Nurses Financial Summary:
Let me introduce Nurse Shawna. She has been an RN for 15 years. Before nursing school, she worked in a manufacturing plant. Once the plant closed and the jobs went overseas-she went back to school- being the first in her family to go to college.
She is making the national average nursing salary of $53,000 per year as a nurse manager. She has enjoyed the comfort a good job has brought to her family, and combined with her husband’s salary-they are doing quite well.
However, she just had her 55th birthday. She had an epiphany on her birthday-she didn’t want to work forever. She and her husband recalled that commercial, where the couple is on the phone talking about how their friends had to sell their home in retirement-as they didn’t have the money to keep it.
For the first time in years-Shawna began to think about their long-term financial future.
Her employer, a large city hospital, matches up to 3% of her salary in a 403b. But Shawna is only contributing 1%. Her last child had just graduated from college, and was finally off the payroll. He has gotten a job, even in this environment-hallelujah!
Prior to his graduation, Shawna and her husband had been doing what a lot of people do, sacrificing their future for their kids’ college.
They had opened IRA’s on the advice of a friend years ago, but hadn’t put anything in them for several years.
Financial Fast Facts for Shawna:
- Home mortgage- 20 years left on a 30 year mortgage at 6%
- 403b-Hers-3% match-she is only having 1% taken out of her check-Account balance $75,000
- 401k-Her husband-he is matching 2%-balance $125,000
- IRA’s-traditional combined balance of $1500
- With the youngest out of college and getting a rein on their spending-they are going to have free cash flow of at least $1,000/month.
Nurse Shawna and her personal finances:
What can Shawna and her husband do, to “catch-up” on their retirement savings?
I will write a follow-up post next week, on the catch-up scenario, but welcome reader suggestions or questions in the meantime.
