Our Family to FI

Aiden found a geode when we went hiking at Crystal Cave Trail in !

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Growing up with a frugal father, I learned to be frugal myself. It taught me to be content with what I have, to spend less than I earn, and to have emergency funds set aside to avoid taking on debt. It’s become a part of who I am.

But when I started working as a nurse in the Philippines, it didn’t take long before I got labeled as “cheap” by my peers. Why? Because I didn’t get that daily Starbucks along with them, and I didn’t buy the fancy running shoes that everyone wore. Though why would I? A Starbucks drink was worth half a days wage! And my shoes worked just as well as theirs, while costing 5 times less.

It felt weird and it lowered my self-esteem. I still didn’t buy that frothy frap, though.

It was only when I learned more about personal finance and exposed myself to like-minded people, that I felt relieved to learn that I wasn’t being cheap after all, I was just being frugal.

Because in many ways, I also spent money then that to a lot of people might seem extravagant:

I remember getting a VIP concert ticket of my favorite singer . It was the first concert ticket I bought for myself. That wasn’t cheap.

I also bought airline tickets for a Southeast Asia mission trip. Those weren’t cheap either.

We spent 25% of our wedding budget on photography. We figured it’s the pictures that last, not the food, invitations or giveaways so we allocated most of our budget to a top-notch photographer.

These things were valuable to us and the wonderful memories we have continue to increase their value over time.

My money spent only on things that I value is frugal. It’s not cheap.

How are you being frugal in your own ways?

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Make 2023 Your Year!!

Did you start your US finance journey without proper guidance? Whether this is your first year or your tenth as an immigrant, it’s never too late to start organizing your finances.

It’s a new year, THIS YEAR is the time to START. This is YOUR year! Here are some simple steps you can take today:

💵 If you have consumer debt, start with paying off one credit card.

💵 If you don’t have a budget or don’t know how to create one, start by tracking your expenses.

💵 If you have no emergency funds, start saving even just for 1 month worth of expenses.

💵 If you haven’t invested yet, start just by maxing out your Roth IRA this year!

Wherever you are in your finance journey, you’ll never go wrong if you just start with these actions.

This year, I’ll be offering coaching/mentoring to help you learn where to start, uncover your money fears, identify your values and figure out your money goals and priorities.

Send me a DM or go to the link in my bio and schedule a FREE 1:1 money consultation with me! And let’s make 2023 YOUR year 😊

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We became US citizens!

I began this process 15 years ago. I first filed in 2007: NCLEX, IELTS, all the paperwork. I was bright-eyed and hopeful. I didn’t know that it would take 10 years of waiting: one employer that withdrew their sponsorship, three IELTS renewals, multiple retrogressions, and many many pesos of fees to pay to keep licenses and certifications current. (Also: one wedding, one pregnancy and birth, one baby boy!)

Everything fell into place, though. After 10 years, I finally arrived in the US. Five more years of living here as residents and finally we did our oath together, reciting our pledge to the flag and to this country.

Now have I wished all this happened sooner? What if everything went smoothly and I got here the same year I applied? What if I didn’t have to wait? What if I arrived here in the US 10 years before and already enjoyed the benefits of living here?

But, I stop and remind myself that God has always been faithful to our family. He has His own plans and His timing is always right. This country has given us opportunities we couldn’t have had if we stopped and didn’t pursue our dream of migrating here. We can only be thankful.

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🇺🇸

Remember each investment account has its maximum contributions per year, income limits and qualifications.

This is for education only. Before investing, please do your own research and careful evaluation of your own goals and financial situation as we did with ours.☺️

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Last weekend was super productive!

A tenant has already signed a lease for our vacant unit and a medical student from out of town has signed for a unit that’s gonna be empty in a couple of days.

I was even a bit discouraged because it usually just takes us 2-5 days before we could find a qualified tenant. This time, it took us 2 weeks!

However, I also know that a vacant unit is also way better than renting to a non-paying tenant.

My tenant search process is extensive. And this is the result of reading books, listening to podcasts and the advices that I get from my RE mentors. I do prescreening before one can even tour the apartment. I’ll make a separate post for this but we’re pretty confident of our process and requirements.

I will be back to my nursing job tomorrow but leases are signed, professional cleaning and pest control have been scheduled. All is set.

With my full time job and Jj working on his business too, it can be tough managing our responsibilities. Not to mention we have a toddler who constantly asks for playtime, too!

Doing this never failed us.

I didn’t really know what to expect from . I was only here because I applied for a scholarship and got it by telling them about my passion for personal finance, and how I wanted to learn to effectively share it with my community.

They said expect business. For me, all I wanted was to see how it feels like to be around people who share the same perspectives on money, people who didn’t necessarily come from ultra wealthy families but are striving to achieve financial independence.

I wasn’t hoping for anything more than getting that experience, and for me, that was enough.

The event made me realize though that I didn’t have clear goals for myself. I have too many things on my plate. I was aiming at too many targets and ending up not hitting any.

So I started writing my goals for the last quarter of this year -and for the next. As said in her Big Idea talk- make it simple.

My goals now have a deadline. And I’m only focusing on one goal to finish at a time. Goals that will hopefully create impact, not only for myself but also for my community.

We switched to Mint Mobile three years ago and we have saved $360/year!

We’ve been in the US for almost five years already and since then, we’ve tried to optimize our budget. One of those is finding an affordable but also reliable phone coverage.

So for my followers who are recent immigrants, I’ve done the hard work for you. is the best choice!

Since 2020, we’ve used Mint Mobile and haven’t looked back. We’ve cut our phone expenses to HALF! And since we love numbers, yes, I can give it.

Let’s say our $360/year is invested to our 401K, that could grow to $19,470.20 in 20 years!

Imagine the amount that you could have saved for your future just by optimizing your phone expense!

Switch to Mint Mobile already and stop spending so much on your wireless plan. Use the referral link at my bio then use the money you save to buy me lunch or something (as a thank you).

Roth IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account.

ROTH is the name of the senator that proposed this way to save for retirement. You invest income that’s already been taxed, but those investments grow tax free afterwards.

INDIVIDUAL means you open this account on your own, unlike the employer-sponsored 401k. Popular investment companies that offer these are Vanguard and Fidelity- our own Roth IRAs are with them.

RETIREMENT means you can only withdraw your investment earnings when you’re 59.5 years old without penalty. But there are exceptions, e.g. you can pull funds out earlier to buy your first house.

ACCOUNT There are two steps to contribute: you “fund” the account, i.e. transfer money into it, and then you buy investments with those funds. We like investing in index funds like VFIAX or FXAIX.

Who can invest?
- If you’re receiving a salary, then you can contribute to this account.
- If you’re not working or only earning a small amount, then your working spouse can contribute for you under your name. This is called a Spousal IRA.
- If your child earns income (for doing chores, or from summer job), you can open a Custodial Roth IRA for them. We have one for our son Aiden too!

That’s why like us, everybody love Roth IRA because growth is tax free! All yours!

And so since this is such a powerful retirement tool, IRS only allows a maximum of $6000 contribution per person per year, well at least for year 2022. I heard it goes up to $6500 next year!

Let’s take care of our future selves!

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Latepost: CampFI Rocky Mountains!

The Colorado mountains were a beautiful setting to spend a weekend connecting with and learning from others who just like us try to be intentional about personal finance.

So much to share but my biggest takeaway was just how many different paths there are to financial independence, and while maybe our way is slower than others (with 2 young kids!) we should enjoy it anyway! It helps for sure to have like-minded friends to offer encouragement and support. We’re grateful to have made some of these friends here.

Thank you for organizing these events, and especially for making them family friendly! We’re already booked for next year!

Currently, we are able to contribute 50% of our income to reach our Coast FIRE goal in 4 years!

That means in less than a decade since we landed here in the US with only $2000 pocket money and our maletas as dining chairs (served as our closet too), we can stop contributing to our retirement accounts and just focus on getting more passive income for our early retirement plan.

Whatever extra we have, we will either add to our retirement accounts thus fast-tracking coast FIRE or we could put them in our real estate funds so whenever we see a deal, we can grab that opportunity.

This will be a slow game since we have two kids. We are trying hard to balance life and saving. After all, FI is all about the journey, not the destination.

This is the first year we’ve taken advantage of an HSA investment.

Rae used to have an opportunity to contribute to it the first year we migrated here in America. Her employer would even add $1000 to the account as an added benefit to the plan.

Since we didn’t have any clue what it is and how strong this investment account could be, we chose the plan that we thought we could save more. And to have worked in that company for almost 3 years! What a waste.

But that is ok (and to be honest, I’m still trying to console myself). We were still in the beginning of our journey to financial freedom.

Four and a half years ago, we didn’t know anything about the US financial system. Nobody around us could advice on what’s financially sound. Even the financial advisor that we had consulted didn’t contribute much.

So we read books, researched, listened to podcasts, and followed IG finance accounts.

We started with paying our debt fast. We are fortunate to have learned saving and budgeting at a young age so that wasn’t a problem. We penny-pinched. We had a lot of delayed gratification. We sacrificed.

It was hard. Friends around us would say we’re cheap. And it bothered us at first because to us, we were just trying to live below our means. We had a goal that needs to be achieved.

Finding like-minded people, even in the virtual world, helped us get through the first stages of our FI journey. We discovered that we weren’t alone, after all.

So wherever you are right now, know that you are not alone. And you will not stay there forever. Do not lose sight of your goal. It may not be going as fast as you hoped to be, but know that you will get there.

You will get there.

We just switched to doorknobs with a master key!

Priority: time with family.

Isn’t time freedom the goal, anyway?

Our family love to watch movies. Jj and I spend some of our nights watching our favorite series, just to unwind.

But we also love books! Learning something new everyday excites us too.

Nothing wrong with escaping from reality sometimes but we believe in choosing to learn from books and grow our minds better.

What are you reading today?

This little tot does help with unit showings! Early exposure it is.

We look forward to our next road trip and spend a week-long vacation with family but saving up for this is a bit more challenging this time.

As the financial organizer in this family, I had to move funds in our accounts due to unexpected tax payments🥴. I’ve read tax saving books before. I think I need to read and learn more now. What tax saving books do you recommend?

Nevertheless, we are grateful our income had increased last year.

Like they say, index fund investing is a marathon and not a sprint. I have finally maxed out my 2022 Roth IRA contribution! When I was excited to start on our HSAs and Jj’s Roth IRA, We just learned that we got hit with a high tax payment for year 2021. The estimated taxes we have paid last year were not enough. Now, I have to pull out cash from our real estate funds. On top of that, we’re gonna have to pay higher estimated tax every quarter of this year.

On a positive note, Jj’s income did increase last year which enabled us to save and invest a lot. Good thing we maxed out his 401k last year too so that helped.

Live below your means.

Be grateful.

We don’t display a lot of pictures in our home. But we do see a lot of memories with our Google nest hub. As minimalists, this works for us because we don’t have to spend for prints. We don’t have to spend another box for photo storage- saves space and bucks!

This is not an ad! I’m just so glad that we finally bought this after more than a year of holding it off and thinking if this is something worth buying.

Every morning, when I make my coffee, this hub would display a slideshow of our past and reminds me to thank God for everything He has done and given.

I love that my first born loves to read, too.

Aside from listening to podcasts, attending webinars and following personal finance accounts, reading finance and real estate books play a great part to our financial growth. We all know that money related topic is not taught at school so it all depends on how passionate we are to learning how to get wealth and make money work for us!

My little tot is driving for dollars. Start them young, right?

Here we are, getting ready for our next camping trip next month! We will be bringing a family who hasn’t tried it yet and we’ll see if we can convince them to do more after this✌️.

On the finance side, our friend decided to upgrade his tent so gave his old one to us. I don’t have any problems with that!

Balance is very important to our family while building wealth. So we try to do monthly camping trips as part of building memories with the kids and nature without breaking the budget. Sometimes, we plan camping trips with friends from work. They have kids too so more playmates for our kids!

How do you balance work and making outdoor adventures?

This is our financial goal for this year. We will work hard but will try to balance out with making family memories as well! We’ve booked a camping trip this year in Colorado Springs hoping to meet the ! We’re excited!

After househacking for a year in a fourplex, we decided to get our own private residence for more privacy and happiness! We wanted our kids to play safely in the backyard without having to go outside with them. We chose a fixer upper for our home. Main reason is we get to choose our own floors, paint and fixtures! We also plan to rent this out in the future should we decide to move somewhere. And buying an older house means it’s cheaper and we get to force appreciate by updating the house!

Hello! We are a family of four, Jj , Rae and our two boys. We migrated here in the US from the Philippines in 2017 with just enough to get a mattress, a bed frame, and a week of groceries!

Fast forward 4 years later, we paid off our car, bought one fourplex (we househacked this for a year) , and got our very own house now with a little backyard for the boys to safely play on. We did this with our W2 income and Jj’s small business he started a year ago.

Our strategy to FI is index funds through retirement and individual brokerage accounts as well as real estate!

Our WHY to FI has always been to have more time freedom- the ability to say no to going to work whenever we want because we prioritize being together as a family! We want to go on camping trips, visit families and friends from all over the country while experiencing the uniqueness of each state, and see all the museums!

Our feed intends to inspire other recent immigrant families by sharing our experiences and journey for years to come! Choosing our family is our priority and may every decision we make will be according to God’s will and direction.

Follow so you don’t have to learn the US financial system on your own!