S/O Our income of 300k is barely enough AMA

amother

↑ OP ↓

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 4:34 pm

amother Tiffanyblue wrote:

I'm so impressed with how organized you are with qb. What made you do that? What do you use the numbers for?

Thank you!!
Even though I said that BH we have enough to live a middle-class lifestyle, and I don't budget, I am not irresponsible or naive! I enter all our expenses into qb (from credit card bills and bank statements) so that:
A) I know that we have enough money in our account to pay our bills
B) I can see when we can afford a larger purchase that I have been putting off
C) I can review our expenses to see if/where we can cut back
D) I can compare to previous years to see where expenses have gone up/down

amother

PlumPink ↓

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 6:53 pm

amother OP wrote:

We do the same. My husband uses Google sheets and has a separate tab for each month. We have our budget in an chart and when we enter in purchases it automatically redoes the calculations of how much we have left to spend in that category.
A lot of times we’ll see that we went over in one category but under in another so it evens out.
He also writes at the bottom how much we saved that month
He checks it and updates periodically so if we see we’re spending too much in a certain category we’ll know to hold off and slow it down until next month (unless it’s a real need obv)
This method has allowed us to save a lot bh

amother

↑ Bottlebrush ↓

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 10:03 pm

amother OP wrote:

After being told on a different thread that I need to seriously reevaluate my finances if we are making 300k and have no savings, I decided to open an AMA so that you can see that 300k may be less than 150k. I do log all my expenses in QB so I should be able to answer accurately.

We are NOT destitute or poverty stricken. We live on the very simplest end of the normal range. But we make just barely enough to cover our bills. We stopped worrying about not having savings, as the same way Hashem provides now, He will continue to provide.

This is an AMA; not a query for financial guidance. Please don't get on here with judgmental posts of where I can cut back. TIA

ETA: SEE PG 5 for a breakdown of our expenses, as requested. This is based off of my QB entries, so the expenses are not exact and can vary from year to year.

Question: what do you mean by "NO savings" how much do you have in the bank?

You dont have any retirement accounts at all ? how much equity do you have in your house?

( if you have 500k equity in your house, you really have more wealth than someone who has 300k in the bank and doesnt have a house)

amother

Jean

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 10:50 pm

so interesting about quickbooks.

I used to do it every night and I found that I stopped leaving it to Hashem. I was obsessively counting and being careful and stressing.

I made the decision to stop keeping track of every dollar. I have a basic idea of our spending and Hashem takes care of the rest.

my menuchas hanefesh is better, our finances are about the same, and Hashem has ways of sending money when we need it.

My struggle is staying careful and reasonable with spending because I know Hashem does not value me overspending and being materialistic. Its hard for me because I love things and I love to spend.

amother

Dodgerblue

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 10:51 pm

Similar situation. We struggled all our lives. Bh had 2 years with about 400k income and side business so we were able to buy a starter house but then we owed more income taxes than we thought and find ourselves living hand to mouth lately making 250-300k.

I saw so much Yad hashem in every step, that he is taking us on this ride we just need to hang on. I try not to worry about weddings.

We are trying to do the whole budgeting thing lately but not sure how it will help us save.

amother

↑ PlumPink

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 11:03 pm

amother Jean wrote:

It’s so interesting
For us we don’t stress about every dollar and we will go over sometimes on extras and live life normally and it’s ok! It’s just a way for us to keep on track with our saving goals bec I also love to spend haha and seeing it on paper helps me realize how much I’m spending.
I do find that when I don’t stress and trust hashem and am calmer about it He really figures it out for us. we’ll have a month of a lot of expenses and still be able to meet our savings goal for the month even though it doesn’t make sense on paper. When you spend normally and have the feeling like you have (within reason) hashem makes it that you really do have

amother

↑ Snowflake ↓

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 11:14 pm

amother Pear wrote:

You think living below your means is only realistic when you're young and naive?

4 kids, teens to elementary age.

Actually no. I found that what you said applied to me until my oldest turned 19-20 and I had multiple children down until very young.
I had assumed when I had a seventeen year old things wouldn’t change that much anymore in terms of the “living below your means” perspective….But no, live and learn.
Oldest being 20 with multiple younger children-
Some things that seemed excessive actually do become quite necessary at that point. That was why I asked. You reminded me of myself.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 11:32 pm

amother Bottlebrush wrote:

Question: what do you mean by "NO savings" how much do you have in the bank?
You dont have any retirement accounts at all ? how much equity do you have in your house? Another question..how much did u put down as down payment on your house? Where did u get that Money from if you were always tight?

Right now I have $14,150 in bank. Credit card bill (appx $8000) is due tomorrow.
We have no retirement accounts.
Our home cost $425,000 and we were eligible (location-wise, not income-wise) for a 5% down payment mortgage with no extra fees. We put down 25k (15k we had managed to save plus 10k gift from our parents) and took a 400k mortgage.
Our home went up tremendously in value. We owe about 300k but our home is worth at least 800k, so yes, we have equity.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Thu, Aug 22 2024, 11:52 pm

Just want to say thank you to all the Imas who are chiming in their support and agreement. We don't need pity, we are grateful that we manage to pay our own way with no help or programs. I just wish there was more recognition that 300k is still squarely in the struggling middle class.

amother

↑ Snowflake

Fri, Aug 23 2024, 1:13 am

amother OP wrote:

Very very true.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Fri, Aug 23 2024, 6:52 am

Joeorsh wrote:

Hi OP don't you use masser to pay tuition? It's the norm to do this where I live. Wishing you hatzlocha.. you seem very content and very organised with your finances so good on you!! Smile

We were told that since tuition is a chiyuv it cannot be paid for with maaser. School building fund/dinner fees can and are.

Thanks for your kind words!

amother

Mulberry

Fri, Aug 23 2024, 7:52 am

Joeorsh wrote:

Hi OP don't you use masser to pay tuition? It's the norm to do this where I live. Wishing you hatzlocha.. you seem very content and very organised with your finances so good on you!! Smile

As far as I know this is assur for boys’ tuition and questionable at best for girls’ tuition.

amother

↑ Grape

Fri, Aug 23 2024, 8:39 am

amother Mulberry wrote:

As far as I know this is assur for boys’ tuition and questionable at best for girls’ tuition.

Lol. I was told the opposite.
Girls Jewish education is optional so I can’t use maaser.
Boys education I was told to ask what type of break they would give me. Then pay the extra over the break with maaser. But not the base amount.

We do use maaser for building fund.

amother

↑ Bottlebrush ↓

Fri, Aug 23 2024, 8:42 am

amother OP wrote:

How long did it take you to buy a house?

Really good that you bought when you did

I wish I would have bought sooner . We bought after the house doubled and had to put down a much larger down-payment

amother

↑ Pear

Fri, Aug 23 2024, 8:46 am

amother Snowflake wrote:

Listen, I'm not buying a new house and a new car and a new wardrobe when my child turns 17. I'm not upgrading my life. Yes, older kids do sometimes need extras and I think that can be done while still living below your means overall.

amother

↑ OP

Fri, Aug 23 2024, 9:57 am

amother Bottlebrush wrote:

We were married 13 years when we bought a house. We lived in a 2 bedroom basement for 7 years and then rented a house for 5 years.

In hindsight I really wish we would have bought a house 5 years ago instead of renting. We thought we were being prudent. Making sure that we could afford higher payments before we made that commitment. We also didn't bother looking into mortgage options- assumed it wasn't possible because we did not have 20% down payment.

It was when our Rav told us that it is a priority for a family to own a house and that we must work towards that goal that we explored options and found a lender that required only 5% down.

If we had bought 5 years earlier (when we moved out of our apartment) we could have bought something comparable for 100-200k less. Our payments would be lower. Our mortgage would be paid off sooner. Our equity would be greater (although it went way up in value so we do have high equity.)

But thank you Hashem we bought when we did. Because we certainly wouldn't be able to buy now Sad

amother

↑ Bottlebrush

Fri, Aug 23 2024, 10:23 am

amother OP wrote:

Yes. It is very very good you bought then

We just bought now . Eats me up that we didn't buy sooner.

Would have been 500k. Less 4 years ago. Seriously.

We were both working and saving a lot. I though we were doing well saving so much. Now all those savings went to our huge down-payment.

Our 500k savings got us to the same place as ur 25k did years ago.

Sometimes it eats me up. Bh we were able to buy now at least.