What’s a fair amount or percentage?

[skives]

So my wife and I paid off our house recently and now we will have about $25,000 of free money every year. What is a fair amount or percentage that would be used for whatever money ( money we don’t have to talk to the other before we spend it) per each of us? Some of this leftover money will be saved for our next vehicle, vacation and some will be put into Roth IRAs.

[myrdale]

Well, if $13,000 goes to the Roth IRA, that leaves you with $12,000. So $500 each per month.

Now how does "my money vs your money" work in a relationship I can't say. What if you want a bass boat and decide you're going to save your $500 every month for the next two years and next year she wants a car and says "look at all this money you've saved =P " while she's been blowing her $500 every month in the mean time.

What's the time frame for buying the new car and what's the budget? $20k and yall can get there pretty quick. $40k and that's a different story, and if you need the car NOW is alot different than you need the car in 4 years.

I suspect the final answer to your question is between $250 to $500 each.

[disneysteve]

I don’t think any of us can answer that for you. It depends on how you’ve handled money as a couple thus far. It depends what your overall budget and situation looks like. It depends what you’re each comfortable with. Even if I told my wife she could spend up to $250/mo. without asking me, I doubt she’d feel comfortable doing so. And there’s no way I’d be comfortable blowing that much each month.

[ua_guy]

Congrats on paying off the house! Maybe I missed that in another thread.

I'm kind of lost as to what advice to give like the others. As long as everything is paid for, topped up, retirement funding is sailing along, divide the rest, I guess? Or, you could split it according to income contribution. In our situation we have a set amount of savings and "us" funds which we contribute to, pay the bills, and then everything else goes to personal savings--which is still "us" money but really needs no permission to be spent.

[Drake3287]

Congratulations on paying it off, always a nice feeling. Agree that it's sort of hard to give advice unless we know your entire financial situation. For me, I just incorporated it into our monthly savings/investments and other miscellaneous slush funds.

[Jluke]

$100 per month per person until you get a handle on this newfound cash now that you don’t have to pay a mortgage.

First congratulations on paying off the mortgage. I have seen several threads from you and it highlights that you really need a plan and discipline for what to do with the extra money now.

Are you still going to do apple stock?

were you paying your home insurance, property and school taxes on your own before or do you need to plan for that too?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Congrats depends on your goals. If you wanted to blow it all you can. Just put it where you want.