<prompt> Human: Hey all. First time posting. Some background... wife and I married in Oct 13 and are trying to get some financial momentum going. I entered the marriage with approx. 80k in loans earning my Masters and looking at earning 45-55k once I am licensed which is about 3-4 months after this August, but currently only making 25-30k it will get better with time! Honest! She is making about 50k take home currently. Other than student loans, we are debt free. We both own our cars, but they are both a decade old and i can feel big repairs brewing. There is about 6-7k liquid funds that is just hanging in savings and the wife has maybe 5k left over from a college fund that is invested. We were told by a financial advisor to kill the student loans before we started worrying about retirement. That said, he only spoke to long term investments and not the entire financial picture. We were thinking of living off whoever makes the greater of the two salaries and using the other salary to pay off the student loans. Considering we arent financial people and arent getting comprehensive financial advice I thought it would be helpful to get more advice. Kids are a quickly coming into the picture and renting sucks. Even with living lean, we are struggling to keep within our means. How the heck do we make headway!? Goals: debt free, house, reliable cars public transit not an option where we live either, retirement.Thanks in advance guys and gals, we appreciate it already.  <response>: Even with living lean, we are struggling to keep within our means. How the heck do we make headway!Why? You state your wife makes 50k take home currently, which alone is about what the median household incomebefore taxes is. You on the other hand make 25-30k extra. You have more than most families with kids live off of. If you cannot live off of this, barring being required to live n the middle of Manhattan, you need to tone down the lavish lifestyle a bit. You have way more than most families do.So, cut down the spending. Feel free to post a budget with itemized expenses if this is hard. For reference, me and my wife collectively earn about 50k after taxes we are putting away 18-19k of after tax dollars towards long term financial goals. We also give somewhere around 12-15 of our after tax income. We are not even terribly driven, and still do lots of fancy unnecessary things. So, unless you live in a terribly high COL area, saving and giving should be cake at that income.So, I am unsure how you spend so much while living lean. I would cut out the fat, allocate the balance towards debt reduction until your only remaining debts are towards the low 3s, start saving 15 for retirement, and then look at a house.For more guidnce, it would be helpful to have1. Your expenses2. Take home income for both of you3. Assets4. Debts with principal, interest rate, and debts. 