Ep. 150: Renee has a new baby and some extra money at the end of the month…can she avoid lifestyle creep?

M$D: January 22, 2039 Meet Renee. Renee’s main concerns, in her words:  I feel like we have all of the pieces but I’m not sure how to prioritize.  My husband and I will probably gross around $85-$89k this year (ballparking numbers for his travel stipend, overtime, and minus some unpaid maternity leave for me).  I make 31k and his base pay is $49k. We owe $5k on a car that we’re aggressively paying down and owe $70k on our home in a 15-year mortgage.  We have no other debt.  We have 3 months of expenses saved.  He saves 15% between his 401k & Roth accounts and I save 22% between a 403b & Roth since my job just started matching.  We have a 529 for our new baby.  After all of this, I can usually count on at the very least, $1000 extra a month.  Learning more about investment has been my new year’s resolution and I’m finding out that paying off our house probably doesn’t necessarily need to be as far up our list of priorities as I originally wanted it to be.  I would love some help in putting together a new game plan.  Thanks!