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Four Kids Freak Out!

July 29th, 2015 at 12:28 pm

Hayley and I have one month till the birth of our beautiful baby girl and I have recently resigned from one of my work places, thereby kissing farewell to 2 days salary. The craziness continues.
In the past 6 months we have purchased an investment property of around $400,000 and placed an additional $140,000 in a managed investment. We have almost paid off our home but used the equity in our home to finance the loans.
The rental property we purchased came with a delightful tenant (since evicted) who enjoyed avoiding rent payments, boxing holes in doors and taking various illegal substances. In the past month and budgeting ahead into next month, the property has required around $11,000 in repairs and upkeep to make it tenable again.
It gets better, the 3 days of employment that I do have is as a teacher, which is not renowned as being one of the highest earning jobs.
Why in God’s great earth did we decide as a family to drop down to 3 days a week? I’ll give you a few reasons:
1. To spend more family time together. I’d rather live frugally and have time with my kids during these formative years.
2. It gives me a chance to put my money where my mouth is and see if I can save and invest successfully enough to subsist, or better yet, thrive!
3. We have saved and saved for years and know we can do it! Years of budgets proves it even if the knees are a little wobbly.
I realise this might seem silly to some. As I said, we have saved for years though and would have a debt to equity ratio of approximately 1.5.
I have elected to reinvest the returns from the managed fund which is nearly $11,000 in net profits since the beginning of the year.
My wife also earn $8,000 as an editor and we have no personal loans, credit card debt or car loans.
In addition to this we are paying principal and interest off of our remaining home loan and envisage paying off an additional $10,000. We’ll see in a year’s time if this is achievable.
I do have a fall back, I can get contract work as an emergency teacher if the situation becomes dire.
Please if you are going to comment I’d appreciate keeping it positive and I’d love hear any well wishes. I’ll certainly be reading SavingAdvice.com a lot more carefully.

10 Responses to “Four Kids Freak Out!”

  1. laura Says:
    1438177414


    Congratulations on the new arrival. Been there, done (doing) that - largish family and smallish salary. We're in the process of hopefully adopting a baby girl from the Philippines; however, our travel plans had a hiccup of being delayed which means my husband will be taking an unpaid leave for travel because he can't carryover vacation days. We're one mortgage payment ahead, and are trying to sustain that cushion. We're got five kids in Catholic elementary and high schools - and we cracked down to pay 25% of that last month (first payment of the 2015-2016 year). My husband has accepted a recent promotion, but will be able to work from home. And he balances two classes a week - its nuts, but it is doable. And if your kids are your priority it makes some decisions easier (like resigning from volunteer work). Looking forward to seeing your progress (and we have a rental property - single family home that we're at odds on what to do with - I'd like to sell and have no mortgage at all; DH would like to keep and sees it as instant equity). Smile

  2. Ima saver Says:
    1438194740

    I wish you the best of luck. I had 3 rental properties about 35 years ago, but I was not cut out to be a landlord. It was too much stress (plus we were moving to another state) I certainly wish you all the best!

  3. MonkeyMama Says:
    1438197799

    I wish you luck too!

    We are extremely financially conservative, but none of that matters as much as raising a family and being there for our kids. The irony of it all is how much better we are doing financially than average, anyway. I think we get a lot of unecessary concern. Or maybe I should just say, "I don't see why you can't have it all." You just need a plan. The problem is most people in our culture don't have a plan.

  4. Buendia Says:
    1438203125

    I think you are making the right choice and of course I wish all the best for you! I decided to only work hours that my daughter is in school; I have my own business, and it's not easy! Also I am certain I could make double working for someone 40 to 50 (or 60) hours a week. My profession is salaried, not hourly, so my hours would be whatever my employer wanted. But I want to spend time with my daughter, pick her up from school, drive on field trips!!! So we make the money work so that we can have family time. She and I hang out together after school every day, I do drive on those field trips, I drive her to soccer practice, and we have dinner as a family every night. (PS - we will have our house paid off in about 2 to 3 years and our fun is frugal fun, but it's still super fun!). Have fun with your family! Your priorities are in the right place!

  5. BudgetBrilliance Says:
    1438251340

    I just wanted to say a huge thank you for these comments. It really, really is tremendously encouraging. Fabulous to hear from other savers. To be honest, it is very counter cultural to reduce work, spend conservatively and put family first. Thanks for your advice and affirmations. It means more than you realise!

  6. snafu Says:
    1438272802

    I'm in the group who believe if you fail to plan, you plan to fail! Obviously you've a plan, you understand finances and are committed to your family rather than shallow consumerism touted by clever marketing campaigns. I'd be so excited to meet the new addition and expect the next month will fly by. You've change happening on several levels but the 'wobbly knees' will firm up as you deal with the life challenges that come your way.

    Hat's off to you for dealing with a non performing tenant.

  7. BudgetBrilliance Says:
    1438337535

    Totally agree Snafu. I revise my budget monthly and it looks like it might get a little tight. The weird thing is, I actually feel really good about it. The amount of cereal I throw out in the morning because the kids had a nibble and now they want toast. Or asking a family member what they'd like for a birthday and getting "Oh just chuck some money in a card." This has got my wife really on board and showers are shorter, lights are going off when people leave the room, I've had to cut out alcohol and bad snack foods. I think we're all better for it. Tonight rather than getting pizzas, snacks and hiring a movie we had a meal together and built cubbies. Wonderful!

  8. livingalmostlarge Says:
    1444105282

    Good luck. We are in the no income club and will probably have no income for a year. We'll see how the otherside lives.

  9. BudgetBrilliance Says:
    1444213303

    All the best livingalmostlarge. I hope you have income coming in soon. The 4th child's now arrived giving us the fun of sleepless nights. Smile Wishing you every future success!

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