FI Value Engineer

How did we calculate our savings?

We first created a 34-Day Challenge Budget Line in our YNAB (If you aren’t YNABing, you should. Here’s my referral link to try it out). Into that went any additional income – credit card rewards, Instacart, etc. At the end of the month, we put anything in our variable expense categories into that line item, excluding our personal spending.

What’s the Value of the Things We Use?

Free Shipping If we didn’t have Prime shipping, we’d opt for slower shipping. We’d bundle our orders so we hit the $25 minimum. Or we’d pick up things locally at the store (shocking!). There might be one time a year that we’d need to pay for shipping. Let’s put $5.99 in the calculus for that.

What about the discounts?

Discounts are only worth it if you were going to spend the money anyway. I’ve been suckered in by amazing discount packaged in the past, only to find out that I never use them any way. It’s the coupon effect – you end up spending more than you intended because you have a coupon.

So what was the damage?

Capital Expenses and Renovations In 2020, we spent $62,447 on renovations. This included transforming a hair salon into a master bedroom, replacing all the water lines to PEX, replacing the furnace, AC, and all the ductwork, drywalling the basement, rebuilding a half bathroom, and updating all the toilets.

How is this going to pencil out?

Monthly Income/Expenses Total Monthly Income$1,800.00ExpensesUtilities$251.00Insurance$110.00Mortgage$666.66Property Management$180.00Total Expenses$1,207.66Sinking FundsIncome Tax$142.16Maintenance$162.00Capital Expenses$90.00Total Sinking Funds$394.16Net Monthly Revenue – Guaranteed Profit$198.18 This house is bringing n about $200 a month or $2,400 a year in profit, if it stays occupied.