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 a look into the personal finances of a savvy 30-year-old who lives in Matthews.
Job and salary:
Engineering project manager at a development firm. Salary is $110K, and bonus is about $20K. My fiancé makes about $75K.
Salary journey:
I started my career making $55K. I worked at my first company for 4 years, eventually making $75K. Then I jumped to a competitor who offered $85K. Some raises there and I then worked hard to get a ‘Project Manager’ title to be more marketable in my industry.
Once I got that title, I crossed paths with a director at the firm I currently work at and hit it off. Lots of room for vertical growth and values lined up. Made the Jump in 3 years ago and actually took a pay cut to $88K, but my pay has quickly gotten back to market competitiveness.
I’m happy making slightly less to be at a firm that I enjoy working for, with the chance of upward mobility opportunities.
On your mind:
Daycare costs. We’re expecting our first child in a few months. Finding a place we trust that has availability is stressful. The few places we really like have waitlists until July 2026. Costs range from $1,600 to $1,900 per month for full-time care.
Living situation:
Own. We bought our current house a year ago in Matthews. Monthly mortgage payment is $3,300 with a rate of 6.875%.
We still own our previous home that I had bought back in 2021 at a rate of 2.875%. It’s good starter home but was not big enough for our future family plans. We were able to keep this as a rental.
Rental income:
We rent it for $1,925 and the mortgage payment is $1,614. Net difference isn’t ideal at the moment, but it’s located in Windsor Park (greater Plaza Midwood), which I believe is a place where property value will increase dramatically in the long term given future development (e.g., Eastland Mall).
With the mortgage rate locked in at 2.875%, I view it as a generational opportunity and want to avoid selling.
Work-life balance:
Very good. My current job prioritizes this as a major selling point. Consistently work just 40 hours and rarely exceed that. As a project manager, I also prioritize workload scheduling and the last thing I want to do is have anyone on my team work over 50 hours.
We also have half-day Fridays throughout the year so that is a nice benefit of knocking our errands Friday afternoons.
Debt:
Only the mortgages on our two properties. $490K on our primary residence and $275K on our rental.
Credit card:
Capital One Venture Card and American Airlines Platinum Select Card. I use the Capital One card for daily purchases to consolidate rewards, and use the AA card for member benefits when we fly.
Budgeting:
We do high-level budgeting, but don’t track every dollar. On the spending side, we track our fixed costs, lump-sum estimates for groceries/entertainment/misc spending, and then account for money that we earmark for investing.
We have a joint bank account that we use for joint spending along with individual personal accounts where we each spend how we want.
Our budgeting framework allows for us to plan for percentages of our income that we want to go to certain categories.
Splurge:
Sports cards. I love it. Fun to catch lightning in a bottle with a card that shoots up in value. My favorite cards that I own are the Kobe Bryant Topps Rookie Card PSA 10 (over $1,500) and LeBron James Topps Rookie Card PSA 9 (over $500).
Charlotte money hack:
Buy the $30 Viva Chicken Family Meal for weekly meal prep. If you can handle having the same meal for lunch every day, it’s easily 5 meals for the week.
[Editor’s note: Be careful of keeping rotisserie chicken and the like for more than 3 days]
Restaurant pick:
The One Tapas & Bar in Matthews. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall spot. We always get the Roasted Bone Marrow ($18) when we go. Drinks are great too.
Investment strategy:
Our net worth is about $300K.
Breakdown is $45K cash in high yield savings account paying 3.8%, $15K investment account, $140K in 401(k) accounts, and $100K in home equity. Over the next 5 years, we’re looking to increase investments as a percentage of our net worth.
I keep a net worth spreadsheet that I update every 6 months with our assets and liabilities.
Best investment:
I started investing in the stock market during COVID. Learned a lot of lessons, got burned a few times, but ultimately made 3x my money, which helped me pay off my car at the time.
It taught me how to read charts, how narratives play into stock performance and analyzing market caps rather than stock price.
Retirement:
$4 million is the number we are shooting for. Using my net worth spreadsheet, we’re on track to hit that number by age 60.
I’d love to hit this number by age 50, but we’ve got a lot of childcare uncertainty with a baby on the way.
Rich in Charlotte:
Living in Myers Park. Just that whole lifestyle.
Missed opportunity:
Crypto. In 2017, a group of friends and I got into crypto investing. I remember buying bitcoin when it was in the $6K range. But we didn’t hold it (currently $120,660).
I bought $3K worth of Doge in 2020 at a price of $0.005 and sold a few months later at $0.01 to double my money. I was happy, but within a year or so it peaked at $0.74 and I would have made $450K.
I know all investors have a story like this!
Financial goals:
- Grow our investment account to $100K in the next 5 years.
- Reach 1 million in net worth by the time we’re 40 (10 years).
Book recommendations:
Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel and Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke.
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