Hi everyone,
I've been "following" MMM for about 6 months now & decided it was time to introduce myself. I'm a 34 yr old married woman who lives between Boston & Providence. I've been trying to incorporate parts of MMM into our lives.
Property - "Rental" house - we own a townhouse in Chesapeake VA - $192000 finance - owe$150,000 - worth about $180,000 6.25% interest (insane today we know). 30 year mortgage - current payment is $1244 with escrow account, no PMI - we have made bi-weekly payment since we bought the house so currently on track to pay off in 22 yrs with no changes, but plans to increase payments before the end of the year as well as lower interest rate.
The house has been rented for nearly 4 years. This was not purchased as a rental property. It was our primary residence when we were both in the Navy. When we got out during the downturn in the real estate market - we did not want to pay money in order to sell so we decided to rent it out. The rent does cover the mortgage, but not the property management ($100/mo) or any problems that crop up. We are planning to refinance in the near future. We would have refied earlier, but the house is entirely in my SO's name. Until recently he was in college with 0 income & could not qualify for a refinance anywhere that we looked. The loan that we thought was a VA loan when we bought the house was actually a hybrid loan & so ineligible for a VA refinance. SO started his new job 2 weeks ago, so we will work on this problem in the near future.
Primary residence - 4 bedroom single family multi story house in south of Boston - bought in 2011 - VA loan - $296,000 3.75% interest - $1747 current payment with escrow - we pay a little extra on this each month. Usually about $100 - Paying off both properties is a big goal for me.
Debt - $16,000 in student loans, payment $145/mo, 2.75% interest 20 year loan ( I think I owe 11 more years) - paying this off hasn't been a huge priority with the interest/payment so low
$16,000 - credit card debt(8%) - this is the main thing we are working on paying off now - should be done in 3-4 months.
Expenses - Cell Phone $175 for unlimited on 2 phones - contract is up in December - I plan to switch to a pay as you go - SO is not on board, but hopefully he will be by then - if not ~$75 savings
Electric ~$125/mo - working on this - temp at 74 - currently installing gaskets on outlets, changing to LED bulbs, installing some more weather proofing,smart power strips, etc
We have propane everything & get our 500 gallon tank filled 3 times/year - I don't really know if this is good or bad, but I think we can get it cut down to 2 times a year by heating less (planning to cut temp from 68 to 66 this winter) & hanging the clothes out to dry.
Lawn Care - $200/month in the summer <----obviously this should go
Water, sewer, trash, etc. Not much to change here pretty stable - can maybe lower trash by composting more b/c we pay/bag but usually only have 1 bag/week.
No cable- we have Hulu & Netflix
Transportation - 2 Honda's paid off
Jobs - Current salary - $83,000/yr + overtime Job is 32 miles away from house
SO just started working for FDA as a chemist - $42,000/yr - auto-promote to $75K in 5 years - 40 miles away from house
Savings - $56,000 in 401K - I contribute 10% with a 3% company match - planning to raise this because I'm just shy of the limit this year
$21,000 - 2 Roth IRA's - we contribute random amounts to these - since the SO has started working we should be able to start maxing out again
$3000 - random stock - honestly this was my fun money that I saved up a long time ago - currently I own citigroup, EA & a company called Nuvilex - the first 2 I bought at the very bottom of the market & can sell for a decent gain now. The 3rd I bought because I think marijuana legalization is imminent & my SO's father died of prostate cancer so finding a treatment for that is somewhat important to me
~$6k spread across various accounts - travel/vacation fund, car repair/purchase fund, a CD for a big European vacation one day & a tiny emergency fund.
Employees stock - $1k - I put 1% of my salary into stock every month - which is purchased at a $15% discount
SO - is saving 6% in his TSP with a 4% match
SO is eligible for gov't pension if he works long enough
I am eligible for a defined benefit plan
Problems - we have to commute a fair distance - I do not see this changing anytime soon. We like our house & the location. We do a large amount of entertaining & the majority of our friends live in the area of our house. We used to live close to work & further from friends, we didn't like it. So we have to cut our expenses in other areas - most of which we have identified - we eat out too much, spend too much on groceries & too much on general entertainment. Also, like I already indicated I think the electric bill is way too high.
I work a lot - hence the fact that I make a lot, but I work rotating 12 hour shift work with 60-100 hrs of OT every month. This leaves me tired & not willing to spend my limited free time doing certain things It also just makes it hard to find time to do some things that would save money. For instance I would prefer to hang out the laundry, but it is faster & easier to move the laundry from the washing machine into the dryer. Also, you just can't really put the clothes out to dry at 8pm. My SO is very helpful, but he is also possibly the least handiest/most forgetful person in the world.
SO is spendy & not interested in early retirement. Since he just started his career really - he can see himself working for many years & to him that means he can afford to spend more. He loves his electronics, particularly for video games - we own pretty much every system possible for games. He is on board with my reaching early retirement while he works. He is also the reason we have such a large expensive house - I would have paid cash for an old trailer if it were up to me :-) To be clear, I handle all of the money. SO doesn't really care what happens with the money so long as he can finance his hobbies & he is onboard with making money from his hobbies where possible. For instance, he plays pinball (like seriously in some leagues & tournaments) & since he was an electronics technician in the Navy he is currently looking for his first beat up machine to purchase, refurbish, play with & then sell at a profit. He judges for 1 game that he plays & volunteers as security for the gaming conventions he goes to to defray part of the cost.
As a side hobby - I run an eBay store (in my spare time lol) - I've earned about $8,000 profit this year & expect to get to $20k before the end of the year (based on having a few big ticket items to sell currently) - generally I put all of this money towards paying off the mortgage in the Virginia house. I just started doing this seriously this year. I have sold off & on for many years, but got a business license, separate accounts & everything this year. If I can stay on track with this & the income from SO's new job we will pay off the CC & then I project having the VA house paid off in 3 years
Goals: Pay off both house <---this is a requirement by the SO for me to stop working - no matter how much our savings are he will never be comfortable being the sole wage earner with a house payment
Purchase several more rental properties
Increase savings to > $500,000
Stop working full time by age 45 - with SO continuing to work for several more years, like he wants
Without moving or changing jobs - I think I have identified the areas that we can use the most improvement in - any ideas, questions comments?
Side note - we should have a lot more just cash savings, but we both have very large families & have given in the last couple years what adds up to a not insignificant amount of money to various family members to help out with things...emergencies, adoptions, fundraising, tax payments, etc. We have very recently started telling people that we cannot help them with things because our personal savings were getting off track & because one day our parents are going to need assistance most likely & as the oldest children we want to ensure that we can provide assistance when it is really needed.
