If anybody's curious, here's what I plan to do with the extra income:
35% set aside for taxes (any excess will be divided between E-fund and our retirement accounts at the end of the year)
10% to my Roth
10% to partner's Roth
5% prepayment on mortgage
5% to our emergency fund/short term savings account
10% to current bills, including a few things that will make it easier for me to work more, like hiring a cleaning service and paying for extra childcare. The goal is to change our lifestyle only in ways that can easily be eliminated if our income returns to its usual level. We can always stop the cleaning service and the extra childcare.
25% savings for future living expenses. This will allow my partner to reduce his work hours in the future, or if he chooses not to do that, we'll probably just take this money at a certain point and use it to do something big like pay off our mortgage. Also, if our family is going to be relying on my very irregular income, I want to have a much larger cushion than the 6-month E-fund we have now. Currently we can get by on my partner's income and the income from my part-time dayjob. If I start being the main breadwinner, that's a bit scary not only because my income fluctuates, but also because I have some ongoing health issues that could crop up again and take me out of work for some time.
I'm about 90% sure I'll get the job, but I won't find out for another month, probably. I started out trying not to count my chickens until I got the offer, but I gave up and I'm making the plans so I'll be ready if it happens.
Feedback welcome! It is, of course, a great thing to have our household income go up so dramatically, but it's a little overwhelming. Any advice is appreciated.
|