Wednesday, August 8, 2012
wordless wednesday: colorado
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
preparing to stay at home: finances
like many families, the biggest question james and i had in deciding if i would stay home would be if we could afford to live on one income. not just one income, but a firefighter's salary (our ideal is that james does not have to get another job so he can be home with our family as much as possible, but he has offered several times to get a second job if that is what it takes for me to be able to stay at home). just to give a ballpark (since gov't salaries are published anyway), we are talking about living on less than this guy who wrote a book on a family of 4 living on $40,000/year.
i don't share this to claim that we are super people or money experts by any means, but in hopes that our story will encourage others that they can live on one income if desired no matter what that income. the other day i was at the pool reading money (nerd alert) and came across an article, "the challenge: saving for college & retirement on one income." i squealed to a friend, "this article was meant for us!" and then went on to read that the one family income was $136,000/year. whh..whhhat? then the expert predicted a 60% success rate of reaching financial goals. depressing.
so for anyone with a one family income that is not six figures, this is for you. you can plan and live on much less if you really want to. for us and the author above, the key to living on less is long term planning. you won't get rich over night and nor will you go deeply into debt in one day (hopefully). 3 1/2 years ago while i was pregnant with our first child, parker, i blogged about our financial plan. it is fun to look back and read our financial ideals and how we are doing on accomplishing said goals. without further ado, i give you
5 steps taken to live on one income:
1. low house payment. i really hoped to have our house paid off by the time i quit work. 1 1/2 years ago we made prepaying our mortgage a high priority, and paid off over half of our homes' current worth. coincidentally with interest rates below 3% right now on 15 year fixed rate loans, we refinanced our remaining balance and have a very doable payment. i'm not going to lie--it is bittersweet knowing that if i worked 2 more years we could have the house completely paid off, but in 2 more years parker will be in kindergarten i don't want to give away those precious years with him. plus knowing that we are paying more principal each month than interest makes me feel better that we are still working to pay it off (and we can always pay more if we want to, but with interest rates lower than inflation who is in a hurry?).
2. 10 month emergency fund. we never had a spoken goal in terms of months (i think 3-6 probably would've been fine), but my husband is very conservative when it comes to saving and so we set a target $ amount together and i put in my notice after we reached our goal. i ended up working 8 more weeks which added a little padding and paid for all of our summer vacations so we didn't have to use savings. if for some reason our budget is not working, our emergency fund should give us plenty of time to reevaluate and find extra work.
3. pay off all debt besides our mortgage. when we first got married, we set a goal of never financing anything besides our home. if we could not save up the cash for a car or anything else, then we didn't want to buy it. i know this sounds like a lofty goal, but in trying to live on one income while we still had two, i think it is possible. we did this as much as we could and even though the firefighters make fun of james' corolla, it is worth it to us to not have car payments.
4. save for our next car. we knew we would not be able to save a lot each month on a firefighter's salary besides the amount going to the principal of our house, so we set aside a little money for our next vehicle whenever we need one and put it in dividend paying stocks. the fate of the market will determine our our vehicle selection, so if you see us driving a beater around town you know what happened :). seriously, though, we have read several articles on dividend paying stocks and appreciate the small quarterly income they provide in this low savings rate era.
5. prepay as much as possible. we've prepaid our gym membership until march of 2014 (which i would not recommend!), so james and i try to take advantage of this and other free activities like our neighborhood pool, going on walks, going to the park, playing tennis, etc. we also paid 6 months of car insurance, cell phones (we are on a family plan so we pay a family member), etc. while we had two incomes to make the transition easier during the first few months. i also stocked up on deal piggies and living social vouchers for fun summer activities like jumpzone and the tulsa zoo.
phew. if you are still reading, thanks for your time. james and i are just starting this journey and hope to report in another few years that we are so happy with the decisions we've made. love you all and have a wonderful day!
i don't share this to claim that we are super people or money experts by any means, but in hopes that our story will encourage others that they can live on one income if desired no matter what that income. the other day i was at the pool reading money (nerd alert) and came across an article, "the challenge: saving for college & retirement on one income." i squealed to a friend, "this article was meant for us!" and then went on to read that the one family income was $136,000/year. whh..whhhat? then the expert predicted a 60% success rate of reaching financial goals. depressing.
so for anyone with a one family income that is not six figures, this is for you. you can plan and live on much less if you really want to. for us and the author above, the key to living on less is long term planning. you won't get rich over night and nor will you go deeply into debt in one day (hopefully). 3 1/2 years ago while i was pregnant with our first child, parker, i blogged about our financial plan. it is fun to look back and read our financial ideals and how we are doing on accomplishing said goals. without further ado, i give you
5 steps taken to live on one income:
1. low house payment. i really hoped to have our house paid off by the time i quit work. 1 1/2 years ago we made prepaying our mortgage a high priority, and paid off over half of our homes' current worth. coincidentally with interest rates below 3% right now on 15 year fixed rate loans, we refinanced our remaining balance and have a very doable payment. i'm not going to lie--it is bittersweet knowing that if i worked 2 more years we could have the house completely paid off, but in 2 more years parker will be in kindergarten i don't want to give away those precious years with him. plus knowing that we are paying more principal each month than interest makes me feel better that we are still working to pay it off (and we can always pay more if we want to, but with interest rates lower than inflation who is in a hurry?).
2. 10 month emergency fund. we never had a spoken goal in terms of months (i think 3-6 probably would've been fine), but my husband is very conservative when it comes to saving and so we set a target $ amount together and i put in my notice after we reached our goal. i ended up working 8 more weeks which added a little padding and paid for all of our summer vacations so we didn't have to use savings. if for some reason our budget is not working, our emergency fund should give us plenty of time to reevaluate and find extra work.
3. pay off all debt besides our mortgage. when we first got married, we set a goal of never financing anything besides our home. if we could not save up the cash for a car or anything else, then we didn't want to buy it. i know this sounds like a lofty goal, but in trying to live on one income while we still had two, i think it is possible. we did this as much as we could and even though the firefighters make fun of james' corolla, it is worth it to us to not have car payments.
4. save for our next car. we knew we would not be able to save a lot each month on a firefighter's salary besides the amount going to the principal of our house, so we set aside a little money for our next vehicle whenever we need one and put it in dividend paying stocks. the fate of the market will determine our our vehicle selection, so if you see us driving a beater around town you know what happened :). seriously, though, we have read several articles on dividend paying stocks and appreciate the small quarterly income they provide in this low savings rate era.
5. prepay as much as possible. we've prepaid our gym membership until march of 2014 (which i would not recommend!), so james and i try to take advantage of this and other free activities like our neighborhood pool, going on walks, going to the park, playing tennis, etc. we also paid 6 months of car insurance, cell phones (we are on a family plan so we pay a family member), etc. while we had two incomes to make the transition easier during the first few months. i also stocked up on deal piggies and living social vouchers for fun summer activities like jumpzone and the tulsa zoo.
phew. if you are still reading, thanks for your time. james and i are just starting this journey and hope to report in another few years that we are so happy with the decisions we've made. love you all and have a wonderful day!
Saturday, August 4, 2012
transitioning
i have officially been a stay at home mom for two months! overall it is going really well, but with every transition comes positives and opportunities for growth.
a couple of weeks ago, james and i had a little spat in which he shared that i was throwing off his routine by wanting to go to the gym at 8:45am instead of his usual 9:30am. for 3 years, james has faithfully gone to the gym nearly every day he is home (a mini escape from the boys if nothing else). now that i am home and the class i like to attend at the gym is at 8:45am, we've been going earlier. no big deal, right? it's really not, and james willingly goes at 8:45 to make me happy, but it is a change.
in the afternoon when the boys nap from 1-3, james used to have a couple hours of peace and quiet all to himself. he could choose the tv show, he could do yard work, he could do whatever he wanted. he pretty much still can, but there is another adult in the home--change.
one major positive with me staying home is that we have so much time together. our relationship is at one of its strongest points and we've enjoyed nearly every day of the last two months. when KDO starts in the fall, we will be able to play tennis, go on lunch dates, etc. however, an opportunity lies in not spending so much time together that we go crazy and want to kill each other.
to remedy this potential pitfall, we are trying to give each other as much time to ourselves as possible. james gets $2 movies since he is a firefighter, so he's seen every movie in theaters right now (and the dark knight twice). he encourages me to go out in the afternoon, but without spending much money and with most of my friends working or at home with their kids, i've come to need a hobby (hello, blog!).
financially, we've made no major changes. james still enjoys golf with his friends and i still shop at gymboree. we've made an effort to eat out less both for health and cost, but we still have our weekly sunday lunch at qdoba (keepin' it classy!) and eat at chick fila more than we should. we still don't have internet on our phones and try to live (semi) frugally, but our lifestyle is the same.
i know i am still in the honeymoon stage of staying at home (how long does that last?), but am loving our new family arrangement and am thankful for the blessing of james and my sweet (crazy) boys. love!
a couple of weeks ago, james and i had a little spat in which he shared that i was throwing off his routine by wanting to go to the gym at 8:45am instead of his usual 9:30am. for 3 years, james has faithfully gone to the gym nearly every day he is home (a mini escape from the boys if nothing else). now that i am home and the class i like to attend at the gym is at 8:45am, we've been going earlier. no big deal, right? it's really not, and james willingly goes at 8:45 to make me happy, but it is a change.
in the afternoon when the boys nap from 1-3, james used to have a couple hours of peace and quiet all to himself. he could choose the tv show, he could do yard work, he could do whatever he wanted. he pretty much still can, but there is another adult in the home--change.
one major positive with me staying home is that we have so much time together. our relationship is at one of its strongest points and we've enjoyed nearly every day of the last two months. when KDO starts in the fall, we will be able to play tennis, go on lunch dates, etc. however, an opportunity lies in not spending so much time together that we go crazy and want to kill each other.
to remedy this potential pitfall, we are trying to give each other as much time to ourselves as possible. james gets $2 movies since he is a firefighter, so he's seen every movie in theaters right now (and the dark knight twice). he encourages me to go out in the afternoon, but without spending much money and with most of my friends working or at home with their kids, i've come to need a hobby (hello, blog!).
financially, we've made no major changes. james still enjoys golf with his friends and i still shop at gymboree. we've made an effort to eat out less both for health and cost, but we still have our weekly sunday lunch at qdoba (keepin' it classy!) and eat at chick fila more than we should. we still don't have internet on our phones and try to live (semi) frugally, but our lifestyle is the same.
i know i am still in the honeymoon stage of staying at home (how long does that last?), but am loving our new family arrangement and am thankful for the blessing of james and my sweet (crazy) boys. love!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
community
i love this picture. not only do i love these ladies & these kids, but i love that i've gotten to spend time with them over the last two years in a community group.
at jbu, the term "community" was so overused most students grew desensitized to it. it wouldn't surprise me if community groups are on the satirical list of stuff white people like. but over the last two years, our family has been blessed to be a part of a great community (i don't like the word group because it sounds so exclusive) of people who have become some of our best friends.
it is not easy to be a part of a community group with young children. the logistics of coordinating babysitters, food, locations, etc mixed with the guilt of sending your child with a babysitter after working during the day is sometimes too much. there have been times when we've thought about stopping and i'm sure others have as well, but we've pressed on and can see the rewards of effort put into the relationships.
the ladies above are beautiful inside and out, and it is so nice to walk down the street and see smiling faces of friends who've been there through the celebrations and struggles. tomorrow we get to find out the sex of a baby on the way and i can't wait to cut into the cake!
(invitation designed by jennifer of parents playground who has been working hard perfecting the details of the party)
here's to another great year of community, growth & support traversing the crazy world of life parenting toddlers together. love!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
wordless wednesday
these pictures are pretty accurate depictions of the boys' personalities right now!
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