As someone who works in the nonprofits and has two young children as I approach 40, I've never thought that MMM ways would afford me the early retirement that many folks here have with a better paying job and lower expenses. Instead, I expected that it would help me to work less, enjoy life more and hopefully retire at a somewhat normal age. That said, I've got big news!
In the past few months I've:
Sold my rental property for %130 more than what I bought it for five years ago (and made a tidy profit renting it in the interim years!)
Used many of the proceeds from renting it out to aggressively pay down my wife's remaining school loans. ($50,000 in five years, while raising an infant!)
Recently sold one of my nicer bikes (for more than I bought it for!) and wasn't getting the use it should to pay off the remaining $2,700 on that school tab. Reducing school loan expenses from what was almost $600 a month to $0!
So now our only debt is our remaining home, which we bought for $210,000 three years ago. We recently did a bit of a double take of our lives and have decided to move back to where I grew up, and where my family lives (from Denver to Minneapolis). According to our Realtor the current house is likely to sell for about $270-$280 (not a bad return on a non-investment. :) ) Anyway, we are figuring that we can pay almost entirely in cash for the next house with the proceeds from the profits from the previous home sale.
Finally, my oldest daughter will be starting kinder in the fall, putting us down one day care cost and only two years out from having zero daycare costs as the second kiddo makes the same transition. (Savings of about $1,600 total a month - 8 bills for one kid!)
I've got our second car on Craigslist (worth about $3,000) right now even though the associated costs with owning a paid off car that has minimal insurance is negligible I see the next stage of our life being much more dialed back in terms of expenses and two cars is just silly with the amount of biking we do.
Why am I sharing this badassity? With no debt and a minimal future mortgage, our savings rate will likely be around 60-70% if we choose to work full time, if we choose otherwise, we get to spend much more time with our children during a pivotal age and our Mustachian ways will allow us to do it with ease.
I'm literally buzzing I'm so excited about the financial position we'll be in and of course even my wife isn't as interested in this awesomeness as I am, so I come to you all to share my (our) badassity.
Thanks for listening!
Our next home will likely be about 1400 square feet, in an amazing walkable/bikeable neighborhood and have us spending much less time dealing with our home stuff (cleaning, fixing, etc) and more time being awesome.
Thanks for listening, my badassity is shared.
