Across a few Ally accounts, and yes, plenty. We both have great credit so if it was an emergency emergency I bet we could qualify for a new 0% card.
Lol! It was a lot of text.
Honestly, one hundred places. Vanguard, TIAA-CREF, Robinhood, Bettermint, Nationwide, and two other places I’m forgetting the name of. So definitely a good step will be to figure this out and move things around as needed.
I think I would personally start here. Consolidate/move things if needed, but at least know where everything lives and how to access it! It can be kinda paperwork heavy which is annoying but then it’s really a set and forget area so a lot of bang for your buck IMO.
This makes sense! And since the market is not at its best, I can motivate us by framing it as moving things around while investments are on sale.
Yeah good point!
Also I asked about the credit cards for emergencies because I realized personally that helps me be OK with having a bit less in my emergency fund. Like I know we have enough for 6 months of expenses which is my personal anxiety buffer and then CCs can cover anything beyond that if needed. It could change your calculus a bit too. Thought worth mentioning
I would definitely start by getting a clear picture of where everything is and whether you like the current set up.
We have 100% of our non-employment retirement (i.e. IRAs) in vanguard along with our taxable investments. It took a few years to get things consolidated there but it’s so nice to have it all in one place.
Workplace retirement accounts I’ve been more flexible with. Some questions to ponder:
When I worked at my last company, they used Meryll and I didn’t like the options so I left my old 401Ks in fedelity which is what the prior employer had. Fidelity had better investment choices and no fees. Now that I’m at a new place that uses TIAA and has great fund choices, I’ve rolled over both my fidelity and Meryll accounts so I only have one 401k (technically it’s a 403b now but you can roll between 401k and 403b)
Other people here are better equipped for finance optimization things. I feel like your goals could use some honing or maybe like, prioritizing? It seems a bit overwhelming for your income to have so many big ticket things: having a kid (I assume first place in importance), furniture/decor, renovations, travel, daily luxury, e-fund savings, retirement, etc.
To me personally, the furniture/decor and renovations seem the easiest to take off the table. As I understand it children essentially break/stain/ruin everything anyway, haha, so I feel like keeping what you have until youngest is past “we can’t have nice things” age. For the renovations, are they things that are like- necessary? Or is it more about having an updated looking home. If it’s the latter I’d just make do and prioritize the other things, which I think will impact your life more in an immediate way.
Maybe you could add more detail on the travel goal too, like how much travel and how extravagant? Does it have to be international? Or high in frequency? I think generally flushing out the goals and rank ordering them is what I’d do.
You know I am so fond of you and your way of looking at the world that you know this is from a place of deep affection: I hate hearing this so much that it is very clarifying! So, thank you 
(Update for everyone)
This thread prompted a good conversation with my wife! I’ll update once we turn it into a plan/things are more settled.
One thing I was curious about was if people would be alarmed about our level of retirement savings (vs. getting it into the right spot): no one has raised a red alert, right? We don’t have early retirement goals, and imagining the world at 2060 is kind of 
so my goals are more about don’t do anything dumb vs. save super aggressively for retirement.
I mean you’ve got more in there than me so I can’t say shit!
Hahahaha 
happy to help?
I didn’t tell you how much of it is Bitcoin and Meta stock. Nor can I! (I think less than $20K no one yell at me about this!)
No advice on the financial side but on home renovations:
We did a whole kitchen renovation (taking down walls, removing flooring, etc) when I was pregnant. And it was completely doable to do it and still live in the house because we grilled and set up the fridge in the living room.
We need to renovate our bathrooms in the next few years and we will have to get an AirBNB or something through that which will be $$$ because we have no lockable way to keep my toddler from getting into dangerous areas.
I cannot describe the hellscape that having child had turned my life and home into. I’d actually support focusing energies into one or two nice spaces that you will not allow children to destroy, so you can retreat there when the rest of the house is garbage
I respect people who can take those gambles. I am too risk-averse for any fun money experiments lol.
But in all seriousness I think you’re doing well for two people who got married and joined finances recently and then went thru a pandemic and job changes!
Lately I am focused less on the amount in my retirement accounts and more on the percentage I’m putting in there, since the market’s been so wacky. More about setting up the good habits now so when things get more complicated (baby, house, car, etc.) they’re in place and I’m less likely to inflate my lifestyle or whatever instead
What I’m hearing is, spend all my money on outdoor landscaping? Ok I’m sold
We did this with a preschooler and it sucked but was doable. The worst part was just living through construction in the main part of our house and then deciding to redo the floors in 80% of the house while we were at it which meant moving almost all the furniture. Going home at the end of a stressful work day was not relaxing. We got our money’s worth out of our grill/panini press though. Kiddo thought it was cool that we sat on the floor to eat and used a laundry basket as a table. The dog thought it was cool that our mattress was on the floor for a while so she could be in bed with us (normally our bed is too high for her to safely jump down), though she was not a fan of being kenneled all day with construction noises down the hall.
The whole thing took two months? Well, the construction and having our house upended took two months, the planning before that took some other amount of time. We’re actually looking at renovating our bathroom with the same GC and we’re trying to be more mindful about making all of our choices ahead of time and on a slower schedule instead of signing a contract and oh shit we have to make 84392034 choices now because there’s a timer running on subcontractor availability.
I didn’t see it as a question, so I responded only to the allocation question that was posed.
To me, it feels low but I have much more money stress and a type-A personality on overdrive. BUT, even with that background, I’m in a season of life where I am saving a small additional amount towards retirement and focusing my money on upgrading my home, transportation, wardrobe, and health. We have enough saved that as long as we keep working enough to support our current lifestyle we will have more than enough by retirement.
When I’m giving advice to people who are very different than I am, I usually suggest a set it and forget it approach with as much going into your 401k as you can, and a plan to increase that amount every time you get a raise. That might mean 5% of your paycheck, it might mean 15%. The co thing about increasing 401k contributions is that it barely lowers your paycheck because of the tax breaks! So I would encourage you to increase it by 1-2% this month and see how that feels 
People who have actually had kids might chime in here and say I’m off base, but since you’re actively trying: Have you worked through the first 6 months/year of childcare? I’m given to understand that it’s horribly expensive, so at least calling around/ballparking what the plan is and what it will cost might give you clarity on what other goals are reasonable/possible. Ie, can you cashflow the extra money or is this a dip into savings situation, what does the time off work and thus impact on income look like, etc etc. (but also i don’t have kids, it just seems like that aspect seems sort of stressful)
For retirement, it might be worth doing a gut check with one of those ‘you should have $XX by age YY’ things and/or are you saving at least 10%/15%/20% (insert what feels like a relevant percentage here). If you’re happy with those numbers, then yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it for now. In general I support maxing out your tax advantaged space, but that’s not important or possible for everyone.
That’s helpful! Thanks. I’ve only had access to employer retirement benefits for a year of my career (lol!) and my wife similarly hasn’t had them for many yeast, so I’m kind of 
About the whole thing.
Actually, follow up question: what number feels “on track” gutcheck wise? The thing that’s hard is that I don’t know what our income is (is it what we’re making now? Include commissions or not? What If I get a higher paying job?) so it’s hard to know how to benchmark.
This is for two married adults through a workplace? Unless this is also counting all of Louie’s health costs I’m horrified. If one of your options is looking for a new job you could save a ton by going for good health benefits (and depending (I know that if you found a good pet insurance you won’t want to switch) good discounts on pet insurance).
Oh, good question! This is assuming we both lose our jobs and have to go on COBRA or through the marketplace. Our before taxes health insurance cost is much lower.