I am looking for some ideas and resources.
My husband and I have had a budget for the last 6 years. We carefully track what we spend and have been able to achieve many of our financial goals. But as my husband's income has gone up, we've become a little lazy. There is more wiggle room. While this is nice, I wonder - especially now with the financial crisis - if there is more we can do.
We've gone from basing our budget on what we need to spend on certain categories to rewriting our budget almost monthly based on our actual spending.
Thankfully, my husband's income will most likely continue to go up 5-10% or more a year, but as we make more money I want to begin to make some serious progress towards our long-term financial goals: paying off the mortgage, saving for our kid's college (or our own grad school), etc.
So I am looking for resources about how to allocate monthly spending. How much should we be saving for college? For retirement?
How should we think about short-term goals like buying a new car or saving for vacations?
How much should we be spending on discretionary categories like clothing or entertainment?
Thanks!
My husband and I have had a budget for the last 6 years. We carefully track what we spend and have been able to achieve many of our financial goals. But as my husband's income has gone up, we've become a little lazy. There is more wiggle room. While this is nice, I wonder - especially now with the financial crisis - if there is more we can do.
We've gone from basing our budget on what we need to spend on certain categories to rewriting our budget almost monthly based on our actual spending.
Thankfully, my husband's income will most likely continue to go up 5-10% or more a year, but as we make more money I want to begin to make some serious progress towards our long-term financial goals: paying off the mortgage, saving for our kid's college (or our own grad school), etc.
So I am looking for resources about how to allocate monthly spending. How much should we be saving for college? For retirement?
How should we think about short-term goals like buying a new car or saving for vacations?
How much should we be spending on discretionary categories like clothing or entertainment?
Thanks!
