So I’ll say this. When I got married the fiancée and I combined income of $260k (approx she was doing OT at that time) bought a $448k home and kept my previous property for investment. We settled on that home the same way week we had to pay the wedding - so I’ll tell you first hand it will be stressful as hell. The only reason I did it is because the home purchase was an incredibly good deal and by time we settled it appraised $45k over what we paid. Given your home purchase is less I’d say it’s easily doable in theory BUT there are definitely some odds and ends to address.

1. You haven’t mentioned how expensive your wedding is. weddings have huge ranges as expensive as $100k. Even with parents helping with some items we ended up paying $32.5k out of pocket. How much is the wedding going to cost you?
2. The car purchase. If you aren’t buying the car until next year and paying to replace the engine. Why not buy the new car AFTER the home purchase & wedding? If you are fixing it I don’t get the rush and it will make a massive difference on the stress level.
3. also even in the Midwest $250k won’t go far so just keep in mind you might need roof or hvac repair so ou could be out 30-40k.

Otherwise i see no issue with it. The big thing is you have to be super disciplined in saving up to it. I’d also really push the car off if you are fixing it 6 months more makes no difference.

The difference is small enough I'd focus more on which has better career growth opportunities. Quality of Life and work/life balance matter too but it's kind of hard to gauge sometimes until you actually take the risk.

I think you have an idea of how to go about this, but just before you guys get married, really dig deep into how much this will affect you financially after you’re married. If you file jointly to get tax benefits as a married couple, you could’ve potentially be responsible for his previous tax years. I’m not entirely sure though. Getting married is a financial decision, not just a romantic one. You’ve been following through with growing financially, but your partner isn’t on that level yet. Make sure you’re protecting yourself

Yes, but it doesn’t really answer my question regarding if I should go for a house or pay of the student loans. I do budget well and I have a huge opportunity to save. With housing prices being crazy for renters I’m unsure of what’s better.

My title got stolen, so I’m waiting on the replacement to send to them. They’ve already done the market valuation and told me the exact amount of payout I’ll get though

So much this.

If OP has a good relationship with their parents the time can be such a blessing

Thanks for the support with the car, I feel I’m being chewed out for that. My current car was a bad rushed decision when my old one died and I was a broke soon to be grad student. I’m trying to avoid a rushed car decision with this one on the fritz which is why I’m looking to get a new one before the current one officially dies.

As for the house, we have a large dog which makes renting very difficult. Most places charge $100+ a month extra in rent for our dog. Our current rental is a small 2 bedroom and we are bursting at the seams. Not only are we bursting at the seams but our landlords don’t fix anything and we just come home and hate where we live due to it. We’re ready to own something that’s ours that we can repair our own and make it ours. We’re spending more and more time and money out of the house because our current rental just doesn’t work for us.

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There’s a lot of folks here that would leave and never look back.

Since the new position is entry level, are the expectations in line with what you are looking for? I never recommend someone go from hourly to salary especially with such a small difference in pay.

Wanted to re-emphasize what the last poster said. You will want a degree if you're planning to go into HR. Any kind of administration work you'll want a degree. Instead of working two jobs, work 1 job and make school (degrees, trade certificate, whatever) your second job. It's a much better investment than earning an extra $100 bucks a week.

Take it from someone who got very lucky. I got passed up for multiple leadership positions purely because I hadn't finished an undergrad degree. If my manager hadn't gone out of her way to create a position that didn't require a degree in order to pay me more I'd still be stuck at my previous cap (in a job I loved, admittedly).

It's less of a loan and more of an advertising gimmick rolled into a loan. Yes, you'll save money on interest but you are absolutely still paying it just rolled into the sale price of the vehicle.

Im not sure on any of that, I just work the rooms side of those types if properties.
I do know that if you want out you typically list it for sale like it was any other second home used for vacations.

Tech got rid of 401k matches along with most of corporate America back in 2008.

This sounds like the correct reasoning. There's a good chance this kid is considered a household member and should have been added back to the policy shortly after returning home. There's a good chance insurance won't pay for this.

I've been working for 14 years and I've never had a 401k match. Not even 1%.

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I've learned over the years with this old saying: "The Grass ain't always greener on the other side." Sounds to me that your current employer values you and your worth plus also what you bring to the table....But really only YOU can make that decision.

Do not pay interest on a credit card if at all possible. It does not help your credit score.

I'm not sure if that's what you meant by "letting the balance be billed" but if it is, it's bad advice.

I didnt read over the budget numbers. With that said, you're needing a reliable car, check. You're getting married, congrats, check. Why do you have to buy a house now? I say postpone that a year or two.

Based on your other replies, the ESPP gives you a 15% discount with a six-month lookback, and no holding period. So yes, this is practically guaranteed return of roughly 15%, even after taxes. As long as you can cashflow your expenses to account for the money going into the ESPP instead of your bank account, then this is a good way to get extra benefit from your employer.

The worst case scenario would be from the fact that there's usually a small window between when the buy executes and your subsequent sale, since it can take a few days for everything to settle. So it's possible that during that window your employer's stock price plummets below even your discounted price. But unless it's an extremely volatile stock that's generally not likely.

The best case scenario is that the stock price rises dramatically between Jan 1 and Jun 30. You buy at the Jan 1 price (minus discount) and sell at the July 1-3 price and pocket the profit.

One thing to be aware of is how you'll need to report this on your tax return for purposes of properly calculating short-term capital gains. When you do an immediate sale, the "discount portion" of the transaction gets reported on your W-2 as part of your compensation. Using that "buy stock worth $100 for $85" example, your employer essentially pays you that $15 difference, it just went straight into the stock purchase instead of your paycheck. The IRS taxes that $15 along with the rest of your pay.

But on the 1099-B you get from the brokerage, the "basis" of those shares will be the discounted $85 price that you paid. If you use that number as-is, then it'll look like you realized a $15 capital gain, which the IRS will tax. But that $15 was already reported on your W-2, resulting in you double taxing yourself.

The fix is to do a "basis adjustment" to bring the stock's basis up to the fair market value as of the date of purchase, basically adding back the dollars already reported on your W-2 so they don't get included again when calculating gains. There are steps on the Schedule D to do that. Most tax prep software is getting better about walking you through the adjustment if you tell it that these shares were obtained through an ESPP.

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I’m currently in tech, 0% match. Best I’ve ever had was the classic 100% of the first 3%, 50% of the next 2. So 4% if you put in 5%. That was when I worked as an engineer in robotics. No idea where these people find these companies!

Look at everything else you're getting!! This is definitely worth the switch! Higher salary, better 401k match, similar vacation even though you're "forced" to take part of your vacation at the end of the year. I wouldn't even have to ask others if this is worth it.

You should really call your insurance company directly and get a 2nd opinion. DOI rules vary from state to state, however insuring a vehicle you do not own is not a chance I would be willing to take right now in todays economy. Insurance companies are tightening up their claims departments across the board right now due to higher claim payouts and increased costs in vehicles & homes.

Due to the nature of the second death, we had no will for the estate and I had to go through probate court to be able to be the executor of the estate at that time. To answer your question about cosigning, no I did not cosign on this loan.