I know I haven't been posting much this year, but I've been following along with everyone. We've been keeping busy this year so far... we did our one last trip to WDW with our APs in January, and are now on a run of spending 5 of 8 weekends out of town. We had a wedding celebration back in my hometown hosted by my cousin, DH is currently out of town for the third time this year for work and so we spent the last two days in Long Beach, CA as a precursor to that, my cousin gets married next weekend, then Easter, then DH's brother gets married in California and we're making a teeny trip out of that and going to DL for a couple days, then Vegas at the end of April to support a friend. And I have another cousin getting married Memorial Day weekend! We had lots of time to talk in the car coming back from my hometown last week though, I think we have our next big goals settled, at least.
Our next big item to payoff is going to be my car. I owe about $15,000 on it currently and am 26 months into my 60 month loan. I mentioned at one point that we had been letting most of our extra income accumulate... though we've spent a bit of it (weekends back to my hometown and small trips) we have a pretty large pile to throw onto the car loan that will most likely cut it in half right off the bat, maybe more. The three factors determining what that pile amounts to are 1. we've got a few gifts to pick up, for the weddings and also my cousin that hosted our party (they paid for almost everything and rented a hall and argued the whole time, so I'm going to get them a Visa card), 2. the travel expenses, especially last weekend as we took my in-laws along to meet some of my family but covered their expenses. and 3. DH is looking at trucks...
So after we sort out that amount plus the truck idea, we're also going to get our retirement savings sorted out. I figured that last year between our 401ks and my HSA we saved about 16% of pre tax pay, and with our company matches about 20%. Since we didn't miss it, we're going to stay at least there/slightly increase, but just equalize a bit as most of it is in my accounts. Even as I was typing this, I got my note with my raise for the year... 3.5%, when our company typically gives 2%-2.5%. That will go into effect in next Monday, so an easy increase for saving if I never see it in my check
We're each going to open an IRA with the money my grandpa gave us, and contribute $100 each per month for sure (grandpa's request was to save $100 a month between the two of us). I'm just trying to figure out if the IRA expenses are lower than the 401k plans or not, because I think if the IRA expenses are lower that we should contribute more to there after getting the match from our 401ks... this all makes my head hurt
Beyond that, we're just deciding our next step... moving has come up. We might be here until the Fall when I hit my 3 years and am vested with my company, because at this moment about $9k of my 401k is from my employer match that will become vested then. Unless something with a large pay increase comes up
I've put in for a position within my company and am updating my resume now, so we'll see... I've heard the manager is already pretty decided on one of the candidates, but if nothing else I feel it'll be good to have another interview experience and will show them that I'm interested in moving up/furthering my career with them.