Me:- 29-year-old woman from the U.S., married to a 38-year-old Brazilian.
- No kids yet.
- Living in Salvador (northeastern Brazil)
Income:~ $1000/mo = Web content development at $27/hr, approx. 10 hr/wk
The client is my former full-time employer. I have a ton of leeway and can adjust the number of my hours up or down as I wish
~ $2500/mo = Semi-passive online income from educational business, approx. 15 hr/wk to maintain. This is net (after expenses). Has doubled in the past 12 months.
I qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion, but need to set aside 15.3% for self-employment tax, so my
total monthly income ends up around $3000.Current expenses - FixedRent/Utils/Internet - $180
Husband's tuition - $160
My student loan - $105
Capoeira class (for both of us) - $65
Current expenses - VariableGroceries/Household stuff - $360
Entertainment - $70
Misc. other expenses - $260
Total expenses = $1200Assets: - $5,000 in emergency savings account
- $1,000 in checking account
- $17,700 in retirement account
- No house
- No car
Liabilities: - $7,800 remaining on student loan
Specific Question(s): 1) How to divide up the $1800 monthly surplus? Between...
- - Contributing to retirement account
- - Funding my just-opened-yesterday Vanguard investment account
- - Adding to savings account (necessary? or not? We plan to have kids within the next two years)
- - Husband wants to buy a place to rent out within the next 3 years. (A $70K 2-BR apartment can be rented out for about $600/mo, that's an upper-middle-class type of place)
- - Health insurance. Though not strictly necessary, Brazilian public healthcare leaves a lot to be desired.
2) Where to increase my hours?I only work about 25 hrs/wk and would like to bump this up to get the most out of this time before we have kids.
If I increase the client work, that's a guaranteed extra $27/hr.
If I increase the time spent on my business, that has the potential to accelerate its growth, thus earning me more both now and in the future - but it's not guaranteed, and the relationship between hours invested and $$ earned is not as linear.
Your thoughts and suggestions appreciated - I tried to keep this simple, but please let me know if there's any info I've left out!