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 at the personal finances of a technology professional in his early 30’s who’s married with two kids.
Living situation:
We purchased a house over 5 years ago. 20% down. Refinanced at 2.875% with a 30-year term. We need a little more space now but it’s hard to give up that low rate.
We’ve got two young children. I think about the cost of private school. I’m not originally from Charlotte and grew up going to public school, but don’t have a lot of faith in CMS from stories and experiences I’ve heard from other parents.
Salary:
My wife and I have a combined income of roughly $185K. Bonus depends on the year, but about $3K – $15K. Bonus was not great this past year.
When I started my technology consulting career, my starting salary was about $65K. I had some good salary progressions — but then a few no raise years with COVID and the recent downturn in the economy (consulting got hit hard).
Hindsight is 20/20, but maybe I should have made a jump during the hiring craze after COVID. All my friends that job hopped got a good salary bump. I just now caught up to them 2 years later. Jury is out, we’ll see if loyalty pays or if hopping around is the way to a long-term higher salary.
Total Net Worth:
$1.5M – $1.75M. Most of this has come from saving diligently since we started working and making good investments. We lived very conservatively for a few years (ex, didn’t pay crazy South End apartment rates).
No debt besides our mortgage. My wife and I were both raised on the principle of not spending money we don’t have. Always pay off our credit cards in full and we have only bought cars we could afford with cash. We have been fortunate to have made it through our educational paths with no debt but worked hard doing that.
What do you consider “rich” in Charlotte?
Depends on if you are talking wealthy or rich. The wealthy own a home in Eastover, Foxcroft, or Myers Park while the Charlotte rich “own” a home in these neighborhoods but are house poor and have to continue their work (whether they like it or not) to keep up with that mortgage payment.
Savings and investment breakdown:
Annual savings:
- $23K – max out 401(k)
- $8.3K – max HSA (don’t spend it on health costs, save the receipts and will reimburse in future)
- $13K – max both Roth IRAs
- Dependent on year, some savings/contributions to 529 and/or UTMA
Balances:
- $700K – taxable brokerage account (got lucky with NVDA)
- $200K – 401(k)
- $150K – IRAs (combined)
- $60K – HSA
Emergency fun:
Partial emergency fund in Marcus high yield savings account (gotta love that 4.5% rate). The rest of the emergency fund in a taxable brokerage account and invested in an S&P 500 index fund. My philosophy was that I can save enough in a brokerage account where even if we needed the money during a downturn (30% down or so) we would have enough to cover our emergency needs while still having upside of invested money.
I do not use a financial advisor. I follow a few FinTwit guys on X that provide some great financial advice — Morgan Housel, Brian Feroldi, Brian Stoffel.
A must-read book is The Psychology of Money.
Savings goal:
Move or add on to our house. I would like to split the cost between cash and a small amount of debt.
If money was no object, I would buy a Cirrus Vision jet.
Credit cards:
I play the credit card points game.
We have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Preferred, Freedom Unlimited, Freedom, and Amex Gold.
We try to optimize the use of each card based on the card categories. It takes a little bit of work but allows us to book plenty of flights for free using points.
Budgeting:
We started using an app for budgeting this year. In the past, I would just monitor the checking balance and try to keep it above a certain threshold.
I set up automatic transfers for investing and savings. Save first, spend second.
Recurring expenses:
My best expenses are Walmart+ and paying for my lawn to be mowed. Grocery delivery saves us so much time. Not having to mow is a dream.
My worst expense is the food minimum at the golf club we joined.
Splurge:
Golf. We joined a lower tier golf club (not where Ted would play). We love to golf and needed access to a pool for the kids. We got in the club before initiations went crazy. The monthly cost seemed reasonable after we looked at the cost of joining our local pool plus the amount we were already spending on golf.
Charlotte money tip:
Don’t try to keep up with your neighbor. A wise person once said, “You’ll see who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”
No. 1 Charlotte restaurant that’s worth the money?
Supperland. Order the Branzino.
Retirement:
My goal is full retirement by 60. Ideally, I would like to be effectively retired by 55 by developing passive streams of income and have a job that is very flexible to allow me to travel, golf, and engaged the community in other ways (ex, my church or non-profits).
How much money would you need to feel complete financial freedom?
$8-10M. Assumptions of 6% annual return and 3.5% inflation rate (conservative but the U.S. government likes to spend). I could withdraw $250K (inflation adjusted) per year until 90ish. $250K would allow me to support my current lifestyle with a few added extras.
Top 3 financial goals?
- Max out tax advantaged savings accounts
- Save for kid’s school
- Invest in alternative investments (ex, vacation rental)
Want to participate? Take the Money Talks survey. Got feedback? Email ted(at)tinymoney and I’ll include it in our newsletter Mailbag section. New to Tiny Money? Join 3,998 smart Charlotteans and subscribe to my 1x/wk newsletter. Job hunting? View job board.
