After so many of you worried that I would have to change the blog’s name after we paid off six figures of student loan debt, we are right back to being six figures under again.
Only this time we’re excited about it!
If you haven’t guessed it yet, we bought a house! Surprise!
January was not only crazy because I was icky sicky, but also because we were in the crazy process of buying a house.
Let me backtrack a little. We didn’t intend to buy a house quite yet. We really did hope to use all of our pre-house goals money for, well, our pre-house goals, but when the right house came along and things fell into place we couldn’t deny that it was right for us.
There was a little scrambling financially to make it all work while still accomplishing some of our pre-house goals, namely the ones that will help us out on the tax front. I’ll go through the details and numbers below.
You might think that we’re crazy to dive into a mortgage this soon (and maybe we are!) but we feel good about it.
We will be playing a lot of catch-up with finances during 2017, as you’ll see in our goals below, but by the end of the year we hope to be on top of everything.
Original Pre-House Savings Plan
Now you’ll remember that our plan was a little fluid. I said from the beginning that if the right house popped up in the meantime, that we might just scrap these other goals and go for it. Well, we did. Kind of.
Here’s a look at our original pre-house goals:
$10,000— New vehicle fund We planned to set aside money for new (used) vehicles for both my husband and me.
$11,000—Maxing out our IRAs. We haven’t made any major contributions since before law school. Now that we’re done with all that law school debt, we want to get back into the retirement contribution groove.
$12,000—Pre-pay tithing. We wanted to try a tax strategy involving the timing of our charitable contributions in 2016 because it’s the first year we will be itemizing our tax deductions (instead of taking the standard deduction) and because we made a lot more money in 2016 than in years past (and likely more than we’ll make in 2017, as my husband will be scaling back at his law firm). You can read about our strategy here.
Actual Savings
Obviously we didn’t stick with our complete plan since we were able to squeeze in buying a house. Here’s what we did:
$10,000— New vehicle fund We bought a van ($5,390), but did not save anything for my husband’s next car which he’ll need later this year.
$11,000—Maxing out our IRAs Ha! We were a mere $10,000 off on the IRA contribution. We only contributed $1,000.
$12,000—Pre-pay tithing We pre-paid $8,000 of 2017’s tithing, $4,000 less than planned.
So we did a little something in each area, but didn’t complete any of our original goals.
And we’re okay with it.
Oh, and we did get a house (and a mortgage to go with it!)!
A Peek at the Numbers
In total, we saved just over $41,000 for our pre-house goals (see the January 2017 budget update). Here’s where that money went. Keep in mind that some of it was spent months ago.
$5,390 white van—New-to-us van that we bought in November
$1,000 retirement— Roth IRA contribution in 2016
$8,000 prepay tithing— At the end of December. This move will shave $3,200 off of the taxes that we owe in April. We are keeping track of the tithing we owe (would normally pay) each month so we know when we reach the $8,000 mark. Then we’ll start paying monthly again.
$29,600 house— This includes our down payment and closing costs.
You’ll notice that this adds up to more than the $41 K we had saved. We also had to borrow $3,000 from our emergency fund in order to close on the house. As you’ll see below, paying that back is a priority!
2017 Financial Goals (…and beyond)
We have quite a line up of financial goals for 2017 (and beyond). The first three are in a specific order. The other goals that follow will be done somewhat simultaneously, though not all of them will be completed during 2017.
1—Pay back emergency fund ($3,000)
We will start by paying back the $3,000 we borrowed from our emergency fund. Eventually we will be building up a more robust emergency fund (now that we have a mortgage!), but first we want to get it back to the $5,000 we had it at.
Fun fact, we kept our emergency fund around $4,000-5,000 during the entire time we were paying off debt and only had to borrow from it once (and then paid it back quickly).
2—Save for our tax bill ($16,500)
We paid estimated quarterly taxes in 2016 based on the safe harbor amount (according to our tax liability in 2015). We knew that we would make much more in 2016 and that we would end up with a big tax bill. We could have saved as we went along, but we were more eager to pay off our debt, so we just planned to save up the tax bill money in the beginning of 2017 once we had an idea of how much it would be.
We’re looking at somewhere around $13,000 owed in taxes (pre-paying tithing brought that down from $16,000), plus our first quarter’s estimated quarterlies which will be around $3,500. So that’s something like $16,500 that we need to save. Yikes! That’s a lot and there’s not much time to do it.
In case you’re wondering, it does have me slightly freaking out. I’m facing the idea that we might have to borrow money to deal with this (and then pay it back pronto). Ugh. But we’re still going to work like that’s not a possibility. Mr. SixFiguresUnder is confident we’ll be able to pay the tax bill in cash by April 15. We’ll see.
3—Save for a new (used) car ($5,000)
After we’ve met the tax goal (or paid back any money that we may have to borrow to pay the tax bill), we will save for a vehicle replacement fund for my husband. He is going to need a new car soon. We bought his 1997 Camry four and half years ago for $3,200 with 125,000 miles on it. It currently has over 260,000 miles on it, so replacing it will be a necessity in the near future. It has served us well!
Remaining goals to be done somewhat simultaneously. By this I mean that we will set aside a certain amount toward each goal during the month (once goals 1 through 3 are completed). We don’t plan to complete all of these during 2017 (hopefully that’s pretty obvious), but they are what we’ll be working on!
Beef up our emergency fund ($25,000)
While we were content with a $5,000 emergency fund while we were paying off debt and living rent-free in my in-laws’ basement, it’s a different ball game with a house. Not only do we have a substantial mortgage payment to make each month, we also have a home to maintain which, as any homeowner knows, can be expensive!
Home improvement projects
While our home is very much livable as it is (not a fixer-upper), we still have some home improvement projects on the horizon. Some are ones we’ll take on ourselves (and by “we” I mostly mean my husband), but others we’ll happily hire out.
We have a list of projects, but haven’t started researching the costs, so I won’t put a number on it yet.
Max out IRAs ($11,000)
In 2016 we contributed a total of $1,000 to our IRAs. In addition to our personal retirement efforts, my husband’s employer (the state of California) automatically contributes 9% of his paycheck to retirement. So in 2016, he contributed nearly $7,000 by default.
Still, we want to do more to take responsibility for our own retirement savings. Before law school, we would max out our IRA contributions. We plan on getting back to that.
Set aside 2017 taxes
We are paying estimated quarterly taxes based on the safe harbor amount calculated from our 2016 tax liability. Because we don’t expect to make a lot more in 2017 than 2016, our 2017 tax return shouldn’t include any significant extra cash. We had a big shock with our 2016 taxes because in 2016 we had a lot more self-employment income than in 2015. Since we will be paying estimated taxes every quarter, this will be an ongoing goal.
Get 20% of mortgage paid
Just to be clear, this isn’t a goal we expect to finish in 2017. This is an enormous stretch goal that will likely take several years.
Right now we pay private mortgage insurance (PMI), but once we have paid off enough of our house, we can get that removed (though I think we have to pay it for a minimum of 3 years).
Thankfully our PMI is only $126 per month. The PMI for other loan types was 2-3 times that amount! So while I know it adds up, I’m grateful that it’s not as draining as it could be.
Follow along!
As you can see, we’ve got a lot to work on! As always, we will keep you updated as we go along.
It won’t surprise you that we’ll still be living frugally (those habits run deep). You can still count on seeing lots of frugal and money-saving ideas here.
In fact, having a mortgage will make our budget more relatable for many of you! I know some of you have been waiting for this day for a while now!
I hope you’ll keep following along our Six Figures Under journey! If you don’t already get my email newsletter, you can sign up here!
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Mrs Heller says
February 17, 2017 at 4:37 amCongratulations on the new house! Hope we will see some pictures in the future. The kids must be excited about the move, aren’t they? Can’t wait to see you crushing the new goals.
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:38 amThanks! Yes the kids are excited about the new house!
Monica Smith says
February 17, 2017 at 4:49 amSo stinkin excited for you guys! Congrats!
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 9:02 amThanks Monica! We’re pretty excited too!
Myeshia says
February 17, 2017 at 4:51 amCongratulations!
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 9:03 amThanks Myeshia! 🙂
Kathryn K. says
February 17, 2017 at 5:13 amCongratulations on the house!!! It must feel great to have your own place again. I’m curious to learn more about what factors about your new house made you pull the trigger. And is it still in the “boonies” near your in-laws or closer to your husband’s job?
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:40 amIt still feels in the boonies by the scenery for sure (we have some acreage), but it’s closer to civilization and cuts a chunk of time off of my husband’s commute!!
Pauline says
February 17, 2017 at 5:52 amCongratulations on your new home. I’m sure your in-laws will miss you all, but they’ll know it’s time for you to move on.
You and your husband have such a great handle on finance management, you know you’ll all be just fine.
Enjoy your new home, you’ve both earned every square centimetre of it!
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:45 amThank you for the kind words Pauline! I think my in-laws will miss us (especially our cutest little one), but I know they are getting excited for what they’ll do with the space when we’re gone!
Lisa says
February 17, 2017 at 5:57 amOh wow! How exciting and… scary? Not quite sure the right word there… I’m always impressed at your written plan. That’s something I need to work on, actually writing down all our goals.
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:47 amThanks Lisa! We’re pretty excited about the house! (And a little scared about the tax bill!)
annie says
February 17, 2017 at 5:58 amYAY! I am seriously so happy for you!!! Can I just turn my finances over to you and you can give me an allowance to spend??? LOL So excited to see all the new fun!
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:50 amHa ha Annie! That would be kind of a fun arrangement (at least for me)!
Liz says
February 17, 2017 at 6:38 amStephanie, I am soooooooooooooooo excited for you guys! Hey, if the time is right, then the time is right. Glad you jumped on it when I know that both you and your hubby felt peace about it. I can’t even imagine all the sacrifices you all have made in the past few years (and with good attitudes, to boot!), so I don’t think I’ve EVER been as happy for someone buying a home. I’m ELATED for you guys!!! Glad you are feeling better. One of these days I’ll send you a financial update for us once our roller coaster ride is over and we have figured out our financial priorities. Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth, but I wasn’t allowed to talk about it for about 3 months and we were living in Survival Mode. Things are on the upswing now. So happy for you all! As you pay off/down your home, will you be sharing percentages at least with us so we can cheer you on? Hope so. Missed you, Girl!!! XOXO
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:53 amThanks Liz! I’m definitely planning on sharing our progress on our goals one way or another! 🙂
I can’t imagine all you’ve been through! Hugs and prayers, friend!
Sheila says
February 17, 2017 at 7:00 amCongratulations! I hope you will show us some pictures! I’m excited about this new phase of your journey!
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:54 amThanks Sheila! 😉
Crystal Brinson says
February 17, 2017 at 7:11 amI couldn’t open this up fast enough when I saw the title in the email. Congratulations on your new home, and good luck on your new goals!
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:55 amThank you Crystal! 😉
Stacey says
February 17, 2017 at 7:15 amCongratulations! You have worked very hard and it’s wonderful to see it pay off for you. You are truly an inspiration!
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 8:56 amThanks Stacey!
Angela says
February 17, 2017 at 8:31 amCongratulations on the house! I just wanted to let you know, you don’t give up on your 2016 IRA goal if that is still important to you- you can actually make 2016 contributions until April 17, 2017! You could put a bunch in there and still max out the 2017 contribution 11k after April. Obviously, if it is a high enough priority and you have the funds.
Stephanie says
February 17, 2017 at 9:01 amThank Angela! I know we *could* still contribute for 2016, but there’s that looming $16K tax bill due April 15th too! We’re barely going to eek that out! 😉 We’ll aim for 2017 though!
Jessica H. says
February 17, 2017 at 9:38 amCongratulations on buying a house!!!! I’m so excited for you. I’ve missed reading your posts. So I hope this means everything has calmed down for you and you can post regularly again. It’s a bit selfish of me, but I really do love reading your posts. They help inspire me and know that even when budgeting is hard that it is possible.
Making Your Money Matter says
February 17, 2017 at 11:21 amI’m so excited to follow along as you no doubt reach your new goals. Congrats on the new house!
Becca says
February 17, 2017 at 1:28 pmCongratulations! I can’t wait to hear more about your home. You’ve worked so hard for this – Enjoy it!
Sarah @ Little Bus on the Prairie says
February 17, 2017 at 1:42 pmSo happy and excited for you guys! And now i want DETAILS! Numbers, pictures, the whole shebang 🙂 looking forward to hearing all about it!
Mandy says
February 17, 2017 at 2:13 pmThat’s awesome news, congratulations you guys must be so excited.
Looking forward to a virtual tour when you guys move. Just imagine all the space you’ll have?
Sue says
February 17, 2017 at 3:07 pmNow this is the post I have been waiting for! Paying off the student loans was interesting but this is so well deserved. I don’t know many women who would live in a unfinished basement with four little ones in their in laws house. I hope your husband knows that you are a saint. Enjoy every minute of the new house!
Jayleen says
February 17, 2017 at 3:42 pmYay! Congratulations on your new home! I can’t wait to learn more about it!
Libby says
February 17, 2017 at 4:31 pmHappy Dance for you!! I was so hoping this was your surprise 🙂
How great for your immediate family that Dad’s commute is less. Sad for your in-laws though, but what a wonderful bonding experience the past few years.
Would love to hear about your process for evaluating different houses and knowing when to pull the trigger.
Congrats!!
Sjoukje - meergeldminderstress says
February 18, 2017 at 5:16 amThat’s just so exciting! Congratulations!
Looking forward to read how you’re going to slay that tax bill, as I’m sure you will!
kofi says
February 18, 2017 at 6:10 amInspirational , Congratulations. thats a very reasonable down parent for CA. Llooking forward to hebring more about it.
kofi says
February 18, 2017 at 6:13 amOops * down payment*, *looking* *hearing* ( iPhone keyboard fail)
Sheris Catton says
February 18, 2017 at 7:09 amCongratulations! Deducting that mortgage interest, PMI and properate taxes will reduce that tax bill even more!
Stacey says
February 18, 2017 at 11:07 amCongrats on the new house! I’m just curious, and maybe you could do a future post about it, why did you choose to buy before you had 20% down so you’d have to pay PMI? It seems like a very un-Six-Figures-Under decision.
Heidi K says
February 18, 2017 at 12:02 pmCongratulations! I was so excited when I saw the email for this post. What a great thing for your family. I am excited to see pictures and hear more about it. We are hoping to buy a house this spring or summer.
Kamille says
February 18, 2017 at 4:44 pmBig congratulations! Enjoy your new home – so well earned!
Laurie says
February 18, 2017 at 4:45 pmI know you guys are elated to have your own space! We rented for two years, and when a good deal short sale came along a little earlier than we were ready for, we also jumped and pulled some money from here and there to make it work. It ended up being a great decision five years later! I’m looking forward to hearing more about this new adventure.
Linda says
February 18, 2017 at 7:31 pmCongratulations! I am excited for you and your family.
[email protected] says
February 19, 2017 at 7:04 amIt’s probably a little nerve-wracking to be six figures under again, but no doubt you guys will blow your next goals out of the water quickly!
Jane says
February 19, 2017 at 7:16 amCongrats!!! I can’t wait to read more about your house! 🙂
[email protected] says
February 19, 2017 at 5:31 pmHow wonderful! Congratulations!
Lindsey says
February 19, 2017 at 5:31 pmCongrats on becoming homeowners again!! I can’t wait till we finally have enough for a home of our own. But that’s a ways down the road for us
Savannah @ Dirt Road Daisy says
February 21, 2017 at 5:19 amI echo everyone’s sentiments here, Congratulations! I am excited to keep watching and learning from your journey!
[email protected] says
February 21, 2017 at 8:29 pmCongratulations! Like some others, I look forward to seeing pictures and hearing more about the story of finding your home in a future post. I can’t imagine how stressful it must be though to deal with the tax payment looming over you – hopefully it won’t dampen the fun of moving into your own place!
Cathy @ tips4livingbetter.com says
February 23, 2017 at 8:57 pmWow! Congratulation on your house purchase.
Lorraine States says
March 1, 2017 at 12:54 pmIt’s been my dream to have our student loans paid off by 2020 and I was really excited to find your blog! I tried signing up for the e-course on paying off debt, but it doesn’t look like it went through. Do you still offer that course?
Ginger says
March 18, 2017 at 12:09 pmHave you considered putting money in a solo 401k to lower your taxes instead of the IRAs? You’d be able to put a lot more away and save money on your taxes.