Hello Everyone,
Well, if I had hair it might be smoldering...I'm in Ontario, Canada so the tax system may look a little different than some are used to. I'm married and have 3 kids under 13. I'm 39 and my wife is 35 so we are late to the party.
I just found you guys lately and have been skimming all over the forums since. We have recently come to the conclusion that we will never get out of the mess we are in if we continue to make the same mistakes. We have started using YNAB and have made great strides in the past few months...Honest! We have paid the Line of Credit down from 25k to just over 9 which is a load off both our minds and we will continue and have it completely paid off soon.
I make a great income but somehow don't end up with it at the end of the year. I run my own business which gives me a much longer commute than I would like. To move closer, though, I would pay more for rent on an apt than I would pay for my mortgage.
Since we found YNAB and have been keeping track of where we were spending our money we:
1.Have recently sold our huge money pit of a house in favor of a much smaller house in the country.
a) Saving $333 in property taxes monthly.
b) Saving $160 in sewer/water fees monthly
c) Saving $200 in Nat Gas monthly.
2. Put Truck gas bills on Company costs since it is used for work daily.
I've made some really stupid decisions in the past. We bought one of the biggest houses in town "because we deserved it", I bought a van and a truck on payments. I have put most of our "rainy day fund" into a recent funeral and the rest into the bad debt of the old house we sold and unexpected overruns of new house renovations. Where do I go from here???? I have NO retirement savings and I am way behind.
Questions:
1. Should I continue to pay off my LOC and then snowball that into the vehicles or should I start investing after LOC is taken care of?
2. Should I start investing in low MER index funds now?
3. What questions am I not asking that I should be? I don't even have more than a "I want to be FIRE" let alone a year.
Monthly Gross Income: $10,000.
Monthly Net Income: $7,100.
Monthly Income Taxes: $2,900
Monthly Expenses:
Mortgage: $1550
Cable & Internet: $0 (free b/c they have tower on property)
Netflix: $10
Cell Phone: $0 (paid by work)
Electric: $450 average (More in winter, geothermal furnace runs on electric and is turned off in summer)
Auto Loan: $345
Truck Loan:$553 Now $0!
Propane: $70 (stove + heat for rear of house)
Gas: $200
Insurance: $259 (house and 2 vehicles)
Insurance: $170 (Life Insurance)
Groceries: $800
Restaurants: $50
Medical: $200
Home maintenance: $150
Car Maintenance: $100
Tithe: $200
Line of Credit Interest: $125
Property Tax: $150
Total Monthly Expenses: $4,829.00 (5,382-$553 truck payment=$4,829))
Liabilities:
Line of Credit: $9600@ 8%
Mortgage: $285,000@3%
Van loan: $10,000@5% (40 months left) Canadian black book value: $15,000
truck: $15,000@4% (34 months left) Canadian black book value: $16,000
We put large down cash payments on both to get them lower
Waiting to become a punching bag.....