Quote:
Originally Posted by cicy33
Well, we already live off about $40,000 per year max. I can't imagine what you must make to make a statement like that! We are not rich people. We are middle to lower class financially wise. I don't have a "lifestyle". I yardsale, coupon and try to cut costs where I can. I frequent the goodwill store, they have great deals on jeans for my dh. I make about 25,000 gross, my husband grosses about 52,000 which we lose almost half that just in supplies and subcontractors, so his net or what we actually get is around 25,000 or so. My net is about $20,000.00 We are buying our house it is a 3 bedroom that we just recently added a fourth bedroom, bath and office to. We have done the work ourselves so it is slow going but much cheaper. With four kids every weekend there is no way to move into something smaller. The three bedrooms was fine but I wanted the fourth for comfort. Well worth the cost. we paid for most of the addition when my grandmother died and left us some money. We are paying 5.5% interest on the house and our payment just dropped from 400.00 per month to $327.00 per month. We are going to continue to pay the $400 though cuz we are already used to it. We only owe about $37,000 on the house less interest. Way silly to move. We don't have car debt. NONE. both vehicles are paid for. We have a huge expense that is not going to go away for several more years. Child support. He pays $500 per month for his kids. and that is fine. But it sure makes it harder to get ahead right now. The youngest is 10, the oldest is 13 (almost). so around 8 more years total. Our bills are probably like most. I didn't list my bills or debt for a reason. I wasn't asking for assistance in paying off quicker or building an ef fund. I was only interested in there were more people in my financial area on this board. I utilize the debt snowball calculators on the net and am working on goals to pay off all our debt within 5 - 10 years, the house included. Keep in mind that I know that to some people we probably have awesome costs on a house but we live in a very bad economy area. and the cost of gas and everything else is just going up and up. We are probably considered well off to our friends. to me that is laughable!
|
My income is not much different than yours, Our typical takehome is around 4000 monthly. My monthly expenses are around 2300 on my budget. Our house payment is 1100 and we spend about 400 on food. Since I have become focused on financial peace, I've worked more hours bringing in about 500 more a month. We have used this extra money over the past 6 months to payoff my truck and build an EF. We are beginning to invest 800 a month in roths.
Finding a way to increase our income a little and spend less money has made a big change in our position. We've went from 3500 in debt to debtfree and having an 9000 EF in six months. My EF will be finished in two weeks and then we begin to invest. This change for me, has been rewarding, even enjoyable. I don't know if you can do this also, but it seems like, with a great deal of desire, you can.
When you want something bad enough, you will find a way to do it. Read Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey, it might just be the push you need.