Rebecca and Joe have two young kids, and a third is on the way. They are renting at the moment and love the neighborhood they live in—but they both think they need more space to match their growing family. Should they keep renting? Buy a home? Move in with his parents? Their lease is up soon and the pressure is on (or so they think).
To complicate things, we find out that their fixed costs, alone, make up for 105% of their take-home pay. As a refresher, I recommend spending no more than 60% on fixed costs. But they’re spending more than they make every month. Something’s got to give.
They feel frustrated. They feel overwhelmed. They feel like failures as parents because they can't provide for their kids. There are many layers to this on both the financial side and the psychological side. Let’s dig in.
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59. “98% of our net worth is in real estate. Are we in trouble?”
58. “If we want to retire, we’d have to live on $36k”
56. “We have $200,000, but we’re afraid to take a vacation”
55. “My top 5 lessons from one year of interviewing couples about money”
54. “We grew up poor—but we could be millionaires” (Part 2)
53. “We want to break the cycle of generational poverty, but we don’t know how” (Part 1)
52. “He hides purchases from me—and I let him”
51. “We went bankrupt, but I still have no boundaries with money”
50. “Maybe buying this condo was a mistake” (Part 2)
49. “Our housing expense unexpectedly went up $2K when we bought our first home” (Part 1)
48. “My husband needs a better job, but he hates the idea of earning more”
47. “We make $500k. Why are we carrying a balance on our credit cards?”
46. “The ghost of FIRE still haunts our money mindset—we can’t enjoy money”
45. “She tells me that it’s my fault we can’t live the life we want to live”
44. “Trust in the universe and it (or my partner) will provide”
43. “Our $300k income is variable and declining but we aren’t adjusting our lifestyle”
42. “We’re worth $5.7 million but we’re arguing over the price of chocolates for Valentine’s day”
41. “My wife won’t admit her business is failing and we constantly argue about it”
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