Money Management: Living Different
As we journey towards our dream of living on the water we’ve had to make decisions to live different. I’ve admitted before that thanks to our living situation and the work we put in before we met it’s very possible to win and I’m eternally grateful for that. BUT getting where we want to go (and staying out of debt) require living different and I wanted to share some of the ways we’re setting ourselves up to win overall and for the long haul.
Cars. I’m putting this at number one on the list for a reason. We own our cars which is awesome. We have no payments - wahoo. BUT what we’re doing different than many other people is were paying ourselves 2 car payments every month to prepare to replace our cars in cash when the time comes. I hear people say all the time that they’ve almost paid off their cars or they’re excited to be done with car payments. Great! Yes! But now what? If you don’t have a plan you’ll be right back to car payments in a few years and the cycle repeats. Also, can we talk about how expensive trucks and SUVs can get? Blake wants to be a truck guy for life and I love sitting up higher and having more space myself so you have to start saving early and with consistency if you’re going to stay out of debt for vehicles. Honestly, I get excited every time I put money in our car fund about the day we get to buy Blake a fancy new(er) truck.
Vacations. This one might sound out of place but if there’s one thing I didn’t want to sacrifice after finding the love of my life it was being able to adventure together so even though we’re saving hard for our future home ( & cars) we’ve prioritized being able to travel and have experiences together and I have no regrets. In fact, we’ve got 2 trips on the books for the next few months. In March we’re headed to Texas for the Houston Rodeo with friends and in June I’m excited for my first ever cruise where we get to hang out with 7 other couples. I want us to be yes people. To be able to say yes to adventures and plans. Vacations are not something I wanted to sacrifice BUT I also agreed to take on finding creative ways to make them more affordable including (but not limited too) working the travel credit card points. We hoard points and save money. Then we go and do. No regrets and also no debts.
Automate Savings. This makes reaching our goals so much easier. This is how we are (someday) going to reach our house on the water dream. Honestly, the short of it is: it’ll actually happen. If you have full access and depend on your own discipline to make it happen you won’t succeed nearly as regularly. So put your savings on automatic payments and forget about it.
Take Good Advice. I’ve had a financial advisor since my early 20s who is now both of our advisor. I cannot recommend this enough. Interview and find the RIGHT advisor for you but by all means have someone else making your money work for you and giving you good advice along the way. If you’re like us you don’t have enough time after your day jobs to also be investment guru’s but you know what? You can hire one!
We hit 6 months of marriage this weekend and I can’t believe how much we’ve been able to accomplish together in such a short time. I love looking at houses on the water dreaming of the day that one of them is ours!
