I think you are doing OK. B minus. I also consider myself a "low mustachian" in the way you describe, but my income is higher and my expenses are lower. Edit: I also live in a high COL area, like to eat at fancy restaurants, and often pay for my GF. So something isn't adding up, and I think it's as everyone and particularly CommonCents mentioned above regarding the true cost of the GF.
Just curious: what is she contributing to the relationship? Financially and otherwise? (Feel free to keep it PG heh)
This wasn't clear to me either -- do you pay for everything? Does she treat you to a cheap restaurant and you treat to the expensive ones? It sounds like the only reason you have a car is so that she can drive it.... unless you see marriage in the future, I feel like you are definitely sugar daddying it up. Edit: maybe you can clarify, because the way you describe it, it sounds like she feels entitled to the money you make.
Think everyone's ignoring the big expense here: the apartment. Is it actually cheaper to "own" it with $1500/month going towards it, or might it be cheaper to rent? Don't know the market, but that sounds very expensive for what it is?
I noticed this too. Quickly running the numbers, it appears he is paying around 7% interest+taxes. That sounds really high to me.
Other things that sound high:
$1500/year in car insurance is ridiculous. That's like teenager driving a mustang level insurance. Considering you take the train to work, this can really improve.
Maid - obviously, everyone mentioned this one. You only have a 1 BR... it's not like you have a giant ranch and yet you spend $2k/year on this? Do you plan to have a maid forever? If not, why not just start cleaning up after yourself now? I'm guessing this is a weekly affair, but you could drop it down to monthly. Plus, I always thought the benefit of having your GF over is that she gets so fed up with the mess that she cleans it up for you :-P
OK final edit: I don't know why you are using 4-weekly accounting. There doesn't appear to be a particularly good reason for it, besides making everything more complicated.
Actually the loan was like 2.89%, and my apple and furniture loans are 0%. I think the interest is a little more frontloaded since I just got the place. I've checked out the payment schedule and the percentage that goes towards equity rises over time.
The maid is a bi-weekly affair, and I think if I were better at cleaning it probably wouldn't be necessary, but I'm pretty terrible at it and she gets pissed about it.
I have no idea why the car insurance is so high still, it's ridiculous. I have wondered the same thing.
As for her, she contributes to the relationship in odd ways. For one, for every holiday she gets me a fairly expensive gift, even though I tell her not to. For instance for Xmas she got me those adjustable Bowflex weights, but she did it off Craigslist so they were relatively cheap(100$), but not for her. She cooks much more often than I do, and that is escalating recently as she is "stealth moving in." She'll come walk my dog when I'm at work just because she's in the area. She'll run errands in the car during the week since I can't do them, and occasionally(VERY OCCASIONALLY) she will do dishes. If I let them pile up enough. She spends a lot of time on Groupon every day trying to find good date deals, though "good date deals" is a relative term to Mustachians, I guess. When I have had a particularly bad week, she'll give me a full body massage. So it's little things, she contributes by giving her time when I cannot at the moment.
I do plan on asking her to marry me in a year. There is nobody else I'd rather spend time with, and I love her company and all the little things she does for me. Too much to list.
Though the numbers add up to my being a sugar daddy, she is genuinely interested in becoming a nurse and owning her own money. Her mother ironed that into her, that she needs independence. I've explained to her that our accounts will always be separate and that I'd like her to separately achieve FIRE so she can know the joy of working for freedom. She is okay with this. On the flip side, she does expect a nice ring, and an expensive wedding, and plans on making her first purchase out of nursing school a one-year-old(so used) BMW. So there is good and bad in this woman, financially speaking.
As for the 4 week accounting, I dunno. When I first started that's how I did it. Call it a legacy feature lol