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Case Study
“What should we do to get ahead?”
Initial Situation
- Age: Bryn, 27 | Paul, 27
- Feeling: Eager
- Goals:
- Buy first home
- Payoff student loans
- Start a family
- Income: $170,000
- Investments: $60,000
- Student Loans: $70,000
Bryn and Paul were referred to us by Paul’s parents, who are also Cypress clients. They had recently gotten married and were eager (but a bit anxious) to start their lives together. They were thinking about starting a family, and they agreed that they eventually wanted to have two children.
When they came to us, they were still working through some student loan debt, but they had also saved about $60,000 toward retirement in their employers’ 401(k) plans. As they thought about their next steps, they weren’t sure how to prioritize a number of different goals. They wanted to pay down debt, they wanted to save for a down payment on a house, and they wanted to know if they were saving the right amounts into their 401(k) plans. They wanted to have a plan for setting a workable budget that balanced those goals appropriately, with an eye toward building for their family future.
Situation Now
- Status:
- Net worth up $100,000
- Homeowners
- Expecting first child
- Feeling: Encouraged
- New questions:
- Additional insurance?
- Can Bryn cut back to part-time work?
- What will the new “family budget” look like?
Just two years later, Bryn and Paul now own a home which they purchased about 9 months after our initial meeting. Once the house was purchased, they accelerated their student loan payments, and they have cut about $20,000 off of their combined balances.
By striking the right balance between down payment savings, debt repayment, and intelligent retirement investing, they’ve been able to increase their total net worth by more than $100,000. Bryn is due to deliver the couple’s first child in a few months, and we are already planning for all of the changes that parenthood will bring, including adjusting insurance coverages, creating an estate plan, and reprioritizing their short-term and long-term goals.
How we helped Bryn and Paul
We mapped out the early career and family journey for Paul & Bryn using our Financial Wayfinder process. We showed them how much house they could reasonably afford (about $275,000), and we even helped them to secure appropriate mortgage financing.
Over the course of the two years we’ve been working with them, we’ve continued to help them tweak their budget to align with their changing circumstances. We helped them to find opportunities for additional savings in their budget, freeing up another $2,000 of annual cash flow. We have also helped them reallocate their retirement investments to align with their long-term goals and risk tolerance.
The client stories are based upon the specific client circumstances, each of which had a particular set of goals and objectives. The services described in these stories may differ from services provided to other clients, and the results achieved may not be similar, as every client’s goals and objectives are unique.
