What % of my budget should health insurance be?

Question

Me and my bf are trying to figure out if we have enough money to move out on our own. We are full time students. Once we get married we will be making about 26000 a year after tuition and books. We can get an appartment for about 600-700 in our area, no car payments, car insurance will be 150 to cover both of our cars...what i'm not sure about is the health insurance and food costs...does it sound like we have enough to scrape by on our own?

Answer 1

Be honest,It is gonna take some time to find the answer for your question.Try to have a look the resource here for reference.http://car-insurance.online-helpers.info...

Answer 2

You'll scrape by, with $100 a week for food (no eating out, lots of beans & rice).  But health insurance - not counting maternity coverage - will cost you about $400 a month.  IF you're healthy.

And, FWIW, people who live together before marriage have DOUBLE the divorce rate of people who don't.  "Shacking up" is NOT usually a good long term solution for s*x . . .except for the man.  Getting pregnant is the fastest shortcut to a lifetime of poverty, for you, also - it will make a degree very difficult to get.    Yep, I know, you know how to prevent that.  That's what MOST young girls say, and they still end up pregnant.  

BAD IDEA.

Answer 3

You also need to figure in what utilities you will have to cover as well.

But if you figure at $26,000/yr. that's roughly $2200/mo. If you take the high end rent at $700 that leaves you with $1500. Figure in $200 for the car insurance. (just because it's better to shoot a bit over what you expect rather than under and be stuck.) Not sure how much driving ya'll do, but $200/mo for gas? Your down to $1100.

Food for just the 2 of you should be the most around $300. I feed myself and 3 kids for around $500/mo. on average, so lets just go with $350 instead.

Now you're at $750 left for any other household expenses, toilet paper, laundry soap, shampoo, etc. and for your health insurance costs.

I suggest if you are both relatively healthy and don't go to the doctor much, except when a check up is needed, then look into possibly getting a higher deductible insurance plan that will lower your monthly fees but yet be in place should something happen. With a high deductible plan you most likely will have to pay out of pocket should you go to the doctor, etc throughout the year but compare the cost of a couple doctor's visits and the money you will save each month by going with the higher deductible plan and I'm sure you will see a havings either way.

You can also look into getting something like Ameriplan to help cut your out of pocket expenses as it is a discount health plan organization that has contracted with the providers to discount their normal and usual customary rates for it's members and pass the savings directly onto you. You can take a look at the plans and see if it might work with your situation, along with a list of providers available in your area.

http://www.mybenefitsplus.com/cberney

Hopefully this will help you a bit and good luck should you decide to venture out on your own!