Her background makes her a prime candidate for acquiring: - Small manufacturing companies - Medical device suppliers - Engineering service businesses You’d be surprised at how many options there are. But instead of diagnosing what I think they should do, there’s a quick framework I created to help people... find the right business to buy:show more

Expenses: These are their monthly outflows. - Mortgage: $4,630 - Daycare: $5,383 - Insurance/utilities/phone/subscriptions: ~$1,200 - Car payments: ~$300 That's ~$11,500 before any discretionary spending. See the problem?

Their weekly spending breakdown: $626.59 Most of this is pure necessities - groceries, gas, basic family expenses. - Monthly variable spending: ~$2,500 - Monthly fixed expenses: ~$11,500 - Total expenses: ~$13,500

To summarize their monthly P&L: - Income: $13k (after taxes) - Costs: $13,500 - Profit(loss): -$500 So here’s an MIT degree-holder & her husband who make $246K but are losing money every month. Believe it or not, this is more common than you think.

Before you say they are MASSIVE spenders, they’re doing a lot of things "right" from a personal finance standpoint: - Meal prepping to save money - Strategic shopping (Costco, sales) - Maxing employer 401k match - Paying down their mortgage But the math is still crushing them.

Of course, it doesn’t help that their childcare and mortgage costs peaked at the same time. $5,383/month daycare + $4,630/month mortgage = ~$10k That's $120k/year in just TWO line items.

They're in the top percentage of earners. But this illustrates the brutal reality of the high-income working class: You can be highly educated, highly paid, and still financially stressed.

If we take a step back and see what assets they own: - $293K retirement account (locked for another ~30 years) - ~$80k in HYSA + brokerage account - $162K home equity ($600k+ debt) - Two depreciating cars Their net worth is currently negative…

Let’s not forget her parents play a big role in all this: - Paid $220K for her MIT education - Gave $100K down payment for their house - Remain their financial safety net Without family money, this couple would be worse off.

So how could this couple (and you) turn this around to build real wealth? First, let’s point out that the daycare crisis is temporary. In 30 months, the older kid exits daycare. That's $2,700/month freed up.

Second, she's an MIT-trained engineer in medical devices. That’s a high-value skill set she can spin into ownership. If I were in her shoes, I’d look into buying a business to bump my W2. There are no rules that say you can’t combine both.

The way I see it, she has three options: - She transitions from employee to owner-operator - They buy a business outright and hire an operator while keeping their jobs - Become minority owners Either way, she can use her expertise to add value and grow a business.

Depending on how viable the business is, they have a good chance of getting an SBA loan. Even with their sizable mortage… Besides they can always negotiate seller financing to lower upfront costs. That way, they wouldn’t need to drain their savings accounts to do this.

The reality is that the current 9-5 system wants you comfortable. Comfortable enough to keep working. But never comfortable enough to stop needing the system. It falls on you to break the cycle. And buying a business is one path to get there.

Shoutout to Refinery29’s “Money Diaries.” Cool series showing money transparency, I got this couple’s data from there.

If you want a step-by-step plan on how you can break the 9-5 mold, I wrote a entire book about it. Check it out here:

Your "paycheck to paycheck" person has 3 quarter million dollar home, multiple cars, savings, retirement, kid fund and is currently putting more than double the allowable amount into their dependent FSA. Should probably speak to their CPA or accountant.

Simpler solution. Leave Boston (or New York, or San Francisco, or Los Angeles, or other city with high cost of living and poor quality of life).

Thanks @ Codie. This is quite impressive. Not everyone is built to own a business. Another part way includes investing their bonus in stocks through a financial expert guidance This will improve their liquidity and offer more income in medium term

Great thread! Lots of insight to takeaway from it.

She's 32 with an MIT degree and only making $130k? "Buy a business" is interesting advice for someone that's clearly in an IC role and strapped with debt...