Summer Time!

Hello m'dears! Welcome to the summer edition of Love Multiplied! Yeah, it would be awesome to post more than once every four months, but alas, I'm a working mother of twin toddlers with a giant to-do list. Writing in my blog sometimes falls lower and lower on that list! But I found some time and motivation to make this post.

So, the main thing is that the babies - or, now toddlers I guess they are - are so fabulous. They walk around here like the own the place, not a worry in the world! That is, until one has a stuffed animal that the other wants. Then the world just collapses and there's much tantrums and sadness! They are generally pretty happy kids though. The main thing they're into is BOOKS! Can't get enough books! They insist on whatever adult available read the book at hand with them in said adult's lap. And come on, when a super cute pair of toddlers perch themselves in your lap after handing you a book, you really can't not oblige. And when they are left to their own devices, they will pull ALL books within reach from the shelves and "read" them on their own. It's really precious to watch them trace the words with their tiny fingers, mumbling nonsense words. I cannot get enough of them!

I think the next wonderful adventure in mommy land will be getting these young ladies potty trained. I have not figured out how to tackle that one, but I will be reading plenty of books on the subject as my summer reading.

Aside from rearing these two young lassies, there's plenty of other goings-on around these parts. The one thing I'm consumed with is building my life up in a way to where I can retire soon, maybe in the next couple years. In order to meet this goal, it is critical to make wise decisions about with regards to home/business economics. I see this as a two fold path:

1. Acquire assets to generate more "passive"cash flow
2. Reduce expenses in as many areas as possible

I am the primary home economist and financial planner. Of course John  is very helpful but ultimately I pay the bills and know where everything is going. I do not keep strict budgets. We definitely splurge on luxuries like dining, coffee shops, the occasional piece of higher-fashion clothing. But lately I've been searching for ways to cut expenses in various areas. For example, for rental property #2, I discovered we were paying $1600 in property insurance premiums which is ridiculously high for that type of property and I had no idea. After figuring it out, and discussing with my insurance agent, I got a new policy for only $215 a year! That's over $100/month in savings! I also found I was paying $400 on an unneeded insurance premium on rental property #1. So that's like, $1700 per year I'm now saving on damn insurance premiums, which I can now invest in other properties (or let's be honest, quite possibly wine!).

Another area John and I were focusing on is reducing energy costs. By switching to the SRP "time of day" plan where you try not to use power from 3:00-6:00, we're saving around $20-$35/ month, which is not huge but it is something. We are also upgrading to a variable speed pool pump, which may save as much as $50/month! That number seems kinda high, so we'll see how much we really save, but supposedly these pumps pay themselves off within less than two years.

Now, focusing on the #1 point in the two-fold path, we are getting close to being in a position for purchasing rental property #3! My goal is to be ready to go to the bank for qualification by September, which is so exciting! Pretty much our goal is one property per year, which is one of the major things keeping me working. I hope soonish I can just use equity in the properties we own to pay for the next investments, rather than boring old job income, but that's not really in the realm of possibilities quite yet. Also there's going to be another housing bubble soon, so that may factor into things as well.

Ok, I suppose that's enough chit chat for now. Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you-u!