I am 33M married to 33F. Currently we bring in about 195k combined pretax. I have generally always been a big saver/investor and at various milestones (bought a house, have both kids in day care, some promotions that have me towards the top of my field) have considered spending more and saving less. Usually I will loosen the belt so to speak for a few months before deciding to jump full force back into savings. My wife works for the government which has allowed me to make more risky career moves taking jobs that interest me, but may be a bit less secure. I currently work at a startup. We live in a MCOL suburb in the mid atlantic

My wife works in the medical field for the government making about 60k. This is roughly what she would make on the private market as well with significantly better benefits. She gets a pension, and healthcare will be guaranteed even after she leaves her job, provided she is there for another 3 years. She plans to work this job until she retires.

Expenses and budget

Income

195k Pretax wage income, includes average bonus

7k 401k matching, low for both of us

2k HSA employer contribution

Expenses

20k Estimated taxes income taxes for the year after deductions

14k Fica Taxes

6.8k Student loans, AVG rate 4.3%, paying at minimums, largest loans on track for PSLF in 8 years

6.7k Gas, tolls, low level car maintenance like oil changes (we both have a fairly long commute)

6k Food for family of four

26k Mortgage, home owners insurance, property taxes, HOA

6k Utilities, Gas, water, electric, phone, trash, gym, internet

11k IRAs, hope to max out wife's with buffer in budget

12k, discretionary, includes trips, eating out, events, clothes, also includes any expenses in a given month that do not fit cleanly into another budget

1.2k Car insurance

7k 2 Car loans at 5% interest each. Had both cars bust within months of each other, bought new given the cost of gently used compared to a new car (2022). I know frowned upon in this group but both reliable Toyotas, hoping for a minimum of 15 years each.

32k Daycare, this is one of the cheapest in our area for two kids, we are on a waiting list projected to go to a new daycare in August. It will save about 5k a year and I believe is actually better quality. We have 3 more years until we can get the first one out, 4 more for the second.

3k Adding to HSA (our contribution)

21k 401k accounts for out contribution portion

5k health care

2.7k Federal pension

9k Matches described above

1k Various stream, Live hulu for sports disney bundle, netflix, spotify

This leaves about 1k a month buffer which we hope to max out the rest of my wife's IRA and HSA, remainder goes in HYSA, if HYSA above 10k then it goes into taxable brokerage.

Assets and Liabilities

256k home equity 460k home value, 204k left on 2.4% loan/ 11years remaining

53k Roth IRA

27k Taxable brokerage

58k 401k 70% roth

35k 401k traditional

14k Wife 401k

45k With IRA traditional

5k in bank

55k combined care value

4k HYSA/large purchase/expense fund

6k in 529s for the kids

2k HSA (large medical expenses have kept us from putting as much as we would like in the investment bucket of HSA, we plan to start paying for all medical expenses with regular credit and wait to cash in on HSA until retirement once I get a kid out of daycare)

-55k Student loans at average 4.3%

-28k Car loans at 5%

Networth

475k All in

158k with Home Equity, Car value, 529s backed out.

After getting one kid and for sure two we plan to max out 401ks, HSA and IRA. We are not far off from maxing out the latter two even with the kids in day care.