Hi, I’m Daniel Joseph, my wife is Jane, and welcome to Couple Wealth! My goal is to share our personal financial journey with the hopes it inspires other couples to increase their wealth.
As a young adult, I married my high school sweetheart, paid off $88,000 in student loans, built an emergency fund, bought a house, and grew our net worth to over $500,000. And we have two super adorable golden retrievers. Within 9 years, we went from only a few hundred dollars in our bank account to being financially comfortable.
Through this blog, I’ll share how Jane and I got to where we are today and our strategy to keep growing financially. No matter where you are on your financial journey, we’re here to help you build your wealth.
Why Couple Wealth
Couple Wealth is based around building financial stability for people starting out as young adults. While these principles can work for anyone, having a partner can help improve your wealth faster.
In my case, having a wife plays a huge role in my financial journey. We had twice as much debt and had to feed two mouths, but we also have two incomes. We are stronger together as a couple than if we were single.
This blog shows how couples can work together to build wealth and become more financially stable. If you’re single, don’t worry! You can still create wealth by following our strategies and be in a great position if/when you find a partner.
Follow My Financial Journey
- How We Paid Off $88,000 in Student Loan Debt
- Buying Two New Cars While We Were Broke
- How We Bought a $300,000 House and Are Paying Down the Mortgage
- Our 2020 Financial Strategy Report
- Our Top Personal Financial Resource Recommendations
Growing Up in School
Growing up as a kid, I was privileged enough to be supported by my family and have everything I needed. My parents were frugal, having learned from my grandfather how to live below their means. I worked as a landscaper in high school to earn some spending money and build a small savings account.
This proved useful when I started dating Jane since our standard date night was dinner and a movie. I can only imagine how much money we spent on tickets and burgers back in those days!
When we went to college, we both decided to go to a good state university with in-state tuition rates. That helped a bit to reduce the cost of education, but it still cost over $18,000 per year. To help with these costs, Jane worked at a local restaurant and I became a Resident Assistant. As an RA, I received free housing and a stipend that helped to defray some of the food costs.
I graduated with a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering and Jane received her Bachelor’s in Marketing. All said in done, we walked across that final stage with $88,000 in student loans to our names. And that was after pre-paying as much as we could while we were still in school and a little help from our parents.
Was it worth it? While college education is not for everyone, we were able to land solid jobs after graduation that allowed for continued career growth. It certainly taught me skills to be able to succeed in a well-paid engineering position.
Transitioning into Young Adults
When we graduated, Jane was lucky enough to get a marketing job for a small company that paid $36,000 per year with benefits. I took a job with an engineering firm that paid $55,000 per year. Not bad for new grads, but still not a ton compared to our student loan debt and new expenses.
Feeling confident, Jane and I got engaged and moved into an apartment for a year and a half. We saved as much as we could leading up to our wedding, which we paid for ourselves. After the wedding and honeymoon to Tahiti, we had about an $18,000 bill from all the expenses.
After we got married, we decided to purchase a house for $300,000 to get out of our rental apartment. We basically paid the minimum down payment and minimum monthly mortgage payment for the first few years.
Over the next few years, I got enough work experience to jump to a new company that gave my a $10,000 raise to $65,000. The following years, the company was only able to provide 2% raises… or nothing at all. Meanwhile, Jane was fortunate to get large 5% to 10% raises each year.
Frustrated at my lack of salary increase over those first 5 years, I decided to accept a new position at a larger company. This time, it paid off and was rewarded with a huge increase to $100,000 per year. I fell out of my chair when they offered that amount! Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to get raises every year and have a stable income.
Learning About Financial Responsibility
I have always been financially responsible and careful with my money. However, I didn’t have any financial goals or a plan to reach them until a few years ago in 2016.
The turning point was really when I moved to my current job and suddenly had some extra money available. This allowed us to start putting more towards our mortgage and build an emergency savings account.
Right around the same time, I inherited about $40,000 after my grandmother died. This was the first time in my life that we suddenly had a large amount of money and I didn’t know what to do with it. Trying to be as responsible as possible, I started researching and learning how and what to invest in.
Since then, we have continued to grow our savings and investments to a point where we don’t feel stressed about unexpected costs. We can enjoy traveling, playing with our dog, and living our life without the financial constraints we faced early in our married life.
Our financial journey is far from over. We have goals to pay off our mortgage fully, increase our net worth, and become financially independent. Follow us on this journey as we share what has worked and what hasn’t for us personally.
