2025 has been full of surprises so far… both politically and financially. Focusing on the good (aka financial) surprises, we’ve already smashed our $10,000 Emergency Fund goal, and now have $15,000. We’ve decided to work towards $25k, as that would cover 6 months of expenses for us, and even a full year of expenses once we’ve paid off our debt obligations, which we anticipate doing this year.

Also, my partner got a sizeable raise at work, going from $82k/year to $105k/year. Insane. Together we’re grossing $210k/year from our W2 jobs alone, and thanks to living in a LOCL area and have inexpensive hobbies, we’re able to sock away a good deal of our income. For example, here’s a quick breakdown:

Take Home (after 401k and health insurance payments): $11,450
Needs (debt payments, mortgage, utilities): $3,385
Total Leftover: $8,065

We really only ever spend about $2,500 on discretionary expenses, which also includes our food budget, so that means we’re still able to save over $5k a month. And that doesn’t even include the extra income from our rentals. And once we pay off some of our debts this year, that’ll free up even more income.

Safe to say… I’m feeling restless now. Having this level of income really opens up a lot of opportunities, and allows you to take on more risk for more rewards. This year I was going to focus more on investing in stocks rather than real estate, but I’ve decided to lean in a bit more aggressively into real estate. I’d like to pick up 2 more rentals this year to hedge my bets against a volatile market this year. I’ve already got a couple of rentals in mind that I could pick up, so now it’s just a matter of timing.

Talk to you soon!

– Alex