Thanks for your thoughtful response.
Retirement plan contributions:
1200/yr + 8% + match = >20%
ER fund is in local savings mm….I plan to look into online savings to take advantage of higher interest rates.
Order of priorities shifted because I felt that for this first year of changes I don’t think it will be significant that I address priority #2 (SL) to the fullest, because I would feel more comfortable getting a head start to priority #3 (House/other fund.) So for one year, paying 50/mo additional to 600/mo for SL should work for the time being and then the following year I can adjust it up while tweaking down House/other fund…just feeling that I want to finish ER fund and boost House fund ASAP and that one year of paying a little over min for SL will not have a significant negative impact on my plans.
The suggestion on taxes and home buying are great ones. I do my own taxes and I use turbotax but in the past I have more often taken the standard deduction. I will plan to work on the form as you describe to use it as a learning exercise and to see what difference it would make with a home purchase. I appreciate you sharing your experience with buying on less than 20%. That is something I will consider.
|