The Yazbecks: Future Millionaire Couple

CNN Money’s back in the Millionaire in the Making game with an article featuring Paul and Audrey Yazbeck. She’s an account and he’s in the military, and they earn $125,000 combined each year.

The couple emphasizes starting to save early on in life and budgeting to keep expenses down. A sidebar included with article breaks down the couple’s monthly budget.

Income	$9,600	100%
Investments	($3,150)	33%
Taxes	($1,150)	12%
Mortgage	($970)	10%
Transportation	($760)	8%
Entertainment and Food	($700)	7%
Miscellaneous (Clothes, Gifts, Donations)	($570)	6%
Travel	($420)	4%
Bills	($355)	4%
Insurance	($270)	3%
Household	($150)	2%

They still have about 12% of their income left over each month.

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Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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Seattle

I notice in the article that their combined income is $125,000, but they chose to live on one income, saving his $50,000 last year. If the two of them can live on one income, then I should be able to live on half my salary. I'm up for the challenge!

FMF

Gotta love how much they are saving!

TerriW.

Huh. I don't understand how they are only having to pay 12% taxes. I mean, yeah, she's an accountant ... but that seems awfully low to me!

Flexo

That's probably a sensible effective tax rate. Perhaps they plan their taxes well enough to owe or be owed very little when it comes time to file.

Lauren

Texas has no state income tax, so that helps. However, 12% still sounds low. If I wanted to move back to TX, I guess I could be saving that much, but it's not worth the tradeoffs. I couldn't mortgage a trailer up here for that monthy payment.

Hazzard

I love reading these "Millionaire" posts. I wish that CNNMoney would put one out each day, but I suppose they'd run out of potential millionaires pretty fast.

I think they should also highlight couples in trouble and then help them figure out how to move forward. I find that reading about others finances is very interesting
Hazzard

New York Kid

I guess if I made as much as $9600 per month I'd be on my way to millionaire status, too. The problem is that most Americans don't make even $1500 per month!

Not to say that you can't save money but it'll, definitely, take longer to become a millionaire. On top of that they're combine income is 125,000! This article is for yuppies.

paul yazbeck

Since I serve in the military, about 1/3 my income is tax-free. Military pay is broken down into Base Pay, BAH(housing), and BAS(food). BAH & BAS are tax-free and total about $1400 a month. I was also deployed to Iraq for 3 months in 2005, and all income is tax-free while in a combat zone.

$125,000-16800(BAH/BAS)-28000(401ks)-9000(3 months tax-free)

=~71000 taxable income

Flexo

Hi, Paul. Thanks so much for the comment. The housing and food allowances in the military are sure to be very helpful.

Todd

Our household income is aprox. $150k and our effective tax rate is about 12-13%. After the standard deduction and a couple other deductions, 12% total tax on their income sounds pretty accurate.

Cujo

Hell, I'd save a lot too if my mortgage was only $970/month. 10% of income going to housing is way below average.

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