I joined MMM in February 2014 and opened up an account in mint in 2014. After about 6 months on mint, I created a secret goal of 100K in 12 months. My wife and I started at 162K on March 31st, 2014. Today we are at 275K, which is actually 113K. I was trying to wait until March 31st, 2015, but I'm going to be busy around that time, so I decided to post a little early.
I have always been frugal, but MMM helped me be more strategic. I wanted to share our numbers on how we got there, which I hope is helpful to someone else.
Income:
Me (50K) + 5.14% company 401K contribution = $52,570
Wife (60K) + 4% company 401K contribution = $62,400
Rental House: $6000 cash flow – $1900 in repairs = $4100
Total Income = $119,070
We got some deductions for the rental house and student loan interest, so our adjusted gross income was $94,600 and our taxable income was $74,300. We paid $10,281 in federal tax and $7236 in medicare/social security tax for a total of $17,751. No state income tax.
Assets March 2014 March 2015 Gain
Cash 7,000 30,000 23,000
401K 49,500 70,500 21,000
Rental House 230,000 258,000 28,000
Primary House 138,000 169,000 31,000
House Principle Payoff 5,000 5,000
Student Loans Payoff 5,000 5,000
total gain $113,000
For 401K, we had about 16K worth of contributions and 5K of appreciation. We were a little low on cash in March 2014 because I paid for a new AC system and duct work on the primary house in early March 2014 for $5700.
I switched from ATT&T to Republic Wireless in July 2014. We switched from Target to Costco in May 2014.
The biggest MMM decision that I made was purchasing a used car for $2500 in August 2014 (2003 Pontiac Vibe). If I didn't find MMM, I probably would have put $2500 down on a new Hyundai Accent for 16K. I would have had a $200/month payment for 5 years.
The best thing about this journey is that we don't feel deprived. It has been a lot of fun. Our biggest expense is travel. We did 4-5 trips to Disney World. We have season passes and live about 3 hours away. We also flew to Denver about 4 times to visit family and snowboarding for me. I have a season pass and I usually get about 3 days of riding per trip.