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.
Published or updated January 5, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
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!
Gotta love how much they are saving!
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Hi, Paul. Thanks so much for the comment. The housing and food allowances in the military are sure to be very helpful.
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.
Hell, I’d save a lot too if my mortgage was only $970/month. 10% of income going to housing is way below average.