I like how Jane talks so openly about money. No one does that. I guess as a CPA, I don't see what the big deal is. People sure as hell don't seem to mind going around squawking about their diet goals and how faaaaat they are. But god forbid anyone get the sense that you have FINANCIAL goals that require sacrifice.
So, Tess, what are your financial goals? So glad you asked.
*I want to take at least one vacation a year. I want to travel to MN with Ava at least once a year.
*I want a maximum of one car payment at a time (between the two of us).
*I want to be able to pay Ava's college tuition. I'm okay if she has to take out loans for living expenses. Even that makes me a little bitter, since no one paid for MY shit. I do recognize that minimal student loans are a significant advantage, though. BLAH BLAH BLAH PRIVILEGED UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS. Tangent: do you know that Tosc's grandmother paid for ALL of her grandchildren's college expenses? I just...I don't even...he didn't even WORK, you guys. BOGGLE.
*I don't plan on retiring. Like, ever.
DISCUSS.
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Our goal is to pay off our mortgage before our first child goes to college, so that we can put that monthly amount toward college instead. So we bought a house we could pay for with one income, and we got the 30-year mortgage but found out what the payment would be to pay it off in 15 years. We send tax refunds and other unexpected money to the mortgage. It's gotten to be almost a game. (And so far we're winning.)
How's THAT for personal financial?
Swistle - THAT IS GENIUS.
Also, my parents paid for all of my college and grad school. I was expected to work in college to earn spending money, but not in grad school because I was student teaching all day, and in classes all night. There was, quite literally, no time for a job. I figure if I can admit that I ate cinnamon rolls for lunch, then I can admit that I was, and still remain, spoiled rotten.
And yet, we have money issues ourselves that I've been DYING to write about. Maybe now's the time?
this is going to make me sound like a douche, so i apologize in advance, but i hit several of my financial goals! (this was made far easier by the fact that i neither own a house nor have any offspring.)
but: i paid off ALL my debt. my car, my rather large student loans, and all the cc debt i amassed during the years of being paid far too little and eating ramen for meals.
next goal: have enough cash saved to put down 1/2 of my next car, probably sometime next year.
(i would imagine these goals will be HILAAAAAARIOUS if i ever have a kid.)
My parents tried to pay for all of our college tuitions (all three of us) and lost their house and went bankrupt in the process. And the bigger joke, is no retirement savings! The punchline is, my mom will probably have to move in with us in 5 years or so.
Not that I'm bitter. LOL.
My financial goals were to pay off the motherf-ing crap load of student loan debt I had from law school and pay off our cars. We managed to do both, but now we pay for day care and after care, which is as much as our mortgage payment so we basically just work to live below our means and be relatively comfortable.
My parents are frugal but also very up front about money, which I appreciate and will try to do the same with my kids when they are old enough to understand.
I'd like to pay for the kids to go to college, but in all honesty we have 4 kids who will all (hopefully) be going to college in the span of 5 years. And we're a one income family. (Although we probably won't be by then.)
It seems unrealistic, but we have already started college funds for all of them so we can at least pay for SOMETHING. Our mortgage will be paid off in about 14 years if not sooner so that will help with the college thing.
Less than 6 years ago, we had major financial problems. Homer's business went under, dragging our significant investement (financed through loans) down with it. I was on maternity leave at the time, so my income was approximately 1/4 of what it would normally be. We learned to live very frugally.
Even though we're in a much, much better place now, we still live like we could go under any second. We have healthy savings, separate retirement and education savings and no debt except for our mortgage. We pay cash for everything, including major purchases. Right now we're saving for a new car for me (hopefully in the spring) and then we'll work on a kitchen renovation fund.
People don't talk about money because it's personal. And every situation/story is different. I'm not faulting you OR Jane for talking about it - I wish my parents had talked to me about it MORE growing up because when I became a true "adult," I had NO FRICKIN' CLUE.
I just want to feel secure. My husband has run up credit card debt in secret, and then finally confessed to me when it's gotten to be thousands of dollars. He has done this several times. This last time, I just took his credit cards away, like he was a kid. Obviously, he can't be trusted with them. I don't know if I will ever give them back. We have almost $30K in HELOC and credit card debt (a lot of that is from remodeling the fixer-upper house we bought last year, not just my husband), and it makes me so anxious. We have changed our habits in the last few months so that we're spending less, and I'm trying to save a little bit while still paying down debt, but it feels like it's going to take forever to get it paid off and have a healthy savings account.
I love talking about money - in theory - but rarely do it because I have all kinds of guilt issues. I grew up poor (until things somewhat changed in my teens), have almost exclusively worked with people at or below poverty level, but am in a totally different income bracket ONLY because of my husband. Causes problems for me.
Anyway. We have a 15 year mortgage on a tiny house that we fully intend to pay off early and keep as rental property. We pay cash for everything. No other debt besides one (cheap) car and my school loans.
There are 4 kids in my life who are all at or nearing college. The 3 who can drive have all been given a cheap car, we help with school (and they've had scholarships - don't think any have incurred actual debt yet), and one plays a competitive sport that is seriously expensive. This is WAY different than my experience (where extracurricular stuff wasn't affordable and I had zero help with anything), but I'm finding that I really don't want them to have to be saddled with school debt.
I used to feel some embarrassment over my tiny house in a somewhat "bad" part of town - but that changed when I realized that I really like having the freedom to pay cash for vacations and personal trainers.
And to totally hijack your comments - here's something I hate: people who tell me (all sorrowfully) that they can't afford trainers or vacations or whatever while living in houses 3 times the size of mine - yet I'M the bitch if I point that out.
Bryan and I were fortunate enough to have parents that paid our way through college so we want to do the same for M but only if she goes to a state school (or at least that's our stance now).
I paid for law school and living expenses all on loans. My goal when I graduated was to have all my debt paid off in five years. I paid it off in 4.5yrs by living quite frugally so I could escape the hell of the big firm quickly.
I am lucky enough to have married someone (although his spending habits can be quite ridiculous) who hates debt as much as I do. He had quite a bit of credit card debt before we got married (over five digits) and he made it a priority to pay it off before we got married.
Our goal for next year, which he first suggested to me about a week ago so it's funny you brought up this topic, is to live on his salary. As he said, if we can't do it than we've got issues.
Realistically, I doubt his golfing will scale back but I'm guessing my spa visits will. @firtworldproblems.
yeah, that should be @firstworldproblems. not firtworld. even though that made me giggle.
I would like to take one husband-wife-only vacation per year and one entire-family vacation per year.
I would like to start saving for my children's college funds. We're doing really well on retirement savings, but have zero set aside for college at this point. Oops.
I want to finish paying off H's student loans.
Do you feel like you have more "free money" now that the girls are in school? I'm hoping that the end of daycare in a few years will help out, but I don't know if that's realistic or not.
I do feel like I have more free money (Tosc and I keep our money separate), but not as much as I THOUGHT I would. It's not like we saved our entire daycare bill, because we still have after-school care and holiday care to pay for. Plus, there are extra expenses related to school that we didn't have before (lunch, fundraisers, supplies, etc). The difference between the cost of daycare and the cost of after-school care (not including holiday care) is about $500/month. Since I split everything with Carlos, I'm saving about $250/month.
As for Tosc, it made no difference for him at all, since he pays child support, which is unaffected by a change in childcare costs.
I really want to pay off my student loans in 10 years instead of 20. I have 4 years till the 10 year mark. The note is pretty low ($215 a month), that if we lay out a huge chunk of cash on it, it'll take a long time to save that back up. But I can't stop thinking about the considerable amount we'll save in interest if we pay it off early.
We've been very lucky that since we got married, we've already paid off my car, and his student loan (much smaller than mine) and we are tossing around paying off his car in the next year. I like the idea of only having one car note at a time too.
We also want to try to put 20% down whenever we buy a house so we don't have to pay the mortgage insurance. Potentially we could do this in the next year if we were really disciplined.
He'd rather save money than spend it, but I like to travel so I also want to go on a real vacation once a year, but we haven't been married long enough to get into a routine on that. And we both are lucky to get to travel for work a couple times a year, so we can extend those trips and make mini vacations out of them if it is a cool place.
An advantage to living in Tennessee is that as long as your GPA is held to a determined level your college is completely paid for by Lottery scholarships.
4 years of college....paid for by those crazy gamblin' Tennessee fools.
(I was out travel, as I lived at home, and books)
I am seriously hoping it is still in effect when my girl gets college age. Otherwise I am screwed.
Man, I want to live in Tennessee now! I paid (and am still paying) for my own college.
We are coming out of our share of money troubles. Crumbling economy, Hub's home based business that relied upon business from national corporations who decided that due to the economy, his services were no longer necessary, coupled with the death of 2 parents with needs and expenses in a short time span.
We are cautiously better now, but we have basically nothing in savings, so it could all go down the shitter in an instant.
Fun times!
It's funny. I had this whole comment typed out and I can't get it past my self-imposed "no talky money" rule. I think it's because I can't do it without being embarrassed or sounding smarmy.
I'm wondering, since you're an accountant, what you think about the idea that homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages should possibly do a strategic default without worrying about the "morality" of not paying a loan they've agreed to if it would free them to live better (in spite of the credit rating hit). Interesting article in NY Times the other day about it. Do you think it's a moral issue? Or a business issue?
we are a one income family, kid in private school, one car payment, still paying off school loans and lots of credit card debt, houses are selling around us for less than purchase price and we havent been on a vacation this year or even traveled to see family, we have some savings and retirement ..... wonder if any other lurkers are in a similar bad financial position or if no one wants to admit the truth or maybe somehow I slid thru the credit check to read your blog .... in any case I am clicking on "anonymous" below ...
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