Let's talk about money

Paul and I were blown away a few years back when, during church service one Sunday, our UU minister stood in front of the congregation and openly shared his personal finances. He shared how much money he made, the breakdown of how he spent his money each month, and how much he was giving to the church. He was sharing this personal information in order to encourage us to donate to the church, but even so, his disclosure was quite vulnerable and refreshingly transparent.

The way I see it, there are three major topics that are basically off-limits for public conversation: intimate relationship stuff, sex, and money. (I guess I am leaving off the classic politics and religion, both topics I personally find less sensitive). As a family doctor, I do get to talk with patients some about their relationships and their sexual issues, but as a regular human, I have definitely internalized a silence around these topics. I specifically hate talking about money, even with my husband. But I am going to share some financial information here-- mostly because I want to inspire people who are interested in spending time away from their regular lives to plan and take the leap if/when they can -- and to be transparent about how we were able to do it.

I want to acknowledge up front that we are both high income earners and so that mostly we have life financially easier because we both make good money. I am not trying to show off; I am simply trying to share.

So, for you out there who wonder, how the heck are they spending a year NOT working in Ecuador, here is how we did it, financially speaking:

1) We planned this adventure for ~15 years. This means that every big decision we made (e.g. house purchase, job changes, new car buying) was bounced off this plan. For example, when we bought our current house in 2014, we bought it knowing we could 1) easily rent it out and cover the mortgage and taxes and 2) comfortably pay the monthly payments on only one of our salaries. Another example: when we decided last year to repaint our sun-burnt 2008 Honda Fit, we did so assuming that it would be our second vehicle for the foreseeable future. 

2) We have no debt, except for mortgage/house payments. We own both our cars outright, we paid off all our student loans (woo hoo!), and we pay off our entire credit card bill every month.

3) Life in the USA has a lot of monthly costs that we could pause. Even though we do not have any debt, we have plenty of regular bills every month: childcare/nanny, internet, electricity/gas, water, garbage, cell phone, car insurance, piano lessons, YMCA membership, soccer team dues, etc. All of these monthly bills add easily to more than $1000 per month -- money that we did not spend while abroad this year.

4) Life in Ecuador is MUCH cheaper than life in California. A really good example is housing; our monthly rent in rural Ecuador is $60/month (compared to our usual mortgage and tax payments of $2000/month). Yes you read that correctly. We pay $60 per month to rent our simple but comfortable home. If we were living in a city, it would be more, but still much less than what we pay in the US. In addition, we currently pay $1.50/month for unlimited water and ~$15/month for electricity. We were gifted the internet service by a kind neighbor but if we paid for it, it would be ~$15/month. We are required to have a catastrophic health insurance plan in order to get our visa, that costs about $100/month. We do have evacuation insurance as well, but that is via our AAA and is only $10/month. Another example; we spend about $25 per week here on fresh fruits and veggies.

5) We are a two income earner household (in our normal lives), BUT we make financial decisions so that we can reasonably live on only one of our incomes. This is intentional -- both in terms of catastrophic planning (what if one of us gets sick or dies?) but also in terms of flexibility -- because we can survive on only one income, we are not bound to jobs we hate or being unable to take a leap of faith and try out something totally different because we want to (e.g. some day I am going to dedicate more time to writing!!!)

6) We save money every month when we are both working. Paul and I are both terrible budgeters. Unlike good friends of ours, who literally meet once a month to discuss their budget and finances, we do not. But thankfully, we make more than we need in our normal life and are both quite frugal (Paul gets mad when I call him cheap). We rarely eat out, we do not buy luxury items, we hardly drink alcohol. Thus, we tend to live quite a bit below our means. We are living on our savings here. 

7) I am lucky to have a job waiting for me as soon as we return-- for good or bad, family doctors are in high need most everywhere, and even though we are low income earners relative to other medical specialists, we make a decent annual salary. I am definitely thankful for my boss at Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency, who granted me this year away with job security, so mid-July, I will resume my faculty position at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, and I can be confident that two weeks later, I will have a paycheck that will cover our re-entry costs.

8) Obamacare. We are lucky, again, to live in a state that embraces the concept of healthcare exchanges and wants its people to have access to good health insurance. Because we are moving back into California after being away, and because we have not earned money this year, we are able to access to subsidized healthcare for our family when we return to California at a relatively reasonable cost. 

Okay, so when I read this over, it makes me (and Paul) both nervous. We do not want to sound like we are bragging. OR that we are telling people how to live their lives. OR that our financial choices should be your financial choices. I just want you who are considering trying something totally different to know there are ways. . . and to encourage you to reach out if you have more specific questions.