Weekend Spending!

I spent nearly $300 in just a couple of hours on Sunday. Yikes! It was very strange to go and spend that much all at once. It's all in my budget though.

I spent $125 on clothes which is a couple of months worth of my clothing budget. Since I haven't bought anything lately, I'm good there. I bought a dozen plain colored shirts, mostly long sleeved. I only own one long sleeved, non-sweater shirt....and it's too small. That problem is now solved. Low 40's is just not t-shirt weather anymore.

I've been slowly working on my wardrobe over the last year or so. I'm now looking fairly good on the basics. It's the first time I've had jeans, shirts and underwear all at the same time in just forever. If I get myself a bag of socks, I'll be in pretty good shape. I might even be able to think about buying cute stuff soon. It's hard to think about a cute jacket or a pair of boots when you don't have shirts or pants to wear. :)

The other thing I spent money on was my fiance's Christmas gift. I won't say what it is (just in case), but that money has been budgeted for and saved already. This means I'm all done with Christmas shopping, except for my brother's birthday gift. I still have to finish my Christmas knitting, but that's another story. I just need to buckle down and finish my Aunt's present. Then I will be done. That will be very nice indeed!

As weird as it was to spend so much money at once, it was really nice too. Not the spending it, but the taking care of things I needed to, and knowing that the money is there and I don't need to worry about it. That's the best feeling.

Status Update #4

Well it's been quite a while since I did my last status update. Since I've had some significant changes recently, it seems about time to do a new one.

Last time, I was starting to save for our vacation in Las Vegas. I hit that goal rather easily. Unfortunately, I also went over budget on my vacation. This was mainly due to some confusion as to who was paying what. However, I was able to find some extra cash in my budget, so it all turned out ok.

My last status update also had me just starting my wedding fund. I've saved about $3k and spent not quite half that so far. I would be several thousand farther in this goal, except that I'm prepaying all my car loan payments until the wedding. That should be finished up this next month I believe. Things will really start moving at that point.


Wedding - $15,000.00

My Roth IRA is coming along slowly, but surely. It's deposits have been downgraded to $75 a paycheck now that I have a 401k match again. I also had to increase my target goal as it seems they upped the minimum required to buy into the fund. It's still getting pretty close. This is one of the highest minimum requirements of the funds I want, so it should be easier after this.


Roth IRA - $3,300.00

As I mentioned earlier, I've been paying down all my car payments ahead of time. This will save me a small bit in interest over the next year or so while I do the wedding thing. It should end up fairly close to halfway paid off in the next month or two.


Car Loan - $19,439.30

And the really big change that prompted this status update - my student loans. I've consolidated them into one big loan. I admit, they looked much more manageable when it was $5k here and $5k there, but this is better in the long run. My variable rate is now locked in and I've got a new rate of about 5.6%. It also lowered my minimum payment by about a third. I'll take advantage of that over the next year or two until my car is paid off. After that, this loan will start quickly disappearing.

I have to say, I'm sad that all my progress is wiped out now.


Consolidated Student Loan - $15,025.89

It's nice to see progress happening, even if it's infuriatingly slow as always. The wedding is starting to feel like it's really going to happen. If that happens, being debt free will follow soon after. That will be nice for the short while it lasts until I buy a house. I'm ok with that though.

Timeout please??

Life has gotten all crazy on me again. I hate it when it does that. I have too many things up in the air and too many things getting in the way.

S and I have both gotten sick. He's been out of work the last two days. I was rather under the weather, felt better, and now feel not so great again. I may ask my boss if I can work from home this afternoon.

Meanwhile, we're in the midst of our great office renovation. We spent the weekend working on that and got everything out, all the furniture in the new layout and the fish tank moved. The rest of our office is still in our living room. Which wouldn't be a huge deal except we're both feeling under the weather and we have people coming over on Saturday.

Of course, the people coming over depends on whether or not I'm working on Saturday. Right now, that's a pretty real threat. Work is much the same as home - too much to do, too little time to do it. All the while made worse by the fact that we've all been passing the flu around at work. Great.

I know I'm whining, (I always do when I'm sick!) but it's just a lot to juggle on top of all the normal stuff life brings AND the holidays are coming up AND I'm trying to plan a wedding AND I'm a bridesmaid for my best friend next year. Oh, and the ever present minor family drama. Remind me to post about why you shouldn't sell your house to your grandson.

Can I have a timeout for life please?

Living Below Your Means is Having More

When someone says they live below their means, or spends less than they earn, it paints a negative connotation. They're giving up something. They have less fun. They don't buy nice things. They're cheap. It makes you think those things. I see it as the other way around entirely.

When you spend less than you earn, you still use every dollar that comes in. The difference is that you don't spend it on day to day living. Maybe you spend it on a boat or vacation or a new couch or save it to spend when you turn 65. Spending less than you earn is really just spending less than you earn today. You'll still spend it tomorrow or next week or next month.

You don't really want to stop spending anyway. You just want to spend less money existing (rent, utilities, food) so you can spend more money on dreams. What's funny, is that when you do that, people don't think you spend less than you earn, they think you're really well off and make more than them.

It's not about spending less or saving hoards of money. It's just about giving up the things that don't matter for the ones that do.

Income Planning

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my anal retentive budgeting before. I have each month with it's expenses and savings planned out for about the next 10 years. Yes, I really am that crazy. I plan my budget out about as far as my plans go. Currently that's through my wedding, paying off all debts, building a bigger eFund, buying a house, and building a car replacement fund right about the time my current car will hit 10 years old. Lately I've been thinking about expanding the budget out a bit farther to include my new entrepreneurial plans.

An interesting aspect of this is my income. Most people have a steady job and get a raise every year. Most people also don't plan on staying at their current job for as long as I've budgeted. So, how do I manage to budget that far out, right? Well, I just use my current income. Ten years from now, I've budgeted as if I make the same as I do right now. That's pretty unlikely to be true, but it sure does help keep things sane.

If you tried to plan it 'realistically' people would say to build in at least a 3% raise every year, along with some occasional larger increases due to job changes or promotions. But what if that doesn't happen? I got a raise last year, but it was only 2%. Considering there was a hiring freeze and my 401k was canceled at the time, I was perfectly happy with that. Only what if I had planned on that 3%+ raise? I'd have to go downgrade my budget. That's just depressing and annoying. Instead, I get to upgrade my budget each year.

Another advantage is keeping lifestyle inflation in check. How many people plan on making more down the road and take on a bigger house or more debt than they should? And how many people are scrambling right now? Yeah....bad idea. Instead, I plan out how to accomplish my dreams on no more than I make now. That's pretty empowering all by itself. To know that I can get that house and retire early and whatever else making exactly what I make now is amazing for my confidence in my plans. Then each year when I get my annual raise, I get to see how much quicker I can get there and how much easier it makes things.

Above all, it helps keep things grounded in the real world. When I say that I can afford a house payment of $X, I can see how tight that makes the rest of my budget. I see how long it takes to do anything else once I'm paying so much just for housing. It makes me want a smaller mortgage, a bigger down payment and an early payoff. :) It also encourages me to work on some of my bigger dreams even when there's things like wedding and houses to be had. When I know I can do what I want with what I have, it's really easy to funnel any raises I get over to retirement savings and such. That's definitely a good thing.

I suppose most people don't plan out that far in advance, but I really recommend it. It's good to see your progress and when you can use it to keep expenses in check, that's good too. :) So what's the verdict, am I crazy or a genius?

Highlights!

Today I just feel like sharing some random highlights from my life lately. So without further ado....

Yesterday I signed a contract and put a deposit down for my wedding location. It's exciting and nerve wracking!

S got diagnosed with sleep apnea and got a CPAP machine. I slept poorly for two weeks and then suddenly was sleeping better than ever. I've also noticed a decrease in my appetite. Maybe I'll lose those 5 pounds I've gained since I met my fiance. He's experienced a night and day difference to his quality of life and also had a decreased appetite.

My sister in law is pregnant with a baby girl who is due in February. Possible names: Eva, Ella, Lilo. Love the first one, hate the last.

My nephew looks twice his age because he's so tall. This is bad because people think he's a badly behaved 4 year old instead of a well behaved 2 year old! Oh, and trebuchets are a LOT of fun. 10 points for getting your dad in the head. -5 points for hitting Auntie Slinky.

My mum brought over her truck full of dressers to give to me. Turns out that instead of one tall, one wide dresser that she said there was, there was actually one wide dresser, a vanity, two end tables and some sort of hutch thing. We still don't know what that went with. We ended up not taking any of them and sending it all back with my mum. We really only have room for a tall dresser, and they were musty from being stored somewhere so they gave S instant asthma. Can't really sleep in the same room with those! Cost of "thanks for coming out anyway" dinner and drinks: $100 for 5 people and a toddler.

There is a warrant out for my dad's arrest. When my parent's divorced, he agreed to give up his claim to the condo we lived in. Apparently he's changed his mind. This is called "in contempt of court" and leads to warrants, jail time and fines. Generally, all three from what I've gathered. Last known location: Florida

I bought a new desk that is now sitting in my living room. S has yet to find a desk to his liking, but we're going to look again. Since I got a 48" desk, he has a bit more room. We originally ruled out a lot of slightly larger desks. Hopefully, one of these will be acceptable. After that, we just have to find a free weekend to completely redo our office!

I got a plant for my desk at work. It cost $2.50 because some of the flowers had wilted. It gives me no end of happiness. Directions: Keep out of bright sunlight, water frequently and thoroughly. Perfect for the office and a person who tends to over water.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. This year's costumes: Geisha (last minute party costume), Pirate (work/friend's party), Harley Quinn (going out on Halloween). S won't let me wear his sword to work, but I get to borrow it for the friend's party later. He's being John Trent (Do you read Sutter Kane?), a vampire (work) and the Joker (old school, thank you very much). Apparently a lot of people are going as "the new" Harley Quinn from the Arkham Asylum game that is coming out. I'm curious how many people will actually recognize it. The game isn't out yet and the costume is basically "slutty blond goth girl with too many pieces of white clothing." Or so I've heard it described. (I'm such a Harley snob.)

Last but, definitely least, I can now solve a standard rubik's cube successfully. Always good to know. :)

I Think I Have a Problem

I love spreadsheets too much. I have ones for my budget, my wedding budget, my guest list (and catering costs based on guest counts), my portfolio allocation, my networth (which has about 6-8 pages), my portfolio returns, my fiance and my shared expenses, my anticipated income from retirement accounts and planned contributions to them, the list just goes on and I've now added another one to my collection.

This one calculates my progress towards my goal of financial freedom. Apparently I'm 4.08% there already. I broke it down into things I need to do and assigned appropriate percentages to things. For instance, I have a sub-goal of having sufficient cashflow which is further broken into paying down debt and increasing income which are then broken down into goals like pay off car loan which then have monetary goals like paying off $5k, etc. Each sub goal is assigned a percentage of it's master goal, all the way down the line.

It's super geeky, and way too anal retentive, but I love it. I even made it fairly simple to add new goals and everything adds itself up nicely. My emergency funds are 7.31% complete. Hurrah! :)

I Love Paying Off Debt

It's just so darn satisfying. I think it's more so than savings. With debt, the ultimate goal is to pay it all off, but each dollar you put towards it is a victory by itself. That's a little less debt, a little less interest, a little more freedom. Each dollar towards savings gets you closer to your goal, but usually makes little impact by itself. You do get a bit more interest, but the rates are so much lower than typical rates on debt that it's just not the same. They're especially low right now, which is rather annoying.

I was thinking about this because I just took a break from wedding savings to put $2k on my car loan. You have to love those triple paycheck months! Unlike most people, I actually include those in my budget and allocate the money towards my goals just like any other paycheck. It's really nice to get that huge boost to savings or debt repayment twice a year. I sure enjoyed seeing my car balance drop by that much. I've now payed off nearly a third of the amount I owed. I'll be paying off a bit more over the next few months and it should get down to almost half before I put it back on hiatus. That will last until the wedding is past, or at least completely paid for. After that, it's all car loan, all the time. :)

"You’ve settled. And a little part of your soul dies."

I read that today and it made me pause. I've never been able to phrase it so succinctly, but this is the motivation behind the way I live my life. When you give up who you are and what you want and the things you love...you give up a part of yourself too. Sometimes you can get it back, but sometimes you can't.

The thing that is most important to me, is to be myself. I don't ever want to look back in ten years and wonder how I got where I am and when I'd lost myself along the way. I don't care if I look back and laugh at the weirdo I was back then. I do care whether or not I can recognize the face I see in the mirror.

Forming New Habits

I try to slowly change things in my life by changing small habits. For me, it seems to work better than large sweeping changes. It's the difference between cleaning the whole office in one go and filing your bank statements when you get them.

The contrast between the two often helps me as well. I'll gladly do the small thing if I don't have to do the big thing. Conquering the small habits can give me a boost to do part of the big thing too. When I managed to stop accumulating papers on my desk, I was really excited to get rid of the backlog of papers I already had.

Years of keeping up with college reading and homework loads has honed my will power to the point where it's fairly simple to make myself do the one small thing. I have trouble conquering my habits for a different reason. I don't remember that I should be doing that thing.

I've discovered something, that while not perfect, certainly has helped me a lot. I tied the new habit to something already in my routine. To add something to my morning routine I might tie it to brushing my hair. Whenever I brush my hair (most of the time) I will then remember that I need to do this new thing.

I'm not big on having a set routine. I tend to do things in the order I think of them. That's probably why it's so tough for me to remember to do new things. I don't always do them in the same order. My fiance follows a morning routine with an astounding amount of precision. I once thought that maybe that was what I needed, but it doesn't work for me.

So rather than trying to do A, then B, then new thing C and then D, I simply remember that whenever I do B, I must also do C. As long as I make B something that I do as often as I want to do C, life is good. A simple trick, but it sure has helped!