I had one employer where you couldn't contribute to a 401k until you had been there for a year. Another employer sent me a check after I quit and I rolled it over into an ira. You can't just forget about low dollar amounts and then try and figure it out years later.

You should take another look at the transactions screens too, somewhere along the way when you were buying the fund it definitely told you there was a fee, but you must've missed it. So figure out where that information is so you can look for it next time.

I mean, same and no regrets. I don't have expensive hobbies, other than that I like to drive. You can't take it all with you. :P But I also more than meet the prime directive, so...

Your annual expenses are ~$61K/year right now. If you want to retire early you’ll need about $1.5M invested at a 4% SWD to keep that lifestyle.

If you keep up your current investment of $1.5K/mo ($28K/12) you’ll reach this $1.5M in 20 years at 10% return. That’s assuming nothing changes at all in your income and expenses of course.

So it is possible to retire early. How early is anybody’s guess.

This all comes down to state law. Given the duration of the marriage I suspect he has full claim to half of what are "marital assets". He needs to have an attorney and not represent himself. Especially given that she has the means to hire one as well.

Even if they decide to mediate, he should still seek legal advice and talk with an attorney.

Depending on where you live, landlords will sometimes ask for "First and Last month's rent" on the first day, in addition to the security deposit. It's illegal where I am, but apparently some people will ask for that.

Where I live, you would have paid $250 for your first "month" in addition to the $600 security deposit when you received the keys. The next full month would be due on March 1.

Like the other guy said - ask him for a break down, that indicates what the money you gave him was actually for.

Not one that cheap

Mortgage or invest: https://reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/zssug0/_/j1ddljd/?context=1

Paying off debt that cheap will make you less wealthy in the long run.

You should try budgeting "backwards" from what you're doing now. Mortgage and house stuff is a fixed cost, start there. Next is savings. Allocate what's left to expenses. Currently the $1174 "leftover" is your savings but any of the other categories could eat into it and you wouldn't notice because you're used to saving whatever's left after expenses rather than a fixed amount.

These look high to me

• Phones-130
• P Car Payment-700
• K Car Payment-422
• Car Insurance-242
• Car Gas-200
• Food-800

$200 each in fun money is very reasonable, but it seems like your cars and food are also expensive so I'd imagine some portion of that also counts as "fun".

You should probably put more in retirement.

Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

The fact that you had not one but four previous employers state that you never made any contributions leads me to believe you never contributed.

I wouldn't pay off cheap debt. A 3% mortgage is cheap debt. Your wife would be better off investing the $70k and getting a decent return on her money. If you only pay your wife $500 per month for 6 years, she gets no return on her money for that entire time period.

Same. I am required to go through and sign my husband’s forms and he has to report our household income. The real PIA is that they don’t take into account the child and her childcare.

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It's very dangerous to try managing a rental from out of town. Where are you?

Are you just looking for how best to invest the dollars in the US?

If the amount was under $5k, likely rolled into an ira.

If the amount under $1k, they may have cut you a check

If the amount was over $5k, the employer may have a new custodian/administrator

Are you one of those “doesn’t open and read important mail” people? Or one of those “doesn’t set up mail forwarding” people?

yeah, 400/month, 5% interest. these aren't terms that are beyond your means. Also, it is for a new car from a reliable brand that will last you easily 7-10 years. Not the most pragmatic decision but sometimes you need to treat yourself. It sounds like you are doing that and it is within your means too.

>If you don't have a healthy emergency fund, make this your top priority.

The emergency fund was recently depleted. It was around 10k but I had some huge medical bills recently.

> If you do own them, maintenance will come from your emergency fund.

I have it set so maintenance for appliances would come from the long term. Emergency is more like health or really big emergencies like we hit an expensive car and gotta pay for it. If my fridge breaks and we don't have enough in "Long Term" then I'm not really worried enough to touch my emergency fund for it. We can get a mini fridge or something. But that's why I have it split into two. Otherwise, if I'm spending emergency money on appliance repairs or something, I would just have $600 into "Emergency" and it would accomplish the same thing.

The Long Term is a catch all kinda thing for major purchases. Like moving expenses came out of long term. It's really just a savings for big things I expect to come eventually. This was recently high too but moving was very expensive.

I do think the $300/mo in emergency right now is a bit low, but I can just move some long term into it or even the ~20k I have saved up for a house into it if something does happen that fast. For now I'll probably just do $0 in long term and $600 in emergency because we just moved and there really is nothing we have for a long term purchase.

>It sounds like you have a lot of savings goals, so it may feel like your money is spread thin

Yeah I think this hit the nail. I want to save up enough for an emergency. I want to save enough to be able to move out when our lease ends. I want to save up enough to get a house. I want to save up to retire early. Can't do it all on this income unfortunately.

Definitely fine with not getting a house though. The house was just because we hate moving. That's really it. Moving is expensive and tiring.

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Thank you! How do you go about investing without using a 3rd party company like NM?

Well, the median home price in my city is $529k. In my immediate area, in a less expensive neighborhood, I could get a smaller house for 400-425k. At current rates over 3x what mine is, it'd still be more expensive, considerably.

Even if we rented, I'd still be paying $2500 or more.

The cars are 2019 and 2017. Where you can get 2 new cars for 25k each (one of which that fits 6 people) is beyond me.

Having $3k CC debt is less than 1/2 the American average.

Most people miss this, but there really only can be one priority at a time in life. If your goal is to date and find your life partner now, then living with folks is not conducive. If clearing out your 28k student loan, then living with your folks, is helpful, only if you have a good relationship with them; they are agreeable to the situation; and you intend to do your share of chores in the home.

With that, you should work as much as possible to pay off that debt and start saving for retirement. Since you are not going to date, just work. Treat this year like a project, with the goal to clear 28k. No dating, just jobs and school.

the index card by Olen and Pollack Is a great explanation of the basics!

Thanks for the explanation. He makes ~130k and I make 65k from my job + an additional $4,000 from renting my condo out.

Did you actually contribute? This is something you would have had to setup with each employer. Check your old W2, 401k contributions are shown there.

Thanks!