I've been reading for a few weeks now and implementing some good changes in my family's lifestyle, but would love some help from the MMM community!
The residence:
My husband and I have two children and are renting a house in the Denver Tech Center ($1800/m). We also own a house in Texas which we pay ~$900/m all in and make $1600/m in rent. Worth $165k and owe $80k (3.0% interest).
The jobs:
Husband recently got a job 3 minutes from mine, at Lincoln and I25. So, both our commutes are currently 7 miles (12 minutes by car). I work 3 days/week (21 hours) until August (had a baby), at which point I can choose to go back to work full time if I want to. Not sure if I want to - it's important to me to be with my kids. The salaries - $155,000 for me (full time) and $60,000 for my husband (will likely go up to 6 figures within the next year). I have a 401k with company match that I currently have $90k in.
The nanny:
$1600/m, will be more if I go back to work full-time.
The student loans: $124k!! (average 6% interest, currently refinancing to about 3.5%)
The cash on hand: $10k, recently threw our other $30k at the student loans.
The vehicles:
2013 Honda CRV - worth $18k, still owe $11k (1% interest)
2010 Hyundai Elantra Touring - worth $7k, still owe $1.5k (1% interest)
Motorcycle - worth $4k
Other: We can go into the nitty-gritty of the minor details if needed, but I'm working on most of them. We've been cutting our food bill, electricity, I got rid of my personal cell phone, working on getting rid of cable (in a contract - still analyzing), been selling things.
I don't think my husband will let me sell his CR-V. He loves it and the gas mileage is good. We also only have about $7k in it, so there's not a huge reserve of cash there we could use. I am happy to sell my Elantra Touring and throw that cash at the student loans. It might take a while to sell but I'll work on it. The motorcycle - - it might be good to keep for some flexibility as it isn't worth much. With two kids there are occasions where we both need to be places. And my husband is happy to take the motorcycle to work when the weather is good (excellent gas mileage and little maintenance). I think my husband and I could carpool to work one way sometimes, and I could take the lightrail / ride my bike other times. I did it the other day - it was quite terrifying really but I think I can get used to it. There were lots of potholes, fast cars, and I have a really heavy, old, crappy Target bike. Cost considerations - it costs me over $5/day ($60/m) for the lightrail pass if I do that both ways. Half that if I carpool one way, but will cost me another $8/day in nanny costs because I can't hide the extra time commuting by leaving for work before my husband.
I looked at renting even closer to where we work, but I can't find any 3-bedroom houses or townhouses for $1800 or less. It's a hopping area. I think there's a couple 3-bedroom apartments available but I'm not sure I can handle going back to an apartment again. We were in a 2-bedroom apartment up until a year ago and our quality of life was so much worse. I just don't think it's worth it. You can punch me in the face if you need to. :P I'd rather bike and live where I am.
One option - we could BUY a house within 3 miles of our jobs. Problem - it'd be $350-400k. My father-in-law is willing to gift us $80k for a downpayment that we would like to pay back. He wouldn't be willing to help with student loans though. But this would take our housing cost likely a bit more than $1800/m (I calculate maybe $2100/m for a $400k house all-in). Second problem - the Denver housing market is crazy. I think the housing value is overinflated and worry about a crash happening in the next few years. It might not be the best time to invest in more property.
Currently my financial strategy is putting 7% of my salary into my 401k for a 6% company match, then putting the balance into the student loans after paying the bills.
What should we do? Any advice would be highly appreciated!
THANK YOU!!!