Name: Brandon
Age: 38
Annual income: $120,000
Monthly housing costs: $2,300 monthly mortgage in Seattle; $1,400 monthly mortgage in Jefferson County
Other household income: $55,000 (spouse) and $500 per month (roommate)
Student debt: $4,000 left from $20,000
Childcare: Not applicable
Amount in savings: “A couple thousand.”
Amount in retirement: $10,000
Last splurge: A prefab shed for $12,000.
Are you living comfortably in Seattle? “Yes, but only within the last couple of years. I never planned on being able to retire and couldn’t really afford to put any income into a 401K. What’s there now is really just from an autosave program at a previous employer. We bought a house in August of 2013, and we couldn’t really afford it. My mom helped us out a lot back then, and I’m so grateful. In 2019 I got a pay increase that put us where we needed to be, and in 2020, we used equity from the house to buy a small cabin on three acres on the Hood Canal. We feel secure now, but it was a lot of luck and help that got us here.”
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