CNN iReport

My husband came home from work one day last month very excited.  He

said he had been listening to NPR and heard a term he had never heard

before: "recessionista".  I asked, "What is a 'recessionista'"?

My husband replied, "A recessionista is someone who is fairing well in our current economy and will come out ahead.  That's us!"

My

family is very young.  My husband and I are both 25 years old.  He is

an electrical engineer, while I stay home with our two children, ages 2

and 3.  

I know we will be millionaires someday because my goal is to be a "millionaire next door'". 

We set up a strict budget so that we know where every dollar of my husband's paycheck is going before he even receives it. 

We put 6% of his gross earnings into his 401(k), and with company match, it equals roughly 11% of his earnings. 

We

live below our means and save at least 10% of his take-home pay via

automatic transfer- we don't even see the money.   Whenever he gets a

raise or a bonus we put that money into savings as well.

After

our car is paid off this summer, our only debts will be a student loan

and our mortgage payment.  I am in the process of refinancing our

mortgage so that we can get a lower rate and increase the equity in our

house by continuing to pay more than the required minimum on our

mortgage.  Right now we are making more than minimum payments on all

our debts.  We are set to have the car paid off a year before the loan

term is up.  We make an extra payment on our mortgage every year to pay

down principal, thereby saving ourselves money in interest.

Currently

we have a small emergency fund which we are constantly adding more to

every pay period.  Right now we have enough stowed away in case of a

minor emergency, but someday I would like to have enough to survive 6

months without a pay check without using a credit card.

I do use

one credit card occasionally because I get points for using it.  I

make a small purchase and pay off the balance when the bill arrives.

We

strive to make all our bill payments on time and have not been late on

any payment during the last 5 years (before that, we didn't have any

bills to pay, as we were both in college).

As previously stated,

we live below our means.  The van I drive is 11 years old.  It runs

great, and gets me where I need to go.  We also have a 19-inch,

8-year-old television we use to watch broadcast television (we don't

subscribe to cable).

We have a set amount in our pay cycle for

fun things, like going out to eat.  From what I can tell, we eat at

restaurants more than most people we know.  If we want to take a

weekend trip, we plan, budget and save up for it and pay cash for

everything on the trip. We get massages every now and again.  We also

have our oldest child enrolled in private school (all tuition paid for

upfront at the beginning of the year) and plan on having both children

enrolled as long as they want to go to private school.

We have a

college fund set up for each child and contribute to it each pay

cycle.  We plan on paying for half of their college expenses.

Another important part of our budget is giving.  We give double the

amount we have set aside for fun things.  We feel compelled to give to

many worthy causes.  We realize we are more fortunate and feel it is

our duty to give back.

I am perpetually frugal.  I am constantly

looking for ways to save money by clipping coupons, shopping rummage

sales, and turning down the thermostat at night.  I am the

quintessential cheapskate.  All the money-saving I do helps us to reach

our financial goals faster.  Saving money on groceries translates into

a new roof for the house 3 months faster than we would otherwise be

able to save for it.  Turning down the thermostat translates into

buying new windows for the house 2 months faster than we would have

been able to save.

As "recessionistas", we are implementing these strategies and several others to someday become millionaires next door.