Like others here, I wish I'd found WCI sooner. I'm looking for advice on going forwards.
Here's my situation:
46, married ,3 kids 1st grade and below. My wife is a SAHM currently.
The good:
wages about 250-260K/yr
~140K in taxable investments/emergency fund
~900K in retirement, roughly split 40% Roth, 60% TSP/401K.
military pension to tune of 20K or so annually (indexed to inflation)
health care thru Tricare (e.g. very low cost currently)
house is worth about 900K - 1 million
Current savings rate of about 15%, the lion's share of this to retirement.
The fair: 30K in a 529. Better than nothing.
The bad: lifestyle creep with the kids etc.
370K : 30 yr fixed 3.50 mortgage
~70K: split between HELOC prime rate + 1 yr 0% cash advance [the cash advance lowers our interest charge, we weren't expecting that offer], which we will be paying down aggressively.
7K auto loan on a 2014 vehicle. The 2010 vehicle is paid off but nothing saved towards a replacement
We aren't saving outside retirement like I want to. We did fire a financial advisor, so got rid of a 1% drag on investments. Our taxable investments used to be higher, but we sold some of that for work on the house.
We are quite uncomfortable with the HELOC debt. I also don't love my 30 yr mortgage, maturing at 2042 - I want that done substantially sooner. We are planning on about 15K+/yr towards paying off the HELOC.
What with all of that said, I am considering temporarily backing off of 401K savings to put more towards paying off the HELOC. I know this will have implications for AGI (less in the 401K) and overall retirement nest egg.
Thoughts at all? Choosing a less expensive home / not doing work on it are a "go back in time" choice that isn't an option.
Thanks!
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