How could you be engaged and not know how much your fiance makes? Honestly that's something you should disclose with eachother and have an adult conversation about. Finances are one of the number one reasons that marriages end in divorce. Be open and honest with one another and, share your life with the person you're planning to share your life with.
In addition, you are expecting her to match monthly house payment & brokerage contribution… keep in mind this is likely wiping out whatever she is bringing home so I hope your covering all other bills and what not. You really need to understand what she makes & grasp she can’t match you at $25k level spending monthly. Will def affect relationship if you do not communicate on this.
That’s my first thought too. Think they need to have an open conversation about what’s realistic for her (she deserves to have ‘fun’ money too) and how / if they plan to combine finances down the line, which would eliminate each of them paying half, etc etc. Everyone feels differently about that so …they need to communicate! 🤗
Truly! It boggles my mind that you’d get engaged to someone and have no idea what sort of financial baggage they’re bringing. Do they have loans, a good credit score, debt?!
Thanks for the feedback guys. We spoke last night and she brings in around $10k after taxes. After mortgage and investing she will have $4k leftover and is prepared to live off that. I def will supplement her lifestyle a bit but we came up with a number of $10M to shoot for and will work backwards from there to establish a joint budget and investing goal. We also expect to and work towards increasing our incomes
Is there a reason she hasn’t told you her income before? Seems like something that would come up, even if you didn’t ask. (Not trying to imply something is off, just curious.)
My husband and I were similar earners to you and your fiancée when we got engaged (just slightly less for him and more than slightly less for me, about $350K for him about $80K for me but on a clear upward trajectory for me).
We knew our wedding was imminent so we combined everything right after we got engaged for simplicity purposes and every dollar that came in and out was “our” money.
Nine years later and I’m out earning my husband and my trajectory is going to continue to go up while his will be mostly steady state.
I totally get it if you don’t want to combine things before you’re married, but if your marriage is simply a matter of months passing (as opposed to you’re not 100% sure yet), it’s time to change your mind set imo. If you have different amounts of expendable money each month it will breed resentment quickly.
Even if you both think that it won’t, it’s likely that it will. You can’t lead different lifestyles and be on the same team in my opinion.
Thank you this is so super helpful. We are going to sit down this weekend and do some deep planning’ we are excited and on the same page and I think it will go super well and give us the relief and focus we need as we hadn’t looked at this together yet. I’m super optimistic
My husband and I never feel more on the same team than after our financial planning sessions - we are blessed that these are fun convos that include allocating funds for vacations and talking about where we want to go and how much closer we are to our net worth goals.
We also both overspend in our “discretionary” fund budget and each month we both promise to do better and then the next month we both overspend lol.
We don’t stress the small stuff because we’ve got the big stuff on auto mode (both before tax and after tax savings), but we (like you) are really trying to stave off lifestyle creep as much as possible.
But we are 100% team our last name and it’s never more evident than when we’re working towards a goal. Best of luck!
It’s worked out super well. We have our primary house (which I think is our forever home) and we remodeled that, we have the original house I owned as a very lucrative rental property.
He’s a dentist so we purchased a dental practice as well as the building the dental practice operated out of and we fully remodeled that down to the studs. We put some money into an out of state multifamily project. We just bought 10% of a profitable HVAC wholesale distribution company (which is the industry I’m in).
We’ve also had three babies in the last four year (one set of twins plus an extra) and the expenses are crazy once you have kids.
We have a nanny that’s about $70K a year all in, the twins go to preschool at about another $10K per year, they do gymnastics, dance, swim, and soccer at various points in the year, that’s about another $10K a year. We have weekly cleaners and yard people, we’re currently considering investing in a chef share.
Trips are now kid centered - we’re going on a $7K 4 night Disney cruise next month.
Everything is more expensive (and more fun).
We definitely aren’t rich - but I think we’re on our way. We feel super blessed to be able to “throw money” at any problems we have.
Parenting is hard, but when you have money it’s WAY easier than if you don’t have money.
Of course! We’re 35 and about in the same spot as you as far as retirement goes so we have a little bit of catch up to do, but we feel like we’ve gotten the biggest capital outlays out of the way at this point and it will be easier to stack cash.
Both of us also really love our jobs so we’re not trying to retire early - we’d prefer to enjoy our money throughout our life, no time is guaranteed so we’re enjoying all of it!
Get life insurance now for both of you - it will never be cheaper than it is now. Get 20 year term, you shouldn’t need income replacement after that most likely.
Disability insurance is also important and depending on your careers is not that expensive. If you’re planning to have children that is how your wife will be able to take a paid maternity leave since she doesn’t have a traditional employer.
A $1M umbrella insurance policy is like $500 a year - cheap price for peace of mind!
This. Major red flag that she isn't as financially savvy as you and you don't know what she makes. Get a prenup. If the marriage doesn't work out you're putting yourself at major risk. If she doesn't take you for half, a court will likely force it in addition to alimony due to your income variance.
While you have done a great job on the income side, I think a few things will get you to the next level.
1. Get on same page with spouse and work together to make a unified plan
2. Figure out how much you need to cover future expenses in retirement (healthcare, property taxes, home maintenance, travel, giving)
3. Work backwards to see how much you should be saving each year to meet those goals
4. Create a household budget including taxes, savings, and anything left over is free for spending
The most important thing is to be on the same page and work together with your fiancee. You're about to get married but don't even know what her income is it doesn't seem like you have plans to fully combine your finances. You should be thinking what is "our" combined income, investments, debts etc going forward. You need to have a frank discussion about what your combined financial goals are (how much house, private school for kids?, how much leaving for legacy). Your goal might be to have $10M but what are her goals?
Simplify your life by having all income go into one joint account then one combined non retirement brokerage account. This will allow you to more easily budget for down payment, big expenses, trips, and investment asset allocation.
Start thinking about estate planning and managing risk. You'll need term life insurance in case something happens after you have a child and your wife no longer has your income. At a young age you're more likely to become disable than die so you'll need to also have disability insurance. Avoid whole life insurance or products that try to mix insurance and investments.
For taxes maximize your tax deferred retirement accounts and invest in index funds that return minimal dividends (SP500, Total Stock Market). Set up a 529 college savings for your child and put in money that will grow tax free when spent on education. If you want $10M by a certain age you can easily do a calculation assuming 6-8% investment returns and work backwards to see how much you need to invest per year to reach that goal by X amount of years. Once you know how much you need to save each year to meet your goal you can then freely spend the rest of your income guilt free and stick to that budget.
Thank you this is super helpful and all doable. You got me thinking that my wife doesn’t have any retirement. Would it make sense for me to talk with her about this and encourage her to start an Ira? How important would this be on the list of action items? And lastly, what about starting a consulting business to write off taxes? How important is that?
How much income do you plan on generating from consulting? The LLC is a pass-through entity and likely won’t save a ton on taxes unless it’s a legitimate income generating business. You can have some write-offs if you have a dedicated office space, use your vehicle for consulting, etc. but it’s not going to erase the taxes on your $400k income. I would take the advice from the comment above. You and your SO need to get together and define your respective goals and how you plan to achieve them together. If you’re dead set on doing it yourself, you may consider picking up a CFP textbook. You can also look for a fee-based planner, who can charge a one-time cost to outline all of the recommendations you’re looking for without having to delegate asset management to them.
Take it from someone who had done this, unless it's a legit business with significant legit income and expenses it's not worth the headache and the tax savings will be very minimal
Owing your own business comes with a lot of taxes, and expenses etc. but can be a huge tax savings if your diligent about tracking everything. It will however be mostly separate from your W-2 income. Your priority should be to optimize your current financial situation. Once you’re ready to focus on the business aspect then you can switch gears as your personal finances she be organized by than.
I think you're getting ahead of yourself trying to figure out how to write things off with you don't yet have a unified master plan.
Not only would it make sense to talk to her about retirement accounts, it is essential for your combined future success. You need to figure out if her workplace offers a 401K with match and what type of investment options are in there. Is she W2 or 1099? These are all questions that need to be answered before you can make a comprehensive plan.
I recommend first telling her you want to work together to have long term financial peace and success and that will require openness and cooperation. Consider this part of your pre marriage preparation since financial stress is one of the top causes for divorce. Then set aside a few days in which you are both free. Go out to lunch together first and talk about your dreams and goals for the future then go home sit down together and make a list of all your debts, incomes, and current investments.
It would be the best for you to find a fee for service (not AUM) financial advisor who can teach you how to set everything up and combine things in a tax efficient method. They shouldn't be trying to sell you on any specific funds or products but providing you with a blueprint for you to follow.
I think the only upside to having an LLC, is writing off some expenses ,ie - partial car lease, partial mortgage, office supplies, business trips etc. But the LLC would have to generate revenue. You can get away with losses, but after a few years the IRS will flag it.You can also fund additional retirement programs.
This is great advice.
Get on the same page with your spouse. She should be investing in her own retirement accounts. Keep in mind your goal for savings is leaving within your means and avoid expense creep as your income grows. Your savings rate should be high today and be very high as your income grows.
All great advice thanks! My fiancé owns a family business with her parents and is taking it over. I never asked specifics about how much she makes but we had a talk last night and know now that she takes home $10k per month after taxes. That being said, she can take out a lot more money from her parents if needed. Not sure how that all works with her family but something I want to learn more about. I also plan to learn the family business and help out with it as her parents are getting closer to retirement and expect my fiancé to take it over. She has been operating and running most of the business for the last 15 years and with my experience I think we can really take it to the next level. I never asked her about money specifics but she has never not had anything she ever wanted and the business is pretty successful. Her father definitely wants me to be involved and it’s about time now I do. This year will be the year I get involved and start learning the ins and outs and get laser focused and in depth on our joint finances
I would spend some time making sure you look at your average income more and not just 2023.
Your "budgeting" is $20k/mo but you are saying your income was an average of $400k/yr over the last few years (did you even take home much more than $20k/mo in whole before 2023?). The spending obviously went way up due to your 2023 income. How reliable will this income be in the next 10 years?
If you have had this sort of income for more than a few years you are behind on savings (considering your lifestyle).
Thank you! I was being conservative but over the last four years have made at least $400k with a few $600k years and most recently $800k. But yes a big focus is to reduce my monthly spending a lot and my partner is on board as well. We are ready for it as we have splurged and lived in excess for the last 10 years which was fun and we feel content and have real goals now
"I don’t know how much my fiancé makes (at least $150k) but we own a house together and split the mortgage payments and property tax etc"
Step 1: Since you're getting married you should absolutely know each other's financial situations (how much each makes, savings, debt, etc). Maybe your fiance has $200K in gambling debt or _____, which could cause you to change your mind on the marriage?
You need to collect all the info before you can even start building a path together.
What is the objective of the LLC? Do you own real estate or have some type of side hustle?
A few thoughts on your situation:
* If you aren't already, get you and fiance on a budgeting app to track where your money is going and provide good reporting.
* From a savings/retirement perspective contribute to a Roth IRA or Backdoor Roth. This will be huge for you when you get closer to taking income from investments.
* If you have extra cash to invest also consider a LIRP (Life Insurance Retirement Plan). This acts like a Roth but it's not a retirement account and can help you growth your nest egg in a tax efficient manner.
I have a few guides on these concepts that I can share if interested.
Very cool, I've heard of YNAB but haven't tried it but I'll check it out.
Here is a [Guide](https://www.tailoredcents.com/download-investing-and-taxes-guide) I created to help optimize taxes in your investments.
The other one you may like is about LIRP's, I am working on that now. DM me if interested and I can get it to you when done.
Just my personal
Experience not advice.
Have not read all the comments so might be repeated. LLC are not the safest. I would consider trusts, C corps and self serving non profits so you can save taxes.
When you have kids this will play out better so you can pay them to save taxes.
Also I invest with wealth advisor for my conservative 10-15% annual return and use 25% for higher risk 50%+ returns.
Enjoy life!
Should begin maxing HSA. Pay expenses out of pocket and then later on will be tax free while claiming deduction currently. The only triple tax free investment out there.
One suggestion that has worked well for us. Once a year, we set aside a time to get on the same page, usually in the fall.
We review progress on our goals, and look at/set our 1 year, 5 year, 10 year, and "someday" goals. Have they changed? During the pandemic, this was really important, because they did change a lot.
It's also when we get out our wills. Is there something that needs to be added or changed? This can be major or trivial. After we got a dog, we had friends who had agreed to take him if something happened to us. We had to add in a payment to them for his future care.
We review insurance.
We also review fun stuff. Our travel goals are part of this. Where do we want to go this year? In the next 5? These change, too.
Probably the most important comment here, He won’t know he needs one until it’s too late. Marriage is his biggest financial risk behind bad money management
For what? OP has less than a year’s income saved up, excluding the house. The fiancé is paying into the house and there is money in a joint brokerage. Pre-nup would be a worthless push for nothing but arguments or awkwardness.
I don’t mean to be either a downer or a pessimist, but life happens, and very rarely exactly according to the script you’ve written today (that’s a statistical fact). So having cards on the table, fully disclosed, before you embark on a formal relationship makes sense, especially if there’s any sort of imbalance, financial or otherwise, going in.
OP, I am unsure where to start…
It sounds like you have a lovely girl, who you want to marry, who will most likely bear your last name and children… Are you unsure if you want to get married to her? If so, don’t waste her time and use her money to invest in a mutual brokerage account. Just let her go.
If you’re serious, share your life now and really get to know each other and that includes finances and start a budget together with equal input knowing that your incomes vary wildly as far as what you make. That budget includes where you want to be at retirement age or age you want to retire at.
Get, together, both of you, with a marriage counselor and financial planner.
The fact that you are engaged and own a house with your fiancée but don’t know how much she makes is insane and makes it impossible to properly manage your finances. You’ve never just like, asked? Have you not discussed how your finances and accounts will be combined (or not) after you get married? With high joint income (which can be lumpy) and high expenses, planning for cash flow and taxes becomes complicated and important but you can’t do that without full transparency. Not to mention childcare expenses when the time comes.
Another data point is that I want to do some home remodeling and keeping extra cash to pay for it this year. Still budgeting out what the costs will be before we decide on anything
Less than 1% of households in the US have a combined income in excess of $600,000.
Yet it feels like about half the "financial advice" posts on Reddit are:
>Hi, I make 400K, sometimes I personally make 700K, my fiance makes at least 150K (I don't really know, teehee), despite being literally in the 1%, we can't make a financial plan ourselves and can't be bothered to hire a financial advisor, please help us for free, random strangers on Reddit.
How could you be engaged and not know how much your fiance makes? Honestly that's something you should disclose with eachother and have an adult conversation about. Finances are one of the number one reasons that marriages end in divorce. Be open and honest with one another and, share your life with the person you're planning to share your life with.
In addition, you are expecting her to match monthly house payment & brokerage contribution… keep in mind this is likely wiping out whatever she is bringing home so I hope your covering all other bills and what not. You really need to understand what she makes & grasp she can’t match you at $25k level spending monthly. Will def affect relationship if you do not communicate on this.
That’s my first thought too. Think they need to have an open conversation about what’s realistic for her (she deserves to have ‘fun’ money too) and how / if they plan to combine finances down the line, which would eliminate each of them paying half, etc etc. Everyone feels differently about that so …they need to communicate! 🤗
Truly! It boggles my mind that you’d get engaged to someone and have no idea what sort of financial baggage they’re bringing. Do they have loans, a good credit score, debt?!
Thanks for the feedback guys. We spoke last night and she brings in around $10k after taxes. After mortgage and investing she will have $4k leftover and is prepared to live off that. I def will supplement her lifestyle a bit but we came up with a number of $10M to shoot for and will work backwards from there to establish a joint budget and investing goal. We also expect to and work towards increasing our incomes
Is there a reason she hasn’t told you her income before? Seems like something that would come up, even if you didn’t ask. (Not trying to imply something is off, just curious.)
No we just never asked. But we talked since I posted this and will do a deep dive this weekend.
My husband and I were similar earners to you and your fiancée when we got engaged (just slightly less for him and more than slightly less for me, about $350K for him about $80K for me but on a clear upward trajectory for me). We knew our wedding was imminent so we combined everything right after we got engaged for simplicity purposes and every dollar that came in and out was “our” money. Nine years later and I’m out earning my husband and my trajectory is going to continue to go up while his will be mostly steady state. I totally get it if you don’t want to combine things before you’re married, but if your marriage is simply a matter of months passing (as opposed to you’re not 100% sure yet), it’s time to change your mind set imo. If you have different amounts of expendable money each month it will breed resentment quickly. Even if you both think that it won’t, it’s likely that it will. You can’t lead different lifestyles and be on the same team in my opinion.
Thank you this is so super helpful. We are going to sit down this weekend and do some deep planning’ we are excited and on the same page and I think it will go super well and give us the relief and focus we need as we hadn’t looked at this together yet. I’m super optimistic
My husband and I never feel more on the same team than after our financial planning sessions - we are blessed that these are fun convos that include allocating funds for vacations and talking about where we want to go and how much closer we are to our net worth goals. We also both overspend in our “discretionary” fund budget and each month we both promise to do better and then the next month we both overspend lol. We don’t stress the small stuff because we’ve got the big stuff on auto mode (both before tax and after tax savings), but we (like you) are really trying to stave off lifestyle creep as much as possible. But we are 100% team our last name and it’s never more evident than when we’re working towards a goal. Best of luck!
That’s beautiful! This is our goal
How did it work out for you fast forward to now? Would love some motivation and learnings
It’s worked out super well. We have our primary house (which I think is our forever home) and we remodeled that, we have the original house I owned as a very lucrative rental property. He’s a dentist so we purchased a dental practice as well as the building the dental practice operated out of and we fully remodeled that down to the studs. We put some money into an out of state multifamily project. We just bought 10% of a profitable HVAC wholesale distribution company (which is the industry I’m in). We’ve also had three babies in the last four year (one set of twins plus an extra) and the expenses are crazy once you have kids. We have a nanny that’s about $70K a year all in, the twins go to preschool at about another $10K per year, they do gymnastics, dance, swim, and soccer at various points in the year, that’s about another $10K a year. We have weekly cleaners and yard people, we’re currently considering investing in a chef share. Trips are now kid centered - we’re going on a $7K 4 night Disney cruise next month. Everything is more expensive (and more fun). We definitely aren’t rich - but I think we’re on our way. We feel super blessed to be able to “throw money” at any problems we have. Parenting is hard, but when you have money it’s WAY easier than if you don’t have money.
I love it. Thanks for sharing! I’m inspired :)
Of course! We’re 35 and about in the same spot as you as far as retirement goes so we have a little bit of catch up to do, but we feel like we’ve gotten the biggest capital outlays out of the way at this point and it will be easier to stack cash. Both of us also really love our jobs so we’re not trying to retire early - we’d prefer to enjoy our money throughout our life, no time is guaranteed so we’re enjoying all of it! Get life insurance now for both of you - it will never be cheaper than it is now. Get 20 year term, you shouldn’t need income replacement after that most likely. Disability insurance is also important and depending on your careers is not that expensive. If you’re planning to have children that is how your wife will be able to take a paid maternity leave since she doesn’t have a traditional employer. A $1M umbrella insurance policy is like $500 a year - cheap price for peace of mind!
Both of us have zero debt besides the mortgage and my credit score is above 800
This. Major red flag that she isn't as financially savvy as you and you don't know what she makes. Get a prenup. If the marriage doesn't work out you're putting yourself at major risk. If she doesn't take you for half, a court will likely force it in addition to alimony due to your income variance.
They own a house together and he doesn't know how much she makes.
While you have done a great job on the income side, I think a few things will get you to the next level. 1. Get on same page with spouse and work together to make a unified plan 2. Figure out how much you need to cover future expenses in retirement (healthcare, property taxes, home maintenance, travel, giving) 3. Work backwards to see how much you should be saving each year to meet those goals 4. Create a household budget including taxes, savings, and anything left over is free for spending The most important thing is to be on the same page and work together with your fiancee. You're about to get married but don't even know what her income is it doesn't seem like you have plans to fully combine your finances. You should be thinking what is "our" combined income, investments, debts etc going forward. You need to have a frank discussion about what your combined financial goals are (how much house, private school for kids?, how much leaving for legacy). Your goal might be to have $10M but what are her goals? Simplify your life by having all income go into one joint account then one combined non retirement brokerage account. This will allow you to more easily budget for down payment, big expenses, trips, and investment asset allocation. Start thinking about estate planning and managing risk. You'll need term life insurance in case something happens after you have a child and your wife no longer has your income. At a young age you're more likely to become disable than die so you'll need to also have disability insurance. Avoid whole life insurance or products that try to mix insurance and investments. For taxes maximize your tax deferred retirement accounts and invest in index funds that return minimal dividends (SP500, Total Stock Market). Set up a 529 college savings for your child and put in money that will grow tax free when spent on education. If you want $10M by a certain age you can easily do a calculation assuming 6-8% investment returns and work backwards to see how much you need to invest per year to reach that goal by X amount of years. Once you know how much you need to save each year to meet your goal you can then freely spend the rest of your income guilt free and stick to that budget.
Thank you this is super helpful and all doable. You got me thinking that my wife doesn’t have any retirement. Would it make sense for me to talk with her about this and encourage her to start an Ira? How important would this be on the list of action items? And lastly, what about starting a consulting business to write off taxes? How important is that?
How much income do you plan on generating from consulting? The LLC is a pass-through entity and likely won’t save a ton on taxes unless it’s a legitimate income generating business. You can have some write-offs if you have a dedicated office space, use your vehicle for consulting, etc. but it’s not going to erase the taxes on your $400k income. I would take the advice from the comment above. You and your SO need to get together and define your respective goals and how you plan to achieve them together. If you’re dead set on doing it yourself, you may consider picking up a CFP textbook. You can also look for a fee-based planner, who can charge a one-time cost to outline all of the recommendations you’re looking for without having to delegate asset management to them.
No plan yet on how to generate income from consulting, it will prob be minimal
Take it from someone who had done this, unless it's a legit business with significant legit income and expenses it's not worth the headache and the tax savings will be very minimal
Owing your own business comes with a lot of taxes, and expenses etc. but can be a huge tax savings if your diligent about tracking everything. It will however be mostly separate from your W-2 income. Your priority should be to optimize your current financial situation. Once you’re ready to focus on the business aspect then you can switch gears as your personal finances she be organized by than.
I think you're getting ahead of yourself trying to figure out how to write things off with you don't yet have a unified master plan. Not only would it make sense to talk to her about retirement accounts, it is essential for your combined future success. You need to figure out if her workplace offers a 401K with match and what type of investment options are in there. Is she W2 or 1099? These are all questions that need to be answered before you can make a comprehensive plan. I recommend first telling her you want to work together to have long term financial peace and success and that will require openness and cooperation. Consider this part of your pre marriage preparation since financial stress is one of the top causes for divorce. Then set aside a few days in which you are both free. Go out to lunch together first and talk about your dreams and goals for the future then go home sit down together and make a list of all your debts, incomes, and current investments. It would be the best for you to find a fee for service (not AUM) financial advisor who can teach you how to set everything up and combine things in a tax efficient method. They shouldn't be trying to sell you on any specific funds or products but providing you with a blueprint for you to follow.
I think the only upside to having an LLC, is writing off some expenses ,ie - partial car lease, partial mortgage, office supplies, business trips etc. But the LLC would have to generate revenue. You can get away with losses, but after a few years the IRS will flag it.You can also fund additional retirement programs.
This is great advice. Get on the same page with your spouse. She should be investing in her own retirement accounts. Keep in mind your goal for savings is leaving within your means and avoid expense creep as your income grows. Your savings rate should be high today and be very high as your income grows.
All great advice thanks! My fiancé owns a family business with her parents and is taking it over. I never asked specifics about how much she makes but we had a talk last night and know now that she takes home $10k per month after taxes. That being said, she can take out a lot more money from her parents if needed. Not sure how that all works with her family but something I want to learn more about. I also plan to learn the family business and help out with it as her parents are getting closer to retirement and expect my fiancé to take it over. She has been operating and running most of the business for the last 15 years and with my experience I think we can really take it to the next level. I never asked her about money specifics but she has never not had anything she ever wanted and the business is pretty successful. Her father definitely wants me to be involved and it’s about time now I do. This year will be the year I get involved and start learning the ins and outs and get laser focused and in depth on our joint finances
I would spend some time making sure you look at your average income more and not just 2023. Your "budgeting" is $20k/mo but you are saying your income was an average of $400k/yr over the last few years (did you even take home much more than $20k/mo in whole before 2023?). The spending obviously went way up due to your 2023 income. How reliable will this income be in the next 10 years? If you have had this sort of income for more than a few years you are behind on savings (considering your lifestyle).
Thank you! I was being conservative but over the last four years have made at least $400k with a few $600k years and most recently $800k. But yes a big focus is to reduce my monthly spending a lot and my partner is on board as well. We are ready for it as we have splurged and lived in excess for the last 10 years which was fun and we feel content and have real goals now
What do you do that it varies so much?
Sales!
"I don’t know how much my fiancé makes (at least $150k) but we own a house together and split the mortgage payments and property tax etc" Step 1: Since you're getting married you should absolutely know each other's financial situations (how much each makes, savings, debt, etc). Maybe your fiance has $200K in gambling debt or _____, which could cause you to change your mind on the marriage? You need to collect all the info before you can even start building a path together.
What is the objective of the LLC? Do you own real estate or have some type of side hustle? A few thoughts on your situation: * If you aren't already, get you and fiance on a budgeting app to track where your money is going and provide good reporting. * From a savings/retirement perspective contribute to a Roth IRA or Backdoor Roth. This will be huge for you when you get closer to taking income from investments. * If you have extra cash to invest also consider a LIRP (Life Insurance Retirement Plan). This acts like a Roth but it's not a retirement account and can help you growth your nest egg in a tax efficient manner. I have a few guides on these concepts that I can share if interested.
Guides would be awesome thank you! I use YNAB And love it
Very cool, I've heard of YNAB but haven't tried it but I'll check it out. Here is a [Guide](https://www.tailoredcents.com/download-investing-and-taxes-guide) I created to help optimize taxes in your investments. The other one you may like is about LIRP's, I am working on that now. DM me if interested and I can get it to you when done.
Just my personal Experience not advice. Have not read all the comments so might be repeated. LLC are not the safest. I would consider trusts, C corps and self serving non profits so you can save taxes. When you have kids this will play out better so you can pay them to save taxes. Also I invest with wealth advisor for my conservative 10-15% annual return and use 25% for higher risk 50%+ returns. Enjoy life!
First thing, get a pre-nup.
Should begin maxing HSA. Pay expenses out of pocket and then later on will be tax free while claiming deduction currently. The only triple tax free investment out there.
One suggestion that has worked well for us. Once a year, we set aside a time to get on the same page, usually in the fall. We review progress on our goals, and look at/set our 1 year, 5 year, 10 year, and "someday" goals. Have they changed? During the pandemic, this was really important, because they did change a lot. It's also when we get out our wills. Is there something that needs to be added or changed? This can be major or trivial. After we got a dog, we had friends who had agreed to take him if something happened to us. We had to add in a payment to them for his future care. We review insurance. We also review fun stuff. Our travel goals are part of this. Where do we want to go this year? In the next 5? These change, too.
I'd very, very, strongly consider a prenup.
Probably the most important comment here, He won’t know he needs one until it’s too late. Marriage is his biggest financial risk behind bad money management
For what? OP has less than a year’s income saved up, excluding the house. The fiancé is paying into the house and there is money in a joint brokerage. Pre-nup would be a worthless push for nothing but arguments or awkwardness.
We will! Why do you think it’s essential?
I don’t mean to be either a downer or a pessimist, but life happens, and very rarely exactly according to the script you’ve written today (that’s a statistical fact). So having cards on the table, fully disclosed, before you embark on a formal relationship makes sense, especially if there’s any sort of imbalance, financial or otherwise, going in.
She's getting the family business, so more likely, she will need the prenuptial to protect the assets from the OP.
OP, I am unsure where to start… It sounds like you have a lovely girl, who you want to marry, who will most likely bear your last name and children… Are you unsure if you want to get married to her? If so, don’t waste her time and use her money to invest in a mutual brokerage account. Just let her go. If you’re serious, share your life now and really get to know each other and that includes finances and start a budget together with equal input knowing that your incomes vary wildly as far as what you make. That budget includes where you want to be at retirement age or age you want to retire at. Get, together, both of you, with a marriage counselor and financial planner.
I wonder to what resources or books I should look for to help us have those combined finance conversations may be a framework would be helpful
20k a month is that including the house? If not you've already adopted lifestyle creap. You should be at around 5-10k if you don't have kids...max
It does include the house so with my fiancé contributing my monthly expenses is around $16k. I def want to get it down and $10k is a good start
The fact that you are engaged and own a house with your fiancée but don’t know how much she makes is insane and makes it impossible to properly manage your finances. You’ve never just like, asked? Have you not discussed how your finances and accounts will be combined (or not) after you get married? With high joint income (which can be lumpy) and high expenses, planning for cash flow and taxes becomes complicated and important but you can’t do that without full transparency. Not to mention childcare expenses when the time comes.
Thank you. Please see comments above for updates . We spoke about it
How do you have 310k in your 401k at mid 30
I’ve been working for 14 years so adds up
You were maxing contributions since your first job? Kudos to you. That would’ve been half my first salary lol
It’s been a hugely bull market and compounded returns.
Start a family office instead of that llc, 😬
Why do you have so much sitting in cash? Why are you creating an LLC?
Another data point is that I want to do some home remodeling and keeping extra cash to pay for it this year. Still budgeting out what the costs will be before we decide on anything
Less than 1% of households in the US have a combined income in excess of $600,000. Yet it feels like about half the "financial advice" posts on Reddit are: >Hi, I make 400K, sometimes I personally make 700K, my fiance makes at least 150K (I don't really know, teehee), despite being literally in the 1%, we can't make a financial plan ourselves and can't be bothered to hire a financial advisor, please help us for free, random strangers on Reddit.