4 ms·

Yes we have a budget. When I refer to our 'struggle', it's not so much financial (we live within our means - modest vehicles and a small-ish apartment in the s

by Mikeb85 12y ago

Yes we have a budget. When I refer to our 'struggle', it's not so much financial (we live within our means - modest vehicles and a small-ish apartment in the suburbs), but rather the mental and physical toll of working a full week, plus school and studying, cooking, cleaning, etc... We're actually better off financially than a lot of people, for instance we could start a modest small business, however to ensure a 'stable' future (ie. buy a house, raise a family, etc...) in the city were we currently live we'd need either more capital or more skills/education.

ChuckMcM 12y ago
That is awesome! You're way ahead of a number of folks just by tracking where your money is going. My experience was that my wife and I both worked just out of school (she at Xerox and me at Intel) where we both saved a bit and got equity sharing in our companies. After a few years (about 3 to be exact) we had enough money to squeak out a down payment on a house. (at 11% interest!) Lived in that while she went to Tandem and I went to Sun, and continued to save our pennies (our goal was to move out of the bay area, sell our house, and use the equity to make a bigger downpayment (smaller mortgage) on a house in a place where the cost of living was lower so one of us could stay home and raise the kids full time). As it turned out her Tandem stock and my Sun stock, combined with the equity in our first house allowed us to buy a larger house (with room for kids) and keep the same "size" mortgage. It took about 10 years from the time we left school until we felt we had breathing room.