What is 'your' definition of Debt-free? This is our situation. A financial question.

[westcoastforme]

Also, your husband seems like a very dedicated traditional family man who takes pride in supporting his family and saving for retirement.

At that salary you will be millionaires with the 401k/ira and cash savings.

If you buy a condo for your MIL in Georgia make sure he can find a good paying job in Georgia.


Does he have 1 day off per week?

Do you and your husband take vacations?

[himain]

Well to me, at this point in my life, debt is free is CC free. I have a pretty high car payment but it's a luxury car and its how I "treat" myself. We have rent in a beautiful apt here in Denver. I have some CC debt left but that will be paid off my May or earlier. I will be inheriting a chunk of money before May and I'm not sure if I want to invest it or purchase a house. I know for a fact I won't spend 15/30 years in that house so I'm not concerned with paying it off if I go that route.

[Lowexpectations]

Originally Posted by westcoastforme

FDIC only covers up to 250,000 dollars per account in the event of a bank failure so it is ok to have multiple savings accounts.

FDIC insurance can cover more than 250k it depends on the account type

Yes everyone that pays into social security will get a monthly payment in retirement

This is very loose. Everyone that pays into SS won't always get something back in return and "retirement" means one thing to an individual and another to the SSA

[Rogarven]

Originally Posted by randomparent

^ This. Yes, OP, you and your husband are debt-free. It's a great feeling, isn't it?

I agree, you are so much better off than most your age. I personally think the quicker you get out of CAL , the better. We only pay taxes but have two luxury cars ( pay in cash) and have no debt. BTW, our taxes now are the same as the mortgage of our first house in 1980. That is the price we pay for no state income tax. :-(

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by Shanghai30

I have three questions...

You have a manuscript. tl;dr.

I'll address one point:

We personally don't want to buy a house in the HCOL state California.
And retirement savings in our 401k and IRA..
Some people prefers a house as their asset.

You're probably missing the boat.

Wherever you live, a HCOL place like CA or anywhere else, the home ownership question
is almost always about, even limited to the stability of the job you have there.

If you expect to be in that community, at that job, for more than FIVE years...
buying will almost always prove a better use of your precious CASH than renting anything comparable.
Not always... but usually. With a TEN or TWENTY year residency it absolutely will.

Carrying a mortgage is not a "debt" in the common sense of things.
And it doesn't preclude having the investment accounts.
You need them all.

[jasperhobbs]

Sometimes having debt is not a bad thing. Let's say you have the money in savings to pay off a home, car or whatever but if you do, you have no savings left. With interest rates being low, you are not paying a lot extra and you still have the safety cushion of a savings account.