2016 in Review and 2017 Goals.

2016 in Review:
Wow, 2016 has truly gone by in a blur.  It's been an awesome year because every one is happy and healthy. Our lives have become much brighter ever since becoming parents. We enjoy every moment we have with our daughter. I learn a little bit more about myself everyday as I try to navigate my role as a mom. Watching my daughter grow has been the most rewarding experience. She's an incredibly loving and friendly child and I couldn't be more proud.
2017 is going to be even greater with baby #2 coming. Our finances has gotten better too with my husband's new job. We were able to save more and pay off some debts. But after buying the new van, we're back to square one in terms of savings. However, no regrets, we love our new car.

Our major successes:
 I paid off $20k of personal loan.
Husband paid off $6k owed on his Subaru.
We bought a new to us van with $12k down and gave the Subaru to my father in law ( we did take $2k from them, but the car is worth way more than that.)
We did not increase our standard of living even though we made more.

Our one major fail:
I'm the money person in our relationship and I'm simply did not keep track of our spending. We have a set amount of money we can spend on everything (my income). Although we never went over that. A lot of money was left unaccounted for, including the extra income I gain from my rental.

Our one goal for 2017- Buy a house.

Our place is ok  as a short term solution before you move into a more permanent place. The things that we were able to overlook due to the cheap rent is starting to annoy us. The lack of kitchen space is not allowing us to enjoy our at home life. Even making a pot of coffee is a hassle. The power always jumps anytime we have more than one appliances on. It's really effecting our everyday lives. Oh the laundry! Our landlords don't share their washer and dryer so we have to haul baskets of clothes to my mother in law's place to wash. She's very understanding and is more than happy to accommodate us, she even folds them after it's out of the dryer. But we're adults, we just wanted to do laundry in our own place.

The following are four major steps we'll take to make sure we get the funds to buy a house ASAP.

Save all of my husband's income
This one is just plain and simple. He's income goes to a different account and will stay there until we're ready to make an offer.

Save all of my rental income
If I can leave my rental income untouched it will expedite our savings for a house tremendously. And by house, I really mean a condo or a townhouse. We might be able to afford a house on paper, but that really is going to make us house poor. And plus, it'll take longer to save for the down payment. We're really ok with just having enough house for our family of four, even as the kids grow older.

Be more organized
Part of the reason why I felt like we failed in our finances is not keeping track of where everything is going. This year, we're going to be more diligent with our money. We're going to cut off more unnecessary spending. I even bought a chic planner to help me write down my goals  and set reminders to keep me on track.

Borrow money
Yup, I said it...We will borrow money to make up the difference that we need in our down payment. We'll save as aggressively as possible. But some interest free money is going to help a lot. Although, I still stick to the age old advice of not mixing family and money if anyone asks. But there are some lucky people who have relatives that don't tie money to obligations :).

I hope you all have a wonderful 2016 and Happy New Year~

Our No Gift Christmas

This may be a post from the Grinch...

This year, we are opting out of gift giving and exchanging. The main factor pushing for this decision is money. We wiped out much of our savings this year, with me paying off a personal loan, my husband paying off of his car and then with us getting a van (still no regrets in getting a car we can't pay cash for, it's amazing). We need to build it up again and this time we're saving for a house. Our place doesn't have a proper kitchen and it's starting to irk us that we don't have a proper place to make a meal. Husband and I love to cook and host get-togethers, but not having kitchen has not allowed us to do any hosting. Some days, we appreciate the low rent when we're too tired to want to cook. But the desire of wanting a place to call our own  is growing greater and greater.  I think even more so for my husband than me. I think his goal has always been getting a house when he finally have a decent job.

Another benefits of not doing gifts is the time I'll save from not shopping. Ever since I had my baby, I have more respect for time. I understand now that it's my most limited resource. Maybe because work has kept me away from her for most of the day, so any moment that I do have with her is more precious. Shopping to me feels like a waste of time since all my friends already have everything they need. I think they're a little relieve to not have to deal with gift shopping neither. This doesn't mean I'll never give any more gifts. I will, I actually enjoy giving gifts. My gifts now will be even more thoughtful because I give because I wanted to, not because a holiday mandates that I do. And isn't it more rewarding to see the surprise on someone's face when you unexpectedly gave them something?

And finally, we already have everything we needed and because we have more stuff than we have room for.  Ever since discovering minimalism and reading Marie Kondo's book, my mindset has shifted. I don't see a pleura of things as joy, but a responsibility. If you bring it home,  you have to house it and it take care of it. So if I bring something home, I must really love it or need it. I'm trying to simplify my life, not complicated.

So this year, we just want to enjoy people's company instead of things. We'll have pot lucks. I have family coming in from out of the country for a visit. We'll enjoy a short trip to Vegas with my husband's side of the family for a little get away. 

I'm not immune to Black Friday sales

So much for my plans of not buying anything this Thanksgiving weekend.  Many people spend more time planning their purchases than how they spend their time with their families during this time of year. I actually loathe Black Friday shopping. I think it's stupid how on a day where you're suppose to be thankful for everything you have and then before dinner even started you go and buy even more.

Although I haven't done any brick and mortar shopping during Black Fridays in years,  I'm not immune to their online sales.

I really wasn't planning on buying anything this year, but on a trip up north, I realized my daughter has outgrown her winter jackets, so I hop on to Carters.com to get her one. But oh no, there is a super cute sweater with a dog on it... It's sooooo cute! And added to the cart it goes. Oh, can't leave baby brother out, even when he's still in the womb. Gotta get him some shirts too.
Total spent at Carters.com $50

That super cute sweater with a dog... seriously, so cute! 

Oh, even before that, I saw a great deal on carseats from ToysRus. We been thinking about getting one for my husband's car, so he doesn't have to wait till I get home to pick up our baby. It's exactly like ours except the cover isn't removable. It's pretty excessive to have two carseats. But the convenience is worth it to us. We'll eventually need another one when our new baby out grows his infant carseat anyways.
Total spent for carseat $215

Got some emails that I 'forgot' to unsubscribe to. Damn you hollar.com and your cheap prices. They had a 40% one item. But free shipping starts at $25. I'm actually am pretty excited about these two purchases- the packing cube and storage boxes.
Total spent at Hollar.com $26

$10 for these packing cubes. 

$10 for these storage boxes. 

We visited my parents up north, while cleaning her kitchen cabinet, she asked if I've found the vegetable seeds she lost. She went crazy looking for it... turned out they were the kale seeds I bought her. So I immediately hop onto the good old internet and got her some. They were having a 35% off sale and I totally did not know until I check my email. I later hop back on to buy some herb seeds.
Total spent on seeds $6

It's the season to be giving right? So I've been on the look out for super deals. If I see a good deal that is too good to pass up, I will buy and donate.  I actually found a few that I felt the store was loosing money on. But I guess their lost is my gain. I bought a few fleece blankets for maybe the homeless or will be donating them to a woman and children center. I also found some great deals on dog beds. I bought a total of 6 from two different deals and stores.
Total on fleece blanket $16
Total on doggie beds $30

We actually had rain this pass weekend, and the weather dipped into the low 50's. I don't have any long sleeve sleepwear and decided it's time to buy some. Ultimately I ended up on the Old Navy website, everything was 40% off and an additional 20% off I believe.  But free shipping still started at $50. But guess what, on Cyber Monday, they had 50% off plus free shipping and a free gift.  I'm still piss off about that.
Total spent at Old Navy $58

I also bought some diapers and wipes from Amazon, they were too good of a deal to pass up and my baby is not potty trained so I better stock up.

Wow, so my total for this weekend was $401. That's just me on one credit card, my husband bought a few things too... probably another $50 worth. But next year, we'll do better, hopefully.

We Saved Half of Our Income

That got your attention didn't it? Husband's been working at his new job for a few months now. Even before he started, we vowed to not inflate our lifestyle and save all of his income. We did pretty well with the exception of the $1700 that we used to pay for our car insurance for the whole year. It felt really good for a few paychecks. All we see is money coming in and staying in. But, that didn't last long , once we had enough we took out about $6k to pay off his car. A few paychecks later we dive in and bought a minivan. We cleaned out his saving and now owe about $17000 to the bank. Not the most financially sound thing to do, but we think it's a good car at a very good price. And it being a Toyota, that machine will last us years to come. Which is good, we're keeping this car for as long as possible.

This is Sexy Beast.

Even though, we saved half of our income, our not so proud moment comes when we got a loan from the bank to buy the car. We got a very low APR, 1.74%, but any debt is a chain to your legs weighting and slowing you down from reaching your other goals. I seriously don't like debts, I don't think any one does. But to me, having debt is like having a gray cloud over your head, damping your mood and makes it hard to see anything else beyond it. We're paying it off asap for sure! 

Saving half of our income is fairly easy. I'm making ok money (not 6 figures, not even close to being close to 6 figures) and with the income I make from my rental, we are not living on a tight budget. So we're not really holding back on eating out or buying toys and clothes for our baby. However, this free spending streak is going to end. Because now aside from our emergency fund, we literally have no savings, not only that, we're in debt. 

One of the most important and most effective way to save a lot of money is to trim your reoccurring expenses. By that, I mean your rent. We went from paying $1200 a month to $820.  We don't live in an apartment or house, we're renting someone's extra spaces. It's cut off from the main house, we have our own entrance and everything. It has a nice size living room and bedroom ( with a small walk in closet), a bathroom and a kitchen space with no appliances. But, they do have an outdoor cooking space just right outside of our kitchen door. It's been fine, we're not cooking much anyways, we have no time and my mother in law cooks for us. The great thing about renting someone's house is that  the rent usually covers everything, gas, water, electricity etc. We lucked out on this place, it's in a nice neighborhood and our landlord is my sister in law's coworker. So if you need to find a place, start by asking your friends and family if they know anyone who has a space to rent out.

We also shop to make sure we're getting the best price for the coverage we want on our car insurance. Mercury came out on top. My husband carpools to work which cuts his driving by half. Not to mention he drives a gas saver. So we estimated that he gas costs him $100/month. I drive the van now and it will probably cost $150-$175/month. We haven't had our first gas fill up yet, so we'll see. 

Here is a list of our monthly bills: 
Rent:$820
Life Ins.: $256
Cell Phone: $100
Van Payment: $293
Childcare: $500 (yay for family) 
Gas: $275( roughly) 
Baby expenses:$100 (roughly) 
Food: $300 (I haven't been keeping track, but I'm limiting us to that much from now on. I think this is plenty considering we eat most of our weekday meals at my mother in laws)

This doesn't include misc. things, because I really don't know how much I spend on everything else. I'm terrible at documenting everything I buy. Although I really tried, but it's just a method that doesn't work for me or my husband. 

Our annual expenses include: 
Term life ins: $656
Car insurance: $1700 (for 3 cars, one's for my brother in law. We still need to add the Sexy Beast and take off the Subaru)
AAA roadside: $74

Our goals now is to pay off the car asap and save for a down payment. 

YOLO

I had a short but very disappointing conversation with my brother in law the other day. It all started with us borrowing his van to test drive because we're considering replacing our SUV for a van. When we dropped off the car, he said that I should get a van but I sighed and said it was too expensive. A new (to us) car means car payments and we don't have enough in our savings to pay it all off. Although, I wouldn't mind a small manageable car payment that we can pay off in a short time. It's still a big purchase involving lots of $$$ and we like to sit on it first. 
 He encouraged and said "life is short, don't deprive yourself of what you want."
 This part makes sense, we don't know if we'll still be here tomorrow and we need to make every moment count.
He then goes on and said that THEY SPEND EVERY DOLLAR THEY MAKE!!!! THEY HAVE NO SAVINGS AND HE'S OK WITH IT.
 That's when I became horrified. Are you serious!?!? That's is the most obscured thing I ever heard.  How can anyone with a mortgage, wife and 3 teenage kids say that? He's the breadwinner and they're all depending on him. He went on and tried to justify that he's behavior is ok simply because he wants to live his life in the moment.  I felt that he was encouraging me to do the same, I guess it would make his decisions normal if everyone is doing it. He went on and repeat with a wave that he has no life insurance, no savings, no NOTHING!
"I can't live like that,  I want to save money because I want to retire early." I replied
"55?" he asked.  I said, "No, 50, I don't want to work forever." He looked at me incredulous, as if my plan is naive and unattainable and said "I'm 50."
"What happens if you get sick?" I questioned. He nonchalantly shrugged and replied " I don't know, I don't care, if it happens it happens."
At this point, I was very irked by his irresponsible way of thinking. I retort, "if you get sick and can't work, you're going to loose your house, your car,  what's going to happen to your kids?" He shrugged again and said he only has enough 2-3 payments, I wasn't sure if he meant for his cars or mortgage, neither way, it's equally disturbing.
I went on and told him that I save money because I want to make sure we have a good future, I buy life insurance because if anything were to happen to me, my daughter and husband is financially ok. I told him that just because I budget and live below my means, doesn't mean I'm depriving myself.  I carry designer purses (I'm a purse girl), I buy my daughter what ever she needs, I go out and eat when ever I want. Our conversation was cut short because we had to leave.

But that conversation occupied my thoughts for the rest of the night. My husband and I always speculated that his sister and brother in law live paycheck to paycheck. After all, 3 kids, two cars and a mortgage ain't cheap. But, what shocked me the most was his admission that this is all intentional. I did catch a glimpse of uncertainty on his face when I questioned him on the possibility of him not being able to provide for his family. Perhaps, he's awaken to the fact that his ways are not sustainable. I felt like deep down, he knows he messed up, and perhaps the reason why he hasn't made any changes is because he's not sure how.  They've continuously inflate their lifestyle as their income grew, they've gotten used to having certain luxuries. So now, not having the newest model of iPhone or driving a car he really wanted might feel like deprivation. 

In someways, I completely understand his approach to life. I, too, came from a third world country. The things we didn't have was not easily comprehend by someone who had toilets in their house that flushes. We had to go the an community outhouse to do our business. Yeeep, super gross. But, it was life, it was all we had. I believe my brother in law felt that he's come from nothing and worked hard to be where he is, he deserves a gas guzzling truck because he wants it, he deserve  to buy all his kids iPads, and his wife a designer purse. But he's completely ignoring something else he deserves, STABILITY. He and his wife make a decent living. If they would budget a little, they'll be able to save for their future or a catastrophic event. They can take care of themselves when they're not longer are able to work. They don't have to be in the mercy of the government, hoping that they're benefits won't be cut. And if they try, they can even shave a few years off of their mortgage payments. What a nice gift it is to oneself, to rid yourself if your biggest debt a few years early.  

Unlike my family, money isn't discussed openly in my husband's side of the family. What I desperately wanted my brother in law to know is that it's not too late to change. Life is about the pursue of happiness, but happiness isn't necessarily derived from your purchases. If anything happens to him, those iPads and countless amount of toys he bought the kids isn't going to pay the bills. It's his  savings and life insurance that will pay for his mortgage, food and clothing. For the sake of his children,I hope he'll change his ways and set a good example. 

What We Did With Our Tax Returns

Let me begin by saying how important it is to have a good accountant who knows her shit. It truly makes a different.  I thought, since I only have a regular 9-5:45 job, my taxes should be cookie cutter simple. Twice in a roll, my return was a measly $1000 give or take a few dollars. My husband on the other hand was getting 2x as much as me. I thought, it wouldn't hurt to give his accountant a try. Last year, we filed jointly for the first time and our return blew me away. I mean, there are several factors to be considered and I can't really compare apples to apples when we file jointly versus married but filing separately. But I do believe his accountant is more knowledgeable than mine and thus able to get us a bigger return. Mine  was someone younger than me just starting out. **No offense to all the accountant just starting out, we need you. 

This year, our return was a little higher than last year, mostly due to the birth of our daughter, I made less because I took a 2 month maternity leave and I'd increased my 401k contributions. 

Last year, with our returns, we're able to pay off a small student loan my husband had. We sold my car and used proceeds with the left over tax return to buy a newer car. It feel so good to own a car outright. 

This year, we used the money and pay off our credit cards immediately. We had higher than normal credit card balances this month because we just celebrated my daughter's first birthday. We moved and needed some furniture for our new place. And, my husband took his car in for a 105k mile tune up... that was over $1000. If you take care of your car, your car will take care of you, I guess.

We still have some money left over for my husband to pay off his car, this move would make us debt free, with the exception of my mortgages. But he rather that we use this money to add to our savings. At first, I wanted his car loan paid off, this would save us $200 per month. But then, if we don't redirect that $200 else where immediately, we're bound to find ways to spend it. We thought it would be easier to keep our finances the same and keep the money to boost our savings. 

We didn't do anything "exciting" but paying off our debt is pretty exhilarating. Having a little bit of cushion in the bank really helps us sleep better at night. 

We're Moving... Again!

We are moving again and couldn't be more excited. We've only been here  less than 3 months but it feels much much longer.  Our current place has too many walls. The owner made this section of the house into a two bedroom so they can maximize on the rent. It would have been the perfect little one bedroom.

This is the entrance to the place, it looks fine when you haven't moved your things in.  What you don't see is that there is a wall to the left making this entrance extremely narrow. The lack of counter space makes it a hassle to cook. We probably only made two meals the entire time we've been here. And the brand new oven stayed a virgin.

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To the left of the "kitchen" is this space. Don't be fooled, it's smaller than a compact parking spot. You have to be an extreme minimalist to live here. For a family of three, it just doesn't work. At $1200 (includes utilities), we thought it was a good deal considering the apartments that we looked at cost $300 more and  do not include utilities.

This is the rest of the house. On the left is the 2nd bedroom, bathroom and a deep linen shelf. At the end is the master bedroom. There is a closet to the right and a door separating from us the landlord's place.

Our new place is a one bedroom with a pretty decent size living room. There is a kitchen space much larger than our current place. But there is no oven.  However, for $820 bucks (including utilities and internet)... I'm willing to make a few sacrifices. I've already remedied this issue by buying a counter top oven. I won't be baking as much as I would like, but I won't have much time with a baby anyways. We have been blessed that my husband's mom not only takes care of our baby but she cooks for us as well. That's how we get away with not cooking.

One of my goals when we move out is to keep our expenses the same. The $1200/mo rent was really pushing some limits. We were using the rent I received from my rental to pay for childcare. When usually the rental income goes to savings. The difference we're saving on rent will really make a huge impact on  our overall budget. I'm still saving 40% of my take home income and contributing 12% with 3% match to my 401k.

But moving isn't cheap. We've already incur some expenses for the new place and we haven't even moved in yet.  We intent to make the new place more permanent so we made a few large expense to make ourselves more comfortable.
Replaced the old and dirty carpet with wood: material $300-400, labor: 200
A chaise for more seating: $145
Breville counter top over: $250
Over the toilet shelf: $30
Dinning set: $300 but will be returned and will purchase another one for $250.