Welcome to Money Talks! New approaches to money have exploded. Yet, money remains taboo. Less than half of you share personal finance information with your friends and family.
But that’s all changing. Now more and more of you are talking about money because it leads to better outcomes.
In an effort to provide personal finance insights through transparency (and have a bit of fun), I’ve created a series titled Money Talks that showcases how real people in Charlotte approach money.
It’s an anonymous way for you to share your money experiences and insights with our city. Answers are lightly edited for clarity and privacy (ex, exact age). Want to participate? Take the Money Talks survey.
Here’s the personal finances of a 32 year old newlywed.
Living situation:
We own. My husband and I are aggressive savers yet even with that we needed a little help from my mom to get from a 15% down payment to a 20% down payment.
My husband works for a bank and we got the employee mortgage rate plus a few basis points of benefit from the baked in market expectation that the Fed would cut rates.
Children:
I’m wrestling with whether I want to have them and if I can afford to have them.
Job and salary:
I work in strategy and corporate development for a manufacturing company and my husband is a branch based employee of a bank in town.
Our total household income is $215K. My salary is $155K and my husband’s salary is $60K.
I took a large pay cut when I left investment banking a few years ago, but that trade off has meant a much healthier work-life balance. While in the investment banking role, I was able to aggressively pay off six figures of student loans, so it was well worth it.
Other income:
I bought a condo back in 2020 before I got married. My husband and I have stretched to be able to keep the condo as a rental property. It will just about break even next year, and this year we can deduct the cost of improvements (about $5K to replace carpets with engineered flooring) to make it rent ready.
Debt:
Mostly mortgages. The condo has $224K at 3% left on the mortgage (purchased in 2020) and our house has about $421K at 6% left on the mortgage (purchased in 2024).
We have less than $15K of car loans, $9K of which is at 8% and we expect to have this paid off by April of 2025. The other car loan is at 0% and we are not pre-paying that.
Credit cards:
Amex Gold card for restaurants and groceries and the AAdvantage Red Barclay Card for everything else.
Budgeting:
I generally have a goal of saving no less than 25% of our pre-tax income annually which we usually achieve. Any budgeting we do together is meant to push that get closer to 30%.
Not sure we will achieve that this year, but we will be back on track next year. This year is very expense heavy since we are recently married, purchased a home, and got a dog.
Best recurring expenses:
Spotify and Orangetheory. The Spotify Premium Duo ($16.99/mo) includes some audiobooks which is nice, and ad-free music is the best. Orangetheory keeps me fit. It’s a great workout. Other than Crossfit, I have yet to find a workout I like more.
Splurge:
Vacations! I love traveling and seeing new places. But I also love to retrace my steps and revisit my favorite places. These include Portugal, Spain, and Ireland.
If money was no object, we would love to get an outdoor red light sauna, cold plunge, and an outdoor entertainment system for our backyard deck.
Charlotte money hack:
Reid’s Tuesday Steakburger Night is our favorite high-value, low-cost date. The location on Selwyn is the best.
[Ted note: For $10.99 you get Reid’s famous Steakburger and your choice of a side – truffle fries, mustard slaw, pasta salad, or potato salad. Can confirm, it’s delicious.]
Charlotte restaurant worth the money?
Charlotte is inundated with good food these days. Right now, I feel like Leo’s Italian Social is my favorite. The calamari appetizer is amazing.
Total savings/investment:
Our goal is to put 25% into savings each year between cash and retirement. I usually max my 401(k) and my husband contributes enough to get the full match from his employer. We have also been in aggressive debt paydown mode since 2022. My money philosophy views debt paydown as a form of savings.
We currently have about $25K in cash and about $310K in our combined retirement accounts. We recently put a lot of our cash savings into the down payment for our house.
We’re saving to repaint and potentially re-clad the siding on our house – although our 13 year old roof might have something to say about that!
Retirement:
Ideally, I’d like to retire in my late 50s and start an encore career doing something different. Hopefully we’ll have enough to replace at least 50% of our earned income with the income from our investment portfolio (both financial investments and real estate).
How much money would you need to feel complete financial freedom?
$4M. At a 5% withdrawal rate, this would be sufficient to replace our total household income.
What’s “rich” in Charlotte?
Living in one of the beautiful houses in Myers Park. I grew up on the “questionable fringes” of Myers Park and, for better or for worse, have always viewed living in that neighborhood as an indicator of wealth.
Best and worst money decision:
My best decision was buying my condo in 2020. My worst decision was getting a dog this year — dogs are insanely expensive — but the dog is very sweet and we like her even though she was a terrible financial decision!
Financial goals:
- Increase our household income to $300,000+ and allocate 80% of that increase directly to savings. I am actively job hunting for a new role with greater professional development opportunities and higher all-in compensation. My husband just started a new job at a different bank which offers these things, so we are on our way!
- Pay off all debt and allocate 100% of the incremental cash flow to savings. We are aggressively allocating capital to debt and by the end of 2025, our only debt should be the two mortgages.
- Reign in the spending spree that has characterized 2024 and start 2025 with greater financial discipline. Discipline is destiny. We will work on putting a framework around how we manage our finances together, and then execute that plan. Since we are recently married, we are still working this one out.
Anything on your mind?
Continuing to have a renter in the condo. Real estate is a risky asset class and it locks up a lot of our household’s available capital. The condo represents a significant portion of our net worth, so when it’s rented out, we feel much more comfortable.
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