So here's my story. I'm hoping I can inspire a few people who think they'll never be able to turn things around.
I'm a few years into my 30s now. This decade I am a ship sailing through relatively calm tradewinds. My 20's were the perfect storm. I grew up what I thought was a pretty well-off life in a solid working-class neighborhood in a rough city. Didn't get much perspective about the real world until I went away to college and realized that while we were well-off for where we lived, we weren't well off by middle-class standards. I was raised that you spent what you made & lived for now.
I also had a bad attitude. I had a functional medical condition (under control now) that caused me a lot of ridicule, got me in a lot trouble and fights and generally turned me in to a loner. This attitude carried through my twenties and some of my highlights were alcoholism & several related arrests, getting fired from two jobs, quitting several other, dropping out of college & burning every bridge I crossed. I also gambled heavily paid for expensive medical treatments on credit cards and racked up so much debt (with nothing to show) that I ended up in bankruptcy. The only good thing that happened during my 20s is that I got some physiological help that taught me to deal with and accept my condition. I'm still a little defensive but much more sociable and optimistic now.
After one too many lows I finally got introspective and decided that life was too short to keep throwing years away. Five years ago I did an about-face and adopted many of the principles I have been reading about here out of the necessity of not having access to credit anymore (found this website about a year ago). I met a great girl, we got married (for less than $0!, we made more in gifts than we spent on our wedding) & moved away from the bad influences in our lives four years ago. Prior to getting with me she was in an abusive relationship with a now-deported drug dealer and also a terrible accident that put her into a coma (she recovered fully, to the shock of her doctors). So we both had our baggage but we live frugally so we were a match on that too. We figured we'd both been through enough bad shit that things were bound to get better.
We started from scratch, she took a job as a farmhand and I started as a solo carpenter (partly our of necessity, not having any real employment prospects other than the low wage-service jobs I had bounced around before in). I decided that I needed to do something where I could make a living and work by myself. I enjoy socializing but when I work I'm all business and don't like chit-chat, just like to focus and get things done.
The funny thing is that after living a steady life for a few years and just doing the basics, keeping a local clientele (I put less than 4,000 miles a year on my truck) we had some money in the bank and no urge to spend it. The wife is going to school now for a job that will pay 50k plus per year and I'm pulling in maybe 40k or so. We've had a little luck fall our way. My wife got an unexpected settlement from her accident, I got a small inheritance from my grandmother's estate (also not expected, but she lived through the Depression and turns out she was as frugal as they came) and we found a salvaged 2010 car that gets 40mpg with less than 1,000 miles on the odometer that I put back into mint shape for less than 10k spent (and yes we need two vehicles, the truck is for my work and she goes to school 50 miles away and we live in the serious country...nearest Walmart is 40 miles away). We have no loans & we own our house outright (worth about 100k). We spend less than 20k a year on all expenses.
Our plan is to buy rental property when we have enough cash saved up. Our investments consist of 1k in a lending club account we just started (thanks to this website) and a 60k mortgage we gave to family (they put in 20k for a 80k house - it's a real mortgage filed with the proper paperwork, 5% interest...they're too old to pay the whole loan term back, but there's plenty of equity as the place is worth 100k now and they can afford the payment on their fixed income for as long as they live, then the house is willed to us). We also have 10k in savings bonds and another 30k in savings, which is building for a rental property fund which will go for about 50-60k around here and probably need 20 to 30k in materials (free labor from me!) and will get 1,000 in rent after 200-300 in expenses. Our net worth is about 200k right now and we're saving at a rate of 15k a year now (which will jump seriously when the wife starts working in her field).
So not bad for five years of being on the right track. Things just kind of fell into place when we got serious about life and the things that matter (money was never one of them). I'm happy doing what I do, and it turns out carpentry is a good skill to have because you're always in demand if you do a kickass job. It's also a good setup when we have kids (none yet) because I can be the stay at home-dad and moonlight while the wife has a salary and benefits, then once kids are school age I can work during the day. We're aiming for FI in 10-15 years (my mid to late 40s and her early to mid 40s), but honestly I will still do the work I'm doing now as long as my body can handle it (in good shape no physical issues, run or work out at home doing P90x workouts 5-6 days a week).
I love this website, love all the advice and the rough-around-the-edges badass persona MMM puts on (even if it's just an internet front as he says!). Totally agree on just about everything, even the big thing I won't be doing anytime soon (biking everywhere). I do have a bike, and do take it on 10-15 miles rides once or twice a week. It was free, a heavy hybrid that's over 20 years old from my father - takes a lot of energy to propel but it's a hell of a workout. The supermarket is 1 mile away and since the gas is minimal and I get plenty of exercise from work and workouts as it is, I'm going to take a lazy out on this one and put the 100 miles a year on the car to get there and back. Just can't see myself needing that extra workout on top of everything else I do for the sake of lugging the groceries home. For the wife, we picked out someone's 4 year old hybrid bike on craigslist for $100 that they paid $800 for. She goes on recreational rides with me too.
What else? Next biggest expense is food. We spend $400 a month. I probably put away 3500 calories a day and the wife 2500 (she's active too). We could save some here, but we're in a town with one supermarket so their prices are what they are, not much to compare prices except one small year-round farmers market with the limited produce that grows in a short cold-climate growing season or in greenhouses. For quality of life you can't go wrong in rural places, you just lose some choice. We eat healthy though, lots of veggies, lean cuts of meat, not too many carbs (except when local potatoes are in season!). Oh, I do barter for food with farmers. That's fun. I have a two year supply of fresh eggs coming.
That's about it for now. Thanks for listening and any feedback you may have.
