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I just plugged all of my known fixed expenses into Z-man's percentages and it doesn't quite add up for my wife and I. Our housing is closer to 33% while our auto is about 8%. We don't spend anywhere near 7% on clothing, and our medical costs are about 1% due to having a local government job with good benefits. Savings rates into our 401k are around 9% collectively with match, and we put a little money aside for vacations and small fun purchases.
The thing that kills our budget is the student loan payments we are making. Between both of our Undergrad and my Grad School we spend 15% on that debt service alone. We are using the Dave Ramsey snowball method to lump all payments onto those student loans and get them paid off in 5 years from right now. That will be a significant savings to our budget, and I imagine that we will be greatly increasing our 401k allocations at that point. I will be 35, so I will still have some time to catch up.
It is an interesting shell game. This has been a good exercise for me to look at our funds more closely.
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1984 Porsche 911
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