My mortgage is very reasonable in the Phoenix area ($1550/mo) – I can’t live this well for cheaper today. My car is almost paid off ($220 a month). We have 3 kids but they rarely ask for much except for pizza and mostly just ride bikes and other free activities. I have student loans but it’s $300 a month which is not bad for masters degree level loans). I pay for a part of my mom’s nursing home care ($500 a month) because Medicare is making it nearly impossible for people to get access to long term care. I have about $600 a month in additional lending payments (loans I took out to start my mom’s care after it was found to be urgently needed).
Other than this I don’t really spend. I wear cheap clothes and don’t go out much. I don’t get the newest iPhone each year and I don’t have a ton of subscriptions to different things either. I don’t do Starbucks…. Yet I’m always living check to check and just daydreaming about vacations instead of actually taking one. Our idea of a vacation is a drive for a day up north to hike around and have a picnic. I don’t know if at this rate I’ll ever get to retire because i can’t see how to save and my mom is probably going to outlive me with the amount of stress I’m dealing with, which I kind of hope for at this point since I can’t save for retirement anyway. I have a stressful management job and the thought of a side hustle (aka 2nd job) sounds impossible. I hear friends talking about remodeling their house and going on a cruise and all this shit and I’m like “HOW”??? And they have elderly parents and kids just like we do – but newer cars and nicer furniture… and I know they don’t make more than we do. What am I doing wrong??
I think maybe I need some financial education on how to best make my money work for me, but idk where to start. I have tried “financial advisors” who often want to sell me a product like a ULI or an IRA when I need someone to tell me how to manage the money I have and not get me to spend more on ridiculous monthly fees and things that won’t help me while I’m still alive or young enough to enjoy the rewards.
Anyone understand my case and can point me in the right direction? Thanks.
*UPDATE** I’m a lady not a dude. lol I don’t know why there’s so many assumptions that I’m male but thought I would call it out here. I wonder what other assumptions are wrong…
