Thanks for the insights. I’m right there with you on the Corolla. I can save about $730 a year on gas costs vs. my camry (hate to get rid of it). So, I can upgrade to a 6-7 year newer Corolla (2003 vs. 1997 Camry) and still save money in the long run by giving up a little space.

Our goal one day is for the wife to go part time. The only bad thing on this is that we’d lose the 401K advantage and company matching. All the benefits are through my job. I’ll need to run all of the numbers overall and see how it works out. In her field, she can get $10 – $20 an hour more doing part time as needed (PRN) vs. full-time, so it can be very lucrative.

Thanks for the prompting, you’ve got my gears turning on ideas for the part-time route.

We have two kids under 5, and we are on to the third one this year. I now have to think about a used Sienna Van, which I plan to pay cash for.

As per day care, depending on your profession, the best approach is to have one person work part time, in my case my wife is an RN, so she picks up hrs whenever she can to a minimum of 10 shifts a month when im home. We have no day care expenses except for playschool, about $120 per month.

I’ve always heard that the replacement costs for the batteries were a killer. Any idea how much this normally runs?

If we calculate it out I’m not sure a Prius would come out on top unless that batteries would be cheaper than ~$700 per year of car ownership (60 mpg vs. 36 mpg) based on the number of miles I drive each year.

Glad to find that you are also a ME. May I suggest you trade the Camry for Prius instead of Corolla. You will save more money on gas and a more modern car. The lift-up back will give your more room for family use too. Perry

Thanks for your kind words. I would have never guessed Saturns would be high quality cars. Good to know.

I’ll have to look more into the fully self directed 401K thing. Thanks!

Just fyi you are right on jettas, at least from my experience with our dealership. Believe it or not older saturns have done our lot well with few issues after they leave the lot. Gas mileage around –40–mpg and have run forever, too bad they are done with. One exception to the above statement is the saturn vue has had horrible problems. I lost a few bucks on those things. Transmissions in them are junk.

Depending on your 401k size you might be able to roll it into something fully self directed with checkbook control. Gives you great flexibility but its upto you completely to invest. Some of my investors for residential rehabs use it this way. Im trying to setup the car dealership to allow investment through self directed methods as the returns I can yield to investors is fairly large, and both are cash hungry businesses.

Keep up the good work

Thanks! I highly recommend setting up a google docs spreadsheet with all expenses, bills, income, savings, etc. From there setup some easy charts. Once you set it up, you can update your monthly info into the next column in about 15 minutes. This will help you track how things are changing over time and let you see where all your money is building or leaving.

It is a monthly ritual I’ve setup for myself to get better control of all our family’s finances.

Good luck on your journey!

Exactly, it is amazing to me how people can actively spend more than they make and not realize they have a problem that will catch up with them sooner or later.

I’m hoping by the time our kids go to college everything will be computer based and tuitions will be much, much lower. But, I am saving like that will NOT be the case. Hopefully we’ll have enough saved to cover half the cost; from there we need to decide if the kids should cover the other half, or if we’ll have to shell out the cash like you 🙂

That is awesome that you are able to take so many cool vacations! I think we’d like to tour the world one day when the kids get a bit older.

I guess I’m a Toyota boy at heart. I would take a lot to persuade me otherwise as they have been such great generic plain cars with no real issues.

I didn’t think about the software engineer aspect when discussing internet options. I guess that makes sense for you 🙂 And 20 devices? Good lord you are wired!