Hi Everyone,
WOW!
Took me about 6 weeks of reading but I've now read every article. Was a bit weird to read the straight line article just now and not have a link at the bottom to the next article! So I thought it was about time I joined the forum and started reading it too.
So a bit about myself...
Firstly, TL;DR version......love the blog, we are doing pretty good but will be making some changes, glad to be here and will post when I think I can add something in the forums.
Long version.........
I'm 39 and my wife is 33. Both work full time.
We are a DINK household. Total household income last year was $136,000 after tax.
Last year we managed to save $65,000
Only personal debt is our home mortgage which currently technically sits at $300,000 at 5.44% variable rate, however we have $46,000 sitting in there saving us interest that we can redraw if we desperately need it so really the mortgage is $256,000
Living in Sydney, Australia it isn't as simple as "live close to where you work" unfortunately. My wife, a Police Officer, has a 30 minute commute each way to her work but houses in that area would be way out of our price range anyway. When her tenure is up in another 6 months she is hoping to get a transfer closer to home but we shall see. I'm a fire fighter and part of my job is travel all over the place to cover for people who are on leave. Some days that can be a couple of hours drive each way. However, I do get paid more to do it and I also get paid extra per kilometer I drive. That per kilometer part that covers my work related driving actually covers all my costs and makes me money. Her car is a tiny 3 door hatch back. Mine is a ute but I need it to carry a load of work gear around the place and our dogs when we go camping or to the dog park. It does get 29 mpg though so it's not all bad!
We have a combined total of $158,000 in our superannuation(our version of 401k stuff) which kind of sucks. The GFC pretty much cut it in half. The rules have recently been changed allowing us to manage this money ourselves. So we are looking at setting that up and either investing in more property or in dividend paying index funds.
We have used the saved equity in our home to invest in property and we are currently in the process of purchasing a total of 6 investment properties. Through the tax benefits and rents and a government incentive given to rent the properties to lower income families(but still good tenants with jobs) they will all end up being cash flow positive. We will be better off by approximately $30,000 per year starting around July/August this year when they all get finished being built. That will all go to paying down the personal home mortgage quicker.
Overall I feel we are doing pretty good, having never had cable tv, don't eat out much, cook our own food, only go to the movies on cheap tuesday and only about once every few months, etc. Not a deprived life but careful and well within "budget". About the only real "antimustachian" expense is our 2 large dogs and cat. They do cost a pretty penny let me tell you! However, they are part of our family now and our responsibility and we love them so don't even think about suggesting we get rid of them! :-)
After reading the blog though, some changes are being made. The grocery store is about 2km away so no more driving there, it's biking there now. The coffee's we occassionally buy whilst out with the dogs are gone since we have a nice coffee machine at home. We track everything we spend with an app on our phones. Phones will be changed to a cheaper plan as soon as the contracts are up as well.
So there you have it.