make a move?

[bye-bye Ms. FancyPants]

Ok, good news: we have paid off a shit ton of interest bearing debt in the last couple months since we found this site.  Bad news: we are late to the party. 

Here are the cliff notes to the story ....

I started saving young, but when the stocks went belly up, I was busy living outside my means.  In my infinite wisdom I responded by stomping my feet and declaring, if anyone was going to lose my hard earned cash it was going to be me!  So, I cashed most of it out & paid off credit cards, school and made other unmustachian purchases. 

Fast forward until now - DH and I are already 36ish years old. This leads me to my new declaration - I'm not participating in this wasteful sea of craziness anymore!   

Here's what we have -

Net monthly income: $5400 DINKY household. 

Current monthly expenses:
Mortgage   - $1,011.00 (this includes PMI of $116/mo! - we have another $13,000 till freedom)
Phone     $120  (we are heavy users of smart phone internet but contracts up in 2 months)
car insurance $130
Electricity    $150
Water and sewer    $40
Internet    $40
Waste removal    $50
Vehicle Payment    $745
home needs     $50
Subtotals    $2,336

Fuel    $300
Groceries    $360
Dining out    $120 (as a compromise we added this $30/week dining only after all of our interest bearing CC were paid off)
Medical    $60
Pets (food, maintenance & projected medical - we have both chickens & a dog) -$120 (I could cut $30 out if I learned how to groom)
------------------------------------------------
Grand monthly total - $3300.00

Expected ER expenses:  Kids sooner rather then later - I'm getting old remember?   

Liabilities:
$3500.00 Credit card (0% until October)
$4300.00 for my fancy pants graduate degree (when I finish in a few months = raise)
$6,500 for DH truck 6.5% (works on rentals often, but yes, its still a truck & no, I doubt he will sell it)
$15,000 for upside down 2008 Honda 3.49%  (we refinanced to pay for our wedding a couple years ago ... gulp). 
Medical bill - $1000.00
---------------------------------------------
Total debt:  $30,000

Assets:
3 rentals that will be paid off in 10 years adding to about $2000/mo passive income
combined 401K -  $30,000.00,
stocks - $11,000.00
Cash savings $6000.00
DH can draw a pension in 15 yrs - $3000.00 month not including further cost of living changes (which at this time, he says he perfectly happy waiting for)   
We also have a VW that is paid for, kicking on its last legs. 
residential home -  $15,000 equity

Before you hand out face punches, I plan on selling my CR-V for about $12,000 (it has hail damage), & paying off the remaining $3000.00 ASAP, immediately cutting our debt in half.  Not counting gas savings.  We are going to attempt to to be a one VW efficient car family until the truck is paid off (very logistically challenging though) and getting a "new" more efficient car at that point. 

If we move closer to the rental houses and it would save even more on gas ($50/month).  Other bonuses to moving will be less taxes, decreased car insurance, but same commute to work.  A bridge toll would occur approx $40/month.  This move & efficient car could save us about $400/month.  No brainer right? 

Here's the dilemma, dun dun duuuunnnnn ...... DH feels like we are doing really well compared to the typical American. He feels like he has made the sacrifices up to this point and wants to upgrade to a roomer, fancier house when are debt is paid off.  One that will potentially increase our house payment to $1400.00/month ($150,000 house to $250,000).  I do agree, he has worked hard to make good choices & he's the one wanting to work until he is in his 50's.  I on the other hand, do not & am freaking out - thinking we don't want to be typical or spend another dime of our money! lol. 

Overall it looks like our assets are non-existed compared to my FI aspirations.  To me, it makes sense to buy a house in the same price range of our current home or not move at all.     

Help me bring sanity back into our life fellow mustachians.... What are your thoughts??   

TIA

[Frankies Girl]

You have hair-on-fire debts, and nothing technically should be off limits to cutting out (temporarily or permanent - time will tell). The fact that your spouse thinks you are doing okay and wants to go into debt for a bigger house and might be resistant to any cuts means that you are long overdue for a talk about what you both want out of life.

You also have a ticking clock with time running out soon if you plan on having children. Your fertility is a finite thing, and that's if you don't have any real issues. As someone that can't have children, believe me when I tell you that this should be a priority before things like the fun of having a truck or eating out or buying a new house (or wracking up more debt). You don't want to lose your opportunity to have kids because you valued wasteful spending over that - it's the kind of thing that can break a relationship, and something that you need to talk out with your husband.

So it might be time for a serious sit-down with the spouse, and discuss what it most important for you both. I really hope you both can get on the same page, but you need to lay it all out now and get the mindframe straight ASAP.


Dump the phones and get something like Ting or Republic.

Vehicles are insane. You have three for two people? Wow. You say you're selling off one, but a truck is wasteful when you consider the gas and insurance and the fact that unless he's hauling stuff all the time, he's using a very inefficient and expensive box to move himself from point A to point b. If it's non-negotiable, then pay it off ASAP and drive it into the ground.

What does the zero interest card jump to if you don't get it paid by the intro rate end?

I don't see much on the rental properties other than you have three, and they are all mortgaged, so I'm assuming that you're lumping the mortgages together or you didn't put them in the liabilities? While passive income from rentals can be really great, again, you have some high interest debt and might want to assess if you could sell one (or more) and pay off ALL of your debt and then work on building up your savings/stache after clearing that mess away. The big deal would be if you're planning on having kids, getting the spending streamlined (are you going to keep working? Stay at home? What if you need fertility treatments? Daycare?) and paying off that debt ASAP.

Honestly, you're not in dire straights if you took out the wasteful categories and hit the debt hard with your current income. Especially if you sold off a rental and could realize the full amount of your current debts and have a nest-egg, you could technically be trying for a kid within the next year if that's what you really want.

[bye-bye Ms. FancyPants]

Thanks for your response Frankies Girl.  All stuff I need to hear.  ... The rentals are mortgaged with about $75,000 in equity collectively.  We would probably get a better return on our money if we sold at least one and invested that money.  Not counting the time and stress. 

The truck does give him some weird sort of happiness I could never get from a car.

As far as kids, we do have issues with pregnancy and just got the go ahead to get trying again - so yes, its a priority. We have talked about us cutting my work back to part time once that happens, but I don't know if we will be able to afford that move.  We have family that is close that is willingly to do some childcare during the week. 

Again thanks for weighing in!