Couple Choosing IVF Over Any Chance Of Retirement

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0:36I just give my stylist my size, style, and budget preferences. I order boxes when I want and how I want. No subscription required. And he sends just for me pieces, plus outfit recommendations and styling tips. I keep what works and send back the rest. It's so easy. Make style easy. Get started today at stitchfix.com slash Spotify. That's stitchfix.com slash Spotify. Hi, I'm Ella. I'm 39. I'm Ivan, 32. We live in Houston. And this is Financial Audit. So what do you do for a living in Houston? So I am a marketer. I work in an advertising agency in the client service department. And I'm also a semi-retired slash dormant fashion designer and dressmaker who used to do bridal.

1:25Okay, well how many hours are you working in this marketing job right now? 40 hours a week. That's not retired. No, no, no. I'm a semi-retired slash dormant fashion designer and dressmaker. Gotcha. Yeah, I used to do that full-time for like six years between 2012 and 2018. Which is the tax is owed to the Italian government. Yes. Spoiler alert. We'll get into that. What do you make right now with your marketing job? So we actually want to discuss our finances as a couple. So we're going to give away our combined income. Okay. Well, first then, what do you do for a living? I'm a writer. I have a couple of novels published, poems, translation.

2:06What kind of genre? Genre? I have a new book that might be coming out soon. It's a travel narrative about two Texans who just wreak havoc in Southeast Asia. Okay. And Southeast Asia wreaks havoc to them too. Okay. So yeah, travel stories, little philosophical angle to it. I assume you have a website. Yes. We'll link that in the description then so you guys can check it out. Okay, so what's this combined household income? So combined household income, I would say around$108 ,000 a year. Very nice. Yeah. Which stretches much further in Houston than it does in Austin. How do you guys feel and live off of$108 ,000 a year?

2:45I would say we feel like we have accomplished the life goals that we have set up for ourselves for this period of time that we've been there. but we're in a place where we need some advice of how to prioritize our next life goals. That's a nice version of the story. Every 15 days I'm just like we're going to be vegans we're going to be vegans What would that accomplish financially? Meat's expensive we just do vegetables I thought veganism was quite expensive in Austin you know get your avocado toast oh yeah so you guys just just had a kid uh 11 months he's almost a year old yeah congratulations thank you congratulations that's awesome so your financial situation in where it sits today obviously there's goals you want to hit and we know there are quite the debts to pay off as well how would you all describe the financial situation in like zero to ten oh yeah give yourself a score and then just like how would you describe your overall household financial situation in general wishful thinking in terms of a score i would say like three and a half slash four okay yeah we maybe we're up for a rude awakening but if we don't think about it it's like ah we're four or five average normal but again you know whenever i sit down and rework the budget it's like where did this 200 charge come from you know i don't know so we're always surprised right i guess we'd like to do better and that's part of why we're here the debts how do we just rack up so much debt though well i'm actually before we even well we'll get into the italian debt but just in terms of like the credit cards and some different things what did we do why are we here so uh two years ago um we were doing quite well in terms of debt we only had my leftover business debt from Italy and Ivan's student loans but then there came a time when we decided to start IVF and in vitro fertilization right yeah so we had to pay for that out of pocket because uh our insurance at the time did not cover anything and we didn't have any other like company benefits for it um so we took out credit cards uh to pay that three credit cards yeah three oh yeah yeah because we we had the sapphire before which was like basically untouched and then we took the freedom one then we took the amex and then we took the freedom two anyway so the whole debt thing comes from the ivf thing and also from the fact that we had to buy a car when we first moved here from Europe um we had the car that Ivan's mom has uh given us uh and then in August I also had to buy a car because at the time we both had like like office jobs yeah so Houston is not a pedestrian friendly it's essentially a forced tax upon us all when we had actually tried to make it work with the bus but I had to like change the bus taking the bus yeah yeah I did take the bus for like maybe a couple of months a month and a half stuff like that but like i had to change the bus and the bus stop was not like close to the office but you were able to do it i was able to do it but with very much distress because for example like the the bus in houston is not reliable it doesn't come when it says it comes yeah or if one of them comes one line the second one doesn't come in time and then also the weather in houston is pretty bipolar so you think it's going to be a good weather and then it just suddenly starts to pour yeah so it's really not the best situation yeah i also it was summer and i have sympathy in that i really do it's like if we're in one deck for the ivf and then we're in one day to get a car then we actually took them at the same time so yeah okay you know it's just like i i it's suffering it sucks just knowing the math behind and then the whole you're trying to dig yourself out of right now, I would have tried to suffer for a little longer just to save up and get a car.

7:00The IVF. So, you know, when that came to you all as family planning and everything like that, it sounds like it almost needed to happen like right then. It kind of did. Instead of like saving up to try to do the procedure in cash. It kind of did because, you know, I'm 39, right? I was 37 at the time, right? so we had started trying for a baby before of course like we started trying in like April of 2020 14 months yeah so we already said that that was our next life goal and we needed to make it happen and also like once you are a certain age you start freaking out a little bit yeah and once you're in that community of people dealing with infertility like that becomes your whole world and it's literally like groups of people finding ways to finance that at whatever costs there's people who do way crazier things and no i'm sure like taking out 401k loans like emptying their 401k but if we knew we wanted to do it and we were in a financially pretty decent spot at the time why were we not just going pedal to the metal just like cutting everything in life and just saving up as much as we possibly could, actually possibly could, to do that instead of just going into debt.

8:17I guess we could have also stayed in Romania and not have had any experience. Why did you guys move to Houston? My family's here. Okay. And he wanted to start the PhD program as soon as possible? Yeah, so I... Can we have that just a little closer? I got accepted to the University of Houston for my doctorate program. My family's in Houston. And I said, Ella, come on, let's just come to Houston. Are you done with that? I have one more year left. What are you going to do? What am I going to do? Are you going to teach? Yeah, I'm starting the TA this semester, so I'll be teaching Spanish to undergraduates.

8:49Oh, interesting. Oh, wait, what's your doctorate in? In Spanish, creative writing. Oh, okay, interesting. Yeah, it's the only PhD in Spanish for creative writing in the country. Shout out UH. I promise this is not me being a dick, this is me being curious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If it's the only one in the country, is it a degree that's in demand for you to get a good ROI on it? If it's the only one offered in the country. Right. But if there's a program that every college offers. Then that means there's typically demand for it, though. I made the mistake of arguing with Mr. Hammer. No, no. I'm actually just curious because I don't know what the job market looks like for that.

9:31It has to do with changing demographics and just the fact that more people are going to be speaking Spanish. and houston is right on that edge of the open wound of the border where just there's a lot of spanish speakers there majority hispanic city yeah we're the biggest border state so well it yeah if there were going to be a a first time for this program it would be in houston so it's it's not like they thought hey let's sucker you know all these people with low no i'm not saying that i'm just trying to figure out what you're doing afterwards and figuring out the roi on the not only time but the money you're you know this is what i'm always thinking about my next step would be academically possibly a postdoc so which is just it's a okay it doubles it doubles the amount it doubles my income which is officially officially the the offers that i've been looking at that have been passed around in my in newsletters and that universities give even in houston positions for what for researcher oh okay so you propose a project yeah university gives you the stamp and they pay you to just work on that project and maybe there's one that i'm looking at where you just teach one class a semester one one so to double my income at the exact same a little bit closer yeah i'm just gonna use you a little bit to double my income and work fully on a on a project and it seems very enticing no i mean okay that's fair how long would a postdoc take this one i'm i'm imagining is one year okay would it cost no no you get money for it no no and even my doctorate is not yeah yeah yeah yeah okay and it will double from what to what everyone always asks me what checking account i use and what high yield savings account i use recently i switched over to sofi the reason i did it is because their app is very intuitive and it's super easy to use on your computer as well.

11:21But even better than that, their high yield savings account is all the way up to 4.4 % at the time of recording this clip. That is so hard to beat and I am taking advantage of that all day. And not only that, but there's additional bonuses that I took advantage of that you can as well. Set up direct deposit, get a$50 bonus or all the way up to$250. That's free money. That's free money. I took it. You can take it too. So check out my affiliate link in the description below it's seriously awesome i use it each and every day for my banking needs ish range 30 to 60 yeah even 60 is not the amount i want to be making but i don't know i've been getting other income i got yeah that's good i'm just i'm just trying to figure out like the cost of the degree because i come from the world of arts i went into arts for music into college what'd you play it uh well i played trombone but i was into music composition That was my thing.

12:17And I just know in the world of arts, like I wasn't in the, uh, English department part of thing or the writing or anything like that. I was in the musical side of things, but people just get sucked into the, I finished a great degree. Okay. Let's go get the next degree. Let's go get the next degree. Let's go get the next degree. And it's just a never ending cycle in terms of, man, I just want people to get out of there and start making it in the industry and making that income instead of making it to their mid thirties until they get their first job. So I do maybe have degree fever. But my plan wasn't to get a doctorate.

12:51But I met a doctorate. You have a doctorate. What do you have a doctorate in? Communication. Very cool. So she just inspired me. I was like, I got to get one too. It wasn't for the money. Nobody gets a PhD for the money. But teaching is a passion and writing is my life. You couldn't have written without it. I was and I could have. you couldn't have taught without it? Without the doctorate? Yes, absolutely. I was teaching in New York. So we didn't need the doctorate. I think we're teaching us. I don't mean to be bullying you too much. For academia, yes. Tenure track positions which go upwards of 120, 130 even in public universities, you mandatory have to have a PhD.

13:36Because I just know that there are people out there who are probably watching this video who are in positions like me where they you know, started going into the arts and they're just going to get sucked into that never ending cycle of degree, degree, degree and not starting their like official career until like mid-30s and I'm like dude, got to start making income, got to start getting retirement going, just in the culture we're in because giving up the best decade of your life for compound growth, it's gone and you know, by the time you're done with the postdoc almost the half of your second best decade, so, okay Okay, we definitely went down a tangent there, but let's get into the debts, shall we?

14:16So did this pay for the IVF, the American Express? We have an American Express for$10 ,463. Yes, you can talk about that. Yeah, so the American Express personal loan is actually a debt consolidation of the leftover that we had on the credit cards because the history goes like this. Like when we took the credit cards, initially they were with zero APR for like 12 months, a couple of them and 15 months, the third one. That's how they get you. Yeah, I know. So, of course, our initial plan was like, oh, we're going to kill this. We're going to pay everything off before the zero APR expires. Of course, that didn't end up happening.

14:55We paid off some of it. Why didn't it happen? We're human. No, why didn't it happen? All of my income was going towards the debt, and all of Ella's income was going towards the house. House? Like living. Sorry, household. Household. So food, rent, utilities. All of it. Rent took up your entire income. Not my entire income. Rent, groceries. Only groceries. We weren't going out to eat. Some BS man. Some travel. We're losing$80. Travel? we're losing$80 in interest on this I would choose paying off high interest debt versus travel $349 minimum monthly payment on this that's a big minimum monthly payment yep okay we have a lot of debt to get through so let's hammer these guys out we have a vehicle is this just one of the vehicles it's the only vehicle that we have a payment on and now it's our only vehicle it got totaled and so that's our savings account now is what you see in there we haven't replaced it no and our plan is to drum roll drum roll okay so uh instead of getting a new vehicle with that money that we got from the insurance on the totaling of that first vehicle uh for now it's our like emergency fund but we are planning to keep this money to help fund the next ivf that we're gonna do how much is ivf ivf like uh the first one that we did between the actual ivf cycle the meds that are paid separately the meds for the transfer that are paid separately and like all the yeah like the investigations during the yeah stuff like that and the pregnancy follow-ups up until you graduate from the fertility clinic which is not a normal obgyn it's just it's different okay all of that was around total like 29 000 okay but this time from my current employer i have a ivf benefit it's called a family building benefit it's uh for fertility treatments of any kind including ivf or adoption and it's$20 ,000 lifetime.

17:17So calculating the worst case scenario of those like 29 ,000 that we paid the first time, we're like, okay, exactly, exactly. We have those 20 ,000 from my employer and we have this cushion of those like nine, 10 ,000. So that's what we're planning to use those 10 ,000 in our savings account for. Until then it's like an emergency fund. Sure. We'll definitely get into that then uh well i mean emergency funds are emergency funds that's not an emergency but we'll get into that as well also it's not going to be spent all at once right we'll get into it yeah okay$16 ,000 is owed on a 2016 beetle with a$357 minimum monthly payment this must be a long-term loan yes 70 something 75 70 something we this was our first vehicle that we purchased and we made all the first time buyer mistakes so not the interest rate we wanted the interest 6.9 ish it's not death but no no yeah not great yeah yeah so that also we got strong-armed into purchasing all these extras extras insurance like coverages on top not warranties but i don't know just we should have said no we should have walked away but oh these student loans must be yours 55 okay and this is why i don't like people just getting sucked into the endless degrees We could be paying on this.

18:41And, of course, forgiveness is not happening. We know that now. Okay. They're all federal? Federal. There's six loans totaling about 55.8. Starting in October,$55 ,834.65. It actually predicts the minimum monthly payment table at$682.91. The interest rates are likely going to be from 4 % to 7%. The highest one is 6.8. The lowest one is 5.3. Oh, I don't like that. No. So I added them up 6.4 on average. I really don't like that. I really don't like that. It's too close to the average return of the stock market in history. So that's going to impact what we're paying and what we're doing. I don't even know what this is.

19:32What is this? It's a dentist. It's a dentist. It's a personal loan that we had to get to do a lot of dental work for me that was like beyond what my insurance was covering. That was a need. That was like broken teeth, missing teeth. Dental work is very important. It impacts a lot of things when it comes to health. I have a cavity. I need to get filled right here and it hurts. Oh, no. But I'm also a baby about needles. So I'm... Just do it before you're going to end up needing endless crowns like me. I just need to go get some laughing gas Or a bunch of Put me to sleep or something $53.61 Oh no that's interest Wait it's cancelled?

20:13That question mark there is our question mark We got a$5 ,000 loan In February of 2022 And the promotion was If you pay everything off in 24 months There's zero interest charged That's what they told us They have some sort of subscription for the vendor So we're confused when we printed this sheet out it said$53 in interest, I will be making a call and checking that out. But the idea is to pay the$5 ,000 off before next February. I'm going to put that aside. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And then we have some medical debt. This is just the outstanding balances, so only$129 and$325? Yeah, we wanted to share that because that's one emergency visit for an infant in Houston.

20:59Oh, that sucks. And that doesn't even include the$250. that you pay like up front which is like a copay yes oh you can call him a he it's a little baby boy yeah so and the reason why that's not paid off I am very happy that you guys did end up having a child that's very exciting so the reason why that's not paid off yet is because Ivan is trying to dispute it oh okay I mean you know we might eventually just pay it off two days after a terrible coughing fit with the baby. He's got high fever and you get home and the first thing you see is a$500 bill after the$250 you paid. I was just like, this is wrong.

21:39When was this? Middle of June. So yeah, that is very recent. So I guess this is very much a developing thing. It's pending. If we have to pay, we'll pay it. But yeah, it was a shock. Okay. This credit card. So we have some credit cards but we're not holding balances on these looks like they're paid off every month yeah just good they are revolving so we use them we use certain credit cards for certain expenses yeah it's not it's not the case where we just have this debt bad debt from a while ago it's these are expenses that we make and we pay the full balance i'm glad you're paying the full balance it's i'm a little torn on your guys's status as a credit card person or not because you do really well on some of these credit cards but you also carry a massive balance on another the one that was a consolidation though so it's like it's a bit i think it's risky for you guys but i think you're maybe heading towards a better place we spent 924 on this card which one is that is that the amex free yeah amex yeah that's for the groceries mainly and gas yeah that's what it looks like there but we also had some an uber trip and some amazon spending as well but mostly groceries and gas.

22:51I think it's when you went to take the car to the shop and then you had to take an Uber. That's fine in those situations. And then in this we had$735 to purchase,$300 to pay off on that. I do see $10 for the pediatrician. Then we had some blacked out stuff. Is this the child care? Yes. This must be the Chase Freedom. Yeah. This is child care. How much are we spending on child care on a monthly basis? $1 ,200. That's why many people just can't go work because this is so expensive. It's almost cheaper to stay home for some. For us, it would be a disaster if any of us would stay home. No, you couldn't.

23:31$1 ,200? $1 ,200 a month, yes. For a toddler. I mean, he's almost a toddler. Almost, almost. He's been an infant. Yeah, so. That's good. Okay. No, what is this? Okay, I just almost gave you guys credit card people status. You've paid$842 of interest on this this year So you've recently paid this off? That was before we consolidated the debt in the Amex I think it might be time to cut up these and just have them on debit cards guys I don't know it's so risky I get the allure of points And that's how they're getting you And I like taking advantage of them But I don't know guys You just racked it up And you've only paid it off Consolidated recently That makes me too nervous That makes me too nervous I mean, you guys are members of the audience.

24:21If I'm going to use anything, I would just use the Fizz ones for you guys. Because it works as a debit card. And I think that works better for you guys. I don't know, man. I'm scared. $842 squeezed from us. Almost 1 % of our household income was squeezed from us on interest. That's why you consolidated it. Yeah, but consolidation is only one thing. Now it's like, what? You could rack it up again. And you've done it in the past. So who's to say it won't happen again? and that's what scares me. We have a Freedom Card. $68.96 spent on this one. Oh, it's paid off now. That's yours, right? No, yeah, that was just the spending, but yep, this one's being paid off, and there's another$10 for pediatric and then some pharmacy stuff.

25:04And then$448 spent on Chase Sapphire. Again, this one also gets paid off. Yeah, this is the one that we use for the household bills and also for, like, online purchases. And miscellaneous. Miscellaneous. Yeah, some miscellaneous funding and Amazon and Amazon and Pink's Pizza and Vodafone. Vodafone. European. This is my Romanian phone line. Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah. And then another card, we had 1 ,068 on it and we spent nothing and we paid it off. Yes. Some airplane tickets. Yep. Why are you guys traveling right now if we have this? If we have this debt. We have to go to North Carolina. Have to?

25:44Yes. What's have to? We can explain. Social, social, social. It's Ivan's best friend's wedding. I'm not going to his bachelor party. And he flew all the way to Romania. Well, good for him. That was his choice. Yeah. Okay, best friend's wedding shirt. Flying. Social ties. No, I know. I would have rather you just like one date it in a car than one date it back. Oh. A little cheaper, not much. With a baby? With a baby, I think it's... No, I would have one-dated himself alone. Oh. I'm being very strict right now. Very strict because we're in a lot of bad debt. Like, do you guys 100 % have to do that?

26:31Not necessarily, but that's something I personally would have done in my situation when I was in a bunch of debt. That's something I would have done, knowing how bad it was and knowing how good it is on the other side. So, then Italian debt. Yes, that is a tax payment plan. Where do I start? So I used to own a business for six-ish years in Italy. I started by working from home, making dresses in the living room of my apartment. and at some point I transitioned into an actual atelier that I opened in the city I had to rent out to rent a space and soon enough I had to hire one person than two people and at some point so I started with bridesmaids dresses and prom dresses and like easy stuff but at some point time it morphed into bridal because more and more people were just asking like can you do this in white for my wedding right so like i spotted a market need so i morphed into wedding dresses why weren't you paying taxes though i was paying taxes just not enough just not enough why aren't you paying enough taxes so i always paid my taxes right um but at some point the expenses became so cumbersome it was always like paying the rent and paying the salaries and paying the suppliers and paying everything else and then the taxes were the only ones that gave you some room for like postponing them right and also there's my question would be like i don't know their system but were the taxes not on the profits of the business so post those expenses yes okay so So I'm still confused then why you weren't able to pay those.

28:31Because I had to also live off those profits. So at the end of the day, it got to a point where it just wasn't adding up. And that's why, of course, I closed because it wasn't scalable. There wasn't anything else that I could have done. You weren't charging enough. Yeah, I wasn't charging enough. You were working 20 hours straight. 24, actually, at some point. She's got YouTube videos. She works 24 hours on a dress, like straight. But you just maybe weren't budgeting was the point. Well, yeah, like what was the tax percentage on profits? It's not just the income tax, like the profit tax. It's a combination.

29:11It's a sales tax, which in Europe is VAT. Yes, that wasn't passed on to the consumer? Well, yes, but it was collected by me from the consumer, but then I had to like pay it back, right? But you just put that aside, so that should be good to go. I put that aside, but like between everything. Then there was Social Security that also got added to the tax. Then it was the tax on wages that I was paying to the employees. You always made those payments. Yes. The wages I wanted. Yeah, the people got paid. I mean, not the people of Italy. And also there's another component to this. uh the way it works in italy is like you get some like tax um how should i say um you get the total of the taxes that you have to pay based on your income declaration yearly but then they calculate again based on like how much uh revenue you had and how much how many expenses and they say no you actually have to pay more and that comes after so basically uh some of that that i was like i was aware of when i closed my business and i was like okay i'm just gonna make a payment plan and i'm just gonna pay it over time but some of it i was hit with like after i closed my business if that makes sense so it just became this like whole thing like i didn't even know of all of it from the beginning well on this payment plan what is owed total i cannot read italian yeah i'll explain so the total that was owed after right now right now it's like uh eight thousand two hundred forty six dollars dollars or euros dollars i i made the conversion eight thousand four hundred and six is that what you said eight thousand two hundred and forty six yeah okay perfect um in the payment plan what's the plan the plan is uh every month i pay the equivalent of two two hundred and seventeen dollars that includes uh that includes the bank fees because i transferred from my uh from my american account is there interest on this uh there is interest how much it's six percent uh but it's not like i can't get rid of it even if i want to pay all the installments like all i can do is just pay all the full installments but it doesn't cut my interest since it was turned into a payment plan it's like that's it so after interest is paid it's 8 246 yes it includes everything like the full is the sum of all the installments that i still have that makes sense sucks that makes sense lots of euros lots of pages of euros okay this is a shared checking account it's mostly just paying off cards transferring things around and lending point lending point a couple things there 20 dollars 198 dollars yes lending point the dentist yeah oh so it's an yeah automated 198 and then just to make sure we pay off in two years okay okay cool that makes sense yeah then we have another chase we have a thousand three hundred seventy five in here again there was nothing overly notable.

32:22There were some flights still. Cashing out on the ATMs. But mostly just paying things around. Transferring things around. Really nothing too crazy. And then we have a savings account. Now, I'm curious. I wouldn't be upset at this. I just want what's better for you guys. Why do we have$10 ,542 sitting in an account with a yield of 0.01 % when what I use, SoFi, has 4.5 % right now. Plus, I mean, you'd get like with this balance and if you set up direct deposit, you'd get an extra$250. So that's just like, why the f*** not, right? Yeah. Why? Why is it sitting in this? Yeah. I looked into it. They don't have a perfect score on NerdWallet, but the 4.4 is super attractive.

33:08So I just need... 4.5. 4.5? Oh, it went up. I'll tell you what did not go up to 0.01. No, no. That's... It's just an extra folder in a computer. You know what I mean? Yeah. Are you allowed to withdraw from that account without losing the interest that you accrued? It'll accrue on a monthly basis and then whenever you pull out, the balance changes. Are there fees for transferring? I don't think so. I've used it. I haven't paid fees. As far as I know, there might be a minimum. It's one of the hesitations. But not even just switching to them. That's not what I'm confused about. Why is this just sitting in such a low yield in general?

33:45Because there's so many high yields out there. yeah just a marriage of convenience because it's connected to our checking yeah it's yeah it's also it's not it hasn't been there for a long time like i think we got the check from the insurance company like last month or something like that so if we're paying interest rates on some things why is 10 000 sitting there in general the 10 000 is for the second oh that's yeah it's our reserve for our out-of-pocket part of the IVF. It's low-key untouchable. Then we have some bonds. When do these become available with you reaping all benefits and returns on it?

34:21The I-bonds? 20 years, no? Is that what you signed up for? That's where the baby's college fund. With this kind of bond, I think after three years, you can start withdrawing. But they double in 20 years. Oh, because I do not have that. Double in 20 years, that's shit anyway. Is it? If you have it in the stock market, it will double every seven, eight, nine years. Compared to this Vanguard account that I have. Yeah. Yeah. It's wild. It's the index. Yeah. Of which you have$6 ,104. That's your retirement. It's your Roth IRA. Do you have retirement? Yes. That's my 401k right. Oh, this one? Oh, that's right.

34:59Okay. So the combined household retirement, almost going into 40s, almost going into mid 30s, is$17 ,000? There is more because I just got my company match on the 401k. So the current amount in my 401k is$12 ,200. It's not where we'd like it to be. Now you guys are ready to retire. Wait, there's even more. There's even more. I actually remembered about my Romanian retirement account because I contributed to the pensions in Romania for like nine-ish years. so right now you're gonna laugh but it's something i have uh no it's okay assets right here assets that's the shorter one so 3517 and beyond this this is only the like 401k which is like the investment account it's a privately managed account beyond this i also have the social security funds from there, which is like 25 % of your salary.

36:02Which you'll receive when? I'll receive when I'm like 67, which is also when I'll receive this. I think I can withdraw this earlier, but it's not in my interest. It's not Warren Buffett level, but we'd like it to be higher. I also have a third category of Romanian pension fund, which is optional, which is around$1 ,000. so okay we made it and I might get something from the Italian pension fund probably not much not much because I only contributed for like six years and something so the main point being we need to up our retirement drastically but before we do that we need to get out of the death Amex debt and the less than great beetle debt and the student loan debt that's like 7 % or something.

36:56Dentists will pay that. What's the interest rate on the dentist? Zero if you pay it in two years. Oh, that's right. So, okay. We're doing that so that's paid off in two years. That should be fine. And then you're calling and figuring things out. Then the medical we are disputing. Perfect. And then the Italian. I think it's$2.17 until it's paid off because the interest is already baked in. There's no point of paying it off early. Yeah. Okay.

37:25So let's budget. Yes, we have it. We have it. Let me see. You care if I write on this? Please. Okay, so we have rent of$1 ,375. Groceries,$800. I know the kid costs money, but I think that's still a little high for you three. Okay, groceries include everything from food to toiletries to household products to paper products to diapers to formula and to any like miscellaneous. I was able to squeeze child clothes in there at Walmart. 800 is fine for that. We're combining those categories. Electricity, 100. It's 150 actually, the last one. So the summer one, we just got hit with 150 and June was 130.

38:12130. But then before that was 80 and before that was 60. So average is out. So 100 for electricity, 75 for internet, 120 for phone, 360 for car. Okay, so we do have the debt minimum monthly payments. Yes. Baked in there. Okay. And 80 for gas, 135 for car insurance, baby coal? Baby college fund. It's the bonds. We contribute 100 a month on those. To the United States government No I think My mom also contributes another$100 Sometimes Why do you want to earn bonds though It's going to be so long It's so long until this kid goes to college That I don't see the point of it Just losing to the stock market What else do you recommend us to do I'm not going to give investment advice But all I will say is that the stock market On average since the history With all up years and all down years is averaged at 8 % return on an annual basis.

39:12S &P 500 with dividends reinvested 10 point something on a yearly basis on average with all up years and down years combined. So that's probably better. We should probably hire some real... A financial advisor is highly recommended. The two neurons that bounced together when we were thinking about this was basically, look, we have my Roth, Ella's 401k, diversify and get some bonds for the baby. Zero risk. That was the thought process. Yeah. Could we get a little more for our little baby? With compound over 18 years, it's going to be a lot more. A lot more? Compound with the compound growth on it.

40:00What's the interest on these high bonds? It's not on the document. If not, I don't know. And it's gone up. well it wasn't a statement it was a screenshot so i'm not sure no it's not yeah maybe the ten dollars is oh no yeah whatever the difference is of the odd number because we put 100 in so you know what i mean and you accrued that in a month in a year no we started that in september 2022 yeah like nothing no no we we don't