JULY’S 10 THINGS

It’s already time for another 10 things! As usual, here are 10 things that have been on my mind. Some personal finance related, and some not.

(1) We’re heading out to Lake Powell this weekend with Danny’s family. Lake Powell is basically where me and Danny fell in love and it just brings back so many lovey feelings. We’re definitely ready to sneak away for a little bit and and just focus on our little fam bam.

(2) We paid off $16,000 in student loans this month and we’re really excited to be back on an aggressive student loan payment schedule. We’re not so much scared of debt so long as the debt is attached to an income producing asset (like our dental practice) but debt that isn’t simultaneously bringing in an income is debt that we’d rather stay away from. We used the Student Loan Planner to help us come up with the best plan of action for paying off our debt.

(3) We are in the process of trying to score a rental income property back in Oklahoma. It’s been quite the process and we’re really excited to wrap things up, hopefully sooner than later. We purchased our first house in Oklahoma intending to rent it out but ended up being able to sell it for a pretty good profit when we moved so we’re excited to get back into the real estate game.

(4) We opened a Roth IRA for M instead of a health savings/529 account this week. About six months ago, he received a small inheritance from my now deceased Grandma and we’ve been throwing around ideas for what to do with his money for a while. We opted for a Roth IRA instead of a 529 since he can still make an un-penalized withdrawal from the IRA if he uses it for education, but just gives him a little more flexibility in how to use the money and hopefully helps it earn more. Are you interested in learning more about this? I can write a post on it, comment below and let me know.

(5) I feel like I haven’t worn clothes all summer. I literally live in my swim suit and work out clothes. I don’t even know how to be an adult.

(6) About a year ago, I started counting my macros. I lasted for about a month. I could definitely tell a difference in my waist line but I just really hated having to log everything. It was cumbersome to me. That said, a lot of my friends really enjoy counting macros (and they are freaking ripped bc of it!) For fertility reasons, my doctor recommended the Mediterranean diet, which I’ve been doing for about a month now. Basically, the idea is that you should eat tons of vegetables and fruits, a little health fat (like avocado, nuts, olive oil), fish, whole grains, and go sparing on the poultry and almost no red meat or anything refined or processed. This has worked really well for us since we get so much fresh produce from the produce rescue. I will admit the first few days felt terrible and I never really realized how much processed food I eat. Not only can I tell a difference on the scale, but I seriously feel amazing! Who knew that eating fruits and vegetables would actually make you feel better. 😉 Sometimes its funny/sad how much we’re willing to pay as a society for special lose weight quick or other health schemes when it really is as simple as eat fruits and vegetables. I still think a high protein diet will help you get shredded and I also love chocolate chip cookies and ice cream.

(7) M started preschool! At this adorable little preschool run by a lady in our neighborhood. He’s in a class of 6 boys and he’s really loving it. He’s been in preschool before but it was really more of a day care when I was working full time. He loved his teachers and friends but dropping him off was always so hard because he would cry every single time! I think he was just there too many hours. Now he’s only there a couple of hours a day, three days a week, so he can get all prepped for kindergarten. It’s been good for both of us. 🙂

(8) A decade after everyone else, I started watching Grey’s Anatomy and I feel like it’s literally ruining my businesses because I can’t get any work done at night bc all I do is binge it! And the worst part is there are like 500 seasons so I feel like I’m never going to get through it. How do I quit??

(9) Two close friends from law school lived here in the Phoenix area this summer and it was SO SO SO fun getting to spend time with them and letting our babies become friends. Law school was totally worth it financially for me, but the best part was definitely the friendships I made, which I did not expect at all.

(10) Right now we’re debating where to go for Christmas. We have enough credit card points saved up to go somewhere big for a couple of weeks for very very cheap/possibly free. If you could choose between Costa Rica or New Zealand for two weeks at Christmas time, which would you choose and why?? Drop us a comment.

How was your July personal finance related or otherwise? Comment below. 🙂 

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Here at Deeply in Debt, we offer tons of personal finance advice based on our own journey paying off $650k of student loan debt. If you have student loan debt and aren’t sure where to start or what to do, I highly recommend the CFA’s over at Student Loan Planner to help you put together a solid financial plan for your student loan debt. We personally used them and it literally saved us over $200,000 on our student loans. You can check out the Student Loan Planner here.

 

6 thoughts on “JULY’S 10 THINGS

  1. Hi Amber,

    Congrats on the big payment this month! That’s so exciting! I’m still chipping away at my loans — wish I could make a payment as big as ya’ll!

    I would love a more detailed blog post on 529s vs. Roth IRAs. I’m expecting my first, and am also looking into the various college savings plans, and which would be most beneficial for my little one.

    As for a Christmas-vacay, my vote would be New Zealand! I’ve heard the country is beautiful, and if you enjoy the outdoors, there is so much to do! Plus, the weather will be perfect that time of year! Biggest con: the super long flight =/ Better to do it while you’re young though! =)

  2. Hi Amber,

    Congrats on the big payment this month! That’s so exciting! I’m still chipping away at my loans — wish I could make a payment as big as ya’ll!

    I would love a more detailed blog post on 529s vs. Roth IRAs. I’m expecting my first, and am also looking into the various college savings plans, and which would be most beneficial for my little one.

    As for a Christmas-vacay, my vote would be New Zealand! I’ve heard the country is beautiful, and if you enjoy the outdoors, there is so much to do! Plus, the weather will be perfect that time of year! Biggest con: the super long flight =/ Better to do it while you’re young though! =)

    1. Thanks Catherine! Congrats on your first!! So exciting. Look for a 529 v. Roth IRA post here next week! 🙂

  3. I’m confused, I read online a child can only have a Roth IRA if they hAve earned income and then
    The max is $5000 but if they only earn
    Like $1000 then they can only put in $1000. Is the Roth IRA in your name or M’s?

    1. Good question! That is true– your child have an “earned income” to open the account. However, parents/others can contribute gifts to the account, it just has to follow the IRS’s gift tax rules (the limit for 2019 is $15k) which is what we did. M can earn income through our family owned business by doing things like modeling on our website, being a greeter, etc. You can read more about those kinds of details on the IRS’s website here: https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/earned-income.

  4. From what I read online the child has to earn at least how much the gift amount is. So if you are going to gift $6000 into his Roth IRA then he has to have at least $6000 of earned income. Is that not true?

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