1.Struggling to get my savings rate up to 50-65% is it even possible? I knew selling my house and getting out of a $1800 was the first start.
2.Any ideas on the rental, or just keep renting it? Thought about moving back into it, but it is a really bad school district that I will not send my daughter back to.
Maybe I'm the crazy outlier here, but do the math on your rentals. In-depth math - calculate all the costs, hoa fees, depreciation, mileage to visit them, interest cost, etc. You have a $300/mo difference between the PITI and your interest/principal.. which is either pretty high property tax or looks suspiciously like mortgage insurance..
Make a spreadsheet for each property. Maybe you already have this, but I'm not sure. Almost all your expenses for a rental should be deductible, and if you expect your income to drop in the next few years you can depreciate now and take the cap gains later. See if that changes your perspective.
Also, check your child support laws: Some states count total income, meaning every single cent you make from as many jobs as you have, and some states only count income from your primary job. I'm not advocating you skirt around support laws, but take advantage where you can - and you're extremely fortunate to pay as little as you do. That said, it may make it worth your while to keep one or both properties if they don't count against you. If it does - it may be advantageous to dump the properties and diversify into equities and partnerships that primarily return capital or provide growth, rather than pay dividends or rent.
3.When buying my next house, I keep looking for upgrades, ie. the remodel. Any tips on downgrading and accepting lesser features in the house. I am talking about larger kitchen, lights, bathrooms, amenities like central air?
My overall advice for housing: find the structure you want, with decent bones in it, that will support what you want to do with it over a few years (to give you time to find good people to help). You can't change the way a house faces, the way it's framed, or the road noise that you get.. everything else is pretty negotiable.
Specifically:
I only look for properties with equity baked into the deal - and I look at: First - the roof, get on the roof and look in the attic before you ever make an offer if at all possible. Second - air conditioning / heat / water heater units - the newer and more efficient the better. Third, plumbing - what type of plumbing (especially what type of copper), age of the pipes, and how they are connected - soldered/glued/newer connections (shark bites, etc on the plumbing fixtures), and tub/showers...I go for older ones that have some service left in them but I will make some money by remodeling. If buying older properties - make sure you know what kind of electrical is in the walls. If buying a house that is being flipped - most flippers will avoid or skimp on these areas because: You can spend real money fixing these areas.
Kitchen: Look at where the kitchen sits in the structure, how many walls around it are load bearing and could you knock out some to open it up if you needed to.
The rest of the stuff: Light fixtures are super easy to change out yourself (and tons in thrift/consignment stores), and you can find dozens of handymen to do drywall, stucco, masonry, removing non-load bearing walls, or other work if you know what you want.
4.Other than biking to work, I am looking for other face punch worthy things to eliminate.
Eliminate Cable: Netflix/Amazon don't have commercials. And boardgames are awesome. I randomly pick up a few at goodwill just to find out if all the pieces are there, or at least enough to play. I find if my daughter avoids the commercials and advertisements on regular tv then she wants fewer toys and we spend more quality time together.
Vehicle: That's a lot to spend on a vehicle to only go 21 miles to work 3 days a week.. Even including depreciation on my vehicle, I think I spend less than that to commute to a job 150 miles away from my house (I do only make one 300 mile round trip a week though).
5.About to dive back in the dating scene, read the forums, some entertaining posts there. Any tips on how to stay frugal, while simultaneously trying to date, outside of there?
Walks in parks, hiking, coffee dates, street fairs...you have a pet, dog walking / dog park ? Things that involve quality time. Dinners, Shows, Movies, are fun in moderation but all involve sitting for several hours in one place.. if that's how you want a significant portion of the rest of your life to be then pursue those activities first instead. Once you get a couple dates in, I think cooking at home and a bottle of wine is apropos.. but maybe I'm just a boring individual.
6.Don't really have any hobbies. Any tips on finding something you love? Only thing that I put time into is my daughter and internet/gaming when I don't have her. I need a life. Otherwise, what is the point in doing all this.
Try to learn something new every day. Start a project, even if you never finish it. Deepen the relationships you have with your siblings, parents, other relatives..in a way that isn't facebook. Volunteer, it also can be an awesome way to meet quality people to date - try looking at volunteer.gov. Grow something, start with an herb garden in your kitchen window - my daughter and I plant all kinds of things together. Plus there are usually free garden workshops that community colleges put on.
7.Life Insurance, how much is too much? I currently pay about $80/mo to two sources for about $450K each. Am I just throwing money away?
Yep, just throwing money away. You only need enough to pay out your child support and pay off your debts. I think you only need about 400k, and maybe drop it down to 200-250k in the next few years.
You should be more concerned with where the money will go, and how it gets there, if you pass away; what kind of will, trust, etc do you have that protects that nest egg and provides for your child at the same time.
* If you have rental properties operating as a sole proprietorship or as a sole LLC...then pretty please pick up an umbrella insurance policy. USAA tends to have good pricing if you are a member.
