Coming Clean

Like any good personal finance blogger, I plan to post regular (monthly?) updates on my progress of paying down debt and savings toward goals. My finances are just starting to get settled after we moved to Amsterdam in April. I had been holding on to some cash because I wasn't too sure about how much our living expenses would be, but it's looking like my paycheck (in Euros) will be enough to cover everything. I'm leaving the money in US savings accounts (at my bank and Emigrant Direct) for the automatic transfers to my student loans and my Roth IRA, but I do need to do some thinking about how to manage my finances on two-continents! That'll be a post for another time, though.

Here are the numbers:

Debt:
Student loan, $13,176.35 @ 3.25%
Savings:
Vanguard Roth IRA, $9,970.34
Roth 401(k), contributed $2,980.00 so far
Employer retirement plan, I think around $12,000 (I'm unable to access the account at the moment)
Cash savings, $13,326.66
Living expense money in Dutch bank account: $2,226.74 (€1412.64)

Spender's situation is not quite the same as mine.
Debt:
Student Loans, $15,182.10 (at rates between 5-7%)
Credit card debt, $386.02 (although my typing that has prompted Spender to log on and pay it off).
Savings:
Roth IRA $751.76
Cash savings, $1,965.07

My personal goals are to pay down my student loans (despite really wanting to pay them off, I had been saving in a HYSA because the interest rate was better. Now that the interest rates have come down, that's no longer worth it), and to max out my Roth IRA. I'd also like to resume contributing to my 401(k), which I put on hold when I moved. My employer contributes a fixed amount to our retirement plan each year in December, so I'm not missing out on any free money by not contributing now. I also have a goal of doing a lot of travelling this year, and will have to be careful to balance being frugal and saving for the future with taking advantage of the opportunity for some amazing experiences.

My goals for Spender are simple: Pay off those loans!! and develop a savings habit.