It was a year of changes & a new beginning for all of us.

We moved almost 900 miles. I started a new career. Mr. 50 was actively looking for a job. 50 junior started daycare. It was a new beginning for all of us.

Mr. 50 and I decided to move back to where we were before. A few years back, I accepted a corporate position with my dream company in the Empire State. It was the job of my dreams. I worked so hard to get myself in and I was there – my dreams came true. It was great. I loved the people I worked with. I very much enjoyed the work I did. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by such talented and professional people. I had learned a great deal personally and professionally. I was so determined to work hard and save hard for 10 years to accumulate wealth then I’d retire.

In the end, it was all a dream (since I don’t work there anymore). As soon as our son 50 junior was born, everything changed, including my mindset about life and everything else. I had my dream job but I wasn’t happy with life. Moreover, I felt like something was missing. I thought I would be happy with the career I had chosen. However, I was wrong. I  learned that having a dream career was not everything my life asked for so I left my dream job. We decided to move back to a small town where we lived before to raise our child. My work-life balance was improved tremendously. Additionally, we left a high-cost living area to a low-cost living area to make our FI more achievable.

Here is where our FI journey begins…

Expenses

1. Yuck! We are now paying 2 mortgages; our current home and our home in the suburb of NYC (we rented out our rural home while we lived in New York). We are still a single income family this year.  A total of $37,620 in mortgages; $3,135 x 12. A total of $2,511 in utilities on NY house.
2. A daycare cost. 50 junior started his daycare this year so Mr. 50 had time to find his job. A total of $7,425; $165 a week for 42 weeks.
3. Moving expense. Initially, for the first move, we drove my car filled with our belongings from floor to ceiling. I mean it was really from a car floor mat to car ceiling. We stuffed as much food, as many clothes and necessary items as we possibly could so that we didn’t have to spend unnecessary once we arrived. The 3 of us and 2 dogs were also packed into my small compact car. Eventually, we hired a moving company after I did the math and found that it was worth it. It was a big and significant expense this year; 5 figures worth of moving expenses, $15,110 to be exact.
4. A repair cost of our current rural home. The renter left us with zillions nail holes (as if they rented our house as an art gallery). Thank goodness, it was cosmetic. We spent 6 weeks patching holes and paint the whole house (by ourselves). We also replaced all the dirty and stained carpet in bedrooms (hired a contractor). During this time, we lived with our best friend, Debbie. We really appreciate her kindness and help. If you’re reading this, please know that we are grateful for your help (We felt so sorry for a crying baby at night and 2 barking dogs. She also helped babysit 50 junior while we worked on the house. She was a true friend). We spent a total of $4,850.

Saving and Investing

1. I contributed 6% of my salary to my retirement plan with the new employer; 3% to traditional and 3% to Roth. They match dollar-to-dollar for the first 3% and half a dollar for the next 2%.
2. We returned to automatically saving (it was paused for some time); $100 monthly to our online high-yield saving account.
3. I started a college savings plan for 50 junior during the summer; $100 monthly. Hooray – finally! It felt great!
4. Toward the end of this year, we started a cake business on the side. We also started an Etsy shop selling cake balls and cake pops. We sold 2 orders within the first day of opening – how exciting! This gave Mr. 50 something to look forward to while finding a job. We earned a total of $230 (this went to our checking).

Net Worth

• Liabilities

1. The balance on the current house was $114,900 and NY house was $232,110. Yikes!
2. We owed a total of $48,571 between credit card debt and a car loan (for my car). Holy moly!
3. Thank goodness, Mr. 50 and I don’t have student loans. Read my post “How I went to graduate school debt free” and learn how I got 2 graduate degrees debt free.

Liabilities totaled at $395,581

• Asset

1. My old retirement balance from a former employer was $56,550.
2. My new retirement balance (from current employer) was $11,025.
3. 50 junior’s college saving account balance was $421.
4. The online saving account balance was $7,723.
5. The regular saving account balance was $2,500.
6. Checking account balance was $2,819.
7. Mr. 50’s car was worth $4,400

Asset Totaled at $85,438

• 2013 Net Worth -$310,143  —–My Oh My we were this much negative!

What I learned and what I want to accomplish next year

1. I see luck as good opportunities with the right timing. I’m not sure that the opportunity we were given to do a side business was luck. Of course, I was pumped getting to do what I love doing (cake decorating and baking). It takes a tremendous amount of time. Mr. 50 learned hard to do his best. Obviously, this skill is hard to learn for him. I still did the majority of the work. Could this be the right timing for us while having a new job and taking care of a toddler? A year has passed, Mr. 50 hasn’t been able to find any jobs. However, our side business started to grow beautifully. The right timing or not, only time will tell.
2. We are in the negative net worth zone. We spent more than we earned. We chose to have 2 houses. Okay – I get it. This is why I’m here writing this blog so I can know how financially troubled we are. This is embarrassing. I also don’t count the equity of our homes nor the cash value of my car towards our net worth. Those things are harder to convert into cash and its value fluctuates with the market. Also, I don’t hope to turn our cars or home value into cash. I mean, I can’t really sell my car or homes to get cash (or to pretend they count toward our net worth while we are still making payments). The term is irrelevant to us right now. I’ll put the value of our homes and my car as soon as we really own them (when we have paid it off).  I know, I am very conservative here when it comes to putting home equity and/or car value into the net worth.
3. Okay, let’s be realistic here. At the end of the year, we had a little over $10,000 in cash. We even have a college saving account for the little one. I still didn’t feel good financially. We have too much debt and too many houses (okay, just 2 houses. I felt like we had more than that).
4. I wanted to tackle our credit card debt by the end of next year. It needs to be gone for good. I’m not sure how to do this yet as the math didn’t work as of now. This deserves a post on its own.
5. I hope to get our NY house rented by next spring. Even we don’t make any profit, at least all utilities and part of the mortgage will be taken care of by the tenant. We tried to sell it last year when we moved. The deal fell through. We would have had to write a big check in order to get it sold (the market was still down, the offered price was too low and we owed too much) so we said no. It was an emotional roller coaster. I felt financially devastated.

This was the beginning of our FI journey. We were glad that we pulled the plug and moved from a high-cost living area to a low-cost living area. It was humbling. It was rough. We made it through the first year. We have hope and I am determined because we have a solid FI plan.

Are you with us?

What do you think of our beginning? W

hat would you do differently if you were us?

Would our FI journey be achievable with this much negative net worth? I love to hear it from you.