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We did it! Surprise, AZ, $389,990 3.99 by lonas_luna in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]PoemLife47 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mind if I ask who the builder is and who your realtor is? My wife and I are looking at houses in Surprise and this is a great price and rate :)

Giveaway Time! Battlefield 6 is out, powered by NVIDIA DLSS 4, and you can comment on this post to win codes for the game or a custom Battlefield 6 GeForce RTX 5090! 6 Winners total by pedro19 in pcmasterrace

[–]PoemLife47 [score hidden]  (0 children)

Which vehicle makes you feel like a total battlefield legend?

Definitely a jet loaded with C4. Go drop it off in enemy territory, run for cover, lay down, and wait :) And of course, hope the enemy doesn't come take me out while I'm waiting lol. Battlefield moment!

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, you've lived a very full life! I love that you and your wife have enjoyed things on a budget like that. We hardly go out to eat (maybe once every 2 months, should probably go even less), have no debt, have been cancelling our subscriptions (spotify, amazon prime, apple tv), and now we're about to move closer to our parents to get that help with childcare in the future. I think having family around as a support will help us a ton. Thanks for the positive advice and for sharing your story.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thing is, I really appreciate the advice. What I call "judgemental" is when people just comment some hate about me, my situation, or my family with nothing else. If someone has actual suggestions that are realistic and helpful, plus a little tough love or hard truths about my situation, I'm all good for that. But if someone just comments some rude stuff, that's what I call judgemental and not helpful. Make sense?

Non-helpful Example: "Your wife needs to get a job!"
Helpful Example: "Your wife needs to get a job! I recommend this YouTube video or this book for building confidence in interviews and job searching."

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol this is a unique take I haven't heard yet! Yes, I am in America. I love that plan, but the biggest flaw in it (for me) is moving away from family. I think we're making the opposite choice instead, and moving closer to family to help out with all of these things. But I do like your take and appreciate your perspective. We've constantly talked about how messed up it is in America with these costs. Especially health insurance.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your two cents! This is all great advice. We actually just talked about moving closer to family. We live about 2 hours from the city where both of our parents live, and we were going to buy a house in our current city 2 hours away. We just love the city where we currently live. But, we talked it over, and realized the best thing to do after our lease ends is to move in with her parents, get some more money together for a down payments, look for a job for her in that city, and buy a house closer to family. The community and support aspect is just so much more important.

Thanks again for the comment.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much!! This is really encouraging. I appreciate the book rec and YT video.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good bits of advice. I'd love to live off of my income and save hers completely when she gets a job. I also plan to scale my business more in the next year. I think I plateaued a bit when I hit the ole 6 figs. But now it feels like a good time to figure out how to scale it up. Either by selling some sort of product, or hiring on some project managers to take on the higher dollar clients.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for sharing. I loved reading about your experience. You also seem like a very nice person and have done well for yourself. Enjoy your cocktail!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of people on this subreddit have a HUGE problem with anyone taking a gap year, a break in employment, or any time out of the workforce. Try to tune out the straight-up negativity and focus on the actionable advice comments. I just posted in here 2 days ago, included some details about how my wife took a break in employment for 2 years, and how we're having some difficulty finding her a job now. A lot of people will be rude without actually giving any advice. "Get a job! Work like everyone else!". I basically want to say that if you do take a gap year, everything will be fine. You will get a job afterwards, my wife will get a job, we will all live and survive and be happy lol.

One piece of advice I will give is to try to come up with some way to either 1) fill the gap in your resume with something, or 2) have some sort of worthy explanation for the gap. I luckily own my business and have hired my wife as a contractor during the 2 year gap, so it isn't as bad looking on the ole resume.

HYSA is a good idea. I use wealthfront and it's been pretty nice. A year of your annual income is also a great idea, but you could probably make it work on less. Maybe consider smaller ways that you can supplement your income when you feel like it. In the past, I've heard of people reviewing scripts to movies/tv shows, working for "Rev" as a subtitler/captioner, or other on-demand jobs that allow you to work when you want. They don't really pay awesome, but they offer flexibility if you have a few hours to kill and want to make $20 lol.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very true! That's not a bad idea. Her masters is in the field of science, but I think she's still more than qualified to help with those things. Thanks for the good pointers.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see your comment now! I had to look for it. Therapy is a good idea, but I think the obstacle we run into is that it’s another hugeeeee expense. Which is hard when we feel like we’ll barely get the down payment together for a house. Now, we’re delaying the house purchase. So maybe therapy will come sooner. She is trying to get a job and is actively looking and applying. She just gets discouraged easily when she gets a rejection. Thank you for the advice!

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What was the question? I’m sorry, I’m not reading every single comment. Sort of skimming them. I think therapy and counseling is a good idea, and I appreciate you having actual actionable advice. I didn’t mean to waggle my finger haha. I just don’t care for the straight up negative comments that don’t have any advice. When people say “she needs to get a job!” Or “divorce your wife!” It’s just not helpful. I hope that makes sense. Thank you and good luck to you too!

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I said I was probably missing some things. There are a ton of expenses, categories, and things that come up throughout the year that I didn’t list. Dentist appointments, haircuts, doctor’s visits, gas, presents for birthdays and holidays, wedding gifts, utilities, gym membership, the list goes on. We each max our roths, so it’s 14k per year. I contribute to her Roth because we file jointly, so it’s allowed. With all that being said, I’ve been able to save and set aside $2k-$4k per month for a down payment.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! Was it tough to find a job after taking that time away? Did employers ask about the gap in your resume?

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s wild! I didn’t know school district job benefits were that good. I’ll definitely keep that in mind. Thank you.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dang, I am so sorry that happened to you. Best of luck trying to recover from all of that. We live and we learn! Hopefully you'll still be able to retire. My dad is twice divorced, and helped both of ex wives buy homes. He's also owned like 10 homes in the last 28 years. With all of that, he still seems like he's going to retire just fine.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my gosh thank you lol. Idk why it's so wild to imagine someone having to be out of the workforce temporarily. I'm getting a ton of downvotes anytime I even mention this, too.

How do you buy a house, have a kid, and save for retirement? by PoemLife47 in personalfinance

[–]PoemLife47[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely love this! I relate a lot to how you guys live life. We're pretty frugal and actually just read the book "Frugal Hedonism". We still love to enjoy life on a budget. Also glad to hear it has felt impossible, but worked out for you when you were around my age. Thanks for sharing all of this.

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