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Fiery Millennials

Financial Independence from a millennial's point of view.

Monthly Status Report: September 2019

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Dis­claimer: some links may be affil­i­ate links. They help off­set the cost of keep­ing this blog running!

Why do I do a monthly status report?

I find it best to do a month­ly sta­tus report for a few reasons.

  • It helps me eval­u­ate how I did the pre­vi­ous month. Did I hit a tar­get reduc­tion in spend­ing or did I go way over bud­get for a par­tic­u­lar cat­e­go­ry? Did I earn more? What was my over­all sav­ings rate?
  • It helps keep me account­able. How can I make an extra pur­chase know­ing I’ll have to explain myself to all of you? Talk about awk­ward when the blog­ger can’t walk the walk and talk the talk.
  • I want to prove this crazy thing called finan­cial inde­pen­dence works!
  • It pro­vides an exam­ple of real-world bud­get­ing and expens­es. Some of the peo­ple I talk to haven’t ever seen a prop­er bud­get or seen one put into action and part of the pur­pose of this blog is to lead by example!

I use Mint to help me track my spend­ing and keep an eye on my accounts. I also use a real­ly awe­some and super in-depth spread­sheet. So many for­mu­las….. Some peo­ple use Per­son­al Cap­i­tal and oth­ers use You Need a Bud­get (YNAB). What­ev­er tool (or a com­bi­na­tion there­of) works best for you and your needs is the best one for you, since every­one and their bud­gets are different.

Spending

Sep­tem­ber was a spendy month! Which makes sense when you con­sid­er Fin­Con was in town. Lots of extra car-shar­ing rides, scoot­er rides around the Mall, extra meals out, drinks.… It all adds up at the end of the month but I regret noth­ing. I had a ton of fun! I also paid for a few meals out dur­ing the rest of the month. Guys can’t pay for all the dates all the time!

For­tu­nate­ly, play­ing the Har­ry Pot­ter Wiz­ards Unite game is fair­ly low cost. I’ve been good about not spend­ing real mon­ey on the game and it’s cheap enter­tain­ment to meet up with peo­ple for fortress battles.

Check out below for my spend­ing break­down of Sep­tem­ber 2019!

Screen Shot 2019 10 01 at 3.39.45 PM

Hous­ing DC hous­ing is stu­pid expen­sive to live on your own
Util­i­ties I expect util­i­ties to stay under that $200 limit.
Food Over bud­get, as to be expect­ed with Fin­Con in there
Phone I love Google FI!
Auto Gas, top­ping off my Metro card, and some minor repairs to my car.
Inter­net Got­ta have that fast inter­web access.
Pet Food and poop rocks for the kitty
Blog My Drop­box sub­scrip­tion renewed and oth­er usu­al fees for the blog.
Enter­tain­ment Some music, some mobile game spending.…
Shop­ping More clothes and some tai­lor fees to help them fit better!
Fees Most­ly my Chase Sap­phire Reserve annu­al fee >:[
Trav­el Some car-shar­ing rides and my share of the Fin­Con Friend House

I only spent $600 more than August, so I’m pret­ty con­tent with every­thing that went on and my spend­ing. Sep­tem­ber’s total was $4,533. Much, much, much high­er than I’m used to but I guess this is my new nor­mal now.

Income

Pay­checks: $5,589
Oth­er income: $1,438

Total: $7,027.95

This is pre-tax income, so I won­der if I should share the lev­el of mon­ey I made post-tax, because that might make a bit more sense. (I got some ques­tions on the last post.) Oth­er income includ­ed gifts, friends send­ing me mon­ey for their share of things, and side hus­tles like Etsy.

Savings

401k: $447.15
HSA: $166.66
Roth: $0
Cash: $606.47

Total sav­ings: $1,611.34

I start­ed with all the mon­ey that came in this month as income. I then took out all the spend­ing, tax­es, and sav­ings con­tri­bu­tions to end up with the cash amount. My handy dandy spread­sheet says I saved 35.5% this month which feels great!

Net Worth

Screen Shot 2019 10 01 at 4.18.20 PM

 

Accord­ing to this, my total net worth is $208,416. July was up, August was down, Sep­tem­ber was up. Over the last three months, I’m up rough­ly $1k, even though I gained near­ly $5k the last 4 weeks. Can you imag­ine how stressed out I’d be if I checked my accounts more than just at the begin­ning of the month? I’d be a mess! It’s in my best inter­est to put in my con­tri­bu­tions and let ’em ride.…

Thanks for read­ing! What did your month look like? Did you stick to your budget?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I agree that not look­ing is a great technique 😛 

    Also, I love that you tai­lor your clothes. I do, too. I’m nev­er thrilled at the cost, espe­cial­ly if I’ve just paid for some­thing, but they last so much longer that way…and I actu­al­ly wear them. Imag­ine that. Pre­fer­ring clothes that fit to ones that are just a bit off.

    Hope Octo­ber treats you well!
    Pen­ny recent­ly post­ed…Wealth, Health, and How I Failed: Q3 2019 Goals RecapMy Profile

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  4. If you spent $4,533 and saved $1,611.34, then your after-tax income should be $6,144.34 (expens­es + sav­ings) and your after-tax sav­ing rate should be 26.2% (sav­ings / after-tax income). What am I missing?

    Reply

  6. I would look at the blog cost as nec­es­sary in the sense that it’s a busi­ness expense and you’re build­ing an asset (your con­tent). You may decide in the future not to do a blog but then that $200 could be ear­marked for some­thing else (say, you decid­ed to do eBay sell­ing or Etsy craft­ing or what­ev­er). Spend­ing on a busi­ness is invest­ing, as much as buy­ing real estate or paper assets. I think it’s great that you have some­thing out­side your day to day job!
    Car­o­line at Cos­ta Rica FIRE recent­ly post­ed…How Much We Spent Liv­ing In Cos­ta Rica For One MonthMy Profile

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  7. Awe­some! I total­ly get it on hous­ing here. Just add $500+ for tax­es plus $300+ for insur­ance. That’s a house pay­ment for a lot of peo­ple here. 

    Yeah, this month was tough since we splurged on the “old truck” and Sep­tem­ber some of the insur­ances are due. Of course, Octo­ber the coun­ty tax­es are due. Then Decem­ber also have real estate tax­es due. Thank good­ness for sink­ing funds. Do you con­sid­er sink­ing funds sav­ings? We per­son­al­ly don’t. I have heard some peo­ple do.
    Hol­ly G. recent­ly post­ed…Finan­cial IndependenceMy Profile

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  8. Expen­sive hous­ing can be real­ly demo­ti­vat­ing, but you’re on track to meet your goals, so that’s all you need to focus on! My spend­ing for Sep­tem­ber went through the roof because I spent $15,000 (Aus­tralian) on a wed­ding. But I mar­ried a man who is as addict­ed to per­son­al finance as I am, so I’m sure I’ll make it all back in the long run.
    Mrs Fru­gal Aussie Mil­len­ni­al recent­ly post­ed…My Fru­gal WeddingMy Profile

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