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Hello everyone!
I have lurked on here for the past week or so, but just ran across a thread where they were discussing Dave Ramsey's advice.
Here is my situation, followed by my issue:
1) Married and live in a Houston suburb- I am 25 DW is 24 have been married exactly one year. I graduated college in August 2010 DW in December 2010.
2) Income - I make 66k before 5k bonus DW makes 56k with no bonus potential
3) Debt - Only mortgage debt, nothing else. We purchased our first home in March. Spent $124,900 on the house and put 20% down. PI is $484 a month. TI is another $350 a month. So the mortgage balance was 99,900 or so.
4) Plans for immediate future - DW and I are working on a baby. She will quit her job to be a stay at home mom (hence the small house and low house payment). Estimated time before she quits is one year. Also, we are saving up cash for a new car for her (paid in full in cash hopefully in 6 months).
5) Have $15,000 in emergency fund in savings account and $4,000 specifically allocated to the above mentioned car as of today.
5) Retirement situation - Current balances of all retirement accounts - $36,000. We were doing 15% (a dave ramsey reccomend because I don't know any better) while we were also saving for our house downpayment ($26,000) at $1,500 to $2,000 a month. We are strict with our budget but not so tight that we don't enjoy our lives. I got a promotion much quicker than I thought I would and haven't adjusted my employer match 401(k) up to get us back to 15% yet. Going to do that today. We fund our accounts like this - Fully funding both of our IRA's by making monthly $416.66*2 (832 a month) contributions. I then figure out what amount brings us to 15% and we allocate that to our employer 401(k)'s. I get a match and prfot sharing which totalled 3k for this year deposited last month, but that is not included in our 15% calculations. So as of today we do like 1350 a month but after today its going to be 1550 or so (once I adjust my % contribution for my promotion).
We went to a Dave Ramsey ELP and our $832 ($416*2) IRA contributions are being used to purchase Class-A shares in 6 different American Funds mutual funds. Our 401(k)'s are limited in the investment options, but the ELP gave me a % to put into each fund and that is what I did. DW is invested in a target date fund (that is currently outperforming my ELP's advised mix).
Am I being had? I thought and had heard that the American Funds were great funds. Now I am seeing everyone here talking about loads and high ER's. Im just confused. I'm a CPA as of March, but I am by no means investment minded. Any advice would be appreciated!
I'm sorry I made this so long!
I have lurked on here for the past week or so, but just ran across a thread where they were discussing Dave Ramsey's advice.
Here is my situation, followed by my issue:
1) Married and live in a Houston suburb- I am 25 DW is 24 have been married exactly one year. I graduated college in August 2010 DW in December 2010.
2) Income - I make 66k before 5k bonus DW makes 56k with no bonus potential
3) Debt - Only mortgage debt, nothing else. We purchased our first home in March. Spent $124,900 on the house and put 20% down. PI is $484 a month. TI is another $350 a month. So the mortgage balance was 99,900 or so.
4) Plans for immediate future - DW and I are working on a baby. She will quit her job to be a stay at home mom (hence the small house and low house payment). Estimated time before she quits is one year. Also, we are saving up cash for a new car for her (paid in full in cash hopefully in 6 months).
5) Have $15,000 in emergency fund in savings account and $4,000 specifically allocated to the above mentioned car as of today.
5) Retirement situation - Current balances of all retirement accounts - $36,000. We were doing 15% (a dave ramsey reccomend because I don't know any better) while we were also saving for our house downpayment ($26,000) at $1,500 to $2,000 a month. We are strict with our budget but not so tight that we don't enjoy our lives. I got a promotion much quicker than I thought I would and haven't adjusted my employer match 401(k) up to get us back to 15% yet. Going to do that today. We fund our accounts like this - Fully funding both of our IRA's by making monthly $416.66*2 (832 a month) contributions. I then figure out what amount brings us to 15% and we allocate that to our employer 401(k)'s. I get a match and prfot sharing which totalled 3k for this year deposited last month, but that is not included in our 15% calculations. So as of today we do like 1350 a month but after today its going to be 1550 or so (once I adjust my % contribution for my promotion).
We went to a Dave Ramsey ELP and our $832 ($416*2) IRA contributions are being used to purchase Class-A shares in 6 different American Funds mutual funds. Our 401(k)'s are limited in the investment options, but the ELP gave me a % to put into each fund and that is what I did. DW is invested in a target date fund (that is currently outperforming my ELP's advised mix).
Am I being had? I thought and had heard that the American Funds were great funds. Now I am seeing everyone here talking about loads and high ER's. Im just confused. I'm a CPA as of March, but I am by no means investment minded. Any advice would be appreciated!
I'm sorry I made this so long!
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