Rob Fatzinger is a father of 13 living in Maryland. This post originally appeared on Mad Fientistin 2014.My name is Rob, and my wife and I have a rather large family. We are a single-income family, and we make it all work, and we are thriving in all ways. Below is a bit of how we do it from a financial perspective.My wife and I have been married for 25 years. I am 49 and she is 46. We have 13 kids ages 2-24. The first 12 are our natural born children. The 13th is a 2-year-old that we have legal custody of. He started out as a foster baby at the age of 12 weeks. Eventually we hope to adopt him but that is another story.My wife is from a large family and has always wanted one herself. I knew this when I proposed to her. As a matter of fact when I asked her to marry me, I told her who else will give you 10 kids, a house with a white-picket fence and a dog' Her response was kill the dog and make it 11 kids and you got a deal (no actual dogs were killed in the making of this family, but many rabbits died).Our oldest is 24 and married. She finished grad school just after her 21st birthday and is enjoying her career. The next four kids are in college, two will graduate this spring. Two are in high school, two are in middle school, two are in elementary school and two are pre-school aged. All of the kids are homeschooled by my wife until college. For the high school kids we use tutors two days a week to supplement what they learn at home, this costs about $2500 per kid per year. All the kids finish their high school one or two years early. More on that and college below.My wife and I have both always been frugal. Which turned out to be a darn good thing indeed. Other than a mortgage weve never had debt of any kind. No credit card balance carried, no car loans, no student loans, no nothing.In addition to having kids (lots of kids) right away, we also never made much money, especially early in our marriage. We were married in 1989 and had child #1 in 90. From 1990-2000 we owned a bookstore and worked it together. It was our main source of income, other than side-gigs here and there. Grass cutting, odd jobs, etc During the 90s our income topped out at $36k per year. Needless to say there wasnt a lot of money put away for retirement savings. In the summer of 2000 we closed down the bookstore (thanks Amazon and others). I should have gotten on the internet bandwagon early on. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.After we closed down the bookstore I went into the computer software field at the urging of a friend. It has worked out well for us. Not a lot of money early on, but a steady rise from $40k a year to my current $104K. I also have a company that provides great benefits: health, dental and vision insurance, vacation, 401k among other benefits.Adding in the income we get from side-jobs (more on that below) we probably make around $110,000 per year. Which is a nice amount but is tempered by the fact that we have 11 kids still at home (one is married and one lives at college) and live in the suburbs of D.C., which is not exactly a low-cost area of the country. We do get some nice breaks come tax time.And starting around 2005 we finally had enough wiggle room in the budget so I could start adding to our retirement accounts. Before that point in time our retirement accounts were so thin that they made super models look fat.SEE ALSO:I stayed in a tiny house, and it made me want to throw out everything I ownCurrent financesHere is a financial snapshot that is current as of early 2014:Yearly Salary: $104,400Debt: ZEROMonthly savings401k: $867 ($346.80 is employer match)My IRA: $300Wifes IRA: $300HSA: $500 ($200 is from my employer)Taxable Index Funds: $210Regular Savings Acct: $300Total Automatic Savings: $2,477Most months there are some extra dollars, anywhere from $50-$500, that we are able to come up with and save. So our annual savings rate is around 35% give or take a few percentage points.BudgetA few budget highlights/lowlights from 2013:Food: $15,120 ($1,260 monthly) that works out to 99 cents per meal per person. Better deal than McDonalds.Utilities: $465 per month (big old drafty house)Medical: $225 per month. Paid out of pocket so HSA can grow. I learned that great trick from the Mad Fientist.Gasoline: $150 per month. I work from home, which is an awesome money and time saver.Kids activates/sports/trips/fun: $200 per monthPlus a bunch of other things :)Our retirement/investment/savings currently total $180,000. Plus we own our house out right (more on that below). Plus we currently have $6,000 in an emergency fund.Each summer I make about $3500 from a side-gig (grass mowing) and that goes into our IRAs to max them out. Plus any extra money we get through the year goes into one of the various savings accounts. My wife does some small babysitting and tutoring jobs, about $1500-$2000 per year. We also sell stuff on eBay when the opportunity arises, anywhere from $500-$2,000 per year. But that will probably slow down a lot or stop. Ive sold everything around here that we dont need. The only thing of value left is the kids but Im sure eBay has rules against that.We should end up with $35-$40k saved for the year. Towards the end of the year if we have any extra $$$ Ill bump up my 401k contributions, but I dont see that happening. I did just drop an extra $1000 into my IRA. I turn 50 later this year so I get that extra catch-up amount. I am trying to get to the point where I front-load more of my 401k and IRAs but its tough with our budget. A little at a time, and hopefully in a few years Ill be able to front-load a lot more.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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