Valley

Occupation: Natural resource specialist
Industry: Government
Age: 35
Location: Willamette Valley, OR
Salary: $98,671
Household Income/Financial Setup: $140,000. My husband D. and I split house bills roughly according to our incomes, along with our three other household members. D. and I have a joint checking account for household expenses and one shared brokerage account, but otherwise have separate accounts. The house is under both our names. We hope to combine finances more over time.
Assets: House: worth around $615,000; retirement accounts (government Thrift Savings Plan and IRAs): $96,000; brokerage accounts and bonds: $80,900 in mine, with an additional $14,800 in shared; savings accounts: $8,600; checking accounts: currently $3,600 in mine, with an additional $5,700 in shared.
Debt: We owe $474,760 on the mortgage. D. has a few thousand in credit card debt.
Paycheck Amount (Biweekly): $1,811.48
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses

Housing Costs: $1600 for me. In terms of our other housemates, it’s $825 for my husband and two of our housemates, and $500 for the other housemate.
Loan Payments: $3,482.93 on the mortgage.
Phone Bill: $26.65
Car Insurance: $67.88
Spotify: $16.99 for Spotify Duo for me and D.
Utilities: D. covers utilities from the shared house account.
Paycheck Deductions: These include retirement contributions to my pension ($166 biweekly) and Thrift Savings Plan ($567 biweekly), health insurance for me and D. ($114 biweekly), dental insurance for us ($25 biweekly), union dues ($32 biweekly), and FSA contributions ($58 biweekly). I’m a non-bargaining unit employee but still choose to support the union.
Life Insurance: $31.13 every three months.

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, I grew up in a college town with a well-educated family and higher education was very much the norm. My undergraduate education was paid for mostly by a National Merit Scholarship, with help from my mom, who had a college savings account worth around $40,000 to help me cover tuition and living expenses. My mom also helped pay for my last year of undergrad after I took five years to graduate and my scholarship only covered four years. My master’s degree was fully funded, with a stipend of $22,500 a year and a tuition waiver, from a research assistantship. My PhD was fully funded with tuition waivers and varying stipends per year from a combination of fellowships, scholarships, and teaching or research assistantships. My first year on fellowships I made around $60,000, while my last year on teaching assistantships and scholarships was probably a little under $30,000. (If people get anything from this, I hope they understand that you shouldn’t pay out of pocket for an advanced degree in the sciences!)

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s) educate you about finances?
Growing up, I knew that I had a college fund available and was generally encouraged to be thrifty. Otherwise I don’t think my family really discussed our financial situation or general financial literacy. In my early 20s my grandfather started to talk with all the grandkids more about investments, and my parents would also talk to me more about different ways to manage money, like putting it in a CD or brokerage account. I also started to make my own efforts to gain financial literacy on how to manage my money and make sure I was secure in the future.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
I baby sat in middle school and high school, and had a few brief high school jobs working at a bagel shop or a local grocery store. It was nice to have a bit of spending money that didn’t depend on my parents, and my parents encouraged me to get work experience.

Did you worry about money growing up?
No, I generally felt financially secure growing up, although during my undergraduate I was constantly stressed about money.

Do you worry about money now?
I worry about my job security but otherwise feel like my finances are in order.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
At 23 I got my first job out of college and no longer depended on my family for financial help at all. At this point I try to have savings readily available to cover emergencies or fund my regular expenses for a few months in case I lose my job. I also know that my family is there to help if needed.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
Recently for my wedding I received $10,000 from my mom and $1,500 from my grandmother to help cover the wedding — D.’s family didn’t contribute financially. (A note about this: D. grew up a lot poorer than I did so I didn’t really expect much from his family in the way of wedding contributions. My mom said at one point, “You know, traditionally the groom’s family pays for the rehearsal dinner…”, but we never asked and D.’s parents never offered.) I also usually get around $5,000 into my brokerage account around Christmas time from my grandmother, and a couple hundred in cash from my mom. This is a big help in building up my investments.