration and surrender the license places. The challenge: When you re-register the car, you'd have to (again!) pay sales tax based on the car's value at that time. This is why it rarely makes sense to drop insurance on a car in my state.

What do you suggest? And also because I was a first time credit user.

/r/nocontract has good info about the various MVNO/reseller options if you're interested in shopping around. I am in my 30's and have never had a contract phone, 'cause the monthly fees are always way too high for me to be willing to pay for. MVNO/reseller is so much cheaper!

Wow. I appreciate your encouraging words!

I'm switching providers when I can to get the best deal on electricity.

We love to make meals at home together so It definitely double as some fun money when we make something new and exciting.

Me, a new college grad, with 45,000 in debt, being jealous of you.

[removed]

Ok, I hope I'll be able to justify keeping it.

As other has pointed out there may be some areas in which you can squeeze out a few more dollars. Lights is what I would look at depending on the size of your rental. But I just want to tell you good job with your plan of having paid by July. I think $600 a month for 2 people on groceries is pretty good. That is about what my wife and I spend on the two of us. And food can be a good way to enjoy some of the little things.

Any way good job with the budget you outlined, good luck with your endeavor. There may be a few more dollars to squeeze but you already got most of it and this something to recognize and celebrate. You and your wife can achieve this.

I think you've done a pretty good job. Glad to see you baked in savings, that is important. Focusing on an emergency fund is wise. i would not delay contributing to the 401k at work ...secure any match. Don't leave that money on the table.

If you have after tax holdings in your brokerage account, consider leveraging those to establish your minimum emergency fund, and pay down loans... ultimately that will free up some of your income/capacity.

If I was in your shoes, I'd start every dollar budgeting. Know every dollar coming in and where it is going out. Track everything. Even a coffee. That practice will uncover any surprises you may have about your own behaviors that you arent considering. It is easy to overlook grabbing a sandwich, stops for coffee, .

400 a month is a lot of money for a single person to spend on food in a month (especially if this is additional on top of what is supplemented by parents). Do you brown bag? Does this 400 include eating out? You said max so being conservative is wise at first but you don't have much wiggle room here. Be sure to have clear rules about spend and consumption of groceries with your roommate.

You may want to establish a sunk cost funds for auto maintenance and basic non-emergency wear and tear like wipes, tires, oil and filter changes, etc.

Awesome. Did he use it enough afterwards to justify keeping it?

You'll need to look into state laws, which differ.

BUT, typically you must legally insure any car that is registered, even if you're away and can't drive it. So it's probably not legal to cancel and re-buy when you return. Some states allow some version of "non-operation" status, but that typically requires non-operation for a year, not just a few months.

Realistically, there isn't much you can do here. Some insurers give discounts for low average miles driven. Maybe look into that?

You probably still want the comprehensive and collision. If this is just 3 months every 2 years though probably not hard to cancel the policy and find a new one when you’re back.

Issue I see is that management is not use to it and would forget you paid the rent since everyone else is month to month.

However, it worked out for Howard Hughes who built the Spruce Goose. He paid 50 years rent upfront for a warehouse to store it in long beach.

Since Schwab has no ATM ‘s they reimburse you for ATM fees for any ATM in the world. However that cannot take in cash.

This ended up being exactly what I did and everything worked out great, thank you again!

Thanks for the info!!

Spending $19,000 in a year could win an award. That's like bare minimum living essentials in the US

You have family/a safety net. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Relax

Are you with USAA? Most of their customers are service members and they can advise you as to what to do as far as insurance. When we shipped our car, they had us drop the standard insurance and we only payed a fraction. You could do something similar for the months you're not driving it, during basic and when underway.

This is the big brain answer. Broken-down car = extra costs for Uber, grocery delivery, etc.

Also why an emergency fund is important.

Ally was not GE Financial, Marcus by Goldman Sachs was. Ally was GMAC, GM's auto loan business.