in a bank account far far away…
Mrs. Xennial’s Story
*Taking a deep breath* As I look back on the past 37 years of my existence, I was quite surprised on how long it took for me to really get into budgeting and finance. Here I am; trying to keep track of how we do. And here’s the prologue to the Xennials’ journey.
Hi, Mrs. Xennial here. I was born and raised in Taiwan, this little island in east Asia. After graduating from college, I went to California for my Master’s Degree (in TESOL), and moved to Hawaii for work in 2008 not knowing the financial world was crashing. Right as I was almost given a pink slip from my employer, I managed to enroll myself to a doctoral program from University of Southern California (the whole program was in Hawaii). Graduated with a Doctor of Education degree in 2012, met my husband (Mr. Xennial), and got married in 2013.
LET’S HOLD IT RIGHT THERE.
If you are in the FIRE community, or have any sense of personal finance or budgeting, I’m sure this last paragraph means $$$$$$$$$$$$ to you.
I was a very lucky Asian girl. VERY LUCKY. My parents were my financial sponsors throughout my entire college career. So instead of having a $200k+ student loan, I started off #adulting with a fresh start. Well, almost. I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how money works. All I know was “whatever the number in my bank account is what I can spend; whenever it is running low I should start eating instant noodles only until the next paycheck comes.”
I lived in Hawaii for 11 years. “Must be nice,” you might say. Sure. As a certified SCUBA diver, Hawaii is a nice place to dive underwater. Weather is mostly nice. We bought our house in 2014, expanded our family to add 2 dogs, 3 cats, and 6 chickens, but did we live happily ever after? Had you ask me 2 years ago, I didn’t want to leave. In fact, I had the first fight a little over two years ago with Mr. Xennial simply because he said, “if it doesn’t work out here, we can always sell our house and move.” (Mind you, we don’t usually fight.) BUT EVERYTHING COMES WITH A PRICE.
Right when we bought the house, Mr. Xennial was working for the government, and I was a lecturer at a local college (and teach for other places/schools as side gig). Money was alright, and so we lived on. Soon after, Mr. Xennial quit his position, and I got into a tenure-track position at the college (while still trying to teach at other schools as side gig). Money was alright, and so we lived on. BUT THE MORTGAGE DIDN’T STAY THE SAME. Before we know it, we were practically “house poor,” because of the ever increasing mortgage payment. We also live in the “country,” and the commute was easily 45 minutes one way (on a good day). I’ve had to turn around because of a road closure and that was 2.5 hours to work. Gas, car maintenance (for two vehicles and a motorcycle), already-expensive grocery all added up to our expenses in addition to everything else.
I always joke about that “WE PAY FOR THE WEATHER IN HAWAII.”
Honestly, not a false statement. I felt that we had to pay to breathe sometimes (even when it was full of volcanic ash and sulfur at one point.
Here’s an example: a gallon of milk on Oahu (the island we used to live on) was $4.99 when it’s on sale. Adding the state sales tax, that’s $5.23. That’s the low end. I’ve seen $9.99/gallon at one point. Or the almond milk I drink with my coffee? $3.29 on sale. $5.99 on a regular day. And that’s not including sales tax.
Starting late 2018 / earlier 2019, I started to write down my expenses in a notebook because I’m old-school like that. Even then, I was still the “whatever the number in my bank account is what I can spend; whenever it is running low I should start eating instant noodles only until the next paycheck comes” gal. Since Mr. Xennial was all into podcasts, somehow, someday I went on to find some podcasts to listen to during my long and boring commute. Started with personal health subject, and it hit me one day that I should find something about personal finance to listen to. Then I found How to Money (highly recommend). From then on, I started to get the sense of what I’ve done wrong in the past, and started wondering what I can do to correct that. Then the more I got into it, the more I go out to find other resources. Bigger Pockets Money Podcast quickly became another favorite on my list. And every guest they invited, if the story is intriguing, then I find them on Instagram as well. (I’ll come up with a list later).
My why of FI has been to find breathing room in life so I can actually enjoy it. Enjoy it with my family, and actually spend quality time with them.
In Hawaii, we work, eat, sleep, repeat. The light bulb went on when I saw the kupunas (elders) working at restaurants as waiters and waitresses… I honestly don’t want to be like that. I mean, if I’m at that age, and would like to work to have human interaction? SURE. I don’t want to HAVE TO work when I’m in my late 60s, busting my old, wrinkle ass serving tables.
So here we are, trying to be better budgeters. I’m hoping that this blog would be my way of recording our journey, and be accountable to our actions. I may make mistakes along the way, but I’m hoping that one day in the future, I’ll look back, and say “man were we such beginners. And Look where we are now.”
In the next post, I’ll elaborate more of the end and “post-aloha” era of the Xennials’ life.
Xennials on FI/RE 