Morning, guys!!

Stumbled across an old comment on the blog I tagged to share some day, and decided today’s that day before I forget again! :) It was dropped in 2018 so it’s a tiny bit dated, but a majority of this still holds true and thought you might find it as fascinating as I did when I first read it…

Amazing that no matter where you live, or who you are, you still always have to deal with this money stuff!! And some places – most places – have it much worse than we do, yet people still find a way to power through!

Here’s the note from “silent reader” in response to our post on 7 money goals to hit by 35:

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Hello, J. Money and everyone.

Long-time silent reader here…

I always read your blog with a great interest, because, yeah, the budget is sexy and it is pretty interesting to see how your (USA) financial system works.

I find your financial system more logical, stable and predictable, than ours. I was born in USSR, now live in Ukraine and our financial system, let’s face a truth, is $hit.

When USSR broke down, our people lost ALL their savings and stability. When the initial shock subsided, people started to save money from zero point again.

No one trusted banks, because they existed for a couple of years only, and then they suddenly disappeared in the night taking peoples’ savings with them.

So, people saved their money in cash at their homes and protected them (big and angry dogs, thick metal doors, high security locks, etc.).

Most savings were in a national money, because it was pretty hard to buy American $.

• At those halcyon times (1996) $1 costed around 2 grivnas (Ukranian money)
• In 2008, $1 costed 8 grivnas (financial crisis).
• In 2014, $1 costed 33 grivnas (financial crisis and war with Russia).
• Today, $1 costs 27 grivnas.

Loss after loss…

By the time we were 40, my husband and I both had an Uni degree and PhD, good jobs (I’m a medical doctor and he is a history scientist) and NO debts. We live in a big city and have a son.

We bought our own apartment when we were 35 (paid off in cash). This year we bought an apartment (paid off in cash) for our son (he is 13 now).

Also, we save money (10% of general income) for our son’s future Uni education. We want him to start his adult life having his own home, proper education and no debts. It is up to him how to live his own life further, but we did everything we could to help him to stay on his own two feet.

Although we’ll get a guaranteed pension in the future, we save money for our retirement also (20% of our general income). Who knows how our country is going to surprise us.

We live 20 mins ride from our work, so we never had a car. We use the public transport and, sometimes, taxi (emergency cases).

Our lifestyle is pretty minimalistic, but we have everything we need.

We always contemplate and discuss every purchase, and we have a principle – “we are not so wealthy to buy cheap things”. We buy 1 thing that has a high quality and a long lifespan, instead of 2-3 cheap things of the same kind. At the end of the day, 2-3 cheap things cost more in general, than 1 high quality thing.

If we both lose our jobs, we have a safety pad for 1 year of normal life or 2 years of “cheap” life. Plus, we always can sell my jewelry to have an additional 1-2 years of relatively good life.

We don’t have such an estate plan as you guys have, but if we die suddenly, our son would inherit everything (according to our laws).

That’s how life goes on the other side of the globe. Thank you for the attention :)

******

So interesting/scary/inspirational, right?! Did you catch all those $$$ wins in there??

• Paid off house IN CASH!
• Paid off house #2 (apartment for son) IN CASH!
• 10% towards college savings
• 20% towards retirement savings
• LIVING MINIMALLY
• No cars
• Guaranteed pension!
• Ton of jewelry stacked up! Haha…

Definitely thriving in a world most of us wouldn’t even know how to handle :) And looking back at my response to her, couldn’t help but get jolted by the last line I wrote there too!

We have it SO EASY here in the States, and yet so many people still complain and feel they are owed more/etc/etc.. We’d have the biggest shock of our lives going through what hundreds of other countries have gone through over the centuries… And who knows what’s lurking for us too in the future with how politics and such are shaping up!

Eek! The politics are still going downhill, but little did we know a PANDEMIC was lurking around the corner! And just how are we responding to it as a nation??? Ugh… Still better off than most of the world, but boy do we have a lot more learning to do :(

At any rate – thought you might enjoy this perspective from halfway around the world, and maybe pick up some motivation along the way too :)

Not all of us will be able to pay off our houses anytime soon, but we can still keep striving to make a better life for ourselves!! Both now and into the future!

And lots of stuff to still be GRATEFUL for along the way too…

Thanks for not being so silent anymore, silent reader :)

*****

UPDATE: Got this email from another reader of the site who shares more insight on Ukrainian life :)

“I’m married to a Ukrainian, and his cultural background of paying for everything in cash took a little while for me to get used to, but it’s such a great way to ramp up net worth. I’ll note that flats in Ukraine are a lot cheaper than property in the US, and no one pays for upkeep of common areas so there’s no association dues (so they’re affordable, but dingy on the outside). You can get a decent apartment for $50-90k, depending on the city and area. As your commenter said, Ukrainians are wary of banks, and there’s very little credit available for mortgages. My in-laws think we’re crazy for having a mortgage and stand-alone single family home in the US.

[This post, Life on the other side of the globe!, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Remember our guy last year who put together a 19 slide PowerPoint presentation to woo the socks off his beautiful wife?

Well he’s at it again this year! And upped the game by adding an additional 15 slides for good measure ;) If I didn’t know better I’d say he’s just out to grab another Husband of The Year nod, but going through these slides it’s apparent he really loves his family and future plans together.

And this time around he leaves in his NUMBERS and COMMENTARY for us to view!

You can check out last year’s doc here, and then the beefed up “Ain’t nobody coming in between us and our money” newer version here:

2019 Annual Review + 2020 Plan (PDF)

It even comes with an “agenda”, because if you’re gonna be putting together a PowerPoint like that of course you have to present on it ;) And this time around I hear he even splurged and took his wife out to a nice restaurant to do the deed instead of in their living room! Hubba Hubba!

AGENDA:

➢ FUN FACTS AND HIGH-LEVEL METRICS

➢ INCOME STATEMENT REVIEW

• All-in Income Statement Summary & Trending
• Core Income Statement Summary & Trending
• Expense Report

➢ NET WORTH REVIEW

• Summary
• Detail
• Trending

➢ 2020 PLAN

• Summary & Trending Core Income Statement
• Core Cash Flow Plan

➢ ALL-TIME INCOME AND NETWORTH TRENDS

Such a nerd, haha…

The “FUN FACTS AND HIGH-LEVEL METRICS” was my favorite part since it gives you a nice concise snapshot right up front, but here are screenshots from throughout it just to give you a better idea of the level of thought this guy puts into it.

If only a magical fairy did this for ALL OF US every year! :)

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Pretty neat, right?!

And again – you can download it here if you want to copy it and win over your spouse too ;) –> 2019 Annual Review (PDF)

A far cry from the guy in yesterday’s post, but when you want something bad enough you go out and plan for it to happen! And this guy clearly wants the best for him and his family’s future…

So thanks again for the yearly inspiration, my man! Always fun to see, and maybe one year you can actually live stream the presentation so we can all oooh and awww along with your wife ;) (Or will we catch you sneaking her glasses of wine to keep her attention all night?! Haha…)

Regardless, more proof that what gets measured gets done! Here’s to all of us tracking and forecasting more in this great new year!

XOXO

[This post, A Financial PowerPoint Presentation That Screams “I Love You!”, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Morning gang!

That time again to update the ol’ net worth!

It’s a sad one for me this time around since it’ll be the first one in 11 and 1/2 years where I *don’t* share mine in all its naked glory (!!), but rest assured I’m still doing it in the background until I can figure out a way to divulge without breaking any promises, haha….

I can state though that so far no one has taken away our double comma membership card yet! So that’s something! :) And while I still feel relatively the same as I did a month go – or even a decade ago – it is starting to sink in more and giving me that extra boost of confidence where I feel like I don’t need to worry as much anymore… A gift in itself really, since the whole point of watching this stuff is so one day you don’t have to anymore if you don’t want! And can get right back to the whole point of it all – LIVING!!

At any rate, I took the liberty of pasting other peoples’ money down below to continue the voyeuristic trend, and perhaps you’ll resonate even more with one of them as we’re all on differing journeys…

It never ends, but again the worrying can! So keep on stacking and tracking! Life awaits you!!

*******

Debbie + Husband: $350k Net Worth

Background:

• Me – age 38 (current salary $81K)
• Husband – age 35 (current salary $29K)
• Married Jan 2017
• No kids (yet) and 1 dog

We moved across Texas in January this year for my new job and sold the house in February (net $108K). (Side note: Zillow stated our house was ‘worth’ $200K+ when we put it on the market but it only sold for $185K (asking price) because the realtor stressed this was market price (damn you Zillow for getting my hopes up).)

Since we moved we have been staying with my parents (I give them $500 a month to help them out). In July we signed a contract (you will see a dip this month since we had to pay 25% upfront for all upgrades) to begin building our ‘long-term’ home – construction should be finished in January 2020.

My husband had a very difficult time finding work that suited him or paid what he felt he deserved after we moved (previously he was making $66K). Finally in April he got a job paying $60K but the manual labor and long hours were not ideal. In June, after a long wait (he applied in April as well) he started working for my company and works part-time.

It’s a really great job but here you have to pay your dues, and only with time and experience can you move into a full-time job. The hourly rate of pay is the same it’s just the hours worked, so hopefully within 6 months he will transition over from PT to FT hours. Us working for the same company is great – I do not ever have to ask him what his companies policies are, what holidays he’s off for or how much the benefits costs, lol.

Before we moved his income paid for all his bills and the money we spent outside the home (activities, vacations, eating/drinking, movies, etc). My income paid for my bills plus all the costs associated with our dogs (we had two then) and the previous house which I bought prior to us getting married.

It might have been a weird arrangement but it worked for us during our first 2 years of marriage. We now combine expenses, but my breakdowns below do not include him yet (lol); only my figures since he has not built up any savings and only recently set up his 401K. At least I got him to contribute 10% like I do; our company matches 100% up to 5%. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Good job, Debbie!!!!)

We use a credit card every month for rewards, but pay it off each month in full so it is not listed. The proceeds from my house sale, as well as some extra savings built before then, is the reason our savings account has such a ‘cushion’. We plan on using only $50K (20%) for the down payment on our new home build when we close next January, as well as some for furniture and appliances that’ll be needed and then sit on the remainder of the cash. As life sometimes decides to take unexpected turns (like those two market downturns Oct and Dec). We plan on using the remaining funds wisely after we determine what our new monthly bills will be.

Attached is a graph of our net worth over the past two years, as well as a breakdown of September’s net worth numbers.

(Looks like she’s using our Financial Snapshot spreadsheet! Cool!)

*******

Carla + Husband + 2 Kids: $800k Net Worth

I came across your blog via the Afford Anything podcast archive and Stacking Benjamins podcasts.

I really appreciate your emphasis on freedom, which doesn’t necessarily mean self-employment. I love my corporate job. I want financial freedom, but I don’t want to retire. I want to travel more, but I don’t want to be a blogging nomad. So thank you for your moderate welcoming space!

We’re in our early 30s with 2 young kids. We’re less than 6 years to our arbitrary magic number where my husband can retire without risk, which would mean (assuming I get no promotions or pay increases, and my husband’s business doesn’t grow at all) paying off our house in the next 18 months (AUD $1M*) then paying off my in-laws house (a AUD $320k* investment property we rent to them) another 2-3 years after that. We have planned for a family gap year in between though which will be a small step backwards.

Our current net worth looks a bit like this converted to USD:

We have cars but I don’t count depreciating assets in net worth.

I also haven’t included the value of my husband’s business because he is unconvinced he could sell it as a going concern. I disagree but am not an expert. Will be a nice bonus on top of everything if he does sell it when he retires. (EDITOR’S NOTE: That’s what I do with my businesses too – only count it once it’s sold as who knows what can happen with them or how much they’d bring in reality…)

*House prices in Australian cities are a bit crazy compared to average US city (excl. San Fran of course). For example our $217k investment is a tired old 3 bed a stone’s throw from the prison on the outskirts of the city. If we buy another investment we will buy in the US where we can get positive rental returns at a much lower price! Haha… But we borrow much less than the banks offered and will have paid it off in 5 years rather than 30.

Anyway, thanks again for your blog and podcasting. I had never done net worth calcs before, just focusing on mortgage balances, but the net worth really helped us plan out the next 10+years!

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Sylvie + Husband: Income Graphs!

Hi J money!

The attached chart is my (blue) and my husband’s (red) income graphed over time (data from the social security portal). I thought you might find it interesting because there’s a lot about us and our careers that is reflected in the graph!

1. He started working right after high school and gained experience on the job.
2. I went to medical school, then residency, then started a “real” job as a physician.
3. He changed jobs (and took pay cuts) when we moved several times for my training and career.
4. He is much older than I am.

Thanks for your blog!

Sylvie
LookForZebras.com

[EDITOR’S NOTE: What a cool thing to track!! Does anyone else do this?? Would make for a fun new thing to build into the ol’ spreadsheet :) ]

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Thanks for sharing, everyone!!

If anyone else wants to lay it all out on the table, just pass me a note.

Here’s to a fresh new month!

// For past snapshots featured before, click here
// For past net worths of my own over the 11+ years, click here

[This post, Net Worth Update Day!! How You Livin’?, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

[What up what up! Been getting a TON of response from our post the other day on the history of our net worth, so thought we’d continue the fun and share another person’s financial background today ;) Can never see too many numbers about money, am I right?! Take it away, Jimmy…]

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Inspired by J. Money’s recent, “How we grew our net worth to $900k,” I offer the following: “Jimmy’s History of Personal Finance.” Below is a quick summary on my $652,000 net worth and how I got there. I am 52 years old and a native Texan.

Retirement account ($253,000) – I’m a career educator and probably the best financial decision I made was maintaining my participation in the Texas Teacher Retirement System. Current assets are at $253,000, however, I will draw a six figure annual pension based on my 30 year career as a teacher and administrator.

Tax advantaged accounts / 403(b) ($180,000) – I began investing in tax advantaged accounts my first year of teaching, but I have never maxed out those contributions. Big mistake! Let’s compound that mistake with a divorce at 46 that reduced the account by 50%! I have always viewed this money as that which will buffer my TRS retirement pension and provide cost of living adjustments (COLA) which is not in the pension plan. Kids: Start maxing out your tax advantaged accounts immediately and don’t get divorced.

Taxable accounts / Roth 403(b) ($20,000) – Retirement investors should max out tax advantaged accounts prior to starting taxable accounts. I did the opposite; started a Roth without maxing out tax advantaged accounts. Not sure why other than bad planning and lack of understanding. Silver lining: I have avoided some tax consequence in retirement via the Roth 403(b) and will likely continue to invest in Roth IRA’s after I retire from TRS.

Cash on hand ($23,000) – I maintain this cash on hand as an emergency fund and am on track to build to $40,000 prior to retirement.

Texas Tomorrow Fund ($90,000) – One of the best financial decisions I have made was investing in this tuition reimbursement program sponsored and underwritten by the state of Texas. I enrolled both my daughters in the plan which charged a nominal monthly amount ($236 total for both girls) and froze tuition and fee rates at the date of purchase. I invested $48,000 for enough tuition credits and fees for both daughters to earn bachelor’s degrees and the investment grew to $90,000 over 20 years. Not the best investment on percentage increase, however, significant peace of mind and a great insurance policy on college tuition and fee increases.

Windfalls ($120,000) – I have benefited from two cash windfalls in my life: a vacation buyout at work ($30,000) and proceeds from an inherited oil and gas lease ($90,000). My former spouse and I spent $70,000 of the total on house upgrades, car debt and tithing, and maintained $50,000 as part of our emergency fund. When we divorced, we split that $50,000.

Cars and houses (net $81,000) – Ah, cars and houses. I have been blessed to drive paid off cars since 2011 and will never purchase a new car again. I currently drive a 2008 Honda CRV with 110k miles that is probably worth $5k. I have purchased three homes in my life and netted $35,000 on the first sale, $0 on the disbursal of the second due to my divorce, and currently live in the third. I hope to pay the third home off in the next 5 years.

Health Savings Account ($5,000) – Enrolled in this tax advantaged opportunity as soon as it was available with my employer and have accrued $5,000 thus far for future medical expenses. I anticipate continued growth here as my daughters become independent and assume responsibility for their own medical needs.

Tithing ($15,000 a year) – I am a Christian and have strived to tithe 10% of my gross income over the years. It took a long time to make it adding 1% a year. I include tithing here as I believe tithing is part of my financial plan and has had a positive impact on the bottom line in my net worth.

Life and disability Insurance ($0k) – No cash value here as the policy is a 15 year term and not whole life insurance, however, incredible peace of mind for my children in the event of debilitating illness or untimely death.

Budgeting and expense tracking ($0k) – I have budgeted money and tracked expenses since I began getting paid for my work time when I was 12 or 13. While I have it as zero monetary value, the behavior of tracking expenses and budgeting is a foundation to my net worth.

Scorecard

Ranking my behaviors on the scorecard below. I feel good about the positives, want do overs on the negatives, and sure would like to have worked that windfall differently. All in all, I’m going to give myself a low B- or a high C.

******

Thanks Jimmy! That pension and tithing is off the chain!

If anyone else would like to divulge their financial history with us, hit me up and we’ll make you famous.. In the meantime, here are other fun financial snapshots to ogle: Other People’s Money Series

[This post, Jimmy’s History of Personal Finance, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

If you’re getting tired of reading about my finances all the time like I am, today you’re getting break ;)

IT’S TIME FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF “OTHER PEOPLES’ MONEY“!
WOO!

Our series where we showcase snapshots of other peoples’ money in our community, from the older, to the younger, to the single, to the married, to the fabulously wealthy – all in an attempt to broaden our perspectives better.

Last time we featured a Hebrew software engineer on the site, a traveling ICU Registered Nurse, a millionaire who doesn’t feel like a millionaire, and a 64 year old real estate investor who used to be homeless and penniless just 18 years ago, and is now a budding millionaire herself!

The time before that we featured a newbie financial advisor, a risk taker who loves to invest gamble in bitcoin and poker, the budget of my wife circa 1995 (hah!), and then a woman from Kyrgyzstan who only needs $808/mo to live off (!!!).

And today should be just as juicy :)

Up on the docket: a 33 y/o with 3 kids all under the age of 3, a breadwinning pharmacist mom, a 43 y/o half-a-millionairess, a married couple with a million-and-a-half, and a pair of 60+ year old GDINKs (Gay, Dual Income No Kids) living out in the San Francisco area.

All comments and constructive commentary welcome!

******

Snapshot #1: The 33 y/o with 3 kids all under 3!

Background:

J$,

I just wanted to share some good news and say thanks because you certainly contributed to my success!

I hit the $500k in assets milestone!! ($353k net worth)

A few quick facts:

• 33, married with 3 kids age 3 and under
• One income household
• Paid cash for the last 3 cars I have bought (the last car I bought was $7,200 paid in cash with leather seats, sunroof and an amazing sound system!) That is an interesting story in itself. TL;DR: I think it was involved in a crime at some point before I owned it…
• Only debt is $147k mortgage at 3.1% with 19 years left
• I have never ‘budgeted’ in my life I tried using YNAB for about 3 weeks before I called it quits
• I max out 401(k), 2 Roth IRAs and an HSA every year (for the last 2-3 years)
• It was definitely a combination of hard work and luck. Luck in that I found a job during the financial crisis in 2008 that was in an industry that not only wasn’t struggling, but at the time was flourishing with lots of opportunity for growth, thereby allowing us to buy a house at a ridiculous price with an insanely low interest rate.

My salary progression went something like this:

• 2008- $28k (not a typo…first ‘adult’ job after college)
• 2009- $29k
• 2010- $30k
• 2011- $50k- new job (during the interview they straight up asked me what I wanted to be paid and at the time I thought that was an astronomical amount…)
• 2012- $57k- new job
• 2013- $62k- promotion
• 2014- $73k-raise
• 2015- $81k- raise
• 2016- $88k- raise
• 2017- $100k- new job
• 2018- $120k- new job

Over that time I worked my @$$ off getting my MBA, and 4 professional certifications, but I do attribute a lot to being fortunate enough to work for good companies.

I picked up a ton of habits/tips/motivation from you and others in the personal finance blogosphere. Thank you!!

– Anonymous

PS: the spike you see in the chart attached is just bringing in accounts to Personal Capital

PPS: other salient facts: in the 8 months leading up to our wedding we paid off $18k in credit card debt because we wanted to start fresh without anything hanging over our heads. We celebrated with a $4 bottle of champagne :) Additionally, I paid my entire MBA out of pocket as the company I was working for didn’t offer any tuition reimbursement.

That salary progression is incredible!! Job hopping gets a bad rap with our generation, but it’s hard to ignore when you see numbers like that..

Also love the $4 champagne celebration, haha… I had to tweet that out when I read it, and within hours it got over 100 “likes” :)

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Snapshot #2: The Breadwinning Pharmacist Mom

[Click images to enlarge… net worth spreadsheet is the one we give out here on the site :)]

Background:

Paid off my house in 2014. Single (higher) income. Medical professional.

I’ve only been tracking since April. I’ve seen net worth go from $411k to $460k end of April to end of August.

I began tracking because I wanted to get a better idea of how quickly things were growing and if and when it might be realistic to expect to live more off of our savings/investments vs. work. I have used things link Mint and, since April, Personal Capital, but I wanted something more concrete that let me look at specific savings areas vs. bulk net worth.

I’ve really liked being able to see specifically where the gains are coming in (like, the 401ks) and it helps me cool my jets a bit about early retirement as my non retirement specific savings are not growing nearly as quickly.

Oh, and I DO NOT include our paid off home and property as it’s not useable to me for anything unless we planned to sell, which we do not. I’ve found when I look at what the house is worth regularly and how that effects my net worth, it makes me feel like I’m much closer to FI than I actually am and gets me more focused on that last stretch and calculating “exit strategies” more often than I should.

– That Frugal Pharmacist

Best line in there – “Paid off my house in 2014” :) I personally like seeing real estate #’s in the net worth because it gives you an overall picture of where your money’s at and what you’re “worth” at any moment in time, but you can’t argue with her reasoning above either. Fact is – you can do whatever you want with your money, especially if you’re a bad ass and living mortgage-free!!

(The other thing that caught my attention were all th0se 401ks under her name? The minimalist inside me wouldn’t allow for that as I like my stuff condensed all under one roof. Much easier to manage and stay on top of!)

******

Snapshot #3: The Half-A-Millionairess

Background:

I’m 43 and plan/hope to retire around age 62. Not so strong on RE at this time – I’m one of the crazies who likes to work and don’t really have a “side gig” I’d do – plus not enough $ set aside to retire now if I wanted.

But boy does FI sound good to me! If all goes to plan (ha!) I’m hoping to have $2mil when I retire. This would likely set me up to have more monthly “income” than I do now.

Since you’re transparent with your numbers I will be too:

• $450,000 in investment/retirement funds
• $60,000 in emergency fund
• Around $600,000 net worth

I just started tracking net worth after reading all of your posts and the associated comments.

I’m maxing our my 401k and continue to always do this (assuming still at same income/expense levels!). I also plan to contribute the “make up” amount when I turn 50. My emergency fund would probably cover me for about 18 months.

Yep, I’m conservative/chicken.

I’m the only person in the house/only income source… been handed my pink slip in life before due to company changing locations…yep, chicken! Oh, plus I also lost money in investments (50%!) before due to a poor financial planner associated with a bank I used to use (he was brought to court because he mismanaged money and lost people so much).

I’m also throwing extra money towards the mortgage every month and plan to have it paid off by age 55. (Going for the emotional approach – I like seeing that balance go down.). Now trying to figure how to get more out of my savings account. Hoping this is money I won’t need until it’s time to retire.

(As you can see, I’ve broken down my savings into savings, escrow and vacation fund. Savings recently took a hit but that was because I needed the money to max out a new Roth. Not quite sure how the value of my Subaru increased this month. I also am very conservative when it comes to the value of my house – I stay with a number that is close to what I paid for it  instead of market value. I’m still learning more as I continue to read your blogs (and everyone’s comments) but have so much more confidence now regarding managing my own retirement money.)

A half a million net worth is already impressive, but a half a million net worth ALL BY YOURSELF?? Even more so.

I know we like to throw around #’s here as if it were all our own (for example, I’m always saying MY net worth and MY retirement number), but half the time we’re really talking about “our spouse and our’s net worth” in this community. Just something to keep in mind when you’re trying to compare yourself to someone else, even though you’re not supposed to ;)

And then of course there are tons of other factors too, like where you live in the country/world, what you do for a living, how many kids you have or don’t have, how old you are, how old you were when you *had your money epiphany!*, etc etc..

So basically, you can never compare yourself to anyone fairly.

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Snapshot #4: The Married Millionaire-And-A-Halfs!

Background:

Hello J.Money!

Long time reader here!

I am contributing our snapshot. No one in real life knows our net worth, but this is anonymous internet land, right? This doesn’t include our HSAs ($64k). Mint doesn’t seem to link that company so it doesn’t show up in the screenshot.

We are 42 and 40 years old, no kids, married now for 6 years, live in the US.

About 5+ years ago we were at $476k combined retirement. Now we’re at $1.5M in just savings. All income, no gifts or inheritances. We feel very grateful to be able to save like this. We have a variety of pre-tax and post-tax retirement accounts which we max out. No we aren’t doctors or lawyers.

We don’t use a budget. Our debts (mortgage and auto loan) are a small percentage of our income – total 11% of our gross income. This leaves flexibility for the other categories.

August’s paycheck included our cost of living raises which is always good time of year. CoL raises aren’t guaranteed and vary year to year. It all goes to savings because we were already living on the previous take home income. We are trying to build up the cash reserves more which will eventually go into a brokerage account. Several other retirement accounts maxed out, so this is our next focus while continuing to track our expenses.

I made a spendy purchase last month (seen on credit card). After borrowing a friend’s mandolin for over a year and learning with YouTube (free!), I decided to get my very own mandolin because I enjoy it that much. It is pretty nice! I will have it for the rest of my life. Since it was $$$, I like to rationalize in my head, “That’s like one year of eBay sales!” I have a sporadic eBay store as my side hustle.

-Anonymous

I know what you’re going to say before you even say it – THEY DON’T BUDGET???? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THEM??? *Goes to change the name of this site to NotBudgetingIsSexy.com to see how much faster my money grows* ;)

In all seriousness though, they’re killing it! So good for them for figuring out how to manage it all in their own way – no one said budgets were mandatory if you’ve got $hit down. (And maybe they used to budget in the early days like I did, and then moved to a more relaxed “net worth budgeting“?)

It’s so much fun peering into everyone’s lives here, right??? Let’s do more!!

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Snapshot #5: The 60 y/o G-DINKS

Background:

My husband is retiring in June 2020, so we are focused on completing all upgrades to our house by then. We don’t plan to access Social Security until 70 to be able to take the maximum benefits. I will also “retire” in six years in 2024.

For both of us retirement means stepping down from high-earning full-time jobs to part-time consulting for a few years. We have no set time to liquidate the rental property since it essentially pays for itself.

My husband’s retirement benefits included paid medical coverage which makes retirement planning simpler. We both have long-term care insurance. And one dirty secret — we don’t have updated wills.

Oh yeah, and we are DINKs, so college and childcare aren’t in our budget. I’m 59 and my husband is 64.

See what I said about where you live?? Those mortgages could buy 5 or 6 homes in other parts of the country! :) It’ll be interesting to see how much more they can pay off and bank too before they pull the trigger on going part-time… Gonna be hard to retire with some big mortgages on the books like that, especially in San Fran, yeah?

Though they do have that rental property which I assume is what was cut off at the bottom of the “assets” section there (it’s missing about $1,000,000 worth). And good they still want to do some side consulting to help pad the income!

I asked about the multiple accounts everywhere as it seems like a lot, and here’s what they said:

The multiple accounts made sense before we got married. There is one checking account for the rental property to keep everything separate. All the bills and condo mortgage go through that account. There are two business accounts — checking and savings — for my consulting business. The savings can go away. There is a business credit card for all tax deductible expenses and we each have a personal credit card and a single joint credit card for household expenses. The investment accounts are all set by our financial guy but I will ask about consolidation.

Excellent idea indeed to talk to their financial guy as 15 investment accounts sure seems a bit complicated! And only a few of them actually has money in them?

Super excited for these guys over the next few years though as I’ve been friends with them for a while now and they’ve got the biggest hearts in the world. This was the first year they put everything together and started tracking their net worth closely, so I hope they keep doing it to be able to reach those not-too-far-off retirement goals!! Better to have the epiphanies now vs later when it’s too late!

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So there you have it! All kinds of different finances out there!

Anything really stand out to you with these? Do you find yourself resonating with any of them in particular?? Anyone want to share their *own* finances with us and we’ll make you famous in our next round of these?? :)

If so, email me here!

Big thanks to everyone for opening up today and giving us some inside peeks… I know you can’t talk about this stuff in the real world, so we do our best to be a “safe space” here so we can chat and learn from each other! So please do share any and all constructive criticisms/thoughts if any are brewing!

Thanks guys!

And if you missed the other two rounds we’ve done, here are links to those again:

• Round I: the newbie financial advisor, the risk taker who loves to gamble in bitcoin and poker, the budget of my wife circa 1995, and the Kyrgyzstanian who only lives off $808/mo
• Round II: the Hebrew software engineer, the traveling ICU Registered Nurse, the millionaire who doesn’t feel like a millionaire, and the 64 year old real estate investor who used to be homeless and penniless and is now a millionaire herself

Happy lurking ;)

[This post, A Look at Other Peoples’ Money — Part III 👀, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

I started a series a while back on what money’s like in different parts of the world, but then promptly forgot about it until this morning when I received a note about life in Australia :)

You can’t base an entire country’s perception on just one financial sliver, of course, but it sure does make for some interesting reading/learning, and thus we revive the series today and head into Round II!

Last time we covered Singapore, Denmark, Brazil, Guatemala, Germany, New Zealand, and France, and this time round we head to Australia, India, Dubai, Kenya, Jamaica, and Cambodia.

Big thanks to everyone who passed these over to me! If you’ve got anything to add, please do so below in the comments.

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Early Learning in Australia

“I’m from Adelaide, Australia and I’m working full time trying to save up for my short and long term goals. Which is of course to be FIRE, but to have enough time to be able to enjoy the things in my life, my family, my future family and to be financially stable that I can be able to enjoy these things without a thought in my mind.

I have spent some time in the US, and things are a lot different over in Australia when it comes to youth and finance. It seems like a lot over in the US even in mid to late twenties have almost nothing to their name, but here in Australia I would say most young people are really switched on financially. We are taught in school about saving money, and most people here don’t need university or college etc., and start working at 18 like I did straight from school. It’s quite easy to earn a decent modest income with no qualifications or degrees.

So we start working and saving earlier. Real Estate and cost of living over here is quite expensive so I think a lot people naturally are concerned about finances earlier. Of course this doesn’t apply to everyone but I would say a good majority. I think that would be music to your ears that a lot of young ones are thinking about finances earlier.”

– Evie

Music to my ears indeed! I’m not sure how I feel about the “not needing college” part, but she’s def. on point about the state of our younger generation not having much to their name, ugh… Getting more financial education in our schools would def. be a great start!

ADDENDUM: Here’s what another Australian had to add too (“Jo” down in the comments): “The one thing I would add about Australia is that we have compulsory employer Superannuation Guarantee; employers currently pay 9.5% of employees wages into a superannuation fund. There is quite a bit of contention around superannuation with the fees charged and the age that it is accessible, but it does mean Australians have a bit of ‘forced retirement savings’.”

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Guaranteed Returns in India

“In India, there is a Public Provident Fund in which you can invest up to Rs. 150,000 per year (roughly $2,180 U.S.). The guaranteed rate of return is around 8% right now (used to be 12% in the nineties, so its slowing reducing). And this interest is tax free.

The best deal is for Indians living abroad (NRI – Non Resident Indian). They can open deposits in Indian banks for any amount and get tax free 8% return! Doesn’t get any better than this.”

– Francesca, FromPenniestoPounds.com

WOWWWW had no idea on this! A *guaranteed* return, can you imagine? And tax free?? It still wouldn’t stop people from blowing their money on stuff here in the States, but it would sure come in handy the moment you finally have your epiphany and are ready to rock :)

ADDENDUM: Here’s more insight on these guaranteed returns from Aparma who runs an Indian personal finance blog (in English), ElementumMoney.com: “While PPF and Cash Deposits (mostly referred to as FD, short for Fixed Deposits) are risk free with 7.5%, inflation in India is also that much higher at over 6%. You can see a comparison in the home loan interest rates itself where the home loan interest rate in India is at 8-8.5% and in the US it is a mere 1 or 2%. The real story in India though is the growth story which is seen better in the equity markets. Actively managed funds still perform better and index funds are yet to make a dent. In the last 5 years, a LOT of the actively managed funds have delivered a 15%+ return so the invested money could easily have doubled.”

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Not Messing With Debt in Dubai (UAE)

“Our friends moved from the UK to Dubai (where it is tax free) and it’s a criminal offense to leave the country whilst in debt. So if you have a car on finance, you cannot leave with country with the car, if you have not paid it off.

They also don’t have a bankruptcy law, and there’s various other things they are very strict on regarding debt.”

– Francesca, FromPenniestoPounds.com

This reminds me of how we used to have debtors prisons here in the early days of our country… And just how serious debt actually is! Not sure I’d want such a hardcore rule here, but it would def. get us thinking twice before overextending!

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Mobile Banking in Kenya

“60 Minutes had a fascinating segment on M-Pesa, a digital form of banking big in Kenya and slowly spreading to developing worlds. Basically, it enables exchange of currency through mobile phone secure SMS and internet. For areas where banks don’t exist (and therefore cash is difficult to obtain) it has made getting paid and spending money much easier (80% of Kenyans have a mobile phone).

It’s sort of like Android Pay on steroids, as while Android Pay requires a bank account attached, M-Pesa is the actual bank. It seems to have done great things for unbanked areas in Kenya and the low income population as a whole. You should look up the segment if you’re interested. :)”

– Tara

I still find it so incredible how pervasive cell phones and laptops are now, and just how LIFE CHANGING they have become for certain things. And it’s all still relatively new! Of course it’s disrupted other areas of life for the *worse* as well, but probably have done more good than bad when all lined up… And especially with this mobile banking stuff – love it.

ADDENDUM: Samuel Wachira on Twitter (@WachiraNguni) also added this: “Correct. Mpesa is part of Kenya’s money culture. Approximately $4.68 billion is transacted each month on the Mpesa platform. That’s like 15% of the Annual National Budget.”

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Skipping Mortgages in Jamaica

“In Jamaica, mortgage loans are uncommon, which is why you see half-finished homes with rebar sticking up out of the cinder blocks. People buy their construction materials paycheck by paycheck, and finish the house over years rather than months.”

– PhysicianOnFIRE

Oh man, what a feeling it must be to finally have it completed after all those years! I bet you’d appreciate your home 10x more going through such a timeline too, on top of actually owning it *outright* when all was said and done. I couldn’t tell you of a single person who paid cash for their house and not get a mortgage, can you? RVs and Tiny Homes excluded? ;)

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Storing Wealth in Cambodia

“I’ll add the Cambodian money management methods I learned from my parents-in-law (who escaped Cambodia literally dodging bullets the whole way out through the jungle).

They don’t trust the government or banks really. Wealth is stored in gold. 24k jewelry primarily. And the woman of the house usually has it hidden in a purse that she carries everywhere she goes. That junk gets heavy. So if you ever want to make a few hundred thousand dollars, find your nearest Cambodian house party and snatch a bunch of old ladies’ purses (j/k; not responsible for lengthy prison sentences and/or retaliation from angry Cambodian grandchildren).

We did get my mother-in-law to put some in a bank account, but it’s barely keeping up with inflation (yielding 1-1.75% today between money market and CD rates).”

– Justin, RootofGood.com

I’ve got nothing to add on this one, haha… outside of just saying there are a TON of expats living there and doing good in the community, and it looks to be a beautiful place!

ADDENDUM: Here’s a look at the cost of living from a reader who is about to move there temporarily: “I will be living in Cambodia where I can get a single room with a shower for under $200/mo in Siem Reap. I will live there from June through September. After the room and food and other miscellaneous expenses, I will be able to save about $1,400/mo. By the time I leave Siem Reap from June 2018 through September, I will have saved $15,094 US!”

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And that’s it for Round II here… If you’ve got anything you can add to these, or want to share experiences/knowledge on other countries not listed, please do so below or by emailing me directly: j (at) Elite Edge Money (dot) com.

Pretty crazy how different it can be around the world, right? I’ll try to keep these up better so we can continue learning over time :)

If you missed the first round, you can check it out here: How Money’s Handled Around The World (featuring Denmark, Brazil, Guatemala, Germany, New Zealand, and the oui sexy France)

[This post, Personal Finance Around The World – Round II, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

(Big ups to A. Money for the throwback OPP’esque reference ;))

Welcome to Round II of Other People’s Money!

Where we blast out juicy numbers for everyone to see, and then include a snapshot on their background for even further ogling perspective ;)

Up this time around: a millionaire who doesn’t feel like a millionaire, a traveling Cardiac ICU Registered Nurse, a Hebrew software engineer, and a 64 year old real estate millionaire who used to be homeless (and penniless) just 18 years ago…

Jump into the different lifestyles here and see if you can find some good motivation!

Snapshot #1: The Millionaire “Imposter”

This one comes from A. Money (the same A. Money that gave this series a new name), and you can see just how much they’re hustling over there. Their retirement accounts are on fire, got loads of cash handy if needed, and their mortgage to home value ratio is looking mighty fine as well. Awesome to be able to compare so easily to previous months too!

Here’s more on his background for further perusing:

Hey J. Money,

It’s A. Money, your brother from another mother. I saw your post looking at other people’s money, and it inspired me to share our net worth with you and your readers.

My wife and I share monetary habits and have similar interests, which has made managing household finances a relative snap. We’re both savers, and we’re pretty much in sync when it comes to spending.

One thing we’ve never been able to do, however, is develop a budget. Budgets may be sexy, but spreadsheets are absolutely alluring. Rather than budgeting, we’ve been tracking income and expenses for years, initially in a shared notebook before switching to a spreadsheet starting in 2016. A few months later, we began tracking our net worth on a monthly basis. See the attached pic.

• “Cash” includes assets in a variety of bank checking and savings accounts
• “Investment” includes assets at Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, and Vanguard and our family HSA at HSA Bank and TD Ameritrade
• “Roth IRA” includes my Roth IRAs at Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, and Vanguard and my wife’s Roth IRA at Fidelity
• “401(k)/403(b)” includes my traditional and Roth TSP through the federal government and my wife’s 403(b) and a rollover IRA at Fidelity
• “Home” is our house value according to Zillow
• “Auto” is the combined value of our two cars according to KBB
• “Mortgage” is our mortgage balance
• “Auto Loan” is the balance of our one auto loan
• “TTM Expenses” is the sum of our expenses for the Trailing Twelve Months
• “TTM Net Income” is the sum of our net income for the Trailing Twelve Months

We both max out our Roth IRAs, TSP/403(b), and HSA. We also contribute $200/week to our Vanguard brokerage account.

An interested reader,

Aaron

After congratulating him on being a millionaire, he responded with the following:

I wrestle with the “millionaire” label. It feels great to see those seven figures as they creep up over time, but part of me feels like my wife and I need our investable assets (I’d include our home value here, but not our auto values) to exceed $2M to reach that status. #imposter #notworthy

Seems like no one’s immune to the ol’ Imposter Syndrome ;) Hopefully they realize just how well they’re doing though! “Wealthy” or not, they’re absolutely killing it.

Snapshot #2: The Hebrew Software Engineer

This snapshot comes from The Financial Translator, and you’ll see the top portion there in US dollars after he graciously converted it for us (he lives in Israel), and then the bottom section in both dollars and shekels for some nice mashing up, haha… Check out that “Time to FI” row though towards the bottom – excellent idea!

Here’s more on his background:

I am a software engineer my wife is an archaeological concervator. We make over the average salary for a household. 2 little boys ages 3 and 1. Both of us have masters in our respective fields (school here is dirt cheap – a.k.a subsidized by the taxpayers).

I started tracking in Jan. 2015, we had a NW of $108,671 back then. Now its $350,028. Every child slowed us down a bit, but that’s ok, it’s for them and we keep hustling.

Our plan is to retire early in 9-11 years or semi-retire even earlier. We also bought an option on an apartment in Dec. 2014, they started building in April 2016, and we are finally moving in this summer if all goes well with the final inspections. Essentially we saved money on the deal because we (all the 80 apartment buyers) basically cut out the middle man and his profit. But it was nerve wracking and time consuming, and the building is in deficit so we need to come up with an extra $15,000 (per apartment) over the initial price estimate. We will never do it again. Either rent or buy off the market next time. But we learned a lot in the process, like we would rather pay more next time than go through that type of pressure.

This year was a perfect storm for us as we had two kids in private daycare (public daycare doesn’t start here until age 3), and we payed rent and a mortgage. Tough, but we pulled through. Private daycare costs us $1,247 per month for 2 kids (we get 10% off for sending them to the same one), rent was $1,090 if you factor in utilities, and our mortgage payment is $1,020 per month. Income is $6,763/mo net after taxes and retirement deductions, so we had some wiggle room.

– The Financial Translator
(Your biggest fan from Israel)

Love how connected the internet makes us :)

Snapshot #3: The Breadwinning Traveling Nurse

This one comes from another personal finance blogger, but whom currently prefers to remain anonymous. Notice the # of months worked there for each year though, and how the worth still continues to go up despite some years only working half the time! Where do we get that deal?? ;)

More info:

• I am an Associate’s-prepared travel Cardiac ICU Registered Nurse. My goal is to work two 13 week contracts per year. I bring home the bacon.
• My husband works for the subsidiary of a major airline as a trainer and ramp agent (the guys who load bags on the plane). He works just 20 hours a week and makes about $1 more than minimum wage, but brings home the flight benefits. We don’t have any babies.
• My husband also goes back to North Dakota every fall to help his father harvest, and I do temporary vaccination work at the local health department. I have a 401k there, and make really decent money for rural North Dakota, and he gets a cash gift from his dad for the help. The gift varies, but of course never goes above the cash gift limit. The highest we’ve ever gotten was $10k last year for six weeks of work.
• We are effectively homeless. We’ve been living out of a travel trailer the last two years but recently sold it in order to weather a Tucson summer/monsoon season, now we’re renting some dude’s pool house. My current contract is up the end of June but I’m hoping for an extension. Then we’ll be free again to move about the country.
• We typically keep about four years’ expenses in cash, but recently funded a hard money real estate loan for $35k with 4% interest for seven years. That cut our cash almost in half, but brings in $458/mo in passive income.
• After finding the FIRE community last year we really stepped our retirement game up and now I contribute 50% (company max) to my 401k and my husband contributes 40% (his company max) to his. We invest 100% in stock index funds.
• Everything leftover from our paychecks goes into a money market that we’ll use to max next year’s Trad IRAs and HSAs, and everything leftover from that will go toward next year’s expenses. Anything leftover from that goes into our taxable Vanguard index funds.
• $200k is our Coast FI number which we’ll easily hit if I get an extension or a second contract somewhere else this year. Then with farming and the health department… forget about it. We’re rich, bitch!
• My husband will be able to retire with flight benefits after the age of 52 + ten years of service so our real FI date isn’t until 2031.
• He loves his job and is happy to keep working but I desperately want to get away from bedside nursing. I want to help people die, man. You know, be an ultra-part time hospice nurse.
• I don’t include our cash, that hard money loan, or our vehicles in our net worth – our net worth is strictly our retirement and brokerage accounts.

Living in a pool house, farming, not including cash in your net worth?! Who are these people? Haha… Gotta love how drastically different our lives are :)

And as someone who has also worked in the airlines industry chiefly for the flight benefits, I can attest to it being quite a hack! They pay you like crap, but boy does it infuse some adventure in your life… I went everywhere from Cancun to L.A. to London, Puerto Rico, and even the Mall of America for a quick 1/2 day jaunt during my first few months working there… Super cheap way to travel the world if you can pull it off!

(Another great blogger who does this too is Miss Mazuma. She’s a flight attendant by day, blogger/world traveler by night and just overall FUN person :) Check her out if you haven’t before!)

Snapshot #4: The 64 y/o Millionaire

[Click to enlarge… if this spreadsheet looks familiar, it’s because it’s the one I designed!!
Which you can download and use here :) ]

And last but not least, the snapshot of “Barb” who has gone through quite a bit over the years… She was a bit hesitant to share her story as it included receiving an inheritance (and we all know what comes with that when you tell people!), but I told her it’s a safe zone here so hopefully y’all are good to her ;) The last sentence of her note says it all.

Barb’s story over the past 18 years:

2000 — Was homeless and penniless, on relief and renting a room in a bad home.

2002-2003 — Both parents passed leaving me around $500K, mostly in real estate.

2004 — Turned 50.

2005 — Sold remote, inherited, apartment building and purchased over priced, larger one in my area.

2008 — Stocks and real estate market both crashed. Home was worth about half what I owed and had to reduce rents. Today, in 2018, it’s worth about what I originally paid for it.

2014 — Turned 60,

• Found YNAB and started budgeting,
• Discovered FIRE community and found places I could learn from.  Dove in head first and haven’t come out yet.
• Moved my traditional IRA to Vanguard, converted to ROTH ($129K) and invested everything into VTSAX, thank you jlcollinsnh.  $0 taxable income and many accumulated tax credits were used to pay the taxes when I converted from traditional to a ROTH IRA.

2016 — Refinanced home from 6%/30 yr interest only mortgage to 2.75%/15 yr mortgage. By the end of the year realized I’m a millionaire, but still struggling.

2017 — Major repairs at apartments to the tune of over $50K.

2018 – Today, have started pulling returns from VTSAX and use that to purchase VTIAX, a little to VBTLX and even less to BNDX in my ROTH. Also started investing a little in a couple of taxable brokerage accounts. Mostly in VXUS with a little to VTI.

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Ever since I purchased the apartments I have been accumulating tax losses at a rate of approximately $25K per year, (have been spending more than I could afford) on upgrading/repairing them, and the tax code has been very good to me.  Today, the taxable income on my taxes is below minus $100K.  Want to stop increasing this number and instead have the money available in my accounts.  Tax credits are great but don’t help with today’s expenses, or investing and the returns are awful.

Today when I fill out my monthly budget, I start with my living expenses of $550.  Then pull some off budget, and some even off net worth report.

• Prepay apartment mortgage – $200
• Emergency backup – $200
• Emergency funds – $300
• 30 year bond purchase – $200

Then fill out remainder of my budget, starting with “future spending” goals and lastly fund monthly fixed expenses.  Today’s budget looks like the attached image.

I know the bond purchase is not a great move financially today as rates are so low.  I look at this as building up my floor, guaranteed, basic, no matter what, income.  It isn’t much today and will increase with time.  My hope is that no matter what, US will continue to pay it’s debts.

I am prepaying the apartment mortgage, a little, with sights on being debt free before my 80th birthday.  The $200 prepayments will cut 2 years off how long I need to make these payments. The additional $200 is there as a back up to my emergency fund and if things work out, I will consider moving it to my mortgage to pay it off even earlier.  Today I want to keep it liquid, in case I need it in the future.

My plan for my ROTH account is to let it simmer, hopefully for the remainder of my life.

Generally, I hesitate to share my story since my net worth is completely built on inheritance.  Never appreciated what it takes to hold onto any windfall, be it inheritance, lottery or jackpot winnings.  Today I do.

And that last part is what it’s all about, right?? Growing over the years and learning to appreciate everything we’ve got? We’re all in different stages with this stuff, but so long as we’re paying attention NOW and doing our best, the future looks bright!

Hope you guys got something out of these today, and we’ll continue the series again in a bit :)

To see the first post we did in this series, click here: A Look at Other People’s Money

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Huge thanks to everyone who opened up and let us into their lives today! If you’d like to share your story and screenshots with us, pass me a note and we’ll make you famous in a future installment.

[This post, Are You Down With OPM? (Other People’s Money?), was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Morning!

Been emailing with a new reader of this blog, and in the middle of it he shot me his entire financial/career life story which I thought you’d love to see too as voyeurs ;) Always something so raw and beautiful about this type of stuff – no one ever shares in the real word!

The clip’s below, along with some follow up questions I squeezed in while the iron was hot… Not sure how much you’ll learn from it, but there are some hidden lessons scattered about.

And again – REAL LIFE NUMBERS AND STORY!! Gimme all day long, please!

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J. Money – I would say that from what I know of you from your pretty recent blog posts and the Money Show‘s first 15 podcast episodes, we have very similar money philosophies. I lean a bit more towards the Mustachian approach of reducing expenses than you, and I hate real estate a little less than you.

That said, you might get a kick out of our recent financial journey. If you don’t have time or interest to read it, no big deal. It was good to prepare as I am sharing my “life-story” this evening to a small group in our church.

TLDR Version = Life’s crazy, I would do a few things a bit differently if I had a do-over, but then again, I enjoy the lessons I’ve learned. I am definitely in the “rent” camp at the moment, as buying and selling 3 houses in less than 5 years is wack!

July 2008 — Start internship w/ Northwestern Mutual – primarily selling insurance while finishing my degree at University.

May 2009 — I graduate, move home w/my folks, obtain investment licenses and continue building my clientele with Northwestern Mutual.

June 2010 — After moving out I realize that I’m not really making a lot of money and we mutually decide, after I flake out for a few days to a week, that it wasn’t/isn’t the best timing for me to build this biz.

July 2010 — Move to a similar role with State Farm for a few months. Big difference was I was serving existing clients, and had a base salary. But my heart still wasn’t in it.

September 2010 — Spent a few weeks going door to door signing people up for a new garbage collection provider. Funniest thing here was that I got one sale on my first day, and never got another sale again!

Mid-September 2010 — Tried my hand playing online poker for a few weeks. I think I made money, but my hourly rate was ~$2.50 an hour. Clearly not worth it!

[Editor’s note: we once had a professional poker player stop by the blog to share what it’s like to live that lifestyle full-time! Pretty interesting if you ever want to check it out: Confessions of a poker player (pt 1), A day in the life of a poker player (pt 2)]

November 2010 — Offered a contract position with Wells Fargo call center, then 4 weeks later moved to Ameriprise because it was a permanent/full-time job (this was a good call to make since Wells shut down that call center about 5 months later)

December 2010 – December 2015 — Worked in two roles at the Ameriprise corporate headquarters starting at $42,000, ending at $75,000 – and earned the CFP® designation while I was there.

December 2011 — I met my beautiful wife Tory at a local townie bar in the small town we grew up in. We knew each other by name/face as we were in the same graduating class in high school, but never had as much as a single conversation before.

October 2012 — We got married and moved into an apartment. Rent was just under $800/mo for a 1 bedroom 700 sq. foot apartment. This was plenty of space, but we didn’t like hearing our neighbors.

September 2013 — We purchase our first home and the mortgage is roughly $1,500/mo PITI. Our combined income is roughly $80,000. Tory has hardly any assets at this point, and ~$65,000 of student loans.

December 2013 — We get our first roommate to have some extra cushion.

August 2014 — We now have 3 other roommates that are covering our mortgage! My wife does not like having roommates, and I don’t blame her, but I push us/her to save and pay down debt.

March 2015 — My wife leaves her job as it requires handling conflict which she doesn’t deal well with, or lend itself to growing a family (she had to work a fair amount of nights). She nannies until 1 month before our son is born and then becomes a full-time stay-at-home-mom.

August 2015 — We purchase a smaller house that is 6 blocks away from our first home, and turn our first home into a full-fledged rental. Our new mortgage payment is under $1,100/mo PITI.

September 2015 — Our son Xavier is born (accidentally in our home! This is a story for another time!)

December 2015 — I leave my corporate gig paying me $75K + great benefits for a role as an Associate Financial Advisor with one of the top 100 (out of ~8,000) Ameriprise practices. This pays me $80,000 with some benefits, but the total compensation + benefits is probably about $5,000 less than the corporate gig.

June 2016 — We sell our second home without the help of a realtor and it turns out that when all is said and done, it cost us ~$1,400/month to “rent” the place we owned for ~10 months. Two days later we purchased a home that is closer to my new office.

August 2016 — I find out that the “script” I was being asked to deliver to my/our clients at this practice on why we were increasing their investment advisory costs was a lie – and I resign. This is 6 weeks after we purchased our home!

September 2016 — I start working with another Ameriprise Franchise office, but this time, I’m building my clientele from scratch again, with no base salary.

September 2017 — We decide to move up our timeline for baby #2 a bit after learning that Tory’s mom has cancer.

January 2018 — We move in with my in-laws to dramatically improve our cash-flow, and be with Tory’s ailing mother.

February 2018 — Tory’s mom passes away. We knew our time with her was limited, but we thought that we at least had a few more months. We were so glad we got ~4 weeks living with her before she passed.

Late-February 2018 — We sell our primary residence (the one we purchased in June 2016)

March 2018 — 3 of our 4 tenants move out, and I’m currently negotiating with the 4th to offer them an incentive to move out. She, unlike you, does not have children or a spouse, and will be moving in with her folks, so other than convenience, there is no real reason to delay the inevitable. Also, I’m trying to complete as many things as possible prior to my wife giving birth again!

Our cash flow is super manageable, but the rest of 2018 will be about even, and then in 2019, we’ll be able to pay down some debts/start saving. We intend to move out, and I will push for renting in 2020 or 2021 :)

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Fun to read, right?? :) I then asked what type of church meeting this is as that’s a looooot of info to be giving out, haha, and thinking maybe it was some sort of Dave Ramsey class relating to finances or something? But nope:

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The church is only 2-3 years old and this is a group of 6 people participating in a 7 week group where week one, we all gave super brief introductions and established guidelines and expectations for the group. Then weeks 2 – 7 we each get our turn sharing our life story.

Although I don’t think you are a “church” person, this church is awesome! The pastor is a gay person of color, and technically speaking, the denomination doesn’t ordain gay people. OOOOHHHHH SCANDALOUS!

[Editor’s Note: I am a church person, but been neglecting our attendance ever since having kids :( So much harder to concentrate! Haha…. But I do very much want to get back to it again.]

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While we were on a roll here, I then asked if he was cool sharing his current financial snapshot with us so we can get an even better idea of his money…. Even though we’re all strangers here! Haha… Although after this post, not so much ;) He delivers on that too:

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My Net Worth Snapshot from Mint along with more details filled in.

• Credit Cards actually includes $33,000 on Lines of Credit at ~10.5% interest, $4,950 on a Card at 9.75% interest, and the remainder on 0% balance transfer cards.
• We have excess cash at the moment since we’ll need to cover the last month’s rent, return the security deposit to our tenants, put in carpet, professionally clean the rental, and a few other things + pay the mortgage until it sells. Fortunately our real estate market here is super hot!
• It cost me $12,500 to bring my clients over to my new practice.
• My annual biz expenses are ~$25,000.
• My net income growth rate over the last ~18 months (my time with this practice), has been ~$2,000/month. So, there’s hope!
• Also, my wife earned $5,000 as a part-time professional Organizer @ $50/hour w/pretty much $0 overhead. With baby two due in May, 2018 will be another lean year, but I think that her income will pick up a bit in 2019, and even more in 2020.
• Regardless, I’m doing our planning under the assumption that she will never need to work again.

My lifetime earnings per Social Security Statement:

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It was at this point I asked if I could share this with everyone as I was just fascinated by it all :) And as you can see, he said yes! (Thanks man!)

Got me really good with that last snapshot too as I’m a sucker for lifetime earning stuff… Did you know you can grab your own at any time yourself too? Without having to wait for the yearly statement to come either?? –> https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/

Just log in/sign up over at the social security website up there and you can access your data whenever you want. And then use it to calculate your Lifetime Wealth Ratio I made up to see how you’re doing overall! ;)

Since the Social Security Administration would have no idea how much you’re saving in comparison to this income, we’re left to come up with our own means of figuring how good we’re doing or not. So today I introduce to you the newly coined term – and future buzzword – the “Lifetime Wealth Ratio”

Which is calculated like this: Net Worth ÷ Total Income Earned

…I would suggest rankings as so:

• 0%-10% – Meh
• 10%-25% – Now we’re cooking!
• 25-50% – You’re on fire, baby! Give me your number!
• 50-100% – Marry me.
• 100%-1,000% – How do I get into your will?

I remember being hocked up on A LOT of coffee writing that one ;) Looks like the last time I ran it here on the blog though I came in at 54% and my lifetime earnings up to that point looked as so:

At a coffee shop right now and don’t want to log on to the social security site while here, but guestimating real quick our present ratio is probably hovering around the 65% mark ($811,570.54 / $1,250,000).

So we’re getting better!

And of course there’s wayyy more that goes into your *true* lifetime earnings as the SS stuff only factors in *taxable* income and probably omits other variables as well, but the ratio still gives you a decent idea of how you’re doing in the overall grand scheme of things. And plus, it’s just fun to calculate ;)

So there you have it! Numbers and rawness everywhere today! Take from it what you will, and feel free to share your own journey with us either publicly below, or privately via email (j @ Elite Edge Money (dot) com).

I promise not to share it with the masses unless you want me to ;)

Hope you enjoyed this today! And remember that there are no straight lines to our dreams! We have to go through all kinds of ups and downs and all arounds, but it’s all worth it in the end!! And you’re smack in the middle of the journey right this very second – take a second to appreciate that!

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Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

[This post, “You might get a kick out of our recent financial journey”, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

As the 5 am wake ups continue, another effect has been an increased desire to learn more.

I’m not typically one to go out of my way to pick up a book or learn something new just for the sake of learning, but all this week I’ve found myself being quite more curious than normal. It seems all this reflecting has opened up a new window inside my brain, and yesterday brought in the sweet smell of the Zero Waste movement!

What the hell is Zero Waste?

It’s a philosophy of creating a more sustainable lifestyle by keeping your waste down to a (pretty hardcore) minimal amount, while helping the Earth and your own happiness in the process. Consequentially, and the part that really interested ME, surprise surprise, was that it also happens to save you a ton of cash in the process :)

It’s minimalism on crack.

I’ve seen a handful of bloggers over the years snap pics of their monthly waste in an effort to spread the word and become better at it, but it never clicked with me as it did when I came across the queen of Zero Waste herself, Bea Johnson. Blogger, and now best selling author, of ZeroWasteHome.com. Here’s a snippet of her bio:

Since embarking on the Zero Waste lifestyle, our lives have changed for the better: We feel happier and lead more meaningful lives, based on experiences instead of stuff… My vocation is to shatter mis-conceptions associated with the Zero Waste lifestyle, proving that waste-free living can not only be “stylish”, but also lead to significant health benefits, and time and money savings.

It’s quite the challenge to overcome, as admittedly my first thoughts were “no way,” and “you’ve got to be out of your f*cking mind,” haha… But the more I read, and the more I followed her story – particularly this 8:31 min video on her – I was completely blown away. And, dare I say it, inspired to maybe try this out in my own way! A pretty drastic change over the course of 20 minutes :)

But I keep coming back to the idea of having “more time,” “better health,” and a fresh new way to achieve “more savings.” (Though most of us here already incorporate varying degrees of frugality and minimalism which this lifestyle heavily relies on. So it very well could make for the perfect “next step” for those looking to amp it up a bit lot!). It takes challenging everything to a whole new level, and if this wife, mom, author – AND full-time job holder – can do it, why not us?

Here’s an inside look at her home and the way she lives. Maybe it’ll spark something inside of you too:

• It’s not about complicating your life, it’s about simplifying it.
• It helps you focus on what matters the most.
• She brings her own totes to the grocery store – some home made – instead of using plastic bags
• Started buying more in bulk
• Also brings her own jars for the deli/cheese/meat counters! (I didn’t even know you could do this?)
• Says it becomes a more human way of shopping because it brings out conversation with those who work there – creates more of a community
• She doesn’t shop in any of the MIDDLE aisles – only the perimeter of the stores because that’s where the healthiest stuff is (interesting!)
• When shopping vegetables she tries to find the ones without the stickers (which = waste)
• She doesn’t own any trash cans (!!!)
• She found you didn’t need all those different cleaning supplies for the house, and that many were actually toxic for you
• She explains the 5 R’s of zero waste (see below)
• Uses organic powder for makeup
• Makes her own mascara using 4 ingredients
• Started tracking how much waste they use a year (picture down below – crazy!!)
• Husband not on board at first – hah
• Thought this new lifestyle was costing too much
• Turns out they were saving 40% on their overall spending!
• Zero waste is more about what you do outside of the home, than what you do inside (all goes back to consumerism)
• It’s complicated at first until you figure out a system that works for you (just like finance, eh? :))
• Takes time to declutter your life
• When you’re holding stuff you don’t need, you’re keeping them from other people. You’re keeping them from being useful to other people.

What a last line there. Keeping stuff that can be useful to other people – such an interesting way of looking at it.

So as you can see, it is about being better for the environment and your wallet, but it’s even more of a conscious LIFESTYLE. A lifestyle that’s on the opposite of the spectrum (not unlike extreme early retirement), but one that’s still very much attainable. For some more so than others ;)

The 5 R’s of Zero Waste

This whole movement is built upon the following 5 main R’s of living: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot. (And only in that order, says Bea :)):

1. Refuse what you do not need
2. Reduce what you do need
3. Reuse what you consume
4. Recycle what you cannot Refuse, Reduce or Reuse
5. and Rot (compost) the rest.

You’ll notice this overlaps a lot with the tenets of smart personal finance.

Refusing what you do not need — I.e. Not buying more “stuff!” Focusing on the needs over the wants (though Zero Wasters would quickly point out that wants are okay/important so long as you consciously do it in a way that fits)

Reducing what you need — You need clothes and shelter and a handful of other stuff, but you don’t need the biggest house on the block stuff full of clothes and toys and a myriad of other things. There’s power (and savings!) in minimizing the amount of stuff which will still grant the same – if not more – amount of happiness.

Reuse what you consume — The more you reuse, the more you don’t need to go out and buy again! Saving both money AND time. (And I like to think that donating/selling stuff on Craigslist also falls in line here. Instead of reusing it yourself, you’re sending it to a new home to be used)

Recycle what you cannot Refuse, Reduce or Reuse — This one won’t necessarily save you any money, but it will get you to double think future purchases and how you consume stuff if your end goal is to recycle or compost it which is the last step in the no-waste cycle.

Composting (rotting) the rest — No more trash bags/cans! Which = savings! Now I don’t know how exactly you go about composting your stuff (doesn’t seem that complicated?), but the fact Bea’s family of 4 only fills up 1 jar full of waste in a YEAR shows that it’s quite possible to go without trash cans. As insane as that is to imagine.

Here’s a picture of their waste from 2014:

And that right there is the reason she’s dubbed the “The Priestess of Waste-Free Living” haha… By the NY Times, no less. Talk about inspirational!

And not to get too far off track here, but her kids were giving her a hard time by holding onto all these jars (because it’s quite literally waste! Haha…), so in a blog post she asked her readers what she should do with them, which lead me down another fascinating path of “bottle bricks” and “bottle schools.” which people use for all kinds of amazing projects and good.

[by upcyclesantafe.org]

It’s truly amazing the passion and creativity people have in this world… and that they’re using it for the GOOD instead of bad!

Zero Waste in my own home?

I don’t know how all this will effect me and my family down the line, after all, it’s pretty hardcore, but I already see the wheels turning as I move room from room noticing how waste-FULL I’ve become over the years. We throw out bags and bags worth every week without thought, and I’m hoping this becomes one of those light bulb moments where you look back and see how far you’ve come :) Again, not unlike those events that lead us to better financial management!

So there you have it. Zero Waste 101 :) Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot.

Let it marinate over the weekend and see how you feel about it. I’m not here to convince you in either direction, I just find it helpful to explore new lifestyles with hopes of picking off the good parts and mashing it into your own world :) You never know which will end up changing your life (7 years ago I could care less about personal finance!), but it’s worth taking a few minutes to find out.

I’ll share all the other side effects of working like Benjamin Franklin next week.  I wonder what he would have thought about Zero Waste?

UPDATE: I’m now composting!! And doing other zero waste things :)

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PS: Here’s a great list from Bea on 100 ways to incorporate No Waste into your life. I found it super helpful when asking myself how the hell you start :)

[This post, The Zero Waste Lifestyle, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

I got a really interesting/confusing email the other day that initially through me for a loop. It was from my friend B. and went something like this:

“Hey Jay! Do you still do money coaching? I need some help getting my finances in order and thought maybe you get me back on track. Lemme know.”

Nothing too out of the blue, right? Plenty of people need help with their money or else blogs and coaching and, well, the entire financial industry wouldn’t be around. So at first glance everything’s normal here…

But here’s the kicker – the person who emailed me? He’s a PERSONAL FINANCE BLOGGER!! Someone who’s helped hundreds, and probably thousands, of people throughout his blog lifetime just like me. And who’s always given great, if not excellent, advice.

So why would my friend need ME to help him out? When he knows money just as well as I do? Well, after the shock wore off and I flat out asked him. And his answer was one I’m sure is familiar to all of us:

“I’m in one of those funks… I’ve got so much $hit going on in my life right now that I just can’t keep up. I literally need someone to look at my money, assess it, and then just tell me what to do with it. I need a plan.”

Wow, yup – understood! I was the same with investing. Took me forever to finally do something about my money scattered everywhere, until one day I literally asked a blogger friend what he’d do in my shoes, and then I did exactly that. Humans are notorious for dwelling on things forever and not taking action, so sometimes we just need an outside (trustworthy!) source to knock us straight and get us going again :) And for B., that was me.

So that’s takeaway #1 here: It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you do – everyone needs help with money. Some just hide it to themselves while other, smarter people (like B.) do something about it when they realize they’re stuck. So don’t ever think you’re alone in this money game – we’re all trying to figure it out!

Takeaway #2 is that we’re all in different phases with this stuff. And sometimes we repeat some of them when life gets in our way too. I’ve said this plenty of times on this blog before, but I can’t stress it enough. We have to do our best not to compare our situations with others because everyone’s in a different stage with money right now. Perhaps your peers in high school or college, or even 1st “real” job out of college are on a similar level, but even so we all have different goals and dreams, and some of us take longer for the $$ bulb to go off than others.

Hell, it took me 27 years to finally stop and pay attention to this stuff! So I’ve only been fiscally savvy for a good 7. That’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things. And throughout those 7 years I’ve gone from breaking even with money, to doing great, to freakin’ rolling in it, to breaking even again, and now to losing a little every month (though, more consciously than when I didn’t know what I was doing before).

Regardless of the stage you’re in right now, just remember it’s all temporary. Things will get better later, just as things may get worse. But if you’re eyes are open the whole time you’ll get through everything just fine :)

So what did we put together for my friend, B.?

Well, we hopped on the phone for 40 mins, talked about everything he wanted to accomplish over the next few years, and then formulated a plan specifically to that. And it was the plan, itself, that he needed most out of everything. It’s hard to reach your goals when you don’t have the schematics to get there, am I right Jack Bauer?

Here’s what B. wanted to accomplish, in order of priority:

1. Pay off all his debt ($20,000)
2. Build back up an emergency fund ($4,000)
3. Start saving for a house
4. Contribute to retirement again at some point

And then here’s some things about B. that’s helpful to know before reading the plan:

• B. has a 9-5 job that covers all his living expenses
• B. has a side hustle that brings in some decent money (personal finance blog)
• B. has another side hustle that brings in some money, but not as much as the blog
• B. is a “chunker” – someone who gets more motivated paying things off/saving in chunks of money vs tiddlywink amounts here and there
• B. will spend anything that’s “extra” in his accounts and usually not have anything to show for it
• B. is GREAT with money once he’s on a mission

(It’s also important to note that he recently went through some pretty big life changes… It doesn’t excuse a lot of the actions here, but it’s still something to keep in mind. We try to get the whole back story with coaching so we know if it’s a lifelong problem we’re dealing with or more of a one-off, but from knowing B. it seems to be more of a recent issue. So we leave it alone, do our best not to judge, and then get to work on setting things straight again.)

The Plan For B.’s Money…

Okay, so here’s the plan we set up for him… Loosely based on the Gigs For Goals concept we’ve blogged about before on assigning specific income streams to specific bills or goals you have.

Goal #1. Kill all debt

Since my friend has a main 9-5 which covers all his normal living expenses, he’s in the fortunate position where all side hustles are “extra.” And since we know he’s loosey goosey with his extra money, the first thing we needed to do was to assign each and every last dollar purpose. So we decide all income from his main hustle (pf blog) will be the gasoline to help light this debt bitch right on up and incinerated once and for all. He’ll be creating a new savings account to funnel all blog money to going forward (and aptly labeling it “Kill Debt!” to further stay motivated), and then at the end of every month he’ll apply the total balance directly against all debts. Nice and easy without any need to think about it again. (Outside of ordering which debts to pay first with the plan)

Why this will work: A) my friend doesn’t need any of this money to live off, b) it’s separated out (and labeled) from all other money keeping everything organized, c) the monthly chunks play towards my friend’s “chunker-ism” and d) it gives all this extra money a purpose so it’s not blown on nonsense. It’s all about structure when you’re trying to get your $hit together

Goal #2. Building back up the emergency fund

Similar to what we’re doing with his debt, we’ll do the same with his second goal here: channel all money from hustle #2 right towards one dedicated spot: cash savings. And again, since my friend has a 9-5 that covers all his normal expenses, we don’t have to worry about him going into further debt, at least in theory. So the e-fund doesn’t have to be top priority, where it might in situations of those living paycheck to paycheck. B. reckons he could have this fund built back up to the $4,000 level (from $0.00 right now) within 8-10 months. At which point we change the direction of hustle #2’s cash flow towards the next important goal on the list. Which, at this point, is the saving for a new house.

Why this will work: For the same reasons as goal #1 will – gives extra money a purpose and diverts into one spot specially allocated to receive it. And as we all know, if you don’t touch your savings the only way for it to go is UP. And up it will, each and every month so long as hustle #2 is in full effect (which he assures me it will). And the beauty of this goal is that it’s temporary.

Goal #3. Start saving for a house

Although this was item #3 on the priority list, once I found out about his employer’s 401(k) benefits, we quickly decided to move this to goal #4 on the list which will take over from the #2 goal above once the e-fund is complete. A 6-8 delay for now, but one we both agreed was smart since the opportunity here to jump start retirement again is incredibly good (as you’ll soon see).

Why this will work: Even though we’re not putting money towards this goal right now, there’s a plan for it in the not far off future, and in the meantime will give B. that much more motivation to make sure that e-fund gets filled. Unless he comes up with side hustle #3 and doesn’t want to wait ;)

Goal #4. Contribute to retirement again

This was the biggest shock of them all to me, and one I’m SUPER glad we caught. My good friend B. – which you’ll remember is a personal finance blogger! – was currently contributing a whopping 0% into his 401(k) retirement account. And what makes it worse/best now? His employer matches up to 6% of his income! Which means he invests 6% of his salary, and THEY invest an additional 6% of his salary – for free. Wow. You could have a 12% savings rate just by putting in 6% of your paycheck every two weeks. And that’s before it grows in the markets year after year too – pretty amazing stuff.

So, of course, this week he’ll be marching into HR and jacking up that % from 0 straight to 6. Will he notice the difference? Maybe. But nothing you couldn’t get used to too quickly. And since my friend admittedly blows any extra money, this will prevent him from having that much extra in the end. Worst case he can lower it later or throw less $$ towards debt if he wants to, but that all requires “work” and we all know once things are set in place we tend to get lazy and leave it be ;) So it’s smart to use that to your advantage especially in these cases.

Why this will work: The investments are automatic, it helps lesson any “extra” money to spend, and it in effect doubles his retirement income without lifting a finger. Putting 12% into retirement will be fine for a while so he can forget about it and know he’s doing well. Once his other goals are complete he can consider plopping in more as he’s still relatively young.

That’s the whole plan in a nutshell :) As you can see, he’s not in that bad of a situation all in all. Having more income than you need every month is a pretty fortunate position to be in, and of course gives you much more options than the reverse. It’ll take a few years for B. to get back on top again, but I have no doubt he’ll be able to do so if he sticks to the plan… (and we didn’t even go over any of his expenses on this first round – there could be room to speed things up there too!)

Here’s the takeaways from everything:

1. Everyone goes through phases with money, even professionals
2. It’s important we give all our dollars a purpose (try Gigs For Goals if you haven’t before!)
3. It’s important we KNOW what our goals and dreams are so we can plan for them!
4. It’s good to know how we work emotionally, as well as logically with money
5. It’s important to admit when we have a problem (and to then ask for help)
6. Side hustles can be game changers!!

Was I surprised that a fellow money blogger needed help with his money? Hell yeah I was. But do I now have mad respect for this guy for reaching out? You can bet your sweet home fries I do… It’s one thing to get yourself into a sucky situation like that, but a whole other to then spill your guts to someone you know. Especially a fellow financial blogger.

So I’m glad he gave me a ring, and I’m doubly glad he then allowed me to share this with y’all. I hope it gives you guys some good ideas, and at the least an appreciation of whatever your own situation is. We’re all in different stages with our money, but our end goals are always the same: Hit financial freedom sooner than later.

So keep pushing forward! You’re one step closer just being on a finance blog! :)

-J to the Hizzy

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[Photo cred: Barta IV]

[This post, Even Experts Need Help With Money, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]