The story is part of CNBC’s Make It’s Millennial Money series, which Chronicles people across the U.S. and how they earn, spend and save their money.

Angel Thompson, 28, guests in a comfortable chair in her Teal living room. She looks out the back window at the brand new iron security gate that separates her yard from the alley. Thompson and her sisters recently painted it blue.

This gate cost $ 10,000, which she put on a credit card. But for Thompson, it’s the price of being a homeowner.

There used to be a wooden gate in the backyard of her two-bedroom home in Washington, D.C., but it was old and often swung open. One day, her neighbor called to tell her it had happened again – but this time the gate was completely separated from the fence. Thompson came home to find him lying in the street behind her house.

It was then that she decided to purchase a heavy duty iron version that spawned two matching safety doors. Although the expensive purchase drove up her credit card balance, it was worth it: “This is not a typical driveway gate,” Thompson tells CNBC Make It. “This is an investment. It adds security to my home and increases the value of my home.”

Despite the sometimes expensive challenges of maintaining a home, it is important that Thompson be a homeowner in the place where she grew up. “I always knew I wanted to own in the city –” she says. “It never made sense to me.”

Thompson purchased her home in 2017 with the D.C. housing assistance program, which helps low-and moderate-income residents afford housing in the city. Thompson was making $ 45,000 at the time, which qualified her for the program.

She received a $ 64,000 loan from HPAP, and if she has lived in the house for at least 15 years, she should not pay the money back, she says.

That’s fine with Thompson – she never wants to leave D.C. “I’m native Washington,” she says. “I don’t see myself living anywhere else.”

Thompson earns $ 80,000 a year as a cultural resources project Manager at the national Park Foundation. She helps lead the Foundation’s efforts to preserve and share African-American history, culture, and public histories through America’s national parks.

The position combines Thompson’s passion for African-American history and culture with her interest in improving the visitor experience in museums. In addition, she gets to travel across the country to visit the sites of projects she works on, including Martin Luther king, Jr. national historic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, and Harriet Tubman national historic Park in Auburn, new York.

Her favorite site to date is Fort Monroe national monument in Virginia, she says, ” This is the place where, in 1619, the first African-Americans were brought to American soil. But it’s also a place where African-Americans liberated themselves during the civil war.”

It’s still a relatively new gig for Thompson: she’s been unemployed for six months after losing her previous job during a Federal government shutdown earlier this year.

But her new role came with a big pay bump. “Before being at the National Park Foundation, I earned $ 45,000 a year working for the Federal government,” she says.

“Making $ 80,000 a year with one job certainly gives me a work-life balance I don’t know what I need,” she adds.

And while a higher salary is appreciated, Thompson doesn’t have to live a full life in the nation’s capital. “I lived comfortably in D.C., making half that salary,” she says.

“My lifestyle hasn’t changed that much – I’m still as much shopping and splurging, and I still take the same number of trips, but I’m able to save more.”

Here’s a breakdown of how Thompson saves and spends in a typical month.

Thompson keeps a close eye on his finances and checks the Mint budgeting app at least once a day. “Whenever I swipe my card, I check if the money has been classified correctly or just get an idea of what my finances look like for the day,” she says.

It gives her a sense of control over her money and helps her keep track of where she’s going.

Debt repayments make up most of Thompson’s monthly budget. Although she has five credit cards, she carries a balance on only one. Thompson puts up about $ 1,500 to $ 9,000 balance each month so she can pay off the debt as quickly as possible and avoid racking up extra interest.

Thompson received her bachelor’s degree from tufts University. She got so many scholarships and got so much financial help, she jokes that she was paid to go to College. But graduate school was a different story: she took out about $ 100,000 in loans to earn a master’s degree in Museum research and historic preservation from Morgan University in Baltimore and pays $ 339 in debt each month.

Thompson hopes to take advantage of the state student loan forgiveness program offered by the Federal government, for which she is eligible to work. If the program works for her, Thompson will have most of her loans forgiven after making 10 years of consecutive payments, meaning she will end up paying about $ 27,000 on her loans, rather than the full $ 100,000.

Thompson nearly drained her savings when she was unemployed, but now that she’s working again, she’s building them back up. She currently has about $ 1,000 in savings and aims to add between $ 800 and $ 1,200 each month to her account. She expects to be able to contribute more once she eliminates her credit card debt.

Thompson also puts $ 200 into her employer-sponsored 403 (b) plan and $ 80 into a flexible spending account. After a year in her job, she will be eligible for a 5% match on her 403 (b) and plans to raise her contribution to take full advantage of this.

Thompson’s mortgage runs her $ 878 a month. It also pays an additional $ 100 a year for the Park permit zone in the city, which comes out to about $ 8 a month.

Despite owning her own place, Thompson Anavar’s expenses are low, thanks in part to finding many of her possessions. “The market value for my house is about $ 800,000, but they sold it to me for $ 250,000,” she says.

In addition to the $ 64,000 HPAP loan, she contributed another $ 13,000 of her own savings on the down payment, bringing her initial mortgage costs to approximately $ 175,000 in total. When she can, she pays an additional $ 500 a month to her mortgage in order to pay off the balance faster, and she expects to pay it off in full within eight to nine years.

Thompson started saving your home before the opening of the public assistance program. After graduating from College, she returned to D.C., where she simultaneously worked two jobs and an internship, as well as graduate school full – time. “I didn’t have time to actually spend the money I was making,” she says.

Thompson also commutes to Baltimore for her graduate program – which can take up to three hours each way when traffic was heavy – so she could save more money. During this time she lived with her sister who only charged her $ 500 a month in rent.

“I’m a firm believer in self-care,” Thompson says. For her, it’s “all that pampers me,” including spending $ 100 to get her hair done each month, $ 10 for eyebrows and two months of Mani-pedis for $ 60 each. She also spends $ 100 for a subscription to the Red door, salon and Spa, allowing her to indulge in a monthly massage or facial.

Exercise is also a top priority for Thompson. She pays $ 190 a month for membership in Orange Theory, a fitness boutique that mixes cardio with strength exercises, and another $ 120 a month on cycle elections, a local spin Studio.

Thompson spends about $ 100 a month at his local grocery store. She also makes monthly trips to Costco – her family members share their membership – where she stocks $ 200 to $ 300 worth of groceries.

Thompson cooks Breakfast at home most mornings, but is usually eaten quite often for lunch and dinner. “My friend and I go out almost every other day,” she says, adding that he generously raises the tab most of the time. Between dates evening dinners, happy hours and weekday Lunches, Thompson spends about $ 250 a month dining.

However, she refuses to spend money on coffee, despite drinking it daily. “I hate the fact that you can buy a bag of coffee for five bucks, but if you go to Starbucks or any other coffee shop, you spend $ 6 per Cup.”

To get around D.C., Thompson primarily walks or drives. Her car, a 2012 Nissan Juke, pays off, but she spends about $ 60 on gas every month. She bought a used car in 2013 for about $ 24,000. Because she doesn’t drive often, her maintenance costs are negligible.

Thompson also uses Lyft from time to time, which works with her for about $ 60 a month.

CNBC to Do It asked Pamela Capalad, a certified financial planner and founder of Brunch

Overall, she thinks Thompson is doing great. “She is in a place where she is working towards financial stability coming back from this period of unemployment, but she has all the necessary tools to be able to get there pretty quickly,” says Capalad.

The ability to save Thompson stands out Capaldi. When Thompson was unemployed, she could rely on her savings to get through, which is an emergency Fund.

Now, it’s smart that Thompson is taking steps to top up what she spent. “She has a lot of her priorities in a good place, especially when it comes to understanding the need to recover her savings,” says Capalad.

While it’s commendable that Thompson is able to save about $ 1,000 each month, she could make her money work more for her by putting it in a high-yield savings account.

“A lot of people don’t think of their savings as a place where you could make money with your money in a safe way,” says Capalad.

Simply by transferring her savings to an online Bank like Ellie, Marcus or a host of others, Thompson can earn more than 20 times the interest she receives from a traditional account. “It really makes a difference getting 2% interest on your money compared to the 0.1% interest that most big banks pay,” says Capalad.

Financial experts rarely condone debt, but Kapalad notes that in this case Thompson used her credit card as a means to be able to maintain her home while unemployed, and there’s nothing wrong with that. “With credit cards, it’s never black and white,” she explains. “The reason we have access to this as a tool for these situations.”

A post shared by Angel (@lilmiss_muse) on Jul 24, 2019 at 1:13pm PDT

However, it is important to understand the reality of credit card debt and focus on paying it as quickly as possible, which Thompson does. “She had a plan and it implements the direction of repayment of the debt,” says Kapala.

Capalad gives Thompson a lot of credit for saving so much cash, but she recommends that she develop a clear plan for her savings. A good place to start would be to decide how much she wants to save in her emergency Fund. The General rule is to create three to six months worth of savings.

Once Thompson hits that milestone, she can reconsider where her money is going and decide if she wants to contribute more to her 403 (b) or start investing through a brokerage account, Capalad says.

But so far she’s doing well. “She has all these other expenses that she is currently juggling as well as recovering her savings,” says Capalad. “I think these are priorities that she should focus on.”

Capalad is impressed that Thompson successfully navigated the Home purchase assistance Program and also used his own savings to buy a home.

“If you can’t see yourself in a place for longer than five years, it doesn’t make sense to invest all that money in a house, try to keep it and then have to sell in five years,” Capalad says, noting that Thompson bought her home for all the right reasons.

She cautions against thinking about a home as an investment. If you do, then “you’re counting on the house to appreciate in value by the time you’re ready to sell it,” which doesn’t always happen. Before buying, Capalad recommends asking yourself why you want to. If the answer is to end up making a profit or stop” throwing money away ” on rent, this may not be the right choice for you.

“Home ownership is something that people should think of as long-term,” says Capalad.

Thompson is certainly in it in the long run. But she still hopes to repay her mortgage early and get to enjoy the extra cash it frees up in her budget.

“In 10 years, my house will be repaid, my loans will be forgiven, and I can put my money and my time on things that really matter to me,” Thompson says. “I see myself splurging on vacation or buying another home or renting a property in D.C.”

What is your budget breakdown? Share your story with us at [email protected] for a chance to be better in the future of the party. We’re particularly interested in getting from people in Austin, Denver and Nashville.

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