Kate

Ok, I’m not trying to be a dick, but I think you need to be saving more than $200 a month for retirement. What do they do, a 3% match? If you make $70k, that’s $175 a month, so you should at least contribute that…

But if you’re 25, want to retire at 65, and let’s say you already have $5k in your retirement account, you would need to save about $780 a month in your 401k and you’d have 1.5M at age 65, which this online calculator came up with assuming you make about $70k now. And assuming social security still exists. So almost $10k a year, which is only half of the max you can contribute.

That’s retirement, and then your cash savings, you already have 3 months, which is great, but you will need to keep adding to that as things come up. And it is possible that layoffs are coming.

I would be concerned that your rent keeps going up, you don’t invest enough, and unexpected expenses eat into your savings. On paper it basically works, but I think you always need more than you expect.

I’d look for a shared apartment.

Does your after-tax factor in contributions made to a retirement account? It definitely should, you should start investing right now if you haven’t already.

And $250/month savings is a bit slim. I’d aim for 10% of your after-tax to build a good emergency fund. You’ll want to save 3-6 months worth of living expenses.

Finally, your rent is over 40% of take-home and will keep increasing. A roommate situation could get that back down to more like 30%.

I’m sorry, Wendy, that blows! I hope it’s over quick.

Thank you everyone!

Yes, my messy boss is still my boss! We have the same title/salary band now. But she leads a team/chapter and I lead a pod within that team. This whole thing was done to make her job easier without so many direct reports, so theoretically she should be a better boss. I can deal with her, and this protects other people from her direct messiness.

I can’t believe the original plan was for this new role not to have a salary or title (other than adding “lead”) increase. How does that make any sense?

My mom stopped by today with like 5 different tops that would go with my navy suit. She had a brand-new white Brooks Brothers tee, a white Eileen Fisher sleeveless, a striped v-neck and a top with little dots from Loft. She is crazy. She had retired but got talked into going back half-time and she likes buying clothes. She had also ordered herself a casual matching shorts set from Loft but didn’t like her legs in it and gave it to me. She also had another cute tee with safari animals on it that she bought in 2 sizes (she always buys a small and an extra small, like who cares, it’s a t-shirt), and she gave me one.

My mom says Loft is better for a curvier / more hip-y body while AT doesn’t work great for her because it’s more of a slim silhouette, or straighter. Idk about that but I always always turned to Ann when I needed an interview suit or nice outfits for client meetings.