Case Study for the slimeball son-in-law

[ickhos]

I haven't read through all the replies, so there may be some duplication here...

Four things popped out at me:
1) Sell the Rubicon. $14K for a vehicle (much less a 12 year old Jeep??) is too much. You can find a swell 10 year old AWD for $5K.
2) Move now. You can get out of a lease, possibly with no penalty. If you landlord can find someone to take over when you leave, you should be fine (I am not a layer nor do I know CA landlord rules, but it's pretty common). It's worth trying even giving up a month's rent. One because the rent will be cheaper. Two, your commute is going to get 10x worse when the snows hit. If you work in the park, you should live in the park. You will save on gas, and you won't evenn need a second mountain car.
3) Shop for insurance. Insurance is $138? That seems high. We have two vehicles and pay $500 / year through Geico. Maybe you have comprehensive on both vehicles? Get rid of it on the Commander. Sell the Rubicon and get just liability on both. Shop around.
4) You have a landline plus internet? You can probably save $100 - $250 a year by dropping the landline. Skype and other free VOIP make a landline redundant.
5) Storage. Close it down effective December 1st.

However, those may just be bandaids.  If you really want to be happy, seriously consider the possibility that you could quit your job, move to a LCOL area, raise your kids yourself, and live off your wife's salary. You may find this leads to a more rewarding life, financially and emotionally.

Good luck!

[Saskatchewstachian]

As a non-American poster, are the numbers below for federal and state tax correct!?

Gross Salary/Wages: $115,020 yearly/$9,585 a month

Taxes:
Federal tax   $377
State/City tax   $147

This seems insanely low amount of tax to pay on an income of almost 10k/month. I'm currently in a 20.5% tax bracket for federal and 13% provincial for a whopping 33.5% tax rate (works out to ~25% per year after standard deductions) on a similar income. It seems crazy to me that a family can make >100k/yr and pay <6% in taxes, or is there something else I am missing?

[Heroes821]

As a non-American poster, are the numbers below for federal and state tax correct!?

Gross Salary/Wages: $115,020 yearly/$9,585 a month

Taxes:
Federal tax   $377
State/City tax   $147

This seems insanely low amount of tax to pay on an income of almost 10k/month. I'm currently in a 20.5% tax bracket for federal and 13% provincial for a whopping 33.5% tax rate (works out to ~25% per year after standard deductions) on a similar income. It seems crazy to me that a family can make >100k/yr and pay <6% in taxes, or is there something else I am missing?

Probably they both listed a large number of deductions (or w/e its called) on their paperwork so that less gets withheld by the employer and then they deal with the difference at tax time. Alternatively the taxes might be just his and not hers.

[JAYSLOL]

You should really consider axing the 2 jeeps if you do "a lot of driving".  Switching to 2 (or 1?) smaller cheaper car (bikes?) will help a lot, and try to get insurance down again.  Selling off Edward Jones and restarting once you paid your debts is a good idea.  Getting out of paying for storage ASAP and making some cash from what you sell is also a good plan.

[NoStacheOhio]

I would love to own a jeep and live and work in the mountains so in one way many would say you are living the dream.

However 70k in debt and 250 in gas a month. Any way you could sell those vehicles for a crv? Not sure what the winters are like. Even when you do move inside the park I assume you will want to leave once in a while.

I believe the fundamental issue is that we have been living the dream too long. Lol. Fixing the car issue has been a pet project of mine for about 6 months now and I've gotten research help from a fellow park friend (and MMM'er), but to no actionable solutions.

1. We've been here less than six months and have yet to experience a winter in the Sierras.  People give a lot of credence to Subarus in these parts, but I'm not convinced. I'd like to buy a Scion iA or Yaris but I'm not 100% convinced that I can get away with an econobox during these mountain winters. Which leads me to conundrum part 2...
2. Would it make sense to burn our liquid assets in order to save a few bucks?  My jeeps reliably get 17 mpg, (and theyve been paid off for five years) a CRV might get me 25 (many people have 4wd CRV's and report maybe 25 mpg). Best case scenario with the Yaris or iA (assuming they could do the job here) is savings of about $250 a month. Meanwhile, I lose liquid assets and also spend a lot of money on title and registration. Its expensive in CA too.

Bottom line: I've threatened to sell my rubicon several times in the past five years and that's when my wife looks at me like I've totally lost my mind. Selling the commander is a no-go not only because of its low resell value, but because it was a college grad gift to my wife from her father who just passed this year. Not going to happen.

Do you need TWO off-road vehicles? How much simultaneous driving do you guys do? Is going to one Jeep and one car feasible?

[Cannot Wait!]

Posting to follow.  I like 'slime ball makes good' stories.

[MikeMoeJackB]

Currently, we are using the two vehicles simultaneously. I drop off the kids at day care and drive to work about an hour away.  My wife picks them up in the afternoon.  And yeah, unfortunately, the two 4wd vehicles are necessary. 

I've picked this facet apart for about six months and there's no way around it right now.  The only relief I've found is to negotiate a telework day once a week and look into taking public transit into the park. Only problem is that after I drop off the kids at 7 am my work day starts at 8 am and I barely make it in time driving myself.  Conversely, the bus into the park arrives at 8:55 am (if that, its notorious late) and that just won't work. 

Regardless, I don't feel there is enough benefit from purchasing any other vehicles at this time.  I could exhaust my liquid assets & cash to purchase a more efficient car (i've mentioned a Yaris or Scion iA in here before), but that would take those assets from paying down debt and would not be useful/safe when the roads are crappy.  I could finance a decent car (Subaru has 0% offers currently and that would be a decent option for these conditions), but paying $350 a month car note to save $250 a month in gas is asinine.

Honestly, I feel like we're at an impasse with the vehicles.  The commander almost has 200k miles on it and I would like/need it to last just until we are out of debt so we can find a more efficient option.  The rubicon has pretty low miles for its age and I would love to stop driving it daily so it retains its value as it is a very rare jeep.  Either way, thanks for helping me think through these issues.

[MayDay]

Once you are living in the park, will you use the park daycare?  If so, I could see your wife not needing a 4WD car at that point since she would just be doing a quick daycare drop within the park (and you might not need one all the time either, so you could share one 4WD vehicle between you). 

I would consider exploring whether you can get into park housing now, if you find someone to take over your lease (or would the landlord let you rent it short term to park guests on AirBnB, etc?).  My understanding of laws in most states is that if you find a new tenant, your landlord can't penalize you for leaving early.  Even if the rent cost is similar, it might be worth it just to cut the commute hours and vehicle wear and tear. 

I was just in Yosemite in October.  It was lovely and we had a lot of fun.  I chatted for a while with one of the rangers in the backcountry office about all the people living in the park, the daycare, the schools, etc.  It is quite fascinating. 

[MikeMoeJackB]

Once you are living in the park, will you use the park daycare? 

The $1800 a month daycare we were paying for was the valley daycare inside the park.  Sure the school was right beneath Yosemite Falls and I have the photographic evidence to show my kids how spoiled they were once they are older, but it just didnt work out.  One reason is that driving into the valley everyday was what contributed to my 3 hour a day commute.  Another reason is that the daycare's philosophy was not what we expected.  You would think a daycare in the middle of a national park would heavily emphasize being outside, but that has been very far from the case and my son enjoys being outside too much to play by their rules. Oh well.

Moving into the park housing is possible before April.  In fact, my boss wouldve like it to happen yesterday. There are some other things that need to happen first: I need to establish an office near my housing, go through the requisite government bidding process, and therefore nothing in government work moves fast.  My wife is not as excited as I am to move so quickly.  I just showed her the park house this weekend and she is warming up to the idea though.