<prompt> Human: Ill try to keep this short and sweet: I make 115k per year I see about 5,800 a month net and have, for the most part, been completely irresponsible with my money ever since I started working. The highest my savings account has ever been was 5k it took me roughly 5 months to save that amount, and thats down to 1,500 right now because of vet bills for my now deceased cat. The good news is that I learned how to save.Until recently my credit was in the 400 range due to chronically paying bills late and opening some lines of credit in my early 20s and screwing up paying them off. The good news is that I started using Mint.com last April, put my bills on auto-pay, started using my shitty credit cards 500 limit and paying them off every month instead of using my debit card for my expenses, and now my credit is hovering around 680, and still going up. So thats nice.My debt is as follows: Car: 26,294 - recently refinanced to 2.35 APR Motorcycle: 6,443No real credit card debt to speak of, except what I use for bills and expenses, and I pay it off every month. My monthly bills amount to: Car monthly payment: 477.31 Motorcycle monthly payment: 243.03 Mobile phone: 30 Comcast: 80 Gas electric: 80-100, depending Water: 80-100 Car insurance: 300 I have a couple points on my record, should be lowering soon Motorcycle insurance 2 bikes: 118 Rent: 1,725I eat out a few times a week, but I try to be diligent about making my own meals. I typically spend about 100 a week at the grocery store. My commute is short, and I dont do a lot of driving, but I have to put premium gas in my car, and that runs me about 50 every 7-10 days.My assets are: a single motorcycle, valued at roughly 5,000, but I own it outright.Hit me with the bad news. I dont even know where to start when it comes to planning my retirement.EDIT: Added rent.Epilogue: I greatly appreciate all the suggestions given by everyone. It seems like my first step is to become debt-free ASAP, either by selling or paying off my current vehicles. To help facilitate that, I obviously need to sort out the significant gaps in my budget, almost on the order of 2,000 monthly.It was an oversight that I didnt include my hobbies motorcycling, surfing, paintball or unnecessary purchases in my budget list, but its clear how large my unchecked spending still is, even after the major strides Ive taken in improving my impulse purchasing.I do feel a little less hopeless now though, thanks to everyone here. And more importantly, I feel like I have a plan. Ill try to check back in at the 6 month mark and give an update, if anyone is interested.  <response>: First - know that if you focus and buckle down, you can probably have around 15k in savings and 0 debt by the end of 2014. But its going to take work. You can do it.ok, I get 3,173 as your total monthly nut your fixed monthly expenses and I took the highest of all the variable categories. Adding in gas 200mo, youre at 3,273, and food groceries at 400mo, and youre at 3,673My question for you is this: Where in the fuck is the other 2,627 or 2,427 w gas ,2127 w gasgroceries going every MONTH? Did you know thats 25-30kYear !!! thats unaccounted for in your budget? Which is also about 45 of your yearly net.Keep the 1500 emergency fund for now, and focus on getting rid of your debt and de-flating your lifestyle. Also, Im sorry about your cat - I bet that sucks. Ok, my first suggestion is to sell both of your motorcycles. If you cant do that, try selling at least one. Youre spending 1200year on them ins only - how much are you actually riding them? You cant ride them both at the same time. So it looks like you could sell the bike you own outright and use the proceeds to pay off MOST of the other bike, OR sell the bike with the loan on it and pay the loan back and get out from under that. Moving on.Your other expenses are pretty good. Im guessing you live in a high cost of living area. Do you have a spare room or something that you can rent out, or do you just have a studio? You probably cant break a lease, but are you willing to move when your lease is up to a cheaper place? If youre not, move on to the next section - this probably isnt whats breaking you anywayTomorrow Not next week, not friday but TOMORROW, go into your office HR and ask them for the 401k forms. Im guessing with a salary like yours, they firm probably matches 4-5 - meaning that youve left tens of thousands of dollars on the table over the years. Thats an instant return on your money. If youre confused on what to invest in, look for some low-cost mutual funds or ETFs that track the market. For example, You can put 250mo in and your company will chip in 50, and boom! Instant return on your money. So, go TOMORROW to HR and fill out the form. If you have trouble, bring the form and your options back here and ask for some help. You say that you try to be good about cooking your own meals, but Im guessing this is where the problem lies. Do you go out for breakfastlunchdinner every day, one of each, 2 of the 3? If thats the case, Id pick 1 meal that you focus on cooking for. My suggestion would be to focus on bringing your lunch, cause you can easily claw back 50week 200mo that way. Get yourself a crock pot from amazon, and make a soupchilisomething every sunday afternoon. Package it up in individual servings for the week and youve got an instant lunch. check rcrockpot for some good recipes and tips. Next step is to figure out where that 2100mo is going and start tossing it at your car loan. Sure, buying that much car probably wasnt wise, but that shits over now so its time to bite the bullet and pay it back. Once its paid off, drive it till the wheels fall off to get your moneys worth.After the car note is paid off, you can start doing some outside 401k investing, try a roth IRA I have mine at vanguard, like probably most of rpersonalfinanceWe can guide you better on retirement if you tell us your goals for retirement. What do you want to do when you retire? Where do you want to live? Do you want to have kidsfamily, etc? 