Hi Everybody,
I am re-examining our 'stache, which right now, could put out just under $30k/year at 4%.
So we are getting in the neighborhood of FIRE, if our budget is low. However, we need to practice budgeting.
I have questions about health insurance on low income. What are the FIREd doing for health insurance here?
$30k year / 12 months = $2,500 mo.
Looking at MINT we have a lot to work on for the budget.
Last 12 months:
Food and Dining - $13,210 = $1,100 / mo.
Bills & Utilities - $4,350 = $363/mo.
Car insurance - $459 (this seems low)
Gas & Fuel - $3,375 = $281 / mo. (includes work mileage that is reimbursed)
Health & Fitness - $4983 = $415 / mo.
Clothing - $1,400 = $116 / mo.
Home - approx $2400 = $200 / mo.
We still have a mortgage and property taxes. Annual property taxes are $6k. Rolled into our mortgage payment we are around $1,600/mo. I hope to get the mortgage paid off.
This isn't everything, I am just nosing through our past year expenses.
I am not sure how to have a conversation about any of this with my husband. He gets depressed when I want to talk with him about budgets and money. This could be a joyful conversation but I feel he only sees the bad in it and the things we don't have, or would cut back on as being personal losses to lifestyle. I need to speak with him about the freedom, but I think he wants the everyday luxuries.
We are obviously not close enough, and we would need to figure out health insurance. What is realistic? We are a family of 5. Our 3 elementary age kids add expenses right now and we want them to have sports and activities and a few of those things. (Our big one is Tae Kwon Do.) We can obviously work a LOT on the food.
What kind of plan / timeline would you shoot for if you were in our shoes? How would you transition to a better plan for FIRE? I am hoping we could be FIRE within 5 years, hopefully with some ease.
Thanks so much.
P.S. Realistically we don't have a plan right now… I (we) need to work on a plan.