Hi,
I'm Krista and I stumbled upon the MMM blog while searching for an answer to, "how to decide to rent or continue owning our house." I really like what I've found! I am working on putting together a case study but I'm not too sure where to start. I've always thought we were ahead of the game b/c we "don't have any debt" other than our mortgage. *I* have always considered that debt, but it seems many today do not. I started to buy into that and fell into the "gee, I have money in this hand, and mortgage on the other, I guess I'll go buy a TV/trip/whatever" that I have seen mentioned. We had some savings, but as happens when you don't have *enough* saved, we had a bad year, some additional medical expenses, the ACA actually *cost* us another $120/month for higher deductibles, our second vehicle (16 yo minivan) finally blew an engine, and on and on. The icing on the cake was my husband's workplace cutting wages (hopefully) temporarily by 15% beginning this month.
The upshot is that these events conspired to cause some very moustachian changes in our lives without much effort. Husband is now biking to work (something he used to do, but had stopped due to sorta scary motorists and sometimes severe weather). Down to one car, which is okay so far, given I am a SAHM homeschooling two kids. We usually use the car to get to a 2x/week home school co-op, and lessons and such, which are farther away than husband's work. I have picked up some temporary pay here and there teaching at the co-op, doing their books, and teaching riding lessons. Hubby is also finally on board with the idea that we really DO need to cut some things out and spend as little as possible...just working on how that is going to look. I thought we had already cut out a lot, and we still don't have enough to cover emergencies and some things like basic maintenance on the house.
I guess I should save the rest for the case study. =) Just wanted to introduce myself and start to organize my thoughts. I'm excited to start making a plan that might mean my husband (who is 15 years older than I am) can actually retire. He is in a bit of a funk at the moment, fearing he won't be able to retire until 70 and/or he won't outlive our mortgage and/or our kids will be deprived of the benefits he had from his parents (like help with college). Thanks for setting up the site and for all the great input from members!
Krista