The Value of Having a Certified Financial Planner (CFP)

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure to learn more.

Today, I wanted to pose the question, “Is having a CFP right for you?” When I first graduated from dental school, I was absolutely lost. Along with the feelings of excitement and pride with my recent accomplishments came a subtle (but over-powering) dread, and a very heavy, invisible weight. I knew I needed guidance, but did not know who to reach out to. I did not exactly have adults in my life who could act as good financial role models (my long historical relationship with money detailed here), and there are very few people I know (outside of my fellow graduates) who really had the problem of paying down half a million dollars in student debt at 26 years old. So I reached out to Andrew Davis, the CFP behind SeamlessFP, who happened to be the husband of a dental classmate, and whose work focused on guiding newly-graduated dental students, specifically. I think it was the best decision we ever made.

On the flip side, there are people who would argue that CFPs are a waste of money, and that money could be used elsewhere. Which is a fair argument. I myself am a big fan of avoiding outsourcing tasks as much as possible. It will take a bit of work, but handling your own finances is totally a doable thing! However, it requires time, which I have value over money. Delving into research isn’t such a scary thought for me, but spending all my free time learning the nuances of taxes, S corporations, estate planning, investments, and more is NOT an enticing thought. So what I want to discuss today is the value of having a CFP to us, and then I leave the decisions to you.

The value of having a CFP

The list of pros for having a CFP versus not having one is quite long, which is a good thing!

Pro: Outsource financial planning to free up time, in order to pursue interests, hobbies, work, etc.

As mentioned before, outsourcing financial planning frees up a lot of our time. Time is a resource scarcer than money in the modern world. People seem to always be running out of it, but are still quick to occupy it with tasks, necessary or otherwise. When you think about how much your time is worth, in dollars, can you really put a price to it? Time is the one thing you are constantly running out of, and will never be able to replenish, making it an extremely valuable resource. Being intentional with the tasks I choose to occupy my time is very important to me. Spiritual uplifting, emotional replenishing, mental healing, these are the things that matter and make it a life worth living. NOT constantly worrying, thinking, and dealing with money.

Pro: Peace of mind that we are hitting our financial goals in a very step-by-step (and legal) manner.

This is for the DIYers out there. I am a lover of DIY projects and take pride in my ability to be self-sufficient. However, no matter how much of my free time I put into studying the nuances of finances, I cannot possibly keep up to date with the ever-changing rules and regulations. Mike used to do his own taxes with TurboTax and that worked sufficiently well, but once we got married, added in an S-Corporation with its own separate payrolls, well things got too complicated. We started asking ourselves, “How do we know we are following all the rules? How do we know about the fine-print clauses that benefit us? Who will be flagging our attention with every change?” A financial planner gives us peace of mind, knowing that we are on track to hit our goals in a efficient (and legal) manner. There are many minute details that one could miss, but it makes us feel better knowing that we have someone else helping us with that.

Pro: Keep up to date with new changes.

The new Tax Bill that passed last year is a great example of this. Even now, nothing is quite set in stone as to how these changes will apply to us. By having a financial planner, we were alerted to the possible beneficial change for S Corporations in the upcoming year, something we would never have known, but definitely can impact our financial plan.

Pro: A resource for learning more.

This, by far, is the most beneficial to me. Andrew has been instrumental in educating us about our finances and different paths we can take to achieve financial freedom. He has recommended books, blogs, podcasts, and other resources. He was actually the one who introduced us to the FI community: a community dedicated to reaching financial independence by using life optimization “hacks”. We would not have gone so far on our financial road to freedom without life hacks such as co-housing, travel hacking, YNAB, and more!

Financial planning VS Investment Planning – What’s the difference?

It is important to differentiate between financial planning and investment planning. We do financial planning, which requires a long-term life plan, created by the marriage between our financial past and our dream futures. Our first meeting with Andrew was not something we expected to have. It began with a meeting dedicated wholly to gaining a deep understanding of our personalities, goals, and dreams. It almost felt like a therapy session, with questions such as, “If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you spend your time doing today?” Don’t let that deter you. I think that first meeting was essential to setting the foundation on which we created our entire plan. The process continues to be a constant reassessment of life. Initially, we listed our priorities as traveling, buying a house, yoga subscriptions, guitar lessons, sticking with loan repayment program, and working until we were 65 years old. Now our life still includes travel, but our goals have shifted to standard repayment, renting for the next few years, working less hours, being a blogger, opening a coffee shop, and early retirement from our lines of work, which would possibly lead us to newer lines of work. In this respect, Andrew acts as more than just a financial planner. He is a psychologist, therapist, educator, mediator between spouses, confidant, & friend. This is NOT to be confused with investment planning, where someone advises you where to invest your money. That is included with financial planning, but not the other way around.

The importance of being a fiduciary

A fiduciary requires that someone acts in the best interests of a client. It is important that your CFP is a fiduciary in all aspects. Conflicts arise when CFPs have affiliations with third parties that may sway their advice towards promoting something that benefits them. For example, a person can receive a profit for selling an affiliate insurance. The insurance may be great, however, that person has a motivating factor that would make him want to promote that particular insurance. Even though it can be beneficial for you to sign up with that insurance company, the decision was not completely unbiased. We did not even realize the importance of being a fiduciary until we learned the concept from Andrew himself.

If you are not sure whether your CFP is a fiduciary, ask! Try to find a fiduciary in all aspects. You want to ensure that you are being treated fairly at all times. Do not be afraid to ask how they get compensated, so that you can truly see where they are getting their money. It may seem awkward to inquire about it, but it is your finances on the line.

What a CFP has done for us, so far

Budgeting Help: Our CFP introduced us to budgeting, setting up our YNAB budgeting tool, and helped us develop good budgeting habits.
Analysis between two potential jobs: When Mike was considering making the move from one company to another, we needed help analyzing whether it was a reasonable financial move. It was not simply a comparison between the two different income, but also required factoring in 401k investment matching, health benefit options, life insurances, difference in commute, and level of interest in the line of work.
Investment Planning: He has given us advice on how to manage our 401k portfolios as well as given us other investment tips when we reach out for help. We retain full autonomy as to where we want to invest and how much, but having a third person to go over the pros and cons at each step has been helpful.
Health Benefits: We needed help deciding on a health plan, and have chosen one that works well for us thanks to Andrew’s help. After an analysis of our options, an HSA option was also open to us, and we decided to take advantage of that privilege.
Renter’s Insurance: Prior to our new place, we did not have renter’s insurance. After seeing the benefits of having that extra coverage at a small monthly cost, we decided to sign up for one right away!
Connection to a CPA: Taxes for SCorps can be a bit tricky. A CPA is advised so as not to miss a thing. Initially, I was going to go with the same person my parents have used for years. But after an hour-long interview with him, it became clear to me that he did not know much about taxes as they applied to dentists specifically. He did not even know about the different student loan forgiveness programs, or how an SCorp can be used for tax deductions. It was useful to be referred to a CPA who frequently does taxes for dentists specifically.
Set up my SCORP: This was so beneficial to me! It is possible to create a corporation easily online, however, he walked me through the pros and cons of having an SCORP so that I could make an informed decision as to whether this is something I wanted to do. The application for the SCORP was easy but we did meet some humps along the way that he quickly helped me to resolve.
Setting up Gusto and ways to automate my SCORP: Once the SCORP was set up, our CFP took care of creating an automated payroll for me. We use Gusto to manage my payroll, and once it was set up, he easily walked me through the different ways that we can keep track of the payroll via my SCORP. All I have to do is wait for my payments, the system takes care of the rest!
Introduction to financial life hacks: I learned tricks such as travel hacking from Andrew and it was he who introduced us to the FIRE and FI communities.
Analysis of student loan repayment options: This is the part about our finances that has most affected our lifestyle. He walked us through the different student loan forgiveness programs that we qualified for. After a thorough explanation of each, he created an extrapolation of our financial futures under each repayment option. By using physical numbers, we were able to predict the lifestyle changes associated with each student loan option. Once we had our budgeting in order, he brought to our attention that we were able to pay down student loans without the forgiveness program, thus saving us more than $100,000 in the long run, as well as buying our freedom 15 years earlier than planned. That decision itself was so life-altering for the better, and we would have never gotten to that point on our own.

We personally benefit from SeamlessFP

Andrew Davis is the CFP behind SeamlessFP. He focuses on helping newly graduated dentists create a financial plan. He does work with non-dentists occasionally, or dentists who have been practicing for a long time. I only know this because we have referred people in those categories who now are working with him too.

There are multiple options one can choose when working with SeamlessFP. A person can do a one-time consultation in order to gain help on a particular goal or project, or they can choose the full life-planning package. We chose to do the latter option. I did not want help with simply setting up an SCORP. I wanted a more thorough analysis of all of our financial details. I was determined to tackle as many aspects as possible to optimize our financial situation. After every meeting, he will upload a list of tasks via an online portal to be completed. This is helpful for people who need someone to hold them accountable to ensure that they continue moving forward with their financial path. Together, we re-analyze continually to see what we can change to optimize even further. A yearly re-cap meeting is held as well, where we go over our dreams and goals for the future (5, 10, 25 years out) so that we aren’t dully following a pre-set path. Besides, a lot changes in a year!

What I like most is that he is eager to help clients learn more about their financial options and situations. It is clear that having his clients make their own decisions (given the facts) is important to him. I can ask him one question, and we will go over the entire topic in detail, prior to him answering my question just so that I know the reasoning behind his answer. It’s scarce to find that these days, and I wholly appreciate it.He may give suggestions but he really makes sure you know that ultimately, the choices are still completely yours to make. It’s easy to see that his goal is to help his clients find the happiness they seek, by eliminating financial stress from the equation. It also helps that he is very accessible via email or text. Typically, responses occur within one day. Additionally, if you choose the latter option, there is unlimited access. Anyone who knows me will easily tell you that I am the type to ask multiple questions, always in search of a deeper understanding of all things. So a CFP who embraces that is gold. Off course, you want to make sure that the CFP you choose is right for you, if it’s right at all. If you have any interest in learning more about our friend Andrew, you can easily set up a one-hour phone call to speak with him and see what services he can offer you and which package is best for what you are trying to achieve.

Overall, I just wanted to shed light on how a CFP has changed our life in this blog post. As always, you do you.

Finances: How YNAB Helped Us Pay $84,000 Towards Student Loans in One Year!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure to learn more.

Looking back on it, it seems absolutely nuts that we have been able to pay $84,000 towards our student loans in the last year. Prior to getting our finances in order, you could say that I was not one who was highly motivated in monitoring my spending. Or rather, I may have been highly motivated, but not entirely good at it. Honestly, I did not know where to start.

I was never afraid of budgets. Some people are. They are afraid that it would be too limiting, or depriving, to set financial constraints on their having fun in life. I get it. YOLO, right? But honestly, that’s just the rub. YOLO. You only get one life, and I don’t want mine consistently anchored down by debt. I want to be free. So it was not the budgeting that scared me, but the lack thereof. In fact, I was always in search of ways to budget. However, I had no idea how to do it efficiently.

We used to implement that all-too-familiar way of assessing our spending by guessing, eye-balling, rounding up and down (depending on our mood), or sometimes, ignoring all-together. Additionally, much of our analysis was performed retroactively. As in, “Oops, I spent too much on groceries last month! Roughly $100 too much.” The estimates, off course, were always too low, and the recognition harbored a bit too late, after the spending was already a done deal. Yikes!

Enter YNAB. YNAB is kind of like that high-school teacher that slaps your wrist and sets a vagabond teen straight. The acronym stands for “You Need a Budget“, and is better than an angel on your shoulder keeping your finances in check. It is a very easy system that is based on the age-old envelope system of budgeting. It used to be that, without computers and programs such as YNAB, people would use envelopes to budget their money. Each envelope would stand for a category. For example: “Groceries”, “Rent”, House Maintenance”, “Savings”, etc. With each incoming paycheck, a person would split the cash in between envelopes, allocating a certain amount towards those categories for the upcoming month(s). One can never accidentally overdraw from an envelope, because once the money runs out, that’s it! In order to overspend in a category such as “Dining Out” for example, one would need to proactively choose to take out money from another envelope, thus consciously deciding to decrease spending elsewhere.

With the invention of things such as credit cards, this becomes an obsolete practice, but I think it is one that is very useful. Instead of retroactively analyzing our spending, we should be proactively planning for our financial futures. In YNAB, you can create categories of your choosing that would be equivalent to those envelopes. You can be as precise or as general as you would like. We prefer to be more general, because it makes categorizing easier. Our categories are separated into “Needs”, “Financial Goals”, and “Wants”. A few examples include:

Needs – Rent, Auto Insurance, Utilities, Cell Phone, Groceries

Financial Goals – Student Loans, House Savings

Wants – Activities/Hobbies, Travel, Mike’s Fun Money, Sam’s Fun Money, Dining Out

So as paychecks roll in, we are proactively placing budgeted money into each category. Every dollar we earn is accounted for, down to the last penny. The goal is to budget appropriately, so that none of the categories need adjusting during the month. Metaphorically, you don’t want to borrow from any of the other envelopes. It did take us a while to get a feel for how much we spend in each category, but that’s the fantastic thing about YNAB. It summarizes previous spending in the months prior really well. Over time, we were able to know exactly what number we would need to budget in each category to be absolutely prepared.

A word on those summaries. This is a wonderful way to get a picture of how much of your spending is going towards your “Needs”, your “Wants”, and your “Financial Goals”. For us, because of our student loans, 50% of our income goes straight towards hitting our “financial goals”. We try to keep “wants” to a low 10% of our income, travel included, which is why travel hacking is so important for us. Also, there are graphs to show you how much your net worth is rising, as well as comparisons of “Income VS Expenses”, if those are motivating at all for you.

All of this can technically be done on an Excel sheet, but it would take a lot of time and effort. What I love about YNAB is that it can link to your bank accounts and automatically record every transaction, whether that’s money going in or money coming out. The only thing left to do is to categorize each transaction. Also, YNAB will remember which transactions fall under which category. For example, we frequently shop at Mother’s Market and Whole Foods for our groceries. I no longer have to categorize those things, since YNAB will automatically do that for me, thus making my job easier.

Of course, YNAB comes with a fee, which luckily for us, is waived by our financial planner. The cost to use YNAB is $89.99 annually, which seems like a lot, but when I look at the number we paid towards student debt ($84,000), I don’t feel bad at all! I think that fee is totally justified, plus it makes the whole budgeting process easier and much more motivating than if I had to go through all of our bank accounts and credit cards and physically input each and every transaction, create analytical comparisons and graphs and pie charts, and let our financial situation take up all of my free time.

If you are someone who wants to know where their money is going, wants to plan for the future, or is already doing both but wants a simpler process, try out YNAB. I hear too frequently the saying, “I don’t know where my money goes!” It’d be nice if we never have to say that ever again. Plus, once you know where it goes, you have the power to redirect it, kind of like we have!

If you still have trouble paying off your credit card debts, you can always try The Credit Pros. They will help identify the most damaging and most helpful credit items, as well as provide advice and educational tools.

Frugal Challenge: Become Vegetarian One Week, Every Month!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure to learn more.

I’ve attempted a lot of frugal life hacks in the past year, all with the goal of paying down my student debt of over $550,000 in less than ten years. These include co-housing to reduce rent, travel hacking to jet set around the world for free, and more. It seems I am very much up for these challenges, so I figure, why not start a series detailing some of the frugal hacks we come up with!

This month, we decided to start a new challenge. Become vegetarian for one week, every month. Seems arbitrary, but you can’t really deny that meat and fish are very expensive to buy. Even more so, when you have a determination to never come home from the grocery store with anything packaged in plastic. Because of that, we cannot buy meats and delis from large discount stores such as Costco and Sam’s Club. We also cannot buy them from cheaper sources such as Albertson’s and Ralphs. Pretty much, we have only been buying meats and fish and deli and cheese from Whole Foods, which sells them wrapped in paper. With the change of going zero plastic last year, we have watched with heavy hearts as our grocery bill went up and up and up. The fact that I gave up beef and alcohol more than a year ago hasn’t helped. So we decided that it’s time we wrangle in the grocery expenses, without going back to plastic.

We were talking to our friends about the meat dilemma when we were visiting San Francisco. It’s amazing what everyone else is thinking but not saying. Once the topic was brought up, it seems that we’ve all struggled with the concept of pricey meats at one point or another. One of our friends said that he knew someone who split an entire cow among him and his guy friends to reduce the cost. It requires contacting the farm and ordering the cow at a discounted rate, but, split an entire cow?! That’s SO much meat going into the freezer. It’s a great idea, but I am not sure it’s one I am ready for, especially since I gave up beef and Mikey will have to finish all of that. Also, the minimalist in me shudders at the thought of so much excess in the house. So Mike and I kept on thinking…

Our solution? Vegetarian for one week per month, to test two things. Firstly, if we can get better about eating more greens, and secondly, if it helps the financial aspect. This was week one. The verdict: Our grocery bill was LESS THAN $25! For two people who bring lunches into work every day and dine at home every dinner, that is spectacular!

How did we do it?

We meal planned our way to a lower amount. Mostly, all we bought this week was produce. I cut down the costs as well by baking my own bread, as well as preparing pizza dough from scratch and freezing them, so that they were readily available for the weeknights. Before we even stepped foot into the market, we took inventory of things we had at hand. For example, olive oil allowed for homemade pesto sauce that required just a handful of pine nuts and basil. Since pizza requires just a smear of the stuff, we now have pesto for weeks of pizza, readily available! Additional toppings for a pesto pizza included two mushrooms, one red onion, pepperoncini, and a can of olives. Since we were already getting basil, why not add margherita pizza to the list? This would only require us to buy two more ingredients: tomato sauce ($0.89 per can) and a single tomato ($0.99 per pound). The tomato sauce will also last for weeks upon weeks, or could be used for pasta at a future date. The total cost for 8 pizzas (with extra sauces for the future) was less than $6. Granted, home-made sourdough took half of Saturday to do, but I enjoy the task and it was so worth it.

Our meals this week consist of:

– Egg sandwiches using homemade bread with homemade tomato soup or pasta salad for lunch, a couple days of the week.

– Vegetable pizzas – I prepped enough dough for 8 personal pizzas. To be honest, neither of us can finish one personal pizza per meal. At most, maybe 3/4 of a pizza is eaten, therefore leaving 3/4 of a pizza (each) for lunch the next day given that I cook 3 personal pizzas in the evening. Which is what we do!

– Fried Rice – The most basic of fried rice was taught to me by my dad. It used to be a staple at our house when we were growing up, because it feeds many mouths and costs very little. I carry that tradition, today.

– Vegetable Stir Fry – It was the simplest and easiest thing I could think of, after the fried rice. Plus, more veggies!

– Vegetable laden omelettes. Breakfast for dinner, anyone?

We did cheat a little… but only because there was left-over ramen from last week, which also meant left-over pork belly slices. Mike was happy we were able to eat meat for a day. But no meats were purchased this week, thus resulting in a total of $25 in groceries. So that’s fine by us. Final ruling: roll-over meat from previous weeks does not count. Additionally, no intentional cheating allowed (a.k.a. purposefully buying extra meat the week prior!). We make the rules up as we go.

Let’s see what we come up with next month!

How about you guys? Willing to try going vegetarian for one week? How do you go about cutting the grocery bill, without purchasing plastic?

Finances: Using “Extra” Loan Money on Vacation Was a Financial Mistake

Right on the heels of my previous post is a suggestion for all current college students to avoid taking out the maximum student loans in order to travel the world. Lest anyone got the wrong idea, I think a follow up is necessary to shed light on the fact that I used borrowed money to pay for my portion of that trip to the Bahamas. More blatantly, I made a mistake, and learned from it, albeit a little too late.

By no means do I regret travelling, ever. There’s a lot to glean from expanding horizons and investing in your world view. You learn things about other people and other places, as much as your own home and yourself, that you will never learn in a classroom. And I paid an arm and a leg for a classroom. So it’s worth paying to travel. But it’s NOT worth spending borrowed money, which equates to borrowed time.

In your early twenties, it seems like a wonderful idea and the repercussions are not so easily visible. For the first time, you have the ability to have access to “extra” money, and the calling to reward yourself during seasonal breaks is all too strong to resist, but resist you must.

I was advised to take out my maximum student loans from the get go. You know, just in case. As in, just in case I find something else to spend that money on. Which, for a young twenty-something, isn’t entirely too difficult to do. I was told that once I was a dentist, I would have no problem paying it back. The premise was that I would be making so much money that it would be easy to get rid of that debt quite quickly. So worry about it later. What appeared odd to me was that when I got close to graduating, I kept being fed this “worry about it later” mantra. I was told I could (and should) put loans on the back burner for another twenty five years under a loan forgiveness program. Because by then, I’d be like, a millionaire or something, and it’d be suuuper easy to pay it back, surely. Which is the same reasoning they fed me when I started dental school. It was then that I woke up, and realized that all people are saying are “worry about it later.” I started worrying about it NOW and when I did, I realized that I was sold a lie.

Unfortunately, the realization hit me a bit too late. Towards the end of dental school, I had accumulated “extra” money, read as extra loan money. We took that trip to the Bahamas, and I wanted to pay my share for the trip. You know, with my “extra” money. I’d call myself a downright fool for ever thinking that borrowed money is money worth spending. Especially on frivolities such as trips. As a young twenty-something, I still did not have a full grip on the daunting largeness of my student loans. What difference does a few extra thousand make? Well, glad you asked (because I surely did not)!

Warning: The example below is not as hypothetical as it seems.

Assuming you take a $550,000 loan out, but towards the end of your schooling, you had an extra $5,000 left. You decide to take an international trip and reward yourself for all your hard work. So instead of using that extra $5000 to decrease your loan to $545,000, you keep your loan at the maximum $550,000. If you decide to do a 10 year standard repayment plan such as I did, the difference after ten years is about $7,000. Which means that instead of a $5,000 trip, it was actually a $7,000 trip. That’s a 40% increase from what you thought the trip originally cost, assuming no inflation occurs in ten years (unlikely).

For those unconvinced, they ask, what does a difference of $7,000 make in a loan so large? The literal answer is slightly over a month of loan repayment. But the non-visible answer is hundreds of patients, hours of static postures, tens of times recharging your loupe lights, and more than a few times that your back aches, your eyes become strained, your fingers cramp, and you come across a stressful situation. It’s a month of your life spent earning an income and getting nothing out of it. Well, except a trip that you took in your twenties. So the real question is, how much do you value a month of your life?

The answer depends on what camp you fall under: YOLO or JOMO. If you fall under YOLO, then yes, maybe the trade off isn’t so bad. If you fall under JOMO, then the outcome isn’t so good. For the record, I did not regret that trip. I just regret the resources I used to get there. But hey, at least it wasn’t an engagement ring!

For those interested in traveling while in school, might you try travel hacking instead?

Finance: Why I Consider the Loan Forgiveness Program as a Risky Chance

When you graduate with a loan as large as I have ($550,000 in debt!), it is easy to view student loan forgiveness programs as the superheroes of our lives. There are many different loan forgiveness options that you must choose from, but once you’ve chosen one, you are given the choice of paying a sliver of your income every month, with the promise that at the end of your program, the remaining (accruing) balance will be wiped forever from your life! It’s an ultimate quick fix to a problematic giant standing in the way of your financial independence. The small monthly payments are on autopay and the looming terror is out of sight, out of mind, for the next twenty or twenty five years. So why the skepticism?

Twenty five years is an extremely long time. I know, because I have barely passed my twenty five year mark. I also know that because after I add on twenty five years, I’d be over fifty. To be honest with you, I don’t want to keep this lifestyle up until I’m fifty. A lot can happen in twenty five years. The immediate assumption is that no matter what happens in the future, we will be grand-fathered in this loan forgiveness program. But although it’s an immediate assumption, it doesn’t mean it’s logical or true. Because nowhere in the fine print does it say that. But our brains are wired to make up stuff that will put us at ease. And so, some like to reason that this must be true, and I know I can’t convince them otherwise. Because, what do I know?

Well, here is what I know.

I know that there are people out there who chose a ten year loan forgiveness program. Only to be told after their ten years that they do not or no longer qualify. Some haughty know-it-all will likely say, “Well, that’s THEIR fault for not knowing their own program!” But as we all know, they don’t make programs easy to know. The fine print just keeps getting smaller AND longer.
I know that my sister took a five year contract with a charter school in a city far away from her family and friends with the promise of getting $40,000 forgiven from her student debt after the five years. However, you cannot apply for the forgiveness until you’ve completed all five years. Last year, the amount forgiven changed. It went down to $17,000. Still a good amount, but not the promised $40,000. Her five years ends in June. So in June, she would have given up five years of her life living in this far away city to only get back less than half of what she thought she was going to get back. Which is depressing to think about, since she turned down multiple amazing opportunities with higher pay for this program.
I know that in the ONE year that I have been out of dental school, there has already been talk of the loan forgiveness program being extended to THIRTY years. An additional five years of minimum payments, a continually accruing debt, and a higher percentage of your loan that you have to pay in taxes at the end of it all. More, more, more.

Therefore, you are right in saying that I just don’t know. I don’t know the future one year from now, so I sure as heck don’t know the future twenty five years from now. I don’t know who will be in the government, who will be controlling our laws, how the program will change, if the program will still apply to me, and if the program will even exist. And with a loan this large, I will not leave this up to chance.

What I do know is that I CAN tackle this giant, so I WILL. I will not let him rule over me, stop me in my path, instill any fears or doubts.

Will you tackle him, too?

Finance: The First Year of Paying Down $550,000 in Student Loans, An Update

Hi guys! So it has been about a year since our search for a future home turned into a commitment to pay down my massive student debt instead. I figured I would give you an update as to what paying down $550,000 at 6.7% interest looks like.

We arrived at our decision to tackle the loans aggressively in April of 2017 (our decision tree, here). The most important thing to note with a loan this large is that committing to it means REALLY committing to it. It wouldn’t be advantageous to choose to pay down the debt, and then fall back to IBR midway. From a numbers perspective, you would just lose unnecessary money that way. If you choose the loan forgiveness route, then the goal is to pay AS LITTLE MONTHLY PAYMENTS AS POSSIBLE, so that a huge chunk gets written off. If you choose the standard repayment option, then the goal is to pay AS MUCH MONEY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. So, with a steely grip on the reality that we did not want the debt to dictate and shape our lives for twenty five years, we went head first.

Here are the numbers.

To be completely honest with you, $550,000 is a ballpark estimate. The real number is a principle amount of $538,933.50 and an accrued interest of $35,101. Meaning the total was actually $574,034.50. YIKES!

So what did we do? We decided that we will essentially live off of one income, and use the other income towards loans. We figure, out parents raised us on a single person’s income, so this can’t be that difficult especially since we don’t even have kids yet. The verdict: We were right! It was surprisingly easy. Which makes me wonder, where were we spending all that money before hand?! I don’t even want to know….

With that being said, we have been successful at making our minimum payments of $6500 per month! YAY! We were even able to add a little extra every so often due to diligent saving habits (See The Ever Growing List of Things I’ve Given Up In The Name of Frugality!). But that does not take us as far on the path of financial freedom as we would like. It took us a few months to completely pay off the interest that had accrued, but it must be remembered that the loan is at 6.7% interest. So that means that interest continues to accrue over all this time. So what does that look like? Well, once the accrued interest was paid off, approximately half of the $6,500 was going towards the interest accruing per month. Which means that the loan is only getting paid down at a rate of about $3,000 per month. And that, my friends, is how lovely interest works! Womp, womp.

So, $55,367.22 was paid towards interest. Only $28,632.78 went towards paying down the principle amount. When my husband first looked at the little pie chart graph that I had on the corner of my computer screen summarizing our progress, he said, “Well, THAT’s depressing!” For someone who is only looking at that, it CAN seem pretty depressing. However, I know better. This. Is. Amazing.

The accrued interest is already out of the way, which tells me that next year is going to look a LOT better. I can already see a higher proportion of the monthly payments being applied to our principle. It started out as slightly less than half of our payment being applied to the principle. However, as of early this year, slightly more than half is being applied to principle. I know it’s hard to look at this as any way other than a linear projection, but it really, truly is an exponential one, albeit with a slow start.

The amazing part is that we have survived our first year and our lives have actually been much improved. Choosing this journey has nudged us to be proactive with our life, not only with our financial decisions, but also with our lifestyle choices. We are experiencing less stress than when we felt helpless and unable to address the student loans. We are experiencing more happiness than when we were trying to buy our way to a meaningful life. I work less than I did last year, and love myself more. We are healthier and have better relationships. And it all started with us learning how to get our finances in order and in our efforts to remove money from our life equation.

I am very happy with this decision and I am excited to see what the next year of payments will bring.

PS: I am excited that we will hit the $400,000’s during me and Mike’s birthday months in June/July!

Also, for the curious, I have never, not once, felt regret in funneling extra money towards my student loans. I have felt buyer’s remorse. I’ve regretted going out to eat. I have regretted going to events that required spending money. I have regretted buying gifts that I know will end up in a landfill some day. But I have never regretted letting go of money in exchange for a little slice of freedom. I’m just saying.

Finance: Why We Chose Standard Repayment Over Loan Forgiveness

We started our loan repayment journey under the IBR program, as advised by so many professionals. But I always knew in my heart that this was not the best path for me. Apart from the fact that IBR resulted in more money paid towards my loans overall, there was the issue of it extending twenty five years into our distant future. I am one who values freedom above many other things. When I was young, I hated when people told me to do things that did not line up with my values. My most hated explanations were “Just because” or “Because I said so”. Talk about lack of motivation. I despised myself when I was forced to do something, because authoritative figures claimed to have the upper hand. I remember thinking to myself, when I get older, I will have control over my own life. Today, I have that same fire feeding a resolve in me to stay free, from things financial or otherwise. I want freedom to do certain types of work. I want freedom from a tight work schedule. I want autonomy in my decisions. I want the freedom to travel whenever I want to. I want to have free time. All of this also requires to be financially free. Having graduated dental school at 26 years old, the IBR program would mean that we would have this burden hanging over our heads until we were past 50 years old. Psychologically, the burden was too much to bear. It was the psychology of the thing that really pushed me towards frugality, financial independence, and hopefully in the near(er) future, freedom.

When I graduated dental school and I finally started working, Mike and I were facing numerous large payments related to moving in together, creating a home for ourselves, getting married, and going on a honeymoon. And while I would not take back any of the decisions we made, we weren’t exactly saving much at the time. The great part is, we weren’t going into debt either. Whereas some people may take out loans for things such as weddings and honeymoons and moving, we definitely stayed within our means and I am proud of that fact.

But once the dust settled and we found peace in our space and identified our roles in everyday life, we stopped having something to spend money on, and we started to see that we were not bad savers after all. In fact, we were saving at such a quick pace, that we would have saved up for a down payment for a house in two months’ time! We started to talk about buying a home for ourselves, when our financial planner asked us a simple question. Do you realize that at this rate, you can pay down your student debt the standard way in less than ten years?

At first, I was aghast. I had spent months trying to convince USC financial advisers, and Mike, and even my financial planner, that there had to be a way to do this. Mike deemed my conclusions as too optimistic, and slightly delusional. He always said, the numbers just don’t work. But in my head, they did work. The numbers don’t lie.

I then went on to bombard our CFP with a million questions. Excited, I could not wait to tell Mike when he got home that night. I remember being so stoked. Initially, he did not believe me. It wasn’t until our financial planner created a spreadsheet that demonstrated our capability to conquer the loan in 9 years, that Mike started to change his view. We were going to be free from these chains fifteen years earlier than we thought!

But with it comes a cost. We will have to give up buying a house, for now. We have to continue a fairly frugal lifestyle, and have concrete intentionality with our money. We have to be able to psychologically see a majority of our paycheck going towards paying down the loans every month. We have to give up the social status symbols that our friends will be collecting under their belts. In exchange, we will have fifteen additional years of freedom. What say you?

I say Hell Yeah! Mike and I are simple people anyway, as can be seen in the rate at which we were saving. We could rationalize not buying a house, not buying a new car, and not getting the latest gadgets. I could not rationalize being tied down by my career choice until I’m past fifty. We decided that yes, we will choose standard repayment over loan forgiveness!

One caveat. We are still enlisted under the IBR program. Why? Under the standard repayment plan, we have to make minimum payments of $6500/month to be able to pay the debt in 9 years. Under IBR, the payments are closer to $400/month. If one of us loses a job, $6500/month is impossible on only one of our incomes. Especially so if I was the one to lose a job. Switching a hundred percent to standard repayment will make us vulnerable to the whims of whatever life may throw at us. The failure of Mike’s start-up company, the selling of the practice I work at, if we decide to have children, disability for either one of us, these are all things that can greatly impact our finances and if we commit to a standard repayment, it can heavily mess with our ability to pay the loans. And trust me, you do not want to default on student loans. However, under IBR, we are able to pay more than the $400/month without penalty, so we stick with IBR in case of a future emergency, but continue to make the larger payments.

Unfortunately, this does not allow us to refinance our loans. Once the loans are refinanced, we become ineligible for IBR. So although the IBR interest rate is a whopping 6.7%, our financial planner convinced us that the IBR buffer for not-so-awesome life moments is well worth the extra interest rate. Once the loans get paid down to a more manageable sum, then we can refinance, since a smaller loan will be much more manageable.

So therein lies our decision tree, our little story.

Finance: Student Loan Forgiveness Options: IBR VS PAYE VS REPAYE

I remember the days leading up to graduating dental school. I had an incurable case of senioritis, and I was ready to go. I had reached all my requirements with a few months to spare. It was just a matter of time. It wasn’t school itself that was on my mind. All I could think about at that point was the student debt that I knew I had to face once I got out.

I recall that every student at USC’s dental program was required to take an exit course that went over student loan repayment options. They called it a course to make it sound official, but it was literally a one hour power-point presentation in a small classroom with mostly empty seats. I remember sitting towards the front of the classroom, with a notepad and pen, and furiously scribbling notes throughout the entire thing. Meanwhile, classmates grumbled about what a waste of time this was. Some tardily strolled in, halfway through the presentation, just so they can sign the sign out sheets. Those that did come on time sat, and politely listened, but without a pen in hand, sitting back casually until the presenter announced the end. At that time, I thought that I was the only one who did not understand this stuff. It seemed like either everyone either had rich parents, or had a plan. I remember kicking myself for not studying this before, since my classmates appeared bored at best, presumably because they already knew the ins and outs of their loan repayment plans. There was only one other classmate, a boy, who was taking notes with me. I remember him vividly, though we never talked before, because he asked tons of questions that I was too afraid to ask. I also remember him because after the class, the speaker offered to do additional mini-lectures if we had questions. He was the only other person I saw pursue this topic as avidly as I in the upcoming weeks before graduation. I would come in for a one-on-one meeting with the financial advisor, and after I walked out, he would walk in. Or vice versa. We had meetings with the malpractice representative twice, and for disability insurance once more, after the required one. We were the only two students in the classroom during these meetings. He and I sat next to each other at the front of the room, taking notes and writing down numbers and calculations. I must have seen him on 7 different days outside of the required exit course. I never spoke to him, not once. I don’t even remember his name, although we were in the same class. I wish I did so I can hit him up and ask how his path to repayment is going. Meanwhile, I thought everyone else had it all figured out. But I was wrong.

I was so obsessed (afraid? aware?) of the student debt’s debilitating ability to control my life that I even had Mike sit in on some of the meetings. This was around the time we had talked about getting married, and I realized that now my decisions will start to affect someone that I cared about. I wanted him to a) know what he was getting into because once you’re married, you share EVERYTHING and b) not be extremely affected by the loan I was bringing in. I felt a lot of guilt, and it was the first time in my life that I realized that my misguided financial choices will impact a loved one’s lifestyle for a long period of time. I knew I had to get out. I went through projections and extrapolations and Excel sheets with counselors. Then I scheduled an appointment with Mike in order to go over the same spreadsheets and Excel sheets again (because they won’t allow you to take a copy of the real numbers home…). We are numbers people, and I had to have him see the numbers. I remember coming home to late night discussions about our “game plan”. I remember feeling trapped, and slightly depressed, that I could not find a short term solution for this. I got out of dental school and picked up just about every possible side hustle I could muster while waiting for my license in the mail. Before I even started work, I reached out to a CFP because I felt that I needed help. I didn’t know the ins and outs of finances as well as I would hope, and I wanted to make sure that we were doing everything correctly. The one thing I did know was that the only thing on our side was time. The sooner I addressed my financial problems, the less of a burden they will be in the future. I wanted to cut off all compounding problems (read as interests), nip them in the bud persay, before the weeds could grow thorns.

Throughout this entire process, all anyone would say (when I was bold enough to ask them about their repayment plan) was that they were going with the student loan repayment route. In parrot-like manner, almost. Surely, when the exit course was being taught at USC, it was implied that the student loan repayment plan is the way to go. It was the YOLOs of all YOLOs. You only pay a small percentage of your paycheck, for 20-25 years, and then your loan is forgiven after that. Have fun now, enjoy life while you are young, and worry about the debt later. I always felt in my heart that that could not have been the best option. But everyone I talked to at the beginning of our journey said that my loan was too large to realistically pay down the debt in a standard way, unless I was some baller G who landed a five star practice that I owned for myself. I mean, I understand why. A standard repayment required a $6000 check being sent to My Great Lakes, every month for 10 years. That is 120 consecutive payments of $6000. It’s a huge pill to swallow. Mike didn’t believe we could do it given the numbers. Even my financial planner, who first looked at our finances in September, said that it can’t be done according to our current financial situation. (Eventually, we did get to a point where it could be done, but I will save that for a future post). So at the beginning of our journey, everyone we consulted with said we had to choose between the following three student loan repayment options: IBR, PAYE, or REPAYE.

I chose one and then entered the real world, where I learned, that most people who graduated from college did not even have an exit course and have absolutely no idea what they are doing with their student loans. I have talked to numerous professionals, and there has been many instances where they asked a question regarding a fundamental aspect of their loan program because they just didn’t have the answer. I have dentists who have been out 3, 5, 10 years, asking me questions about loans. I am no expert at this stuff, just to clarify, but I did study it for a fair amount of time. I have been thinking about writing this post for a while, but it wasn’t until Mike’s co-worker was talking to Mike one day and said, “You know what Sam should write about on her blog? All the Student Loan Forgiveness options and their clauses. Because no one seems to understand this shit.” His girlfriend is a pharmacist working for the past two years under a Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and she says her colleagues have made some major mistakes that have screwed their financial plan significantly. More on that at a later post as well. The take away message here is that, maybe no one actually knew what they were doing as the graduating days neared us. I sure didn’t. I was so unsure about my options that I felt the need to hire a financial planner just to get things straight. Maybe no one still knows. And when it was outwardly voiced that there is a need for this post, then that’s what motivated me to sit down and write it. Additionally, I will walk you through our decision tree, to give you some insight as to why one of these was the option we chose. Please understand that our decision tree does not necessarily predict your own decision tree. It is only meant to show the thought process through which we reached a final decision.

When we went through the student loan exit course, there were numerous slides on that PowerPoint that, in my opinion, were haphazardly organized. As a visual person, here is the best way I could organize this information. There are three options currently, IBR, PAYE, and REPAYE. The following are the differences between the three programs.

IBR VS PAYE VS REPAYE

	IBR	PAYE	REPAYE
Eligible Loans	-All federal Family Education Loan Program, Stafford and Grad Plus Loans -All FFELP and direct loan consolidation loans that do not contain parent PLUS Loans	-All Stafford loans or Grad Plus Loans disbursed on or after October 1, 2011. -Consolidation loans made on or after October 1, 2011, unless they contain a direct loan or FFEL loan made before October 1, 2007, or a Parent PLUS loan. -Direct loan borrowers without loans prior to October 1, 2007 who also had a disbursement made on or after October 1, 2011.	-Any Stafford/Grad Plus Loan -Any direct consolidation loan that does not contain Parent PLUS loan.
Eligibility	-Payments under a 10 year term must be higher than what they would be under IBR.	-Payments under a 10-year term must be higher than what they would be under REPAYE.	-No payment amount limit.
Monthly Payment	15% of discretionary income. The maximum is what you’d pay under a 10 year loan.	10% of discretionary income.	10% of discretionary income.
Married Borrowers	-If filing joint tax returns, both spouses’ incomes and eligible debt is considered. -If filing separate tax returns, only the applicant’s income and eligible debt is considered.	– If filing joint tax returns, both spouses’ incomes and eligible debt is considered. -If filing separate tax returns, only the applicant’s income and eligible debt is considered.	– Both spouses’ income and federal student loan debt, if applicable, is considered regardless of filing status. -Exception for victims of domestic violence or if borrower is separated from spouse.
Interest Capitalization	When calculated, payment is equal to or greater than what it would be under the 10 year term and/or when the borrower leaves IBR.	When calculated, payment is equal to or greater than what it would be under the 10 year term and/or when the borrower leaves PAYE.	As there is no maximum payment, interest will only be capitalized once they leave REPAYE.
Forgiveness	Any remaining balance after 25 years of eligible payments is forgiven and taxed as income. Only payments made on or after July 1, 2009 are eligible.	Any remaining balance after 20 years of eligible payments is forgiven and taxed as income. Only payments made on or after July 1, 2009 are eligible.	Borrowers with undergrad loans only will receive forgiveness after 20 years of eligible payments. Those with graduate loans will receive forgiveness after 25 years of eligible payments. Forgiven amount will be taxed as income.

THE SIMILARITIES

The following are requirements that apply to all three loan forgiveness options:

Discretionary income is adjusted gross income minus 150% of state poverty level for the borrower’s family size.
Loans cannot be in default.
Minimum monthly payments can be as low as $0 per month. For example, if you are currently not working due to disability or maternity leave, you pay a percentage of your income, which is $0.
If payment does not satisfy monthly accrued interest, the Department of Education pays the remained for most subsidized Stafford loans for up to 3 years. For REPAYE only, the agency also will pay 50% of unpaid interest on unsubsidized loans.
Like IBR/REPAYE, payments under REPAYE count toward public service loan forgiveness. If your loan is under FFEL program, you need to consolidate in order to get REPAYE.

INSIGHTS

No Parent PLUS Loans: First thing is first. You’ve got to figure out which student loans you’ve taken out. Once you have that figured out, you can decide which loan repayment programs you qualify for. It is important to note that none of these loan forgiveness programs allow Parent PLUS loans. If you are going to consolidate your loans, you have to make sure that none of the loans that were consolidated are part of a Parent PLUS loan, otherwise, you immediately disqualify yourself from the loan forgiveness programs.
October 1, 2011 is the cut off for PAYE. If you have taken out loans prior to this date, you will not qualify for PAYE.
Payments under a 10-year term must be higher than what they would be under IBR. But does it makes sense to do IBR? This is important if your loan amount is quite small. For example, if you have a loan of $150,000 (let’s say because you worked your butt off to minimize the student loan total) and you make $135,000/year as a dentist, a 10 year repayment plan will have you paying $1718.52/month at a 6.7% interest rate for 10 years. Compare that to IBR where you pay $1687.50/month at the same interest rate for 25 years. Technically, in this example, you will still qualify for IBR, because your 10-year term payments are still higher than IBR payments. But is it worth it? To me, it would make sense to just stick with standard repayment and get rid of the debt in 10 years, rather than prolonging it for 25 years, especially since you pay about the same monthly payment. The shortened debt time will decrease the total money you end up paying, because it decreases the amount you pay in interest. Plus, you will no longer have the debt hanging over your head. Compare that to a dentist who makes the same amount of money per year, but who has a loan debt of $550,000. Now the month difference is $6500/month vs $1687.50/month. IBR works well if you have a huge loan and cannot make the atrocious monthly payment fit with your ideal lifestyle. For smaller loan amounts, it may be best to just stick with standard repayment.
Smaller monthly payments: A good thing or a bad thing? When looking at these programs with a short term mindset, it is easy to think that smaller monthly payments are better than larger monthly payments. However, may I point out that small monthly payments for a large loan may not be enough to pay down the interest at all. For example, with a loan of $550,000, the interest that accrues each month at 6.7% interest rate is about $3,200/month. However, as from the previous example, 15% of a $135,000 yearly gross income is $1687. So every month, you are only paying half of the accruing interest, which means that interest will continually add to your loan total. Over twenty five years, you are increasing your total amount under the IBR program. Because of this, your total loan amount at the end of 25 years will be over $1 million dollars. But that’s alright, because it will all be wiped in the end anyways, right? (PS: In order to equal the accruing interest rate, without even touching the principal balance ever, you would need to be making more than $300,000 / year. Yikes.)
Consider your spouse’s income. It is important to note that under REPAYE, your spouse’s income counts as part of the discretionary income. Depending on your spouse’s income, this can increase your monthly loan payments, which will actually increase the amount you pay long term.
Forgiven amounts are taxed. This is a crucial part of the clause for the loan forgiveness programs. Those who miss this will be shocked at the end of the 25 years. I actually have met colleagues who have been graduated 3 and 5 years who are not aware of this rule. When I told them that the forgiven amounts will be taxed, their jaws dropped. Why? Because none of them knew. This single rule is what made me question whether loan forgiveness was worth it. As mentioned before, under IBR, with a loan as large as $550k, after twenty five years of payment from a dentist with $135,000 income, you would end up with over one million dollars in debt. I think my number was closer to $1,200,000. This was calculated with the assumption that I would be increasing my salary to more than $135,000 as I increased my experience. Either way, at year 25, the loans will be forgiven, and the total amount forgiven will be considered income that you made that year, and will be taxed similarly. So at the end of 25 years, I was expected to pay north of $350,000, in one lump sum, on top of taxes of the income I made on that year. Unless you have a plan to be swimming in some serious dough in twenty five years, I would say it would be advisable to save up for that $350,000 over 25 years. So that’s an additional $1,166 every month you have to save. But what bothered me most was the total amount of money you would pay after loan forgiveness. It turns out, with the taxed income, you would pay more money than the standard repayment. Standard repayment will lead to a total of $720,000 going towards loans, whereas IBR will lead to a grand total of $856,250. Plus, you would have a loan hanging over your head for 25 years, instead of only 10 years (less than half the amount of time). The time may not seem such a big deal, but that is a very large psychological strain to put on yourself for a very long amount of time. Let’s say you were ahead of your class and graduated dental school at 25. This loan would be with you until you’re 50 years old. That’s a really long time.
There is no clause stating that you are guaranteed to be grandfathered in the loan forgiveness program. While I would love to believe that we will all be one hundred percent grandfathered into these programs, we must not be in denial, and agree to the fact that there is no such clause that guarantees this to be the case. This program may be subject to future changes with changes in government. 25 years is a very long time, and the government changes can occur in a short time span within those 25 years. For example, what if a law passes that changes the loan forgiveness program from being 25 years to 30 years? What if you were so far in, that all you’ve done the last twenty years was increase your loan to a point of no return? You would then have to go through with the additional five years, thus increasing your loan total even more, which then increases the final amount you’ve paid for your education. Or what if the programs are abolished completely? Perhaps you would get some help, perhaps you would be grandfathered in, but perhaps they do nothing to help you, leaving you with over a million dollars’ worth of debt in your forties that you must now pay off. People may say, that’s crazy, they can’t do that to us! Unfortunately, until I see a statement saying otherwise, I will continue to believe that anything can happen. That may just be me, being overly cautious. Or realistic, whichever.

APPLICATION: OUR DECISION TREE

So which program did we choose? As I stated before, initially, we were told that this was the way to go, so we decided to choose one category to fall under. Unfortunately, we immediately had to eliminate PAYE because I had student loans that were disbursed before October of 2011, which were my undergraduate loans. So we were down to either IBR or REPAYE. Both will take 25 years before the student loans were forgiven. It may seem as if REPAYE would be the best option, because it only requires 10% of discretionary income to be paid, whereas IBR requires 15% of discretionary income to be paid. However, we chose IBR over REPAYE because of the married borrowers section of the chart. IBR allows Mike and me to file separately, which means Mike’s income is not calculated in that 15%. Whereas REPAYE will calculate Mike’s income into the 10% owed every year, regardless of our filing status. This fact alone makes a huge difference in how much we end up paying. Without giving away the actual numbers, the example below will demonstrate this point. Under IBR, a combined income of $200,000 will yield a $2,500 check per month being written towards student loans, whereas a single income of $100,000 will yield a $1,250 check per month towards student loans. One may argue that it is better to pay down a higher portion of the loans so that at the end of the 25 years, the amount left over that you will be taxed on is less. However, if you choose to do the loan forgiveness program, it will actually benefit you most if you pay the least amount possible. Your total payment will be less in the long run. Notice how filing together will require $2,500 per month to be paid towards your loans, which is still not enough to cover the accruing interest. So even with the increased amount you are paying, the loan total will still be increasing. The numbers ended up showing that it would be better to pay taxes on a slightly larger number, than it is to pay twice as much every month without ever even touching principle. Off course, this is of the assumption that your spouse and you make the same income for work. In order to check what works best for your situation, I would recommend running your own numbers, using your loan amounts and your incomes.

I would like to reiterate that I am no expert. I can’t tell you which plan is better for you, and it is highly likely that I don’t know all the ins and outs of all three plans. But this is what I’ve learned so far, and our method of thinking. If there are ever any doubts, just run projections and calculations and excel sheets, and go with the numbers. The numbers won’t lie. I hope this has been helpful to some, and I hope more people realize the importance of thinking about this early on in their careers after reading this post. If you ever need someone to walk you through it, may I recommend a CFP? I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors, and more future insightful posts on finance to come!