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ivydesert t1_jaeuaeu wrote

You can expect more than a 3% return from your investments.

The number you're looking for to retire is 25x your expenses. Don't overcomplicate it by trying to estimate what things will cost by then. Inflation will have driven the price of everything up, but the return from your investements should far exceed the rate of inflation.

Maybe you're saving too much for the wrong things. If you don't have a healthy emergency fund, make this your top priority. Keep making your retirement contributions, but all other cash that would go into other buckets should go into this one instead.

It sounds like you have a lot of savings goals, so it may feel like your money is spread thin. Saving up for a down payment on a home will take some time, but other things like affording larger appliances may be getting in the way of your other goals. Maybe it's time to reassess your priorities and figure out when and which goals you want to achieve first, then do the math on how long it will take to get there.

Do you own your larger appliances? If not, don't worry about this goal yet until you near a point where you do (e.g. when you buy a house) since your landlord will take care of repairs and replacements for you. If you do own them, maintenance will come from your emergency fund. I wouldn't consider these things "long term" by any means, and for more expensive purchases like these you can always look to short-term financing in a pinch. For example, I've seen 0% interest rates on appliances if you pay them off within 12 months (YMMV).

I get the feeling that you like to plan for the future, which is good. However, it can reach a point of obsession once you start to realize how many inevitabilities there can be. Save yourself the mental burden by simply building a healthy emergency fund that you can turn to when things go south. Just focus on building it back up whenever you do.

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workingforgoldie OP t1_jaewgza wrote

>If you don't have a healthy emergency fund, make this your top priority.

The emergency fund was recently depleted. It was around 10k but I had some huge medical bills recently.

> If you do own them, maintenance will come from your emergency fund.

I have it set so maintenance for appliances would come from the long term. Emergency is more like health or really big emergencies like we hit an expensive car and gotta pay for it. If my fridge breaks and we don't have enough in "Long Term" then I'm not really worried enough to touch my emergency fund for it. We can get a mini fridge or something. But that's why I have it split into two. Otherwise, if I'm spending emergency money on appliance repairs or something, I would just have $600 into "Emergency" and it would accomplish the same thing.

The Long Term is a catch all kinda thing for major purchases. Like moving expenses came out of long term. It's really just a savings for big things I expect to come eventually. This was recently high too but moving was very expensive.

I do think the $300/mo in emergency right now is a bit low, but I can just move some long term into it or even the ~20k I have saved up for a house into it if something does happen that fast. For now I'll probably just do $0 in long term and $600 in emergency because we just moved and there really is nothing we have for a long term purchase.

>It sounds like you have a lot of savings goals, so it may feel like your money is spread thin

Yeah I think this hit the nail. I want to save up enough for an emergency. I want to save enough to be able to move out when our lease ends. I want to save up enough to get a house. I want to save up to retire early. Can't do it all on this income unfortunately.

Definitely fine with not getting a house though. The house was just because we hate moving. That's really it. Moving is expensive and tiring.

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