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 a house with my husband. 15-year mortgage at 5.25%. And we pay an additional $4,000 monthly toward the principal. Peace of mind from paying down the mortgage faster is worth the opportunity cost in the market.
No children yet, but we want them. I feel like we can’t have kids until we feel more financially secure, although I’m not really certain what that means.
Job and salary:
Fintech product manager. I make $190K, which includes base, bonus, and RSUs. My husband makes roughly the same. So $380K in total household income.
Salary journey:
I started my career making $40k in a non-technical industry. Switched to tech and doubled my base salary after 2 years.
I worked hard for promotions or pursued new opportunities at other companies every two years.
Moving between companies has been an excellent way for me to continue growing my earning potential, each move is an opportunity to tell a new story and build new skills.
Work-life balance:
Kinda fine, kinda crap. It’s all mental. I am stuck in my head. I’m so nervous about AI or someone smarter replacing me that all I can do is think about work.
I really want to invest in my hobbies, but I feel psychologically trapped where I am.
Debt:
Just $480K on our mortgage. All student loans and cars are paid off.
Credit card:
Capital One Venture. We get 2x points and use them for all our travel.
We don’t take planes unless we can cover the tickets with points!
Budgeting:
YES! We talk weekly about our spending patterns using a dashboard I built for us with Claude. Our approach is 100% transparency and communication regarding our spending and the reasons behind it.
My husband and I don’t keep secrets, except for our personal spending accounts where we have $500 monthly to spend on whatever we want. Great for gifts, stupid impulsive purchases, clothes, etc— anything that is not shared.
Other than those accounts, everything is a family purchase and we both know about it. This has been essential to building our marriages financial foundation.
Best expenses:
For me, it’s a $180/mo fancy yoga studio. For my husband, it’s a $200/mo gym. We use them at least every other day, feels totally worth it.
Splurge:
Restaurants. Life is for living. I love food and wine! And good “see and be seen” spots.
Money hack:
Get a second home inspector. Our realtor’s inspector did what he needed to do to close the deal, but the things he missed have added up to $40K in unexpected expenses.
Restaurant pick:
Supperland! Love the $42 Wagyu Pot Roast. Insanely good. And a glass of red wine.
Net worth:
$1.1M. We built this ourselves, but we’ve had significant support from family, including paying for our wedding, support during college, and a $36K inheritance from my husband’s grandpa.
While our inheritance is relatively small compared to our overall net worth, there’s so much more support we’ve “inherited” just by the gifts we’ve gotten from family for wedding and school.
Right now, we’re saving $8,000 a month— equal to about one of our salaries.
My number one piece of advice is to make goals for yourself and track them regularly. Our goal right now is to spend only one income. This is only possible because we review how we’ve been doing and adjust where needed to keep ourselves on track.
Breakdown:
- $125K in high yield savings accounts and index fund
- $550K in our retirement accounts (both our employers match up to 6%)
- $350K in home equity
- $150K in unvested RSUs
Retirement:
Goal is $6M by 55 so we can get low-key jobs for the last 10 working years. Maybe we open the coffee shop we’ve always dreamed of building together, but without the stress of needing it to completely excel.
Rich in Charlotte:
$4M. You could EASILY live off the interest and have so much left over.
However, I’ve been trying to mentally reduce this number. It feels like wealth hoarding, and that feels wrong. I hope that if this was achieved, we would spend more time thinking of how to distribute it.
Financial goals:
- Pay the house off in 7 years by aggressively paying extra toward the principal ($8K monthly, plus lump sums).
- Save at least $4M by 55 by maxing out 401Ks and living below our means consistently.
- Have kiddos that grow up in a stable, supportive environment, where the family is rich with TIME to focus on them and their development (ie we can coast a bit).
On your mind:
I’m so scared that my job, and my husband’s job, will be replaced by AI. And then we’ll be unable to replace our income.
This makes me feel extra nervous to have kids, and makes stay at home parenthood feel totally out of reach. Motherhood is taking a different shape in my mind than I expected, and it feels more calculating than I would like.
Knowledge:
My husband! He’s so disciplined and level headed about living below our means while still having fun. I love our life together.
Money Talks is a weekly series showcasing how real people in Charlotte approach money. Participate
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