I’ve been meaning to calculate my savings rate and finally got down to it: 29%. Eh. I thought it would be more, but I’m maxing my 401k and the kids college will be funded by real estate.
I haven’t yet calculated my husbands, but I anticipate his is about the same but with a few differences, like funding our HSA.
We’re working to pay down debt, so our savings rate will remain flat for the foreseeable future (three mortgages!).
Here’s the breakdown:
401k: 15% (*just reduced to 13% due to bonus)
Employee Stock Purchase Program: 8%
FSA: 4.4%
529: 1% – this is just sad
Roth IRA: 1%
I wonder what our debt paying rate is? I’m not sure what that’ll tell me, but it will be interesting to calculate. It also varies based on other household spends like kids activities and household repairs. And skiing.
We entered this journey already on it.
With the arrival of our first son, I left the work force. We planned for it only in that we decided it would be great for a parent to stay home, but we did not prepare financially. One salary in Seattle and another kid later, I re-entered the workforce with $20k in debt. That meant we lived beyond our means by $5k/year for four years. Which – probably a shocking thing for the FI community to hear – isn’t bad considering where we were living and not being of the FI-mindset. And we were not depriving ourselves. But we also lived in a very walkable neighborhood – it wasn’t unusual to not use the car all week – and didn’t pay for daily childcare.
We knew exactly what we were doing and we took (baby) steps to minimize that:
Cut cable
Whistler, BC
Cut magazine subscriptions
Reduced cell phone and internet bills
Stopped dry cleaning
Ate out less
But we also did a lot of things on the opposite end of that spectrum:
We vacationed. A lot. Mostly weekend warrior trips around the PacNW, but also CA, Whistler, HI and East Coast trips. Miles/points paid for some at first, but certainly not all.
We went out. A lot. We lived in an incredible neighborhood with great restaurants, breweries, bars and live music. We couldn’t resist.
We paid a monthly fee for a babysitting service. Then paid them by the hour when we used them!
I could go on with both fronts. This was pre-FI and I don’t regret it, but it’s funny to look back and try to see the logic in these decisions.
So when I say we were already on the journey, we had already trimmed a lot of the unnecessary monthly bills about 10 years ago. It was the FI community that gave us the nudge to take savings a lot more seriously and be a lot more budget-minded. We’re almost 10 months in and we’ve taken the basic steps:
already paid off one credit card and have a plan to pay off all debt
I thought a W4 adjustment would be a logical optimization because we had a large tax return and it would be great to have a bigger paycheck instead. But I can’t figure out what our ideal withholdings should be on our W4. Files jointly with two kids … he claims 1, I claim 2. I see conflicting information on the internet and I’m confused. At the same time, the IRS calculator is not available while they’re updating it for 2018 tax law changes.
Maybe understanding this will hit me on the head or maybe it’s no big deal. A large tax return isn’t the worst thing in the world. But until then, I’m just keeping on the road of spending less, saving more, and reducing debt.
Since my last post three months ago, we’ve hit a bit of a bump, but at the end of the day, it will get us to FI sooner.
Good-bye office view!
At the end of July, I knew I would be out of a job in 30 days. Not really ideal, but also not an ideal job. It was the kick I needed to high tail my job search, seeking a change in industry and location for the reasons listed below. After many applications and even more interviews, I got an amazing job offer just six days after leaving my job. This provided a 4-week, unpaid break in which I was able to knock out a lot of the household “To Do” items, but was a little financially tough.
This career change was necessary for my mental health, but was also FI-driven:
Geoarbitrage 1: Change from working in the city to the ‘burbs = save 3.5456% in city wage tax
Geoarbitrage 2: Change commute from daily $10/day train or $10/day parking to 25-minute drive with free parking = save $200/month ($2400 annual savings)
Job Arbitrage: 8.9% salary increase with signing bonus, annual bonus and employee stock purchase option
This is all pretty awesome and we’re in the process of adjusting our finances to ensure we take advantage of and max out our pre-tax contributions. And, more exciting, updating our spreadsheets and FI timeline.
Another financial advantage of this change was our shift to my husbands insurance. We were pre-FI when we chose our insurance with my old employer. Being on the path, we’re scrutinizing the details. We chose to stay on a high-deductible plan, but switched to his employer for these added benefits:
Employer adds $2,000 per year to our HSA (free money!)
Transferring my old 401K to Vanguard. It’s currently with Fidelity at an expense ratio lower than Vanguard, but charges $12/quarter in book keeping fees.
Changing jobs (and changing industries) is hard and it’s a lot of work, but because we’ve made some less-than-financially-ideal decisions in our past, we have to keep working for now. I love my new job and the financial rewards; the path to FI is getting clearer!
