I searched "Case Study" in the Ask a Mustachian forums in hopes of comparing my spending to others. However, after going through about 10 posts, most I find are hard to compare to me. I'm in a pretty good place financially. Unfortunately most of the posts with broken down spending explanations are "How do I un-hair-on-fire?" but that's not really a life situation that I can compare myself to. Lets get started.
I will be using
superscripts to add notes for categories that have explanations.
Income:
Pre-tax salary ends up being
$3460.72 monthly after insurance (and FSA), taxes, and my 6% 401k contribution (matched 3% by my employer, this is the max they will match)
Rental Income - $850
1Total Income: $4310.72 per monthExpenses:
Mortgage - $1162.36 (This includes $62 of mortgage insurance)
Student Loans - $300.00
2Restaurants - $270.00 (Mostly my bad latte habit)
Utilities - $220.00 (Water, Natural Gas, Electric)
Groceries - $150.00 (My half of split with SO)
Home Improvement/Maintenance - $170.00
Pets - $95.00 (two cats)
Cell Phone - $63.00
Internet - $75.00 (Variable - don't get me started on Comcast.)
General Merch - $60.00 (This is mostly housewares - it was a blender and some utensils this month)
Gas (Petrol) - $60.00
Entertainment - $55.00 (Netflix, Hulu, some video game subscriptions/microtransactions)
Other - $150 (Semi-frivolous spending - haircuts, makeup, clothes...)
3Total Expenses: $2830.36Assets: Checking/Savings accounts: $9000 (I consider this my emergency fund)
401k: $9910
Roth IRA: $5651.74 (opened a few months ago)
Liabilities:Mortgage: $124,000 owed on a $134,000 initial loan at 2.75% for 20 years.
Student Loans: $18,816 owed at various interest rates between 4.5% and 6.8%
Me and my Goals:I'm a 25 year old engineer living in Atlanta. I drive a 1999 Accord with 225k miles on it - it was given to me when I graduated high school so I guess it's "mine" free and clear. I got a raise 4 months ago from $52k to $70k so I'm feeling pretty good right now. I let my extra money sit in my savings account. I usually let it build up until it gets to a silly number and then I put it all in something (It's been IRA for the last few months, then student loans, a couple of times it was extra towards mortgage). This is obviously not a long term solution. My long term goal is to retire before I'm 40. My SO and I sat down last night and plotted our plan for the next 15 years and we feel like we are doing pretty good, considering our expected raises and ability to save extra hardcore once I have no mortgage or student loans. I'm a simple girl with no interest in traveling or raising a family (ever. never.).
1 - Rental income will be reduced by $500 dollars first quarter of next year. I can't handle my sister and her dog living with me anymore so she is finding her own place. This will reduce some other expenses but I'm not factoring that in.
2 - Student loans were about $340 but I've been throwing extra money at them so I paid some small high interest ones off this month to reduce the monthly payment.
3 - I have to figure out where this money is going because I'm really not sure. This is my homework assignment tonight.
Questions:- What does my spending look like compared to yours? Where is reasonable to cut, considering the fact that I'm cutting out of want not out of need?
- Obviously, I have a lot of extra money.What should I really do with it? Pay off mortgage until MI is gone? Pay off student loans aggressively?
- Is my long term goal silly? My parents think I'm dreaming but I do the math and feel like it's achievable...
Please feel free to ask questions and offer criticism.
[Edit]I fixed the subject since I left out part of my purpose.