Courtesy of Angela Rozmyn
Angela Rozmyn and her family live in the Seattle area.
- Angela Rozmyn lives in Seattle with her husband and son. They both work in construction and earn a combined income in the low six figures.
- They save 40% to 50% of their income and plan to become financially independent in their early 40s.
- For Business Insider's "Real Money" series, Angela tracked their spending during a typical week.
- During the week, they spent a total of $810 on upcoming flights to Iceland, family dinners, and a fishing trip.
- Want to share a week of your spending? Email yourmoney@businessinsider.com.
My husband of 10 years and I live in the Seattle area with our four-year-old son, two dogs, a cat, a corn snake, and the same roommate we've had for the past seven years.
Our ultimate goal is to reach financial independence in our early 40s, which is about 10 years from now. We have no plans on necessarily leaving our jobs at that time, but we want the flexibility and freedom to make choices about our lives (including our employment) outside of the dollars we get from a paycheck. There is no guarantee that we will be able - or will want - to work in another 10 or 15 years, or even later, and financial independence gives us that security regardless of what life throws at us.
My husband and I both work in the construction field, building affordable, sustainable communities in our very high cost of living area. We've always been fairly frugal - we got married for $3,500, managed to buy a home at 23, and I paid off my student loans at 25 (my husband never had any thanks to his time in the Marine Corps).
I went back to work full time when my son was five months old. With two full-time working parents (and my husband was working 50 to 60-hour weeks), life during the week was hectic and a complete blur. We spent money to make life a bit easier, but it didn't really help. We were just busy and overwhelmed.
Things needed to change, so when my son turned a year old, we put him into part time daycare and I cut my hours to 80% time. Our families help out the rest of the week, so I work five days a week, just shorter days. Having my afternoons free of work meant I then had more headspace to tackle our spending habits and create more intentionality in our lives.
Three and a half years later, our spending for a typical week looks like this: