Life Situation:
We are a married couple who married late in life (3 years ago). I’m 42 and my husband, Mr GB, is 52. We have 2 very small kids and live in Bucks County, PA. Before our marriage, we lived typical, American, consumerist lifestyles. Fortunately, earning good salaries kept us from amassing much debt.
Thus, on the plus side, we are still making pretty good money and we have no credit card debt and no car payments. On the down side, we haven’t amassed much wealth either.
Gross Salary/Wages: $118,400 per year
Adjusted Gross Income: $80380.00
I make $38,400 as a freelance project manager working mostly from home. Mr. GB makes $80,000 as an attorney (only licensed in PA) working 1.5 hours from his office. His job requires a lot of local travel. He drives 1.5 hours to the office each way, and then gets sent all over southeastern PA to courts and depositions and hearings. This costs us mucho dinero in time, gas, tolls and wear&tear on the car. We do get some of this back from the firm, but obviously not his daily commute to the office costs.
Current Monthly Expenses:
Mortgage P&I: $854.33
Mortgage T&I: 383.72
Condo Fee: $158
Electric: $180
Student Loan: $117 (my husband’s)
Cell Phones: $152 (2 Verizon phones)
Internet and Basic Cable: $71 (I do mean very basic. $10 a month gets us 15 channels. The other $60 is WiFi and modem)
Sewer: $33
Water: $20
Condo Insurance: $43
Auto Insurance: $135
Daycare: $640 (1 day a week for both boys. My client wants me in the office 1 day)
Life Insurance: $171
Auto Related: $500 (this includes gas, EZPass and parking fees. We recoup some of this from my husband’s company, but it varies from month to month.)
Misc: $678
Food & Dining: $400 (my husband eats out on the road a lot)
TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSES: $4536.05
Physical Assets:
Appraised Condo Value: $169,000
2010 HONDA CRV SPORT WG: $9090
2002 NISSAN CREW CAB PICKUP: $4200
TOTAL PHYSICAL ASSETS: $182,290
Pre-Tax Retirement Savings
Mr. GB: $76,025
The Golden Bee: $185,000
Total Pre-Tax Retirement Savings: $261,025
Other Investments: $ 13,688 (in low cost index funds)
TOTAL INVESTMENT ASSETS: $274,713
Liabilities:
30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage
Unpaid Principal Balance: $169,879.69
Original principal balance: $171,110.00
Interest rate: 4.375%
Monthly payment (with escrow): $1238.05
Mr. GB’s Student Loan
Outstanding Balance: $25,205.98
Interest Rate: 2.33%
Monthly Payment: $117.00
TOTAL LIABILITIES: $195,085.67
Specific Question(s):
Here are our three family goals:
1. Financial independence by the time Mr. GB is 65 and The Golden Bee is 55
2. Homeschool the boys (The Golden Bee to do this)
3. Buy a house
Is it possible to homeschool the boys starting in 2018 (which will severely hamper my ability to earn a salary) while also becoming FI in 15 years and simultaneously buying a house in the next 5 years. If yes, what’s the road map to get us there? What do we attack first? We are here for any face punches and we are ready to challenge and change everything we do and believe in order to accomplish our goals.
ETA June 9, 2015: Wanted to let all you kind people know that:
A) We cancelled comprehensive and collision coverage on our cars, raised our deductible to $5,000, and cut our premium payment in half.
B) We switched to Republic Wireless! Phones are on their way. I can't wait to call Verizon and cancel the heck out of that $152 monthly bill.