Similarly, we have our home at 2.25% and her rental condo at 2.7%. We also consolidated down to one vehicle, since my S.O. is fully remote. Along with her moving in with me last year and getting her condo up for rent, consolidating down to one vehicle allowed both of us to max the fedgov limits to our workplace defined contribution plans. This is a huge milestone for us.
Compared to what we thought about last year, we ended up
not buying out her car lease's residual value in cash but instead took out a loan, regardless of the fact we could buy it in cash. We figured that since she's a contractor in IT and is now a landlord....and my income as a federal employee seems to be much more volatile with government shutdowns looming every other month....then we should maintain a
much larger emergency fund than we normally would, enough to float us several months if we both went without pay
and lost the renters. With that said, the car loan is around 7% interest, so she's paying it down within a year and I'm continuing to save into a HYSA to eventually buy the next car in cash.
Like last year, I still don't have the attention span for staggered/layered CDs and T-bills.
When you say you have the mortgage paid two months ahead...do you just have two months-worth sitting in an escrow or no? If the latter, how did you get them to keep it as two months advance payment instead of applying it to principle/interest?
BTW, I apologize I haven't gotten that 380 magazine out to you, yet. I've been travelling a lot over the last few months. Just got back from Africa and am leaving again this weekend. I'm hoping I'll be able to get it out this week.