Submitted by julianfalco t3_124pmw9 in personalfinance
Hey all,
As the title says I'm wanting to play catch up in regards to my financial future having turned 28 a couple of weeks ago. I have 14.8k put away into a 401k currently and just opted into a Roth IRA as well starting April with the 401k receiving 5% and the Roth having 2% (enployer matching 5%). That portfolio was investing in a Black Rock mutual fund but I elected for their more aggressive investing and have requested a diversification into Stocks and as the years go by it'll transition into bonds/ETFs
Currently have no emergency fund or savings whatsoever. I'm planning on opening a HYSA through AMEX in May to start depositing into to help with that to start providing a cushion/emergency fund.
I have an abysmal credit score currently (550?) Due to a few loans and credit cards and loans in the past, I have one active loan that will be paid off in May outside of the car loan and one account in collections worth $531.
Right now my income is "about" 47k a year after taxes, with a take home on average of $2,900 every month after taxes.
My essentials are as follows 550 rent 120 utilities 250 groceries 750 (car + insurance) 240 phone 95 internet
Total $2,005 and with a "free" money remainder of $800 (closer to 900 but cut away a 100 for gas, subscriptions, fun, etc.)
Basically I was wondering what I could start doing to help improve my outlook? The car payment isn't going away for about 5 more years and the insurance will start going down more as previous tickets fall off insurance history. I'm fine with cutting back hard, I want to be aggressive with what I can do as I want to have fun in my later years and not worry about having to survive on SSI.
Edit: Sorry for the expenses not being spaced out nicely, generally never have used reddit at all before and not sure how to change them to reflect how it is in my edit mode.
Edit 2: Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all of the responses and advice it is appreciated even if I came across as short in some comments. I'll try and comb more thoroughly everything when I get home as I kinda got lost with trying to navigate comments etc.