“My financial situation has changed drastically over the last five years,” says Jennifer, a program manager at a community-development financial institution in D.C.
In 2016, Jennifer — who asked that WAMU not use her last name to protect her privacy — made $40,000 a year at a local nonprofit.
Name: Jennifer
Age: 34
Lives In: Benning Ridge, D.C.
Works In: Community Development Financing
Annual Salary: $72,500
Monthly Take-Home: $4,200
“I really loved that job, and I was really invested in the mission of that organization, but it’s just not enough money to live in D.C.,” she says. “Even living in a one-bedroom apartment in Ward 8, I didn’t make enough money to save or invest for retirement, or any of those things. So I made the decision to quit.”
Jennifer’s subsequent job search took the better part of a year, but ultimately brought her closer to her goal of financial autonomy. By the end of 2016, she’d landed a new job — whose 63% pay increase allowed her to purchase a home — and a three-year fellowship that brought her $20,000 annually. And in 2018, Jennifer inherited about $175,000 after the death of an aunt. She now makes $72,500, at a job she’s had since early 2019.
“All of those things combined just improved my financial situation and allowed me to really be able to save and invest meaningfully for the first time,” she says.
This led to investments in a home and a few of her hobbies and interests. It’s also brought her closer to feeling financially strong and settled in a city she enjoys. With a father in the military, Jennifer moved around a good deal as a child, eventually calling Columbia, Md., home. After high school, she moved to D.C. to get an English degree at Howard University, then headed to graduate school to study education in New York. Two years later, she was off to South Africa for a job at an art and culture magazine. Jennifer has lived in the District since her return to the U.S.
At $1,776 per month, the mortgage on her two-bedroom, one-bathroom D.C. home is Jennifer’s top expense. After that, most of her money goes to travel, food and fitness.
On a typical day, Jennifer wakes up between 7 and 7:30, drives 20 minutes to her office, works 9 to 5 and then grabs a meal with friends or streams Netflix at the end of the night. She’s hoping 2020 will be the year she regularly slides in an hour of exercise each morning at OrangeTheory Fitness, where she spends a couple hundred dollars a month.
“It’s something that I enjoy, and I don’t have kids,” Jennifer says. “So I feel like if I want to spend $200 a month on OrangeTheory, then I can.”
Much of her disposable income goes toward concerts and travel, and often … concert-related travel. She attends several music festivals a year, including one in Ghana last month and a recent trip to the Art of Cool Festival in Durham, N.C. Travel costs her about $4,000 to $6,000 annually.
Jennifer is also a big proponent of the visual arts. She’s dabbled in art collecting of late and is a member of three area museums, including an ambassador membership at the National Museum of African American History and Culture that carries a price tag of $5,000 over five years.
Jennifer regularly travels for music festivals, such as this 2019 event in Philadelphia.Courtesy of Jennifer
Savings And Loans
In addition to the monthly income Jennifer receives from an investment property in Baltimore that she helped purchase with her inheritance (which also brings her an annuity of $1,400 per month for five years), she has about $20,000 in savings and additional funds in a Roth IRA and health savings account. She also contributes 10% of her pre-tax income to an employer-sponsored 401(k).
“I think I’ve done a really good job as a person in their early 30s of investing and saving,” she says.
Though not Jennifer’s priciest monthly expense, the $61 she shells out for the mattress she bought in 2017 is an expense she calls her “most regrettable.” Metro fare is covered by her employer, and her car is paid off. In addition to gas and car insurance, her other transportation-related line item is $100 a month in D.C. speed-camera tickets; she currently owes $870.
“I’m a safe driver and D.C. parking/camera tickets are essentially a predatory, regressive tax,” she said via email.
Student loans from her undergraduate degree cost Jennifer $158 each month. She still owes $34,957, a debt she hopes will be forgiven down the road.
Jennifer purchased her house in the Benning Ridge neighborhood of D.C. after landing a substantial pay increase.Suzannah Hoover / For WAMU
‘In Pursuit Of Financial Independence’
Jennifer says having money to spare is a relatively new experience. “I’ve not had money in the past, and so I know that that’s a possibility,” she says.
Many of the shows in her podcast queue relate to the financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement.
“I’m not so stuck on the retiring early part because I enjoy my work, but I am really in pursuit of financial independence,” she said.
To get there, Jennifer plans to continue investing and saving while curtailing her spending. She says she’d like to get married and have children within the next five to 10 years, but thinks maintaining the same padding she currently has in her savings account is critical.
Jennifer loves her house and would like to stay in D.C. She has no plans to move.
“There’s a lot of misconceptions about people that live in Ward 7,” she says. “It’s very one-dimensional, but there’s a broad economic spectrum of people that live on this side of the river. And I want that to be represented more in the media.”