Couple Choosing IVF Over Any Chance Of Retirement | Financial Audit
507 episodes
35.7M viewshi I'm Ella I'm 39. I'm Yvonne 32 we. live in Houston and this is financial. audit. so what do you do for a living in. Houston so I am a marketer I work in an. advertising agency in the client service. department and I'm also uh semi-retired. Slash dormant fashion designer and. dressmaker who used to do Bridal okay. well how many hours are you working in. this marketing job right now uh 40 hours. a week that's about retired.
no no I'm a I'm a okay I'm a. semi-retired slash dormant fashion. designer and dressmaker gotcha yeah I. used to do that full-time for like six. years between uh 2012 and 2018. which is the taxes owe to the Italian. government yes spoiler and we'll get. into that what do you make right now. with your marketing job uh so we. actually want to discuss our finances as. a couple so we're gonna give away our. combined income okay well first then.
what do you do for a living. I'm a writer I have a couple of novels. published translation what kind of genre. genre I have a new book that might be. coming out soon it's a travel narrative. about two Texans who just. wreak havoc in Southeast Asia okay and. Southeast Havoc to them too okay so yeah. travel stories little philosophical. angle to it I assume you have a website. yes we'll link that in the description. then so you guys can check it out okay. so what's this combined household income.
so combined household income I would say. around 108. 000 a year yes yeah which stretches uh. much further in Houston than it does in. Austin how do you guys feel and live off. of 108 a year. I would say We'll feel like we have. accomplished the life goals that we have. set up for ourselves uh for this like. period of time that we've been there uh. but we're in a place where uh we need. some you know advice of how to.
prioritize our next. life goals that's a nice version of the. story every 15 days I'm just like why. don't you give any vegans we're going to. be vegans what would that accomplish. financially. meets expensive um yeah I thought. veganism was quite expensive in Austin. um. oh yeah so you guys just just had a kid. uh 11 months he's almost a year old yeah.
congratulations congratulations that's. awesome so your financial situation in. where it sits today obviously there's. goals you want to hit and we know there. are quite the debts to pay off as well. how would you all describe the financial. situation in like zero to ten oh yeah. give yourself a score and then just like. how would you describe your overall. household financial situation in general. wishful thinking in terms of a score I. would say like. three and a half. slash four okay yeah maybe we're up for.
a rude awakening but if we don't think. about it. we're four or five average normal but. again you know whenever I I sit down and. rework the budget it's like. where did this 200 charge come from you. know I don't know so we're always. surprised right I guess we'd like to do. better and that's part of why we're here. the deaths how do we just rack up so. much debt though well I'm actually. performing well we'll get into the. Italian that. but just in terms of like the credit. cards and some different things what did.
we do why are we here so uh two years. ago. um we were doing quite well in terms of. debt we only had my leftover business. debt from Italy and uh Yvonne's student. loans but then there came a time when we. decided to start IVF. and neutral fertilization all right yeah. so we had to pay for that out of pocket. because uh our insurance at the time did. not cover anything and we didn't have.
any other like Company benefits for it. um so we took out credit cards uh to pay. that three credit cards yeah three oh. yeah yeah because we we had the sapphire. before which was like basically. untouched and then we took the freedom. one then we took the AmEx and then we. took the freedom 2. anyway so the whole. that thing comes from the IVF thing and. also from the fact that we had to buy a. car when we first moved here from Europe.
um we had the car that Yvonne's mom has. uh given us. uh and then in August I also had to buy. a car because at that time we both had. like like office jobs yeah so Houston is. not uh pedestrian friendly it's. essentially a forced tax upon us I had. actually tried to make it work with the. bus but I had to like change the Box. we're taking the bus yeah yeah I did. take the bus for like maybe a couple of.
months a month and a half stuff like. that but like I had to change the bus. and the bus stop was it was not like. close to the office but you were able to. do it I was able to do it but with very. much distress because for example like. the the bus in Houston is not reliable. it doesn't come when it says it comes. yeah or if one of them comes that one. line the second one doesn't come in time. and then also the weather in Houston is. pretty bipolar so you think it's going. to be a good weather and then it's just. that suddenly starts to pour yeah so.
it's really not. the best situation yeah. I I also it was summer and I have. sympathy on that I really do it's like. if we're in one deck for the IVF and. then we're in One debt to get the car. and we've actually took them at the same. time so yeah okay you know it's just. like I I. it's suffering it sucks just knowing the. math behind it in the hole you're trying. to dig yourself out of right now I would. have tried to suffer for a little longer. just to save up and get a cart.
the IVF. so you know when that came to all his. family planning and everything like that. it sounds like it almost needed to. happen like right then. it kind of instead of like saving up to. try to uh do the procedure in cash it. kind of did because. um you know I'm 39 right I was 37 at the. time right uh so we had started trying. for a baby uh before of course like we. started trying in like April of 2020 14. months yeah so we already said that that.
was our next life goal and we needed to. make it happen and also like once you. are a certain age you start freaking out. a little bit Yeah and once you're in. that community of people dealing with. infertility like that becomes your whole. world and it's literally like groups of. people finding ways to finance that at. whatever cost there's people who do way. crazier things no I'm sure like taking. out 401K loans like emptying their 401K. but if we knew we wanted to do it and we.
were in a financially pretty decent spot. at the time. why were we not just going pedal the. metal just like cutting everything in. life and just saving up as much as we. possibly could actually possibly could. to do it instead of just going into debt. I guess we could have also stayed in. Romania and not have had any why'd you. guys move to Houston. my family's here okay and uh he wanted. to start the PHD program as soon as. possible yeah so I have that just a.
little closer I got accepted to the. University of Houston for my doctorate. program my family's in Houston and I. said Ella come on let's just come to. Houston are you done with that I have. one more year left. what am I gonna do you want to teach. yeah I'm starting to TA this semester so. I'll be teaching Spanish to. undergraduates. but oh interesting and oh wait what's. your doctorate in in Spanish. yeah it's the only PhD in Spanish for. creative writing in the country.
so shout out shout out uh this is. promises I'm not dick this is me being. curious curious yeah yeah if it's the. only one in the country is it a degree. that's in demand for you to get a good. Roi on it if it's the only one offered. in the country right but if there's a. program that every college offers. so that means there's typically demand. for it though. I made the mistake of arguing with Mr. Hammer no no no I'm actually just. curious because I don't know what the.
job market looks like for that it's it. has to do with changing demographics and. just the fact that more people are going. to be speaking Spanish and Houston is. right on that edge. of the open wound of the Border where. just there's a lot of Spanish speakers. there majority Hispanic City yeah we're. the biggest border states so yeah if. there were gonna be a a first time for. this program it would be in Houston so. it's it's not like they thought hey. let's sucker you know all these people. with low no I'm not saying that I'm just. trying to figure out what you're doing. afterwards and figuring out the ROI on.
the not only time but the money you're. you know this is what I'm always. thinking about my next step would be. academically possibly a postdoc. it doubles the amount it doubles my. income which is officially officially. the the offers that I've been looking at. that have been passed around in my in. newsletters and that universities give. even in Houston for what. for researcher oh okay so you propose a.
project yeah University gives you the. stamp and they pay you to just work on. that project and maybe there's one that. I'm looking at where you just teach one. class a semester open one so to double. my income at the exact same a little bit. closer yeah I'm just gonna use it to. double my income. and work fully on a project and it seems. very enticing no I mean okay that's fair. how long would a postdoc take this one. I'm I'm imagining is one year okay would.
it cost no no no no money for it no no. any of my doctorate is not yeah yeah. yeah. okay and. it will double from what to what. everyone always asks me what checking. account I use and what high yield. savings account I use recently I. switched over to Sofi the reason I did. it is because their app is very. intuitive and it's super easy to use on. your computer as well but even better. than that their high yield savings. account is all the way up to 4.4 at the. time of recording this clip that is so.
hard to beat and I am taking advantage. of that all day and not only that but. there's additional bonuses that I took. advantage of that you can as well set up. direct deposit get a 50 bonus are all. the way up to 250 dollars that's free. money that's free money I took it you. could take it too so check out my. affiliate Link in the description below. it's seriously awesome I use it each and. every day for my banking needs ish range. 30 to 60. yeah even 60s not the amount I want to. be making.
but. oh no I've been getting others income. yeah yes that's good I'm just I'm just. trying to figure out like the cost of. the degree because I come from the world. of Arts I went into arts for music into. college would you play it uh well I. played trombone but I was in the music. composition that was my thing and I just. know in the world of Arts like I wasn't. in the uh English Department part of. thing or the writing or anything like. that I was in the musical side of things. but people just get sucked into the.
I finished a great degree okay let's go. get the next degree let's go get the. next degree let's go get the next degree. and this is a never-ending cycle in. terms of man I just want people to get. out of there and start making it in that. industry and making that income instead. of making it to their mid 30s until they. get their first job. so I do maybe have degree fever but my. plan wasn't to get a doctorate but I met. a doctorate you have a doctor and a. doctor what do you have a doctor. communication very cool so she just.
inspired me I was like I gotta get one. too it not it wasn't for the money. nobody gets a PhD for the money but I. know about it teaching is a passion and. writing is is my life you couldn't have. written without it. I was and I could have. could have taught without it. I without the doctorate yeah yes. absolutely I was teaching in New York. yeah yeah so we didn't need the. doctorate. I think so I don't mean to be bullying. you too much for Academia yes okay uh.
tenure tenure track positions which go. upwards of 120 130 even in public. universities you mandatory have to have. a PhD because I just know that there are. people out there who are probably. watching this video who are in positions. like me where they you know started you. know going into the Arts and they're. just gonna get sucked into that. never-ending cycle of degree degree. degree and not starting their Like. official career until like mid-30s and. I'm like dude got to start making income. got to start getting retirement going. just in the culture we're in because. or are you giving up the best decade of.
your life for compound growth it's gone. and uh. you know by the time you're done with. the post-doc almost the half of your. second best decade so okay. um we definitely went down a tangent. there but let's get into the debts shall. we so did this pay for the IVF the. American Express we have an American. Express for 10 463 yes you can talk. about it yeah so uh the American Express. personal loan is actually a debt.
consolidation of the leftover that we. had on the credit cards because the. history goes like this like when we took. the credit cards uh initially they were. with zero APR for like 12 months a. couple of them and 15 months the the. third one yeah yeah I know so uh our of. course our initial plan was like or. we're gonna kill this we're gonna pay. everything off uh before the zero APR. expires of course that didn't end up. happening we paid off some of it but why. didn't it happen where human no Why.
didn't it happen I know all of my income. was going all of my income is going. towards the debt and all of Ella's. income was going towards the house so so. it's just house like sorry household. household food rent utilities all of it. red took up your entire income is. only groceries we weren't going out to. eat some beef some travel oh we're. losing 80 some travel.
yeah we're losing 80 in interest on this. I would choose paying off high interest. debt versus travel. 349 minimum monthly payment on this. that's a big minimum monthly payment yep. okay we have a lot a lot of debt to get. through. well let's Hammer these guys out. we have a vehicle is this just one of. the vehicles it's the only vehicle that. we have a payment and now it's our only. vehicle. it got totaled and so that's our savings.
account now is what you see in there. we haven't replaced it no and our plan. is to drum roll drum roll okay so uh. instead of getting a new vehicle with. that money that we got from the. insurance on the totaling of that first. vehicle. uh. for now it's our like emergency fund but. we are planning to keep this money to. help fund the next IVF that we're gonna.
wow how much is IVF IVF like uh the. first one that we did between the actual. IVF cycle the meds that are paid. separately the meds for the transfer. that are paid separately and like all. the yeah like the investigations during. yeah stuff like that and the pregnancy. follow-ups up until you graduate from. the fertility clinic which is not a. normal OB GYN it's just uh print okay. all of that was around total like twenty. nine thousand dollars okay.
but this time from my current employer I. have a IVF benefit it's called a family. building benefit it's uh for fertility. treatments of any kind including IVF or. adoption and it's twenty thousand. dollars in a lifetime heck yeah so. calculating the worst case scenario of. those like 29 000 that we paid the first. time uh we're like okay exactly exactly. we have those 20 000 from my employer. and we have this cushion.
of those like nine ten thousand right so. that's what we're planning to use those. ten thousand in our savings account for. well definitely until then it's like an. emergency fund sure we'll definitely get. into that then uh well I mean emergency. funds are emergency funds that's not an. emergency but we'll get into that as. well also it's not going to be spent all. at once right yeah okay sixteen thousand. dollars is out on a 2016 beetle with a. 357 minimum monthly payment this must be.
a long-term loan yes 70 something 75 70. something we this was our first vehicle. that we purchased and we made all the. first time buyer mistakes so not the. interest rate we wanted it's interest. rate uh 6.9 ish it's not death but no no. not great yeah yeah so that also we got. strong armed into purchasing all these. extras extras Insurance like coverages. on top not warranties but I don't know. just we should have said no we should.
have walked away. bye oh the student loans must be yours. 55 okay and this is why I don't like. people just getting sucked into the. endless degrees we could be paying on. this and of course forgiveness is not. happening we know that now. okay they're all federal. there's six loans totaling about 55 yeah. I see yeah starting in October 55. 834.65. uh it actually predicts the minimum. monthly payment Tool uh 600 almost.
702.91 the interest rates are likely. going to be from four to seven percent. it the highest one is six point eight. the lowest one is 5.3. oh I don't like that. no so I added them up 6.4 on average. yeah. I really don't like that's too close to. the average return of the stock market. in history so that's gonna impact what. we're paying and what we're doing.
you know what this is what is this. [Laughter]. this personal loan that we had to get uh. to do a lot of dental work for for me. that was like beyond what my insurance. was covering that was a need that was. like no yeah in terms of work is very. important it impacts a lot of things. when it comes to health I have a cavity. I need to get filled right here and it. hurts oh no. but I'm also a baby about needles. so I'm just do it before you're gonna.
end up needing endless grounds like me I. just need to go get some laughing gas or. a bunch of like put me to sleep or. something whatever 53.61 oh no that's. inch so what's the minimum wait it's. canceled no no so that that question. mark there is our question mark we got a. five thousand dollar loan in February of. 2022. and the promotion was if you pay. everything off in 24 months there's zero. interest charged. and they told us they charge the vendor. they have like some sort of subscription.
for the vendor so we're confused when we. printed this shoot out it said 53. dollars in interest. I will be making a call and checking. that out but yeah the idea is to pay the. 5 000 off by before next February I'm. gonna put that aside yes yes yes yes. and then we have some medical debt. this is just the outstanding balances so. only 129 and. 325. yeah we wanted to share that. because that's one emergency visit for. an infant in Houston and that doesn't.
even include the 250 that you pay like. up front. Insurance yes yes yeah yeah so oh you. can call him. he's a little baby boy yeah so. and the reason why that's why I'm happy. that you guys did end up having a child. that's very exciting yeah thank you so. the reason why that's not paid off yet. is because Ivan is trying to dispute it. oh okay. I mean you know you we might eventually. just get paid off two days after a.
terrible like coughing fit with the baby. he's got high fever and you get home the. first thing you see is a 500 bill after. the 250 you paid I was just like this is. wrong so I I when was this. middle of June okay so yeah that is very. recent so I guess this is very much a. developing thing yeah it's in there it's. pending if if we have to pay we'll pay. it but but yeah it just it was a shock. you know okay yeah okay. uh this credit card so we have some. credit cards but we're not holding. balances on these looks like they're.
paid off every month which is good they. are revolving so we use them we use. certain credit cards for certain. expenses yeah it's not it's not the case. where we just have this debt bad debt. from a while ago it's these are expenses. that we make and we pay the full balance. I'm glad you're paying the full balance. that's I'm. little torn on your guys's status as uh. credit card person or not because you do. really well on some of these credit. cards but you also carry a massive. bounce on another one that was a. consolidation though so it's like it's a. bit. I think it's risky for you guys but I.
think you're maybe heading towards a. better place we spent 924 on this card. which one is that um is that the AmEx. free yeah MX yeah that's for the. groceries mainly yeah and yes yeah. that's it's what it looks like there but. we also had some an Uber trip and some. Amazon spending as well but mostly. groceries and gas yeah. uh when you went to oh take the car to. the shop. that's that's fine in those situations.
and then in this we had 735 dollars a. purchases 300 to pay off on that. um the I do see ten dollars for the. pediatrician then we had some blacktop. stuff is this the child care yes this. must be the Chase Freedom yeah yeah this. is a child care how much are we spending. on Child Care on a monthly basis 1200. that's why many people just can't go. work because this is so expensive it's. almost cheaper to stay home for some. when you know much lower disaster events. would stay home no you couldn't yeah.
yeah 1200 1200 a month yes. yeah for a toddler and not enough I mean. he's almost a toddler he's been an. infant buddy yeah so it's good yeah okay. no what is this. okay I just almost gave you guys credit. card people status you've paid 842 of. interest on this this year. that's right paid this off this that was. before we Consolidated the debts I think.
it might be time to cut up these and. just have them on debit cards guys I. don't know it's so risky I get the. Allure of points and that's how they're. getting you and I like taking advantage. of them. but I don't know guys you just racked it. up. and you've only paid it off Consolidated. recently. that makes me too nervous that makes me. too nervous I mean you guys are members. of the audience if I'm gonna use. anything I would just use the Fizz ones. for you guys because it works as a debit. card and I think that works better for. you guys. I don't know man I'm scared.
842 dollar squeeze from us almost one. percent of our household income a. squeezed from us on interest. that's why you Consolidated it yeah but. consolidation is only one thing. now it's like what you could rack it up. again and you've done it in the past so. who's to say it won't happen again. that's what scares me. we have a Freedom Card. 68.96 spent on this one oh it's paid off. now that's yours right no yeah that was. just suspending but Yep this one's being.
paid off and there's another ten dollars. for Pediatric and then some Pharmacy. stuff. and then 448 spent on Chase Sapphire. again this one. um also gets paid off yeah this is the. one that we use for the household bills. and also for like online purchases and. miscellaneous miscellaneous yeah some. miscellaneous on Amazon and Pink's Pizza. and. Vodafone Vodafone this is my Romanian uh. phone line. oh interesting okay yeah and then.
another card we had a thousand 68 on it. and we spent nothing and we paid it off. yes. some airplane tickets yep where are you. guys traveling right now if we have this. we have this yeah we have to go to North. Carolina you have to have let's have to. we can explain social. social. it's Yvonne's Best Friend's Wedding and. I'm not going to this bachelor party and. he flew all the way to Romania well good. for him and that was his choice yeah and.
okay Best Friend's Wedding shirt. flying social ties no I know I would. have rather you just like won data in a. car. and then one date it back oh a little. cheaper not much. with the baby I think no I would have. won dated himself alone oh. I'm being very strict right now very. strict because we're in a lot of bad. debt like do you guys 100 have to do.
that not necessarily but that's. something I personally would have done. in my situation when I was in a bunch of. debt that's something I would have done. knowing how bad it was and knowing how. good it is on the other side. so. then Italian death. debt yes. that is a tax. payment plan. where do I start. yeah so I used to own a business for.
six-ish years in Italy. I started by working from home making. dresses in the living room of my. apartment. and at some point I. transitioned into an actual Atelier that. I opened in the city I had to rent out. to rent a space and soon enough I had to. hire one person then two people. and at some point uh.
so I started with uh bridesmaids dresses. and prom dresses and like easy stuff but. at some point it morphed into Bridal. because more and more people were just. asking for like can you do this in white. for my wedding right so like I spotted a. Market need. so I morphed into wedding dresses why. weren't you paying taxes though I was. paying taxes just not enough just not. enough why aren't you paying enough. taxes so I always paid my taxes right. um. but at some point.
the expenses became so cumbersome it was. always like. paying the rent and paying the salaries. and paying the suppliers and paying. everything else and then the taxes were. the only ones that gave you some room. for like postponing them right. and also there's my question would be. like I don't know their system but were. the taxes not on the profits of the. business so post those expenses yes okay. so I'm still confused then why you.
weren't able to pay those because I had. to also live off those profits right so. at the end of the day it got to a point. where it just wasn't adding up and. that's why of course I closed because it. wasn't it wasn't scalable like there. wasn't anything else that I could that I. could have done you weren't charging. enough yeah I wasn't charging enough I. didn't have like 20 hours straight. 24 actually she's got YouTube videos she. works 24 hours on a dress like straight. so but you were you just maybe weren't.
budgeting was the point well but so yeah. like what's what's the what was the tax. percentage on profits. uh it's not just the income tax like the. profit tax it's a it's a combination. it's a sales tax which in Europe is v80. yes that wasn't passed on to the. consumer. well yes but I it was collected by me. from the consumer but then I had to like. pay it back right so it was but you just. put that aside so that should be good to. go I put that aside but like between. everything that was then then there was. a social security.
that also got added to the tax then then. uh it was the tax on like wages that I. was paying to the employers to the. employees. so always made those payments yes yes. the people got paid I mean not the. people of Italy yeah so uh and also. there's another component to this uh the. way it works in Italy is like. you get some like tax. um how should I say. um you get the total of the taxes that.
you have to pay based on your income. declaration yearly but then they. calculate again based on like how much. uh Revenue you had and how how many. expenses and they say no you actually. have to pay more and that comes after so. basically uh some of that that I was. like I was aware of when I closed my. business and I was like okay I'm just. gonna make a payment plan and pay it. over time but some of it I was hit with. like after I closed my business if that.
makes sense so it just became this like. whole thing like I didn't even know of. all of it from the beginning well on. this payment plan what is owed total. I cannot read Italian yeah yeah I'll. explain so the total that was owed after. right now right now it's like uh eight. thousand two hundred forty six dollars. dollars or euros dollars I I made the. conversion 8 426.
8246 yeah okay perfect. um and the payment plan what's the plan. the plan is uh every month I pay the. equivalent of 200 217 that includes uh. that includes the bank fees because I. transferred from my uh from my American. account is there interest on this uh if. there is interest how much it's six. percent uh but it's not like I can't get. rid of it even if I want to pay all the. installments like all I can do is just. pay all the full installments but it.
doesn't cut my interest. since it was turned into a payment plan. it's like that's it. so after interest is paid it's 8 246 yes. okay it includes everything. like the full ins the sum of all the. installments that I still have that. makes sense sucks that makes sense. lots of Euros lots of pages of Euros. okay. this is a share checking account it's. supposed to just paying off cards. transferring things around and lending.
Point lending Point couple things there. twenty dollars 198 dollars yes lending. points the dentist yeah so it's an yeah. automated 198 and then just to make sure. we pay off in two years okay oh okay. cool that makes sense yeah then we have. another Chase we have a thousand three. hundred seventy five. in here again there was nothing overly. notable there were some flights still. cashing out on ATMs but also just paying. things around transferring things around.
really nothing too crazy. and then we have a savings account now. I'm curious like I I wouldn't be upset. at this I just want what's better for. you guys why do we have ten thousand. five hundred forty two dollars sitting. in an account with a yield of point zero. one percent when when I use Sofi has 4.5. percent right now plus I mean you'd get. like with this bounce and if you set up. direct deposit you'd get an extra 250 so. that's like why not right yeah why.
is it sitting in this yeah I looked into. it they don't have a perfect score on. nerd wallet but the 4.4 is super. attractive so I just need 0.5 4.5 oh it. went up I guess I just I thought you. would did not go up to 0.01 no no that. that's it's just a an extra folder and a. computer you know what I mean yeah. that's. without losing the interest that you. accrued uh well it'll accrue on a. monthly basis and then whenever you pull.
out like that balances you know the. bounce change so the other fees for. transferring. um I don't think so I've used that I. haven't paid fees yeah as far as I know. there might be a minimum it's one of the. hesitations but not even just uh. switching to them that's not what I'm. confused about why is this just sitting. at such a low yield in general because. there's so many high yields out there. yeah just a marriage of convenience. because it's connected to our checking. out it's yeah it's also it's not it. hasn't been there for a long time like I. think we got the check from the. insurance company like last month or. something like that so if we're paying.
interest rates on some things why is ten. thousand dollars sitting there in. general. the 10 000 is for the second oh that's. yeah it's our reserves for us to check. out of pocket part of the IV it's it's. low-key Untouchable then we have some. bonds when do these become available. with you reaping all benefits and. Returns on it the eyebrows uh 20 years. no. I think after three years you can start.
uh withdrawing but they double in 20. years oh because I do not have that. double in 20 years that's anyway is it. if you have it in the stock market it'll. double every seven eight I mean compared. to this yeah Vanguard account that I. have yeah yeah yeah which I think you've. got index yeah. um of which you have six thousand one. hundred four dollars that's your. retirement it's your Roth IRA. do you have retirement yes that's my. 401k right oh this one oh that's right.
okay so the combined household. retirement almost going into 40s almost. going in the mid 30s. is 17 000 there is more because I just. got my company match on the 401K so the. current. the current uh. amount in my 401k is twelve thousand two. hundred it's not it's not where we'd. like it to be no you guys are ready to. return it no no no no no there's even. more that's there's even more I actually. remembered about my Romanian retirement. account because I uh contributed to the.
pensions in Romania for like nine-ish. years so right now you're gonna laugh. but it's something I have uh no okay. assets right here assets that's the. shorter one so. 3517 and Beyond this this is only the. like 401K which is like the investment. account it's a privately managed account. Beyond this I also have the Social. Security. funds from there which is like 25 of.
your salary. but you'll receive one I will receive. when I'm like 67. which is also when I. received this I think I can withdraw. this earlier but like I'm not it's not. my interest no it's not Warren Buffett. level but we'd like it to be higher and. and I need it also have I also have a. third category of Romanian pension fund. which is the optional which is around a. thousand dollars. so okay.
we made it and I might get something. from the Italian pension fund because. they're probably not much not much. because I only contributed for like six. years and something so the main point. being we need to up our retirement. dresses well before we do that we need. to get out of the death Amex debt yes. and then less than great Beetle debt and. the student loan debt that's looks uh. dentists uh we'll pay that what's he.
interested in the dentist. zero if you paid in two years that's. right so okay we're doing that so that's. paid off in two years that should be. fine and then you're calling and. figuring things out with that 50 yeah. and then the medical we are disputing. perfect and then the Italian I think. it's 217 until it's paid off because the. interest is already baked in there's no. point of paying it off early yeah okay. so let's budget yes we have it no we. have it let me see.
you care if I write on this please okay. so we have rent of Thirteen hundred. seventy five groceries 800. I know the. kid costs money but I think that's still. a little high for E3 okay groceries. include everything from food to. toiletries to household products to. paper products to diapers to formula and. to any like. oh yeah I was able to squeeze child. clothes in there yeah Walmart 800 times.
for that yeah combining those yes. categories electricity 100 it's 150. actually the last one so the the summer. one we just got hit with 150 and June. was 1 30. yeah but then before that was. 80 and before that was 60. so averages. out yeah so 100 for electricity 7500 99. 120 for phone 360 for car okay so we do. have the the debt minimum monthly. payments yes uh baked in there okay and.
80 for gas 135 for car insurance baby. coal maybe college fund it's uh the. bonds we contribute 100 a month on those. to the United States government no I. think my mom also contributes another. hundred dollars. why do you want it in bonds though it's. gonna be so long it's it's it's so long. until this kid goes to college that I. don't see the point of it just losing to. the stock market.
so what else do you recommend us to do. I'm not going to give investment and. advice but all I'll say is that the. stock market on average since the. history with all up years and all down. years has averaged at eight percent. return on an annual basis S P 500 with. dividends reinvested 10 point. something on a yearly basis on average. with all up years and down years. combined. so we we should be better we should. probably hire you know some real. financial advisor is highly recommended.
the the two neurons that bounce together. when we're thinking about this was. basically look we have my rat Roth uh. Ella's 401K. diversify and get some bonds for the. baby zero risk I'm uh that was the. thought process. yeah. could we get a little more for our. little baby with compound over 18 years. it's gonna be a lot more a lot more. compound with the compound growth on it.
what if you crashes what's the interest. on these eye bonds it's not on the. document if if not I don't know and it's. gone up. well it wasn't a statement it was a. screenshot so I'm not sure. no it's not around yeah maybe the ten. dollars is oh no yeah whatever the. difference is of the odd number because. we put 100 in so. you know what I mean any recruits that. are not in a month in a year we started. that in September 2022. yeah it's like. nothing no no we we don't.
that's not our uh. our lucrative Financial tool it's just a. safe. you know under the mattress you're. getting 2.3 on it compare that to eight. percent in the secondary I'm not going. to give advice but. really what you're betting on you're. betting on the US government's never. going to get it on that's a good bet. what you're saying by saying okay but. yeah this is this is no risk where the. stock market has risk you're also. betting that the United States economy. is just going to go completely down.
forever if you don't believe that the. General market will go up so. in that same rate like I don't know that. but you do you all I'm saying or a. combination math or a combination okay. no you do you yeah yeah I want to take a. brief moment to thank today's video. sponsor Aura are you sick and tired just. like me and everyone else honestly of. receiving endless spam calls every day I. mean look at this let me open my phone.
look at this this right here is all Spam. it's crap except for one friend there's. one friend phone call the rest is Spam. data Brokers are making a fortune. selling your information to robocallers. spammers and others who want to learn. more about you like where you live but. with aura they can identify data Brokers. exposing your info and submit opt-out. requests on your behalf Brokers are. legally required to remove your info if. you ask them to but they make it super. hard to do let Aura handle that for you.
Aura also does a lot more to protect you. and your family from online threats you. can't see it's really easy to set up so. you don't have to download several. different apps to get things like. parental controls antivirus VPN password. management identity theft Insurance and. more you can get everything at one. affordable price let Aura do the hard. work of keeping you safe online so you. can focus on other things with peace of. mind go to aura.com forward slash hammer. or check out the link at the top of the. description below thanks again to Aura. for sponsoring this episode.
and then baby care 1200 yam. Ellen uh that's your. yes. oh yeah it's 217. Insurance you're. paying. health insurance. you're not on your plan he's not on my. plan he has his own plan from the. University and the cost is kind of like. the same oh yeah okay laundry okay you. don't have a machine in-house we don't. have a in unit laundry.
oh and in Pete's it's another one they. aren't alone or a loan a loan uh Amex. oh okay yeah and then your dad which is. the student loans which is coming up. cleaning. guys cut that out immediately because. that's gone that's not in the budget. that's not in the budget I don't care I. don't give a sh you up two hours there. is no defense there is no defense I will. not hear it you guys once or twice a. week will have a little team session. where an hour Power Hour we just go.
around and scrub this is not in the. budget we are losing 80 a month on the. AmEx of death we have seven percent on. the beetle there's no point this is done. and also I'm with Dave Ramsey on this we. are not uh your grammar count absolutely. well we're not contributing to the baby. college fund right now we're just not. because you're going to be able to. contribute a lot more after the fact we. need everything going off paying the bad. debt right now bad debt if all the debt. was like three or four percent I'll be. like go for it because you're just gonna. beat it but right now you're losing what.
you're putting it in what did we say. five right 2.5 versus what we make is. 2.5 but we're losing you're losing. whatever the interest rate yeah and then. the AmEx was nine percent nine percent. so 2.5 versus nine I mean which one's a. bigger number yeah two doctors here come. on I think I think The Nine's worse. saving nothing but that makes sense. right now miscellaneous there's no more. miscellaneous no more birthday gifts. your birthday gifting yourself things. it's exciting uh your birthday gifting.
yourself getting out of debt and then. giving better gifts in the future is. this the sacrifice we take now the. sacrifice we take now for the better. thing I want to say something August. 2023 is the next IVF. and we're starting now so this this is. okay this is a conversation it's a very. long process it's a very long question. uh I think best case scenario like the. initial appointment let's say is like. consultation consultation then you have.
the Baseline tests then those have to. come then you have the like. investigations October October I think. october-ish like the actual lump sum of. the cycle okay but remember remember we. have the benefits I get that but it's. still ten thousand eight thousand. dollars for you guys here's okay. this this becomes a very complicated. complicated situation because there is. the as you mentioned correctly so I'm. I'm not very good at the science behind. it but there is the biology behind it.
and also the more we wait the Slimmer. the chances of it working are so like I. know I know so this becomes very throw. away all the money basically like it's. it you know. that's kind of like how we prioritize I. I get it right I get it it's just it's. it's very hard because what we're in. right now is we're in a position where. we're not even close to being able to. retire and in your situation if we. continue down this road of barely paying. on the debt because all we did was. reconsolate we didn't make any progress.
towards that we're just minimum monthly. payment and things or 40 you're more. than halfway towards retirement you're. basically halfway towards retirement. you're a little over. okay at this point with the one kid we. already had you guys will not be able to. sustain yourselves in retirement who. knows what Social Security is going to. be like by the time you guys are retired. that kid's gonna be morally responsible. for taking care of you. and the longer we take to get out of. this debt now with the second kid on the. way both of them will also feel that.
obligation because we are not. prioritizing getting yourselves figured. out first and that's why this is just so. complicated it's complicated because. they're you're totally right and I want. you to guys have a billion kids if. that's what you guys want I'll just do. it just do it I want you guys to have. two kids I want you to be able to do. this and I want us to be able to do it. in a health safe Smart Way. man what I just wish we could do. now there's no point of talking about. wishes can I add the component to the. it's a life or death can I add a.
component to the situation I'm also. working very very hard on a promotion. good that I hope to get like by the end. of the year hopefully I'm gonna go off. of today's interview so like we hope. yeah of course of course it's just like. yeah and I I hope you get it and I'm. rooting for you and we'll celebrate if. you do but until then it's just like. gosh what I do because I want to make. sure that I'm at least taking care of. child number one. number one the one that's with us right.
now. for when you guys return they don't have. to take care of us I'd want that Amex. gone today by cutting a check for that. ten thousand dollars. that's what I would want to do because. I'm just. gosh but then I totally understand what. you're saying this might be I think the. first time in the show where I'm torn I. might be 50 50 down the middle because I. get the biology and everything the the. clock that's. so it's a choice what we're gonna have.
to do then if you guys choose that and I. mean you guys are going to choose that. let's just be honest. we have to cut everything. everything try to cut everything on uh. phone bill go with mobile we're cutting. the college yeah the college and. definitely the cleaning miscellaneous. it's gone whatever we can cut from. groceries I know it's hard but whatever. we can cut from anywhere the best or the. temperature's a little warmer inside.
nothing that's like gross but just to. save an electricity bill because every. single Cent we need to pay off this AMEX. card now. the AmEx personal loan. yeah because. student loan it's gonna be coming. and it's just gonna eat you guys for. years. it's gonna this is this is very tough. this is very tough so however you guys. prioritize that. I would personally.
and I'm like 55 to 45 on this but I'm. cutting a check today. and paying off the AmEx. but that's what I'm doing but I'm also. not in the position I find kids stinky. and smelly so that's the best part we're. we're in different areas I was that way. too before having our son he smells so. nice I can guarantee no but you start to. celebrate like oh his bodily functions. are working when he doesn't stink then. I'd be worried yeah yes okay so I mean.
just just because I'm in a different. place that's that's where I am so I mean. you guys are clearly gonna go down the. road of the family but it sounds like. Amex is that's that's the prior Public. Enemy Number One no it's because the. Italian there's really no point of. paying that off early because the. interest is baked in the medical debt we. needed to dispute the dentists were. having some conversations about so all. that's left from there is the AmEx the. beetle the student loans and what I. would do is pay the AmEx off as quick as. possible to Beetle off as quick as.
possible then the student loans as quick. as possible and honestly this means that. your kid's probably not seeing a lot of. paid for fun until they're probably like. five years old. but good news they can't really remember. things before three anyway so yeah true. they don't need to know if they went to. Chuck E cheese or not they won't. remember it no Chuck E cheese is. unhealthy. cheese no it's not fast food it's an. established. some Za some pizza yeah it's yummy you. know everybody I can make pizza you make. good pizza yeah but can you have like a.
big mouse. that moves that creeps you out the thing. with Houston is like and I have to give. it to Houston because there's a lot of. things in them there are a lot of things. that I tend to not like about the city. but the thing I have to say is that they. have a lot of like free entertainment. Parks readings Miller Outdoors Story. Time like in the match and stuff like. that so because honestly that's probably. what you guys are doing for years with.
the route that you're choosing that's. okay but you're choosing that and. knowing the sacrifice the sacrifice is. there's not a lot of wiggle room in the. budget and we're increasing income as. much as we can when when you graduate. and everything and you're pushing for. the best things you're writing the best. book you've ever written and you're. getting a lot of sales off of It Don't. Laugh is true.
website and YouTube channel yeah. um. but either way you guys are choosing the. world of four three four five years of. just struggling yeah just living Bare. Bones because everything else is going. to. pay off the AmEx then the beetle then. the student loans and that student loans. is going to take a long time yeah choice. you made nine years wasn't it 13 I think. we calculated that no no it's nine nine. years well I bet there's more I bet.
there's more money in there than you've. given yourself because even in the. budget you got a miscellaneous category. I don't accept that you had a cleaning. category I don't accept that the phone. can be cheaper it's for two phones it's. for two lines making it cheaper and it. includes his phone like his actual phone. oh your phone is fine payment yeah. because he had a phone for like eight. years or something like that so no I had. to buy a new phone at some points. and then every single year that it gets. renewed we are shopping around and. finding the cheapest.
the we're we're finding the the middle. between cheap and good child care we're. not going to do cheap but also you know. it's like in a dumpster yeah we're also. not gonna do good but cost a trillion. dollars we're gonna find the good. good try to see as much as we can save. on that I know Child Care is expensive. yeah. so oh it's about to double I know so. again you guys are choosing you guys are. choosing this this is but just know that. it's gonna be it's gonna be yours to. sacrifice and that's what you're.
choosing that's okay because you have. kids while you're going through this. whole process I would save up. immediately what a two-year a two-month. emergency fund is whatever that is have. that in Ohio Savings Account sitting on. the side and then that's what you guys. have until you're completely out of debt. and you're getting a six month emergency. fund then you guys are probably doing 30. minimum towards investing to catch up so. that you guys have a chance at. retirement yep both of you guys 30 when. you're out of debt and have a fully. funded six month emerge is fun yeah but. it's Gonna Take Years until a baby. college fund when does that happen baby.
College fun happens after your emergency. fund okay okay and you're probably. you're probably cutting your fun uh. percentages by a good amount to catch up. on that and catch up on your own. retirement as well yeah and if for some. reason you're not fully I think I think. you'd be. if they especially if they go they don't. if they don't go out of state and all. this stuff I mean you should be able to. I think save up enough and if you take. you know put it in smart things that. have good compound growth I think the. college should be paid for and even if.
it's close it'll be close enough that. you can cash flow what's remaining. what you said earlier made a lot of. sense you're saying channel that college. fund to paying off these high interest. loans yeah and then going back and what. would have gone to the AmEx sort of. start to play catch up yeah 300 you know. yeah pretty much uh you know it might be. it might be smart to essentially do like. no more than 50 is on your needs in your. budget. 30 minimum is going towards investing. and of the 20 that's fun try to cut oh.
put that towards the college fund but if. you have then you're cutting a little. bit from the fun category and that's. going to the college fund but that's. what it's like after we pay off the. debts which is going to take years and. after we have a fully funded emergency. fund I wish I had a more optimistic. message but you guys are choosing that. the Family Planning which is your choice. and totally fine uh just know that it. comes with the sacrifice and that. sacrifice is going to take years yep so. but. I mean. it is what it is and and you know it was. a choice that we knew we were getting.
into. you know with uh with with a little bit. of a handicap right yeah and by the way. across your cards we see this the you. know gas was 50.95 grocery shopping was. basically a thousand dollars eating out. 232.64 that was a one-time thing. it's an expensive pizza what it was for. like 20 people no it's seven pies.
birthdays are free we're rolling down. Hills in the Park yeah another outdoor. 331 American Airlines 331 American. Airlines. 396 United uh lots of expensive HEB. trips and. subscriptions 32. 46 cents were probably. cutting those as well so wait wait I. have something to add here so. subscription that is the Adobe Creative. Cloud subscription that we both use but. mostly me for the YouTube videos.
yeah and I I use it for Premiere. basically and I actually paid that off. immediately from my BS fund I have a BS. fund that is not you no longer have a BS. fund but that's the only thing I will. allow you to spend money on these next. like five years okay so full full. picture currently my BS fund which. covers everything from clothes shoes. clothes and shoes oh my God what makeup. and stuff we're going to garage sales. makeup is included in.
in the toilet paper fun you have the. toilet paper and the grocery fund. combined that's included in that so 800. I'm not gonna need any makeup for like a. while because I'm good enough but still. and it's included in that fun and it's. 800 a month Max okay okay uh what else. did my BS fund include uh the. subscriptions like the Adobe Creative. Cloud YouTube premium epidemic sound. nope. nope okay nope epidemic sound and what. else I think an Amazon Prime yeah okay.
we do use Amazon for stuff that like we. cannot find at a grocery store or that. are like cheaper on Amazon including. stuff for the baby so. okay but we're cutting the uh epidemic. sounds epic epidemic sounds yeah because. you can get lots of royalty-free music. yeah okay. I can do that any final thoughts any. questions any thing else no thank you. very much we've been thinking about this. show for a while like yo let's get our. finances together. and so a good tip with the college fund.
and paying off the AmEx sounds like. that's Public Enemy Number One right now. first battle yeah and no more no no no. more traveling. no yeah I think we're done I'm Latin for. a long time Latin like the families. we actually actually we actually are not. going to a wedding in Romania which I. feel sorry about and one in Argentina.
Good Sam your guys's future matters it. does it is that's my niece don't tell. that about my niece I care more about. your child not having to take care of. you when you're trying to retire okay. true all right for the couple in their. Hammer Financial score obviously it's. just a big choice of what to do next in. terms of their life and what they want. to do and the sacrifices that are going. to surround that their Hammer Financial. score mostly because of the plane. tickets and everything that's been in a. budget is zero out of ten right now the. debt not the worst that ever certainly.
not good especially Owen back to the. Italian government but two out of ten. for now emergency fund I'm happy with. the money we saved up that's actually. really good it would be a higher score. but we have to put that towards either. the IVF or the debt so three out of ten. retirement happy we've started I'm. really not happy where we are for the. age three out of 10 real estate we're. not there yet but zero out of ten Hammer. Financial score for the couple right now. 1.5 out of 10. make sure to check got. all the resources Linked In the. description below I have some resources. that I use or would use in a specific. situation link there some paid affiliate.
links as well high yield savings account. the one that I use in different. investment accounts and educational. resources as well and don't forget to. follow my Instagram and Twitter thanks. oh and also don't forget to check out. his website and her YouTube his book. right there unpublished check them out. give them the love and everything that. they deserve also Whoever has the most. viewed Tick Tock or YouTube short using. a clip from this video I'll send you a. hundred dollars post however many times. you want but you must tag my YouTube. Tick Tock at and put YouTube Caleb. hammer in the title slash description.