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.
Living situation:
Own in Wesley Heights. Traditional mortgage, 20% down. Bought at the height of interest rates.
We’ll evaluate if it makes sense to refinance at some point, but the savings will need to offset the closing costs.
Cats only:
We’re child-free by choice, although we do love our two cats as if they were children.
We struggle with the idea of bringing children into the current geo-political and socioeconomic environment, but we also generally aren’t interested in raising kids. The cost-benefit analysis has never worked out in our heads. We really enjoy the time and financial benefits of being child-free.
Job and salary:
I’m a management consultant making $250K.
My husband took a leap of faith and left corporate to be a full-time YouTuber in 2024. He’s on track to make $60K this year in YouTube ad revenue and affiliate commissions (more than double what he made in his first year going full-time).
Salary journey:
I started at $84K. I probably could be making more today if I job hopped, but I am honestly making more money than I ever imagined.
People need to have more conversations about what’s “enough” financially — we see friends pushing for more without a clear end in mind.
My husband was making $217K when he left corporate. The pay cut was worth the massive increase in happiness.
We also had to check our privilege and realize that living off $250K would be a dream for many.
Other income:
Rental property. We didn’t intend to become landlords, but we were lucky and bought when rates bottomed out which really increased the rental potential. So, when we moved to our current Wesley Heights spot, we decided to keep our first house and rent it out.
We use a management company that takes 8%; when all is said and done we net between $700 – $800 per month.
Work-life balance:
Mine is not the best, but a lot of it is self-inflicted perfectionism if I am being honest with myself.
My husband has gained a lot of flexibility since going out on his own, but as any entrepreneur would know, it can be hard to regulate when time literally becomes money.
Debt:
Just our mortgages. We paid off a small amount of student loans and have always avoided credit card debt.
We have a 4-year-old car which we paid off in 3 years and plan to keep as long as we can.
Credit card:
We have several ‘no annual fee’ cards to optimize for cash back, but they are all on auto-pay and we never carry a balance. We’re not big into the fancy credit card game!
Budgeting:
Since all investments and credit card payments are automated, we track month-end balances rather than doing detailed budgeting.
Everything flows into Empower and we do a monthly review of cash and investment balances in Google Sheets to keep us honest on spending. The goal is to ensure that the MoM balance increases, or at the very least doesn’t decrease unless for good reason!
Best expense:
Our $280 per month cleaning service. Bless them.
Splurge:
Charlotte FC season tickets. Two club seats run us about $4,000 per year.
We struggled to find a shared hobby up until we became Charlotte FC fans. It’s a great way for us to spend time together. Games are ridiculously fun.
Spending hack:
Food delivery culture is crazy. We don’t even have delivery apps on our phones — highly recommend!
Restaurant pick:
Obvious pick is Restaurant Constance. Unexpected pick is The Culture Shop.
Net worth:
$1.7M. Built from scratch, baby! Neither of us came from wealth and both really value the idea of not having to worry about money.
Portfolio breakdown:
$100K in cash. Just over $1M in 401(k)/IRA accounts (about 80% Roth). $125K in a taxable brokerage. We’re pretty risk-averse, so almost all in S&P 500 index funds. $0 in crypto or prediction markets, ha!
We started saving early and began maxing out 401(k) and IRA contributions as soon as our income made it feasible. Brokerage contributions vary by month from $300-$3,000 depending on the season of life we’re in. We always contribute something, though.
Artificial scarcity works well for us. Our paychecks get disbursed into different accounts (checking, savings, mortgage, etc.). Investments get automatically withdrawn as well. The less you see money piling up in your “you can spend from here” account, the better.
No financial advisor yet, but we’re toying with the idea.
Approach:
Early in our relationship, we made saving a huge priority.
We were lucky to have very minimal student debt (I could dedicate a whole article to how we managed this!). And we were lucky to graduate into a favorable job market and chose paths with solid earning potential.
Retirement:
For me, as soon as possible from corporate work! But we’re still figuring this out based on how my husband’s YouTube adventure pans out.
Financial freedom number:
If we wanted to maintain our current lifestyle, $7.5M. This would generally mean we could withdraw 4% ($300K/year) on average without touching the principal.
Rich in Charlotte:
Whatever it takes to live on Queens Road.
Best money decision:
I had $30K in student loans when I graduated. My husband extended me an interest-free loan to pay off the high-interest bank loan. We weren’t married at the time and we signed a loan agreement and everything!
On your mind:
Growing the YouTube business.
And we’re debating whether to change our retirement savings strategy by funneling more into a brokerage bridge account to allow us to retire earlier. This is the #1 reason we’re toying with getting a financial advisor.
My husband jokes that he’s trying to figure out how much cash we should have if I decide to rage quit my job someday. Can we all agree corporate America is just completely broken?! AI isn’t helping!!
Knowledge:
Big fans of The Money Guys Show on YouTube.
My husband’s parents were also very frugal. He started his career as a CPA, giving him a solid foundation. I knew absolutely nothing — all of our financial success is credit to him!
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