Intro

I haven't found many great blogs about where I should be at this stage in life.  Many give the formula of one years salary in your 401k by the time you are 30.  Some others have the 3x by 45, 5x by 55.  Most don't have specific details of how they got there without some crazy story that the people eat Ramen noodles everyday and live in a cabin in the woods off the grid.  I want this to be a marker for the average, city working, suburban dwelling family of 4 or 5.  We do go out to dinner, we do take vacations, we do have a great life, this is more about maximizing the value of the money we DO spend.  Let me put it this way, none of our friends think we are cheap, they may think we are not free spenders, but they don't call us cheap.  I realize my friends don't pay my bills but I have been known plenty of cheap people and it gets old after a while.

My wife and I have always been pretty good savers, her specialty is setting up automatic savings, mine is trying to make money on the savings that we do capture.  I feel this has suited us well over the years and we are now focused on the longer term goals.  We both do fairly well in our careers and are at a good place in terms of flexibility and work/life balance.  We are incredibly fortunate that money is not a major pain point in our lives, but it has taken a lot of discipline to get here.  We'd have to forgo some luxuries over the years, bigger house, new cars, European vacations, fancy jewelry, clothes, shoes, etc.  We do have nice things, we just really put thought and strategy into large purchases.  It has taken time but my wife has come around to the strategy and many times it is her who is leading the charge.  She is awesome at finding deals and enjoys the hunt.

We have two young kids - one in 1st grade, the other in full time daycare.  Kids are expensive. Period.  They are awesome and I love them to death, but they do cost money.  We really try and take the same approach with them, make them understand need vs want.  We have starting instilling the savings mentality with them now and understanding the "you can't have everything now" attitude.  We have seen many of peers act frugal on themselves, only to spend wildly on their children.  It is hard to not get them the best of everything, but it can create a viscous cycle of not fully appreciating the value of money and financial freedom.

Enough of the basics, here is where we are at today:

Assets

401K/IRA - $418,900
Stocks/Mutual Funds - Taxable - $10,500
Precious Metals - $3,000
College Savings - $20,100 combined
Cash Savings - $45,000

Liabilities

Mortgage - $225,000
No Credit Cards
No Student Loans
No Car Payments

Goal is to take the $45,000 that we have in cash and grow that to $100,000 by early 2014.

I will post regularly on spending patterns and overall tracking to plan over the course of the year.  I'll also contribute some great facts around savings and investing.  I look forward to meeting the followers and discussing solutions to many of the common pitfalls of this lifestyle.  Come follow us!