Where, oh where, does our $exy money go?!
Waa-BANG! It seems we go through $6,000 a month!! WOW. I knew we spent a lot, but my goodness. Do you know how much that is a year? ... $72,000 bones! At least $17k of it goes right into savings/retirement. Actually, that # is almost doubled when you add in the 401(k) employer match too, so I've got no complaints :)
Another thing I need to keep in mind is that these new #'s are actually for BOTH the Mrs. and I, as opposed to just my own stuff. We've been spending all of this all along anyways, but this is the first time i've putten it all together and anylized it like I did. While it was scary as $hit, i'm not gonna lie, at least i KNOW now where it's all going. Going forward this will be my new benchmark to beat ;)
And to be honest, it's not *that* far off from what I used spend early last year all by myself! If you recall last year's money flow chart, I was going through $5k ALONE! That covered $3,779 for all my expenditures, and then an additional $1,188 worth of 401(k) deposits. So in reality this ain't to shabby. It's still a helluva lot of money going out the door, but still not too horrible - at least for the area we are living in (Washington, DC).
Here's how it all breaks down:
MORTGAGE: The #1 bad boy eating up all our money! I'd *really* like to change this over the next year, but for now it is what it is. This section covers Mortgage #1 ($1650.00), Mortgage #2 ($200 as of now...used to be $540 before rates got slashed), Taxes ($282), and Home owners (HOA - $127).
SAVINGS/RETIREMENT*: This would be the #1 slot in my dreams ;) Most of this includes my all-time favorite pre-tax 401(k) contributions of 19% ($1,188/mo), and is why it may look like we're "spending" more than we take in. Gotta love those tax benefits! We also add about $200 worth of savings every month, and periodically add a little into our Emergency Fund & Roths too when extra money comes in.
TRANSPORTATION: My "car loan" right now is the biggest culprit here @ $444/mo., but my goal is to wipe it out within 4 months. The Mrs. doesn't have a car loan (you go girl!), so the rest of these expenses fall into Gas ($146), Metro ($68) and Train tkts ($125).
FOOD: Groceries are the biggest item @ $317/mo., followed by Dining Out ($173) which covers work-day lunches, dinners out, starbucks (for the Mrs.), etc, and then Beers ($58).
OTHER: I'm sure half of this stuff belongs in other categories, but it's much easier to manage the "leftovers" this way, as well as work on lowering it. "Other" includes gifts ($75), clothes ($100), charity (currently $25 but would like to start increasing soon!), and then all other Random items @ $224.
UTILITIES: We have our Comcast Triple Play @ $159 which covers tv, internet, and phone, Electric ($95), and Water ($28). For some reason we saved a lot here when we got out of renting.
INSURANCE: One of my favorite categories! haha..am i a dork? This covers both our Cars @$118, Life insurance for the two of us ($56 total), Homeowners ($15), Jewelry (aka diamond rings & earings @ $7/mo.), and our Computers for a whopping $1/mo!
HEALTH & BEAUTY: The girl's section ;) $20 for monthly prescriptions, and about $70 for hair cuts/dyes, make-up, lotions, and maybe (just maybe) a tiny portion for my Aquanet hair spray!
GRAD SCHOOL: If the Mrs. hadn't gotten a free ride here, we'd be looking at a good $35k/year!!! Ouch. But, as luck/smarts would have it, we are only looking at around $42 for books and $38 for fees. They're paid per semester, but i broke 'em down per month to track easier.
Whew! I must say, this took quite some time pulling all together. I had abut 75% of my stuff calculated already, but it was getting the Mrs. stuff together that really took some time. I'd highly recommend doing this though if you haven't already. It only takes one time and then you're set for the year! Although i'll probably revisit it every 6 months or so, esp when major things change.
And now, I'm gonna set my first NY's resolution: To spend only $60k of this est. $72k this year! (Take that economy...)
Labels: goals, money management
posted by J. Money at
11:53 AM
20 Comments:
That's an awesome breakdown! I've only analyzed and broken down the actual spendy-spending, and kept separate records of the savings, deductions and contributions. Maybe once I have a consolidated salary that's not half contractor money, it'll be easier to create something like this.
Love the chart!
I'm super jealous of the low utility costs, but your mortgage & transportation would do me in. So I guess it's a trade off :)
You probably get this all the time, but congrats on saving so much. Seriously...good for you!
I know its a bit of a 'duh' moment, but Im looking at the budget layout and graphs thinking...'sexy!!'.
Haha. I seriously do my budget in a unix text editor. Maybe I should get myself some sexy graphs ;)
You finally combined your finances, yay! It's great you guys are saving so much of your income. Good luck to you in 2009!
Dear Lord J., you spend my yearly income (or more) a month. I can't wait until we (Ryan and I) get there! :)
I'm right with you Kaitlyn haha - J - your monthly mortgages is damn near equal to my monthly income (minus overtime and such)....wow. Thank goodness I am getting my ashes back into school this year!!!
But amazing charts, really cool how you broke it all down hooker (I had to...)
Have a fan-freaking-tastic weekend!
sadly, our mortgages are similar and my place is a heck of a lot smaller (sexier location though, i bet). ;)
but 23% into savings is sexy!!
Great article!
You can submit it to BankFiesta.com to share with others, hopefully will get you some additional visitors too.
Cheers
Love the pie chart! 23% into savings? Awesome!!
@Revanche - Yeah, i thought about doing the same actually but a big part of my salary goes to savings and i wanted to reflect it as accurately as i can...and man, NOW i'm gonna use it as a motivational tool! i had NO idea i was saving that much ;)
@DD - Thanks so much! yeah i'm totally digging the utility costs over what they used to be...renting a 1 bedroom condo always cost us so much more...isn't that weird? We're in a townhouse right now.
@dollar incense - haha, thanks! i like to think they're pretty sexy too ;) and anyone can do it this way too if they wanted - it's only done in Excel! i just copied and pasted into photoshop & added a little text to make it into an image...you can do it easily w/ google docs too, just not as many color options.
@Sallie's Niece - Yup, there's a first time for everything isn't there? Now that i've gotten this party out of the way, it'll make it MUCH easier to do our total Net Worth now!
@Kaitlyn - i know, isn't it sad? BUT ya gotta keep in mind this is for 2 of us and we're not as young (*tear*) as you guys are ;)
@PJ - damn straight hooker ;) the mortgage is the only thing that kills me w/ our finances..stupid DC and their high-a$$ prices.
@paradigmshifted - gotta do it up sexy or there's no point, right?! and YOU most def. have a better location...we're on the outskirts of the city where it takes 30 mins to go 3 miles in rush hour :(
@Umut - Word. i'll check it out.
@Aplus Financials - It def. takes some getting used to since you are out lots of $ each paycheck, but it's totally worth it!
It's not so bad when you consider much of that is savings. You save a ton in your 401k, I can't convince myself to go that high. Coming from another high cost area, your mortgage isn't too bad - mine's higher. Paying off your car will be a huge help, I paid off mine last year and can finally save some serious cash. I love the pie chart!
I have a question that may have already been answered before I found your blog and it's ok if you don't feel like answering since it is a bit personal. But since I'm about to get married soon and I know you and the Mrs. are newlyweds, did you and the Mrs. combine ALL of your finances? Or did you combine some and keep some separate? I'm still trying to figure out I should handle finances when I get married. Thanks! Love the graphics.
You should include a "Taxes" category if you want to get a total picture (income, property, sales estimation). Not that you have much control over it, sadly, but it would be interesting to see how much pie goes toward it.
Great charts and breakdown. I have pretty much all of this in my monthly budget, except for the savings portion since my 401K comes out automatically and my budget only plans for take home dollars. It is scary when you start adding it all up, isn't it? But also incredibly cool to know.
Hey J, I'd love to know how you feel about having combined your finances since you got married. Has it changed anything about your spending habits, or your wife's? Just curious as one about to tie the knot. I don't know whether we'll combine our finances completely or not. :)
Yeah, the whole "combine or not to combine" finance stuff is definitely worth some consideration! In fact, you know what i'll do? I'll make my next post all about it! How do ya like those apples ;) It's been a while since my last post on our "House Budget"....THANKS for the good ideas guys!!!
I really love with blog! So check this out: in addition to all the frugal stuff, I am 30, live in Baltimore, member of USAA, ADHD, have a wife who is getting her doctorate with a full-tuition scholarship (no stipend at CUA), have cats (and a dog), and a beer aficionado. I'm getting my PhD at Hopkins.
Homeowners insurance should go under "mortgage" because that's part of the calculation in Debt/Income ratios.
I wish that I could bring down our food bill to yours.
hey, wow we really ARE similar! haha...love it. thx for commenting, now it's time to leave the country for a bit! aww yeahh....happy weekend my friend :)
I want to say your blog site is an incredible resource and as someone who is trying to get my own finances in order, I have done the same breakout and tactics. I am also following a snowball type of payoff system, smallest debt first, then roll payment into next debt...etc until all payed off.
I have friends who have payed off their 400k house in 5 years by one of them working and throwing their full salary into their house principal every year while the other spouse held down the normal bills.
Amazing financial discipline takes practice, but we all need some fun money now and again.
I just did this last night for the past year, and compared it to 2007 national averages: http://www.midlifecrisismoney.com/2009/01/what-we-spend-compared-to-the-national-average/
I think tonight I'm going to look at just last month and see how close we came to our budget. Do I know how to have fun or what?
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