<prompt> Human: Hi,First, I would like to say I am grateful for this site and I have been learning a lot about PF. Here is my situation. My husband and got married and had kids at a young age 19. We were poor when we started out and so did not save anything for retirement. Now we are 38 and have a long way to go. We started saving for retirement a couple years ago and I have SO many questions. First, let me give you the numbers.401K I contribute 6 and my company matches 100 up to the 1st 4 Fidelity TRP retirement 2040 current value 11,775Hubby 401k contributes 5 no company match, He also has a pension which is in fiscal trouble and they are crying broke where he has 10 credits at 85.00 and 3cr at 65- Im not sure how much we can count on this :I have company stock values at 1378.00Total saved for retirement in stock and 401K 15439Emergency Fund 25,000 in high yield online account earning .9Net take home pay me2860, Hubby 3500 Total6360Budget 1st mortgage interest only 681.00- Owe 163,5002nd Mortgage 1 295.98 Owe 22,900Car 320.00 2.99 Owe 18,091Credit Card 100, 0 interest until next year Owe-2400.00 this will be paid off by JuneStudent Loans Loan A Owe 62.00 PayOWE 6703 at 5.86, Loan B 82 payOWE 8900.00 Cell phones 250.00 5 phones and we shopped this it is the lowest rate we can get includes payoff amounts for our phonesCable 230 includes home phone and internetElectric 110Gas- Home 55Water 55Garbage40Gym 55Car Insurance 228Life Insurance127Kids allowance 52.00Kids school Lunch100Gas Auto200clothing 100food includes staples, dog food, cleaning supplies 1200.00Save 350 monthDr Bills 344 per month counselingDr Bills medical 92.00 BAL 600 0 interestDr. Bills 62.00 BAL 250 0 interestDr. Bills 80.00Bal 350 0 interestDr. Bill 100.00Bal 1500 0 interestAny additional funds left over generally gets eaten up by unplanned non-budgeted things kids need gym shoes, 2 graduations, gifts, date night, Easter, ect. My questions are as follows:I just got a 5 raise my take home will now be 1515. Do I add the 5 into my company 401K or should I open a ROTH IRA and begin funding that? I cannot open a regular IRA because we filed separately last year. I honestly do not anticipate being in a higher tax bracket, I think my earning potential has reached its cap OR should we take that additional amount 85.00 a month and pay down student loan debt or Dr. Bills?What is the benefit of opening an IRA when you have a company 401K anyway?Are we too far behind, is it feasible for us to catch up?We have a ton of long overdue home improvement projects we are also saving for furnace, water softener, floor, windows, siding, painting, ECT. We also need to tackle these along with saving for retirementI know the student loans are at a higher interest rate but I am scared to scale back funding our retirement to pay those down. Is there hope?Sorry for such a long post, thanks in advance for those willing to offer advice.Assistant: Hello- Thank you all for taking the time to comment and offer advice. I will attempt to address some of the additional questions posed.1 1200 for food. Yes, I agree we should not be spending this much. It isnt all food and thats part of the problem. We grocery shop weekly and we sit down and make a menu plan and plan the grocery shopping around that. We do cook most meals we eat out 1-2x a week. My family is 2 adults and 2 teenage boys. This is an area we will try to reduce to 800.00 a month. We will also start to keep food items separate from toiletries, paper goods, dog food, and cleaning so we can get a true picture of what the real food budget is.2 My husband is NOT willing to cut cable, or change our phone plans. We have unlimited talk, text, internet and insurance for all our phones. Our phone usage is 30 x 5, plus family values, insurance, and 50 for payments on my husband my phones.3 We have 25K in emergency fund because everything we read said to have 6 months living expenses? Should we not follow that rule of thumb? 4 Our car insurance is high because we are insuring 3 cars, full coverage for my car, liability for my husbands we own, and my teenagers car which we own liability. We have no choice but to cover our teens under our insurance unless until our son can afford to pay his own which he is paying his way through college we chose to help where how we can by paying his insurance. Life insurance is high because my husband I are rated C and its 250K for him and 150 for me5 We cant get out of our car not an option on the table with my husband.6 Company stock is not given to me I purchase it at a 15 discount, there is no holding period. Should I not do this at all? I thought it was smart to do since I was getting a 15 rate of return if I sold off right away. I dont know anything about waiting to sell until its considered long term capital gain? I will have to look into that.7 My husband I are not on the same page with savingspending. I believe we need to take swift action and get aggressive. He is not as willing to make sacrifices and prefers smaller steps. 8 Missing money. Yes, we need to get a grip on this. This is due to us not budgeting properly for school, kids clothes, holidays, gifts, graduations, home projects.9 Regarding 401K and IRAs. If we believe we are at our peak earning potential and wont be in a higher tax bracket at retirement age does it make sense to open a ROTH IRA? I get not adding more to my company 401K in exchange for greater control but not clear on which IRA makes most sense. Also we dont have the option of opening a traditional IRA as we filed married but separate on taxes last year.10 Dr. bills. Yes, we have insurance but we also have a son with a heart condition who had surgery this year and our other son had 3 MRIs for a neurological condition and my husband had a major medical expense. We got hit with a ton of medical crap the last year.  <response>: Your husband needs to get his head out of his ass because thats exactly where its at right now. Seriously he wont cut the data plan for your childrens phones? Jesus christ. You guys are 38, bringing home 70K per year AFTER TAX and have a negative net worth. Does he not get how sad that it? I mean hes working week after week and has nothing to show for it. That would make me mad at myself. Assuming a regular retirement age of 65 you guys have 27 years to get your shit together. In what yeardecade does he plan to do that? We have unlimited talk, text, internet and insurance for all our phones. Our phone usage is 30 x 5, plus family values, insurance, and 50 for payments on my husband my phones.Insurance on cellphones is a waste of money. It doesnt even cover whats probably the most common problem: water damage. Im going to ask even though I know Im going to hate the answer. You have a 4 person family but 5 cellphones. Why? 3 We have 25K in emergency fund because everything we read said to have 6 months living expenses? Should we not follow that rule of thumb? IMO, not when you have the debt you do. Should I not do this at all? I thought it was smart to do since I was getting a 15 rate of return if I sold off right away. Fine to do, just sell it ASAP. He is not as willing to make sacrifices and prefers smaller steps.I literally do not know what smaller steps he wants since cutting cable television is evidently regarded as crucial to survival. Network TV is free and available online. projectfree.tv is a thing. Torrents are a thing. Netflix is a thing and costs 8 a month. If we believe we are at our peak earning potential and wont be in a higher tax bracket at retirement age does it make sense to open a ROTH IRA? I get not adding more to my company 401K in exchange for greater control but not clear on which IRA makes most sense.If youre at peak earnings, you need to be putting as much into a 401k as possible. Minimize your taxes now. Youll probably spend less in retirement, thus youll fall into a lower bracket. If you want, get the match on your 401k, max Roth IRA, then go back to the 401k. Thatll hedge the possibility of future tax increases. 