This is a great question, what is your dream? In the last 6 - 8 months my goal or “dream” if you will was to be debt free. But along with this my other dream was to build my retirement accounts and savings. But after thinking about this it really isn’t the “dream”. I have decided recently at least for this month my new dream is to visit Italy and perhaps move there when we retire or sooner if possible. The last year or so I’ve been thinking more and more about what we should do in our so called “retirement years”. We really have alot of time to think about this but somehow time does have a way of sneaking up on you so no time like the present to start thinking about it. What has also pushed me into this thinking is our kids. We have some friends that are a year or two older than we are and they are just starting their family. Another couple about our age has two girls - 6 and 8, now us on the other hand, we have two boys 15 and 12. Our 15 year old will be 16 in just a few months. He might be out of our house at 18, just two years from now. Our younger son will be 18 in just 6 years. By the time my younger son is 18 I will be 41. I just turned 35 this past Dec. So with that in mind, both kids in college or out of the house in 6 years, that’s nothing! If we had the money to retire then we would!
So this really leads to what do we want to do? I consider 41 young and a great time in life. I have always lived in the US and always in Colorado. My sister actually moved to Alaska, and it’s has been a great experience for her. I think I want the same. But why Italy?
Italy - the 2nd rated country in the world with the best health care system - and it’s offered to everyone free of charge! Well not exactly free, they pay taxes on just about everything and this pays for the healthcare system. But it’s not going make you go broke like the US. All the money we can save to use for retirement years could be wiped out with in a matter of months in our old age (meaning after 60 or so). If we become residents (not citizens) but residents of Italy we will have access to their healthcare system and it’s rated the 2nd in the world. Of course we don’t expect any issues or to really use it but you never know. Of course we have other reasons, exploring Italy and the surrounding countries would be a lifetime experience, all the culture and histroy is simply amazing. Reading about other Americans who made the move to Italy has truely inspired me with the sites, landscape and people. The thought of learning a new language and moving to another country just excites and gives long term idea’s and goals. Now keep in mind when you move there unless you have special permission you are not allowed to work, you can’t take jobs away from the Italians so it’s very hard to get permission for this. So you need savings or some other source of income. So what do do? Here is my fairy tale on how I’m going to accomplish this. We’ll see if it works out. Also - I have the right to change my mind..lol so next month it may be France! A girl can always dream!!!
How to accomplish my dream:Pay debt and create streams of income from other sources
2008 -
Hopefully get our house loan modification approval at the end of Jan.
Start making payments to the 1st and 2nd - have these current - maybe work on the 2nd loan paydown - then when our kids are gone rent this out as well - perhaps getting $300 - $400 rental income while the renters pay off our mortgage.
Get a better paying renter and one that pays more for our rental, if it comes down to it and we can work it I think we will keep this rental. If I can get all our other debt taken care of I can tackle this 2nd on this one pay if off and then use rental money to keep paying down the first. If I pay the second down and if rental rates keep rising, in about 5 years this should earn us about $600-800 in rental income each month.
Keep paying on our debts to get us out of debt - my total from another post was about 60K -includes, medical bills, debt settlement, car, business debt.
Keep upping my 401K - just changed to 10% - will change to 12% July 08
Keep stashing away what we can into other savings- Roth, EF, and prosper/lending club - prosper and lending club are where you lend money to other people, I like this idea and because it generates income every month from the borrowers payments you can show this as income. I would like to have multiple streams of income from things I don’t have to do. So by slowing putting money into these accounts and lending it out I’m creating a portfolio of loans and other income automatically. Keep in mind though these are ‘High risk” type of investments, so I actually read every loan I’m going to fund and I only fund $50 - $100 per loan, that way if one defaults it’s a small amount, I spread the risk over many loans.
Watch our daily/monthly/yearly spending and always looks for ways to reduce. I’m not going to say were not going to spend to go out to eat, maybe buy a few things, or never take a vacation. But I can reduce alot of what we do spend because I never watched it that closely. At least if I’m watching it, I’m more aware of each $. For example, we use to buy books, not many maybe one or two a year for me, and a few for the boys. Well I just got back from the Library, we are using this instead of buying them. Now it’s not thousands of $ but you know what, it all adds up!
So that’s it - that’s my plan to reach my goals and my “dream”. It’s long term, may never happen, but at least I’ll feel great everytime I make some progress.
So everyone - what is YOUR dream?
