Category Archives: Costs

How I Have Lost Over Half A Million Dollars Having Kids, So Far!

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Since my son has been born, We have lost over half a million dollars in income!

How? 

My wife stopped working to be a stay-at-home mom, the day my son was born.

In her previous work life (before my son was born), my wife was an accountant.  Below is her calculated income based off of the last salary she received before becoming a stay-at-home mom.

Wages and
Year Bonuses
2000 40,000
2001 42,000
2002 44,100
2003 46,305
2004 48,620
2005 51,051
2006 53,604
2007 56,284
2008 59,098
2009 62,053
$503,115.70

I added a 5% standard of living increases for every year after the first year.  I really think she would have made more that the amounts that I have here, but this gets my point across.

We never projected out our future income loss, but as you can see it’s quite substancial (Augh).   With my wife’s former income steam, we could have be living an “Upper Middle” class lifestyle by now.  Vacationing in Paris for Christmas, owning new low-end luxury cars and maybe even a vacation home in the South…  we could have been really living it up

So, the question is, would we change anything if we had it to do over again?  Hmmm maybe! (initially I was going to say no, but half a million dollars is a lot of money).  I think given the choice, I’d at least ask her to continue to work part-time.

Why would I ask that of her?

  • Half a million dollars is a lot of money!
  • It would be nice to have a little bit of security, in case I were to get laid off
  • Half a million dollars is a lot of money!!
  • The kids would learn that everybody has to go to work to earn a living
  • Half a million dollars is a lot of money!!!
  • We would be able to increase our lifestyle, at least alittle bit.
  • Half a million dollars is a lot of money!!!!
  • The extra money could be a huge emergency saving fund
  • Half a million dollars is a lot of money…, really!!!!!!
  • The extra money could have been used to fully seed the kids College funds. (I’m fighting the savings battle with it right now).

All told though, I really do like the fact that the kids have a  mom that is there for them anytime… but, half a million dollars is a lot of money!!!!!

What would you do?  Live better and larger (at least a little), or forgo the money and be a stay-at-home mom?

Beware of Electric Vampires In Your House

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My computers suck… literally!

At one time, I use to have up to 6 computers plugged into power strips sucking electricity nonstop.  Looking back, now I realize what a needless waste of money that was.  By my calculations, I was probably wasting $25 to $30 extra per month on them sitting doing nothing.  What many people don’t realize, is that when the screensaver shutdown mode is on, the computer is still pulling the same amount of energy as if a user was surfing like usual.

Here are my calculations for my computers:

Computer Mode Watts Used per Month Cost per Month
Standby 17280 $2.22
On/Screen Save On 223200 $28.63
Total Cost per Month———-> $30.85
  • Notes about the table above…
  • I’m using a 12 cents per kilowatt hour cost base for electricity.
  • I made my numbers conservative (I didn’t include monitor electric usage).
  • I used the following site to figure most of the math for my calculations above: michaelbluejay.com.

I didn’t include any other appliances that are draining electricity in standby mode, like TVs, DVD/VCRs, home entertainment systems, etc…

Now that I have wised up, I only have 1 desktop computer on full time, and 2 desktop computers in power save mode (oh well, at least that’s a little better…).  If you have any computers that are on and not doing anything useful, it might be worth your while to turn them off.

Don

Forget the Economy, I’m going to Disneyland

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Well, actually I’m going to Disney World, but hey… close enough!

Disney's Cinderella's Castle

Disney's Cinderella's Castle

WOW, I really underestimated the costs that are involved with a Disney vacation in Florida! I thought the trip would cost around $2,500.  It turns out that booking the tickets, flight and dinning plan has a price tag of $4,500!  Ouch! I’m sure the final cost will be closer to $5,000 dollars 🙁

I don’t like spending that much money!  But with my son approaching double digits in age (he’s 9), we figured we should go now while he is still young enough to enjoy it with us.  This might be the last trip to Disney we take, it really depends on how much the kids enjoy it.  But with a price tag that will approach $5,000, I’d rather use the money towards a good quality, used car 3 years from now.

On the new experiences side of the trip: The flight to Florida will be my daughter’s first ride on a jet.  Also, this will be the first time we’ve went on a vacation with friends instead of our family.

How am I paying for this?  I’m charging this trip to my credit card.  But wait, I’m not going over to the dark side of financial balance sheet!  I will pay this trip off next month!  We are just using the credit card for convenience, and the reward points.  This will be the most money I have ever spend on vacation.

This is one of those life balance milestones, that I can now check it off of the “need to do at least once” list…  Disney will be a great memory for kids, and I’ll make sure plenty of pictures will be taken.

-MR

Yearly Cost of Owning Pets

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Today, I’m sitting down to calculate the cost of owning my pets.

I’m not including any cost like worm pills for the dog, vet visits or grooming expenses.

We currently have 1 dog (a chocolate lab), 1 cat, 2 hamsters and 1 1/2 fish.  With the fish, sometimes we get new ones when the fish dies and sometimes we don’t, thus the 1 1/2 number…  We really like having pets, but they do require a lot of work (I hate cleaning cages) and if you add up the cost per years, it’s ends up being a little over $1,000 dollars.

Obviously, the most expensive pet for us is our dog.  She eats about 1 bag of dog food a month (@ $45 per bag).  We got unlucky with our dog because she has a food allergy that requires us to spend $45 per bag.  Our cat goes through about 1 bag of cat food every 3 months (@ 10 per bag).  Cat litter usually runs about $12 a month.  The cost of the hamsters and fish pale in comparison to the dog and cat from a food perspective.  But the hamsters do require frequent bedding changes (once a week, but we stretch it to 2 weeks).  So the bedding cost for a hamster usually runs about $5 per month.   The fish cost about $3 a year. 

When we go on vacation, we only board up the dog.  We get away with the cat because we bring out extra litter pan for her, and she use all 3 until we return.  Note, we only take 1 week vacation, 2 weeks and we’d have a problem…

Yearly Pet Costs    
  Food Cat Litter Boarding Bedding
Dog 540 0 180 10
Cat 40 144 0 0
Hamster 40   0 60
Fish 1 0 0 2
      Total Cost: $1,017
  *bedding for the fish is water changes

 

My kids really enjoy there pets though, so for the time being, this is an expense that I can’t get out of. 

If you do want a pet, that isn’t expensive, fish are the way to go.  We currently have 2 beta fish, and they are both pretty and easy maintenance.

-D