Just curious. I’m also a transplant in MoCo.
This is mostly for people who are transplants into the area. I'm looking to moving into the area sometime next year. Probably late Summer or so. Job isn't really an issue. I'm more so thinking about quality of life and everyday living.
What is something you wish you knew before making the switch?
Edit: Thank you for the replies! I walked away and didn't think I'd get many!
Link to previous diary https://www.reddit.com/r/MoneyDiariesACTIVE/comments/ko65av/i_am_a_52_year_old_making_116000_a_year_living_in/
Just a note I think my totals for my retirement accounts were off last year. This year is correct.
Happy New Year. 2021 was better in some ways, but it was still a really difficult year personally for me. I am a 53 year old single female with no children who works for a US government agency as a supervisory analyst. I have been with the agency for over 16 years.
The biggest change this year was a change of positions within my agency. This summer I applied and accepted a supervisor job that does not directly supervise people on a daily basis. It is more like a program management position. The change from being in one place for a long time to another division has basically gone very well and I like my new position. It was strange to learn the boundaries of the new place when I had questions. I like my new coworkers and they are supportive and collaborative which is nice. My boss is hands off unless we want him to be involved. I am not so thrilled with executive management in my new division and some of their decisions, but that does not affect me on a daily basis. I did get an increase in my salary when I became a supervisor. The money is nice, but I really took the position because I needed a radical change at work. I was getting very unmotivated and burned out in my own way after a lot of personal things that went on in late 2020 and in the spring of 2021.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance $629,922 split between TSP, Traditional Rollover IRA and Roth IRA. Investments are about 60% Traditional and 40% Roth. I got there by saving from every paycheck.
Equity $190,000. I continue to pay an extra $400 towards principal each month and a lump sum of $1500 twice a year when I get my two extra paychecks. I have approximately $37,000 left on the mortgage. I am still on track to pay it off in early 2024
Savings account balance of multiple accounts $58,000. This includes about $15,000 designated as my emergency fund. I also keep $4,000 liquid in my Roth that could be used for emergencies. I recently bought $5,000 worth of I-bonds from my emergency fund to get more interest at least while inflation is high.
Checking account balance $2100
Credit card debt $0. I pay my accounts off every month
Student loan debt $0.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I had an increase from last year
... keep reading on reddit ➡
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/career-path
Avg Salesforce salaries according to the link above:
Salesforce Administrator $91K
Business Analyst $84K
Marketing $69K
Sales $67K
Service $53K
Designer $112K
Architect $123K
Consultant $110K
Developer $108K
Edit: BTW, Northern VA has an above average COL so I’m struggling.
Where do you prefer the next stadium to be located?
For context, I initially submitted a Money Diary here on Reddit last December, which was published on R29 here in February. It generated a fair amount of discussion and questions so I thought it would be fun to do a follow-up.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Net Worth: $1.04M ($452k in retirement accounts + $325,000 home equity + $181,000 in investment accounts + $83,0000 in checking/savings accounts). I have received ~$250,000 by way of an inheritance and substantial annual gifts from my family since I graduated from college, which allowed us to begin building equity at a young age and save much more than would be possible otherwise. We have $245k left on our mortgage.
Section Two: Income
We both got promotions with a modest bump in salary since my original money diary.
My salary: $86,000 base + $11,000 bonus
My husband F.’s salary: $135,000 base + $5,000 in stocks
We both max out 401k, HSA, and have medical/dental insurance taken out of our paychecks pre-tax.
My take-home pay: $1,815 (2x/month)
F.’s take-home pay: $2,901 (biweekly)
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage: $2,507/mo
HOA dues: $229/mo
Utilities: $140/mo
Wifi: $84/mo
Cell phone plan: $40/mo
Pet insurance: $50.11/mo
BarkBox: $24.38/mo
Property taxes: $6,400/yr
Condo insurance: $412/yr
Car insurance & tax: $652/yr
Home security: $120/yr
Jewelry insurance: $204/yr
Chase Sapphire Preferred: $95/yr (downgraded from the Reserve since we haven’t traveled much during the pandemic - will likely upgrade again if/when this ever ends!)
Our pet expenses and savings vary month to month, which is why I don’t have them broken out as a monthly expense this time.
Day 1
- 6:20 AM My alarm goes off and I should be getting out of bed to work out, but it’s Friday and I’m feeling lazy, so I go back to sleep for another hour. Once I’m up, I run through our dog V.’s morning routine and eat a bowl of cereal before logging on for work.
- 8:30 AM Early call this morning with a great client - I typically don’t take client calls before 9, so it’s nice that he is so pleasant! My morning is stacked with meetings but they fall away one by one as the morning goes on. Not too surprising, considering it’s the Friday before the last couple weeks of the year.
- 12:00 PM I order Sweetgreen on Do
If you have a pet, make a list of potential 24/7 vet clinics now and be expected to be turned away by half of them due to limited on-duty staffing. Call them before driving major distances to bring your pet to them- chances are they’re at capacity and will refuse to see your dog/cat/whatever anyway.
Our dog was displaying classic symptoms of bloat (which can be a fatal condition for dogs) and we had to bring her to 3 different emergency veterinary clinics across Northern Virginia (VCA SouthPaws in Fairfax, Columbia Pike Animal Hospital in Annandale, and The LifeCenter in Leesburg) before a nurse or veterinary technician would even triage her, and even then we were told it would be 4-5 hours before a doctor would be able to see her because of how swamped they were with other patients.
It blows my mind that clinics that advertise 24/7 emergency service can run on such tight skeleton crews such that they end up having to turn more patients away than they treat in a night, and the entire landscape is so unregulated and decentralized all they can tell you is “sorry we can’t help you try some place else”. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised given how underdeveloped the landscape for human medicine has shown to be in this country, it only stands to reason that the veterinary medicine landscape is worse.
tl;dr- come up with a plan with your primary vet of what to do in an emergency now, and ask for a list of every emergency veterinary clinic within a 2 hour drive, because that’s how far you may need to travel to access the resources your pet needs in a pinch.
From "These Will Be The Hottest Up-And-Coming NoVA Neighborhoods In 2022": In addition to National Landing, Boro District (Tysons), Lyon Park, etc., it lists Reston -- like, all of it:
>"With offices for Google, Salesforce, and Docusign, Reston has become a big tech hub. Buyers will experience competition in the area, but depending on the housing type, it’s not as competitive as other Northern Virginia areas, so you may be able to get a teeny bit more for your money."
I hope everybody charged their batteries last night. Stay safe out there.
A diagram of our main level might make this easier. But I’ll try to explain. The front door, living room and dining room are separated from from the kitchen and family room by one threshold (there’s no door on it). As soon as you walk through that threshold into the kitchen/family room, the temperature decreases by 3-5 degrees … maybe more. We just replaced every window on the main level this summer. 8 of those 14 windows are in the kitchen/family room area.
I currently know of 3 places on this main level where I know 100% we are losing heat/gaining cold air from outside and that is the bottom corner of our front door, the bottom corner of a deck door, and a hole where some cables are coming inside.
The front door is in the section of the house where the living room and dining room are, climate hasn’t been too bad there. The deck door and the hole where the cables come in are near the kitchen and family room where we are losing heat fast.
My big question here… could that corner of the door and that small hole where the cables are coming inside be the culprit for these rooms being literally 5 degrees colder from the rest of the house? I put puddy around the cables outside and we do have a storm door on that deck door. I also bought some foam that sticks around the edges. If you put your hand in front of those places there is a narrow, albeit strong, breeze coming in from outside and the floor is extremely cold in front of the door. Any help would be appreciated.
