My wife and I have been reading the blog for some time now, and we believe we are on our way to FI. We saved about 50% of our take-home last year. While we would like to increase that figure to >70% for this year, we don’t want to be saving too much and not enjoying some luxury consumptions. We are in our early 30s and have 1 kid. Where can we splurge or cut back?

INCOME (est. 2013)
Monthly (take-home, excluding year-end bonus): 14,000
Rental income (net of expenses): 450

HOUSING
RENT: 2580
CABLE: 0 (included in rent)
ELECTRIC / NG/WATER: 100
PHONES: 0 (no land line)
CELL: 20 (wife on pre-paid and I am on company phone)

EDUCATION
529 Plan: 600
PRESCHOOL: 0 (company is paying w/ grossed-up tax)

SAVING
ROTH 401K: 1550
ROTH IRA: 850

AUTO
Taxi/Public Transportation: 350
We live in a city so no car is required.

FOOD
GROCERIES: 350
RESTAURANT: 300
BOOZE: 100

HHOLD
DOMESTIC HELPER: 500
MONTHLY SHOPPING AVERAGE: 600-700
We live overseas, so we do once a year trip back home to buy cloths/daily items/OTC drugs, etc.

TRAVEL
MONTHLY AVERAGE: 300

ASSETS:
RETIREMENT ACCOUNT (100% Roth): 100K
SAVINGS (regular investment): 345k
529 Plan (not sure if this counts as our assets): 20k
PROPERTY (RENTAL): 70K

LIABILITIES.
RENTAL PROPERTY LOAN: 46K @3.5%
STUDENT LOAN: 20K @ 6%
LOC: 39k @2.9%

Emergency Savings Funds

New guy here (first post) and I would like to say this is a great site and I am exciting to be a part of it. Very good logic and advice shared.

I’m not sure if this question has been debated to pieces or not, but here’s my question…

My emergency fund is $10K- Where do I put it?

Right now, it is in a bank savings account collecting an annual interest percentage that does not even resemble what I consider acceptable, especially with the inflation factor. To me, and I think the majority of others, I need these funds set aside some where “safe” but I need (want) an annual ROI at around 3 percent and I need the money to be readily (to some extent) available. I’ve bounced many ideas around in my head, on paper, and after an research was conducted I end up back at square one….

So, any and all advice is greatly appricated. Thanks, and I look forward to this discussion.

Moldy