My hair is crawling with flaming bees of consumer debt.
I've updated with debt interest rates, and broke some of the categories down further (I tried to combine for brevity, but lack of details is lacking). I am correcting some items, especially that I'm at least half to blame for our notable hair-on-fire consumer debt of $57,540.
It is my aim to hit FI by 45, in ~16 years (targeting ~1.1 million for a ~3% withdrawal rate. This is about 62,000/year if no interest was earned and I did not earn anything after FI), and/or hopefully transition from full-time engineering work to at least part-time YouTube creation within the next 5-10 years. SO is targeting a more typical working career length.
Income:
My gross day job income 3,566 monthly after taxes, and the ~$1500 monthly pre-tax into my 401k, between my contribution and employer match.
YouTube channel income $130 monthly
SO income ~$2701 monthly
Total Income: $6,397 per month
Expenses, in descending order, and per month as averaged over last 12 months:
Food - $1,467.99 (FRICK. 550 restaurant, 60 booze, 45 coffee. I almost want to punch MYSELF in the face)
Mortgage - $1,443.40 (we chose where we live for the school district)
Transportation - $458.37
$153.44 Auto payment
$104.75 Auto insurance
$94.87 Gas
$53.88 Parking
$51.43 eBike repairs (first assembly and tire rebuild after nasty spill)
Misc. - $428.38 (doctor, charity, home projects, kid activities, pets, pharmacy)
$128.68 Doctor & therapist
$81.52 Charity
$40.56 Home Projects
$28.90 Kid Activities
$26.74 Pets (though the canned cat food is hidden in the grocery bill. Our boy cat barfs and scratches himself bloody on all the dry food we've tried)
$21.55 Pharmacy
Utilities - $342.75 (electric, garbage, internet, etc.)
$261.63 power company, trash, water, etc
$81.12 Internet
Vacation - $329.14 (three major-ish vacations this year, which is atypical)
consolidated cc debt - $322.40
Shopping - $321.33 (too damn many impulse amazon purchases)
Mobile Phone - $207.13 ($48 for mine through RW, balance SO through Verizon)
Entertainment - $183.84 (both myself and SO have spent too much on microtransactions and games)
Asst. Purchases - $170.49 (hobbies, books, movies, clothing)
$52.98 Hobbies, mostly xmas presents, cosplay items
$40.32 Books (books, audiobooks, and the now-cancelled $15/mo NYT subscription)
$40.20 Movies (includes Netflix, renting movies, going out to movies)
$36.99 Clothing (some of this is hidden in the grocery bill. Includes $20 loot crate SO has been on)
YouTube-related - $160.27 (buying games, hardware upgrades, etc.)
Fees & Charges - $143.79 (mostly CC interest)
Student Loan - $143.48
Total Expenses: $6,122
Assets:
House - 311,000
401k - $82,000
SO pension - ~$80,000
Asst. investments on Betterment - $4,707 ($2,100 of which is emergency fund)
2009 Toyota Yaris - $3000 (115k miles)
2013 Nissan Leaf - $8000 (55k miles)
Juiced Bikes Crosscurrent S: $2000
Sum: $490,707
Liabilities:
Mortgage: $177,500 owed on a $200,000 loan (don't have the APR to hand, but I believe it's 3.25%)
Consolidated cc debt - $29,189 @5.29%
Student Loans: $11,222 @5.875%
Nissan Leaf loan - $6,679 @3.74%
Fidelity Visa - $4,650 @12.49%
Southwest card - $5,800 @17.74%
REI mastercard - $0 @18.49%
Target Card - $0 @24.65%
Sum: $228,361
Me and my Goals:
I’m 29 with a SO and 5yo kiddo, and I want to get my arse in gear with plans to retire by age 45. Kiddo just went into kindergarten, so we suddenly have a fair amount less school fees (still does before school care). I’m pretty sure we were running in the negative each month when in pre-k care.
My SO works for the government and has stated that she has no intentions of retiring early (which is why I always try to frame it as FI, and not ER). At the start of the year, we sold the 24 MPG subaru Impreza for a Nissan Leaf, which I think has been good. Still have a Toyota Yaris that’s has a damaged passenger door and mold in the trunk after getting rear ended messed up the seal to the trunk.
We took a Disney Vacation at the start of the year that we’d saved for and stayed within budget (yay!), but subsequently spend the flight delay vouchers on a trip visiting friends in San Francisco, which we neither had a budget for, nor would probably have stayed within it if we did have one.
I have a YouTube channel that is the top 20% globally, and I aspire to do that with most of my post-FIRE time, as it is the most fulfilling thing I’ve done thus far. The unfortunate reality on YouTube is that it is not a good means to make money, but it is extremely satisfying. This is, in part, what drives my towards FI, so I can pursue the thing love doing.
I feel like we should be able to manage some pretty swift moves towards FIRE with our income level, but we have been exceptionally flabby and lazy with tracking our spending, frivolous purchases, and generally not doing a super job in handling and tracking money.
Questions:
1) Aside from our grotesque food expenditure, are there other items that are grossly off from typical?
2) Tips when your SO has a much longer FI timeline than you? I don’t want to be like the spending police, and I own at least half the blame for our current financial situation.
3) What are biggest bang for the buck ways to pay down consumer debt? Our consumer debt is stupid, and needless. I want to find ways to pay this shit off fast, and build systems to STAY out of it.
4) Thoughts on when you have a very different retirement timeline than does your SO?
Please feel free to ask about clarifications, comments, and face punches (I have a feeling: RIP, my face).
Edit: Cooking at home gets a little fancy, because SO is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, is suspicious whether she is allergic to beans, chickpeas, and lentils, and will not eat onions, or non-poultry meat. Do you have favorite recipes that don't include the above?