Threads like this make me paranoid that I'm not doing enough. I'm in my early 40s and have 3 kids (oldest is 10 yrs old)
-I own my house and it has doubled in value (at least) since I bought it, due to major renovations and being in a hot town. I have about 30% equity in it.
-I'm nearly 20 years with the same company, contributing to 401k for the entire time, fully vested, pension (before they did away with it). Majority of the time have been contributing about 6%.
-I don't hate my job, but I also don't love it. I've accepted that it pays well enough for me and the family to live our lives, so I'm sticking with it. I've also always had the philosophy of staying with a good situation rather than chase the next payday.
-I'm the primary breadwinner for the fam, wife is just now slowly going back into work as the kids get older.
-I've dabbled very very conservatively in stocks on my own, opening an index fund to which I contribute monthly. I had to take from it last year, however, to help pay down some credits cards following home renovations.
-No student loans for me or my wife.
-No real credit card debt or other loans other than my mortgage. We lease two cars.
We live conservatively, no island vacations, fun cars, fancy dinners, but spend enough to keep the cars new, the house looking nice (it's a pride thing, more than anything), and keeping the kids in activities (sports, art classes, camps, scouts), plus having 3 boys there's clothes, sneakers and an astronomical food bill.
I could do a little more to cut costs here and there (ie, look for more sales at the grocery store, haggle on cell prices, etc), but am also generally so strapped for time always that the juice doesn't always seem worth the squeeze.
I'm also not saving or investing a whole lot on my own. No 529s. A while back I worked with a financial planner, but he spent more time trying to get me up speed on the software than giving me strategies to handle my money.
Am I screwed?
