Life Situation: I am an American living in Mexico, filing taxes single, but living with my long-term partner husband. Most of our income is in my husband’s (Mexican) name, so I fall way under the minimum to even have to pay taxes. My husband doesn’t have to pay Mexican taxes either, so we can pretty much disregard that. We have four kids under 4. Currency used is US dollars.
We are have our own business and my husband is a contractor, so our income can vary, the following numbers are averages.
Gross Salary/Wages: We make about $1200/month = $500 (family business) + $700/month (husband’s construction business).
Rental Income: We just finished our rental apartment, so hard to say how much we will actually earn in the high season (winter). I’m estimating this at $500/month.
Rental Expenses: $50/month for gas and electric.
Adjusted Gross Income: $1650 US/month
Taxes: 0. (We will likely pay something for the rental, since that’s in my name, in my US account, but I’d say it’s going to be pretty minimal since my income is so low).
Current expenses: $1300
Nanny:$400/month. (6 days a week, 5-7 hours/day, for my three toddlers. Total cost, not per child)
Groceries: $400/month
Gasoline: $173/month
Household $133/month
Gas: $15/month
Electric: $12/month
Lunch out: $80/month
Cell phone: $26
Home internet: $23
Fun stuff (new computer, kindle books, random toys for me): $33/month averaged
Misc. Hm, this suggests we save about $500/month, but I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate. Some unrecorded expenses are money that has gone into our house because we’re still working on it. I consider that “saving” rather than “spending”.
Assets: About $5000 invested. Some with Waddell & Reed which I want to switch to Vanguard, and some through Etrade in stocks.
$200,000 estimated value of the house (our house which includes a 2nd story rental).
5 cows (each worth $1000, and consider also that each female has one calf each year. If the calf is female it will eventually have calves, and if it’s male, it can be sold. We are not selling these right now, we are letting them grow and multiply. Free-range, so no expenses).
Liabilities: House--$30,000 in debt, but a zero-interest loan from a family member. So 0/month (I expect to pay it off but maybe after selling the house or after we are in a better financial position. It just seems better to invest any extra money, let it grow, and then pay it off. Although I do think a symbolic minimum monthly payment might be good.)
2 cars, which I hate because they are both gas-guzzling monsters. Trying to sell one and get a better one, and then sell the other and just have one. Each worth about $2000 and obviously paid off. Also, I just bought a bike (yay), but am looking for an infant bike seat since my baby comes to work with me.
Specific Question(s): I spend a lot of time calculating and re-calculating and generally worrying about how we simply don’t make enough to save “enough”. I worry that I wasted my twenties not earning compound interest (actually I did invest all through my twenties, and I used that money to set my life up down here).
So now I’m worried I’m missing the whole point, which is to enjoy life. After all, that’s why I moved to Mexico and chose to start a business I love rather than working a high-income job. So how are we doing? Should I just be more patient? Any obvious changes I can make to speed it up?