Getting married in three months and trying to figure out our future

kelley198721

Basically the title. I've been looking on the ACA website and when I look at plans that include my fiancé's income, even though he gets his coverage from his job, monthly premiums are about $200 per month, which will make things a tad difficult to save up money quickly to buy a house and other things. My job does offer health insurance but I have no idea how much it costs. I need to look into it though. I turned it down last time because as a single person, I only have to pay $6.23 per month for health insurance through ACA. But I'm getting married and trying to figure out how much I should budget for health insurance. 

Unless we file married separately. But I'm afraid of us missing out on benefits if we don't file jointly. For those of you that file returns jointly with your spouses, how good are the benefits? 

There are so many things to figure out after we are married that it is overwhelming. My fiancé is going to school in August for his associate's in criminal justice. He's currently working as a juvenile corrections officer. After he gets his associate's, he can then get on the bachelor's track and hopefully have his bachelor's degree four years from now. We just took out federal school loans for him but just for his first year. We plan on paying his way through school the last three years. 

And we also want to save up half of a 5% down payment on a house. His parents have told us they will match whatever we come up with for a down payment. We would like to buy a nice home for about 150k to 190k. And we need to save up for closing costs on that. Goal is to buy the house in two years, hopefully. 

And I also want us to pay off my car ASAP (about 8k left, will be paid off in three years at current rate) so FI can get a new but used car when his dies in the next year or two. 

And of course, I would like to start paying my school loans aggressively but that may have to wait until he finishes school. I have about 38k on my loans, all federal. 

Oh and I want to start contributing to my retirement. I feel so behind. I am 27. FI has already been contributing to his retirement through his job. 

Both of our incomes should go up within the next few years but I don't know how significant it will be towards accomplishing all of our financial goals relatively quickly. 

I know my post is kind of all over the place but I just have so much on my mind. I have so many financial goals for us and it seems impossible to do it all. Not unless we both get second jobs and never even get to enjoy each other and our marriage! Or is this basically a case where I have to pick which financial goal is most important and go from there?

AprilZ81

1) Everyone around here prioritizes goals, even those without debt. You just need to figure out what is most important to you as a couple and go from there.

2) Health Insurance:  Getting married is a "life event" so you will be able to change your coverage when you get married even if it isn't open enrollment time.  What we did was look at the cost of having different plans versus being on the same plan, then took a look at the coverage of the plans to make sure there wasn't one that would be worth paying a premium for.  In our case (we didn't consider an ACA plan as we had coverage with our employers) it was cheaper for us to be on different plans.

3) Around this board we almost 100% agree that retirement savings takes priority over just about everything else unless it is for a very short term situation or emergency.  It is recommended that you contribute 10-15% of your gross income to retirement and if you can't do it from the start you start with what you can and gradually increase the amount until you can get to the 15%.  If your employer offers a match you should contribute at least that amount so you can take full advantage of the free money.

4) If your car and student loans are the only debt you have then you are in pretty good shape.  If your interest rates are low I personally am not opposed to letting those be (making on time and full payments) in favor of saving up for a larger goal.  Others say eliminate all debt first and then work on larger goals.  This is a decision you and your  husband need to make.

als1982

Everyone is different, but I agree that if I were you I would start by putting 15% of your income away for retirement. Put up to any matches in work accounts, the rest should go into ROTH(s). From there, I'd start tackling your car and student loan debt, knocking both those out before starting to save for a home.

vlagrl29

I use to be like that too - but you have to prioritize.  That's what I decided on.  For us saving for retirement and having a savings account with a substantial amount of money in it for unexpected events are at the top of that list.  It would be good to aggressively pay off the car first.  I still bought a house with my student loans.  I"m not totally debt adverse but prefer as little as possible.

Xstatic3333

What we did after getting married pretty much followed the steps April set down. We aren't accelerating loan payments at this time, and bought our house with 5% down. We bought a house that cost less than we thoughgt we could afford, and are so, so glad! We're in your same ballpark and our house-shopping spreadsheet budget was $200,000. We bought a home that was $167,000 and are so glad we didn't go higher. Things break, things need fixing, the sewer bills were a surprise, etc.

If I were you guys, getting retirement going would be my first step. After that, I'd save an emergency fund and make sure I had enough to cover H's tuition.

I will mention that although it is awesome that your ILs want to help with your DP, if you're going for a conventional 95 loan there are rules about what percentage of your DP is allowed to be a gift. I forget what they are, but I'd look into it early in the process. Your ILs will also need to document that it is a gift, not a loan.

In addition, make sure to include in your house budget money for furniture, paint, repairs/remodeling, etc.

simplyelise

I don't have a grasp on your complete financial situation, so I can't say for sure if your many goals are reasonable and achievable on the timeline you've laid out. But I will caution you to try and avoid buying a house simply because you want one and feel like you need one now that you're married. I have no idea if that is your situation, but I just know a lot of people who jeopardize their long-term financial goals in order to buy a house before they're ready. Since you're able to get ACA insurance for $6/month, it leads me to believe you don't have a high-income job. I'd caution you to be patient and wait until your income and your husband's income come up (which you expect to happen) before you jump into a mortgage.

It really can be overwhelming thinking of all the changes you have coming. I suggest you start by sitting down together and working through a budget together. What are your fixed costs going to be (rent, insurance, debt payments) and what do you estimate for your non-fixed costs (food, fuel, entertainment). Then you can know what kind of extra money you have to work with to reach your goals. Until you know what you're working with, it's really hard to know how many priorities you can and should work towards. You also need to lay out all your assets and all your debts.

It's probably only going to get harder to secure a loan for 5% down (unless you have the option of VA loans?). I'd recommend you plan to put more than that down, at least 15%, especially if you are going into home buying with other debts on the table. I personally want to be completely debt free before we buy a home, but you'll have to decide together if you are comfortable with large debt totals.

As far as the health insurance, check with your benefits administrator and have him check with his benefits administrator. Remind them you're getting married in 3 months and ask them what the options are for enrolling in the health insurance plan. Then compare that against your married filing jointly amount from the ACA and make a decision. If you guys plan to TTC anytime soon, keep that in mind as you review the plans.

Once you get that health insurance question nailed down, take it back to your working budget and see how it affects things. It sounds like your #1 concern and priority is retirement, so in your working budget, see how it would look if you withheld 10-15% from your paycheck for retirement. Next, it sounds like your second goal is cashflowing your husband's education. So figure out how much you need to save each month for that goal and add it to the budget. With whatever money you have left, decide if you'd like to put it towards an emergency fund, car savings fund, debt paydown on the car/loans, or some other higher priority goal.