Case Study for Newly Weds!

[SheepDog]

ALSO: Please, PLEASE stay FAR FAR FAR FAR away from any "nutritional/fitness" "business opportunities" - you mentioned those - that happen to be "network marketing", "multi-level marketing" or whatever the newest term for PYRAMID SCHEME is these days. Please. This is the single worst decision I've seen my peers make is to get suckered into these scams and pay ~$5k UP FRONT, harass and lose friends, eventually sell out at a loss.

Read up on these. Stay far, far away.

Yes I tend to agree here.  I told my wife I thought it was stupid and a waste of time at most when she told me about it.  But, she "only" had to spend $100 to get started.  I have watched over her spending closely and so far she is breaking even.  She basically earns enough money to purchase her own stuff with it.  She is starting to see the light on it.  I think it was more of a hobby or experiment on her part.  We have already discussed that once she can't break even with it, it's done. 

[SheepDog]

Fellow newly-wed, 20's here:

1. THREE CARS?!?

My husband and I get by with two (soon to be ONE!) paid off, compact cars (Go, Honda Civic!) - and you wouldn't believe what those "little" cars can do - weeklong camping trips, serious loads from Home Depot (we just bought a house) - lots of friends with inner tubes, cases of beer, etc.

2. Avoid "20's Lifestyle Creep" - (not going to mention avocado toast here; feel free to continue reading):

- Live simply, before you get caught up in the reckless materialism of our parents' lives - it worries me that you want to "upgrade" your house for sale, presumably to buy something bigger. Are you out of space? Can you re-arrange?

3. Newley-wed-ness:

- Maybe wait on kids, for a bit? Cheap dates - get good at these!

WHOA - looks like you did a TON - congrats on the truck, and enjoy the superb gas savings of just about any other car!

1 - Truck is gone.  Down to two gas saving vehicles.  Have just fully fixed up one and getting ready to fix up the other. 

2 - We made a mistake when we bought our first house.  No sugar coating it.  We were young and dumb (22 years old), not knowing exactly what we wanted, and settled on one of the first houses we found.  We want a newer house in the country with some land closer to our jobs.  We currently live in a 100 year old house with no land downtown in a city.  We both grew up in the countryside and desperately want to return.  Sure city life has its conveniences but its not what we want.  Too bad we didn't figure that out sooner.

3 - I wanted to wait at least until I'm 30 before kids.  I've made my wife wait for 7 years already but she's getting impatient lol.  Hell, took me 6 years to propose!  Probably going to have kids in the next 1-2 years.

[bocopro]

I apologize for not reading through your epic progress more completely before I wrote my first post: wow, to you both!

You're killing it, living more simply, and sound like you're headed in the right direction. Congrats on the truck, and also on the future-kids-soonish! (I think I thought you were a bit younger than you are- you're more "wise" than I expected!)

As a fellow "millennial female" - I get so much spam about those MLMs it's unbelievable. I didn't know 95% of my friends were "personal fitness experts" but apparently, I was wrong!

I think the key thing about the relentless advertisements we all need to be aware of as Mustachians is their abysmal attitude towards work ethic - every one starts with "Well, I was working 40, 50 hour weeks and I was TIRED. I COULDN'T even make ends meet! My life was horrible! Then I found this magic fountain of money I earn with NO WORK!" That's just a poor attitude towards taking charge of our own finances and our lives, and we don't want that to rub off on any of us!  Another thing with people in them is they get cult-y and strange quickly, and are hard to get out of once their IV-drip of Kool-Aid gets too steady.

As smart Mustachians, you may be more successful than average, and by all means try, but be a bit wary (as you sound like you are being!). You're just getting a bit of my irrational rage over these things ruining lives of already-poor, easily-conned people (which is who they tend to prey on, sadly). Sorry about that! Carry on.

You guys have such a good attitude towards change, I have no doubt you'll be on the fast track to financial happiness and care-free life very soon!

[SheepDog]

I made an argument to my wife the other day about her Facebook advertising.  I mentioned that she keeps putting up her "sales" every week or so and yet she never gets any "likes" or messages about them, even with her large friends list.  The only people she regularly sells to are her small group of co-workers. 

The biggest thing is that I think she has spread herself too thin with her real job and her successful photography business that she doesn't have time to really focus on the sales stuff.  I'm sure she could make some more money on it but it could never replace the income that she already has.  I can't be too hard on her because she isn't losing money on it "yet", and she's put up with my stupid and unsuccessful ideas in the past. 

The person who signed her up put on this "Look at me and how much money we make" show and that's how she reels in people.  In reality her family is rather rich from a large windfall, several millions, and I firmly believe they fund their "success" with that money.  My wife knows about the money but is a little naive about them faking the success lol. 

[SheepDog]

2018 UPDATE:

Big news!  The wife and I both landed new jobs!  Her new job basically increased her income by 250%!  When her salary tops out in 4 years, her new job will earn more by itself than our two previous jobs combined!   Not to mention other great benefits like free family healthcare.  My new job is a much more modest increase of about 15%, but much better working environment and more career potential.

The downside?  Both of us now drive 50 plus miles a day to our jobs.  We still have our gas sippers but they are aging and will get wear and tear at an accelerated rate now.  Both cars are at 150k plus miles.

I've also started college again to complete my 4yr degree.  My 2yr degree isn't enough to land the job I really am aiming for.

Wife also gave up the pyramid scheme supplement "business" after I showed her the numbers from our spreadsheet.  As a result, she had more time to shoot photography bringing in almost 5k this fall/winter alone!

Some stats for 2017:

Net income of 74k with 70k expenses. (Equates to a savings rate of 6.5%.) 
Overall net worth gain of 30k.  (mostly due to sale of truck and investment returns.  Does not include Q4 results, which look to be another 3-4k increase.)
Reduced CC bill down to under 9k, was almost maxed out at 15k last spring.
Increased our emergency savings to 2.8k.  Had basically $0 this time last year.
Have almost 5k cash on hand at any given moment, much better than a year ago.

Goals for 2018:

Cut expenses further.
Attempt to double or triple savings rate.
Pay off CC bill in full.
Begin saving for down payment on new house closer to our new jobs.
Probably end up having a child.
Start thinking about newer used vehicles towards the end of this year or next.  Hopefully we can squeak another year or 2 out of these cars.


Anyways, thanks for reading and following along.  2017 would not have been as successful as it was without the much needed reality check provided by the readers here!  Looking forward to any thoughts and hoping everyone has a great new year!

[nereo]

Great news SheepDog

The dramatic increase in income will certainly help you out, though the commutes will be a new pain in your life.   Keep following the investment order as your cash flow improves - here's where it gets exciting as debt disappears.

Happy New Year

[Playing with Fire UK]

Probably end up having a child.

This is a joke, right? Please tell me this is a joke. For the love of Thor, don't end up having a child. If you plan to consciously choose to have a child you can financially and emotionally support, do crack on. If you (both of you!) are not wildly enthusiastic about having a child then don't, really don't.

[SheepDog]

Probably end up having a child.

This is a joke, right? Please tell me this is a joke. For the love of Thor, don't end up having a child. If you plan to consciously choose to have a child you can financially and emotionally support, do crack on. If you (both of you!) are not wildly enthusiastic about having a child then don't, really don't.

You are reading way to far into a simple statement, lol.

[charis]

Probably end up having a child.

This is a joke, right? Please tell me this is a joke. For the love of Thor, don't end up having a child. If you plan to consciously choose to have a child you can financially and emotionally support, do crack on. If you (both of you!) are not wildly enthusiastic about having a child then don't, really don't.

I read that statement as, we will be trying to conceive, so we will probably end up having one, but nothing is guaranteed.