Author Topic: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep  (Read 6427 times)

AriesFire

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 17
Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« on: May 31, 2017, 07:47:34 AM »
Hi- still pretty new around here, but was inspired to actually look at my spending from all of the posts here. I was always so smug about how great at saving I was compared to everyone else I know... But running my budget kind of shocked me. I still feel pretty frugal in many areas- no car loans, using mostly second hand furniture, haven't upgraded our housing from 10 years ago when we made 75% less. But its relative to what I see around me.  Anyways, I'm in sort of a unique situation in that my husband and I keep completely separate finances. I know about how much he makes and our assets, but I have no idea of how or really how much he spends. I don't really want to combine finances, I've talked to him about early retirement but he says he would just be bored and wants to enjoy life and spend money now. I would ER immediately if I could... I think, and would want my own funds to use.

Married, filing jointly. Mid 30s, No kids, just a 14 year old cat.  I will make $108,000 including bonus this year, husband around $65,000-75,000 depending on bonuses. We also make around $24,000 of rental income after expenses (3 rental houses).

Assets   
Shared with husband
Houses(6 rental units) - 605,000

Me   
IRA - 59,254
Brokerage - 19,821
401k - 134,892
Cash - 13,000
HSA - 6,655

Husband   
IRA - 73,000
Cash - 30,000
Company stock - 26,000

Total - 969,621

Liablities- Total between us both
   
Mortgages and HELOC - 290,000
Student Loans(All husband's, he pays) - 5,000

No car loans, mine is a 2010 Lexus hybrid I paid for in cash 2 years ago. I drove my last car, a Civic, for 15 years. My husband gets a leased car paid for through his employer.

I am going to attach my own spending averages not including any money my husband spends. These are the averages for the last year. I saved $40k last year, and i also was making over $20k less, so I think I am getting worse at saving while making more money.

Monthly
Gross - $9,000
Deductions   
Federal & state taxes - 1,026
FICA    - 651
401k (max) - 1,500 (My employer contributes an additional 4%)
HSA(max) - 438 (My employer contributes $1,500)
Health Insurance - 124
 
Take home - $5,261/month, $63,124/year



Somewhat discretionary   
Amazon(Supplements, food items, books, misc) - 85
Clothes/makeup/hair/etc    - 330
Dermatologist    - 140
Dining out/bars/entertainment - 500
Work café    - 40
Groceries    - 185
Supplies and cat food (charity, cleaning,vitamins etc) - 90
Fees    - 30
Fuel    - 50
Gifts     -125
Household furniture and plants - 160
Subscriptions(netflix/hulu/spotify/iphonestorage) - 35
Travel -540
Gym    - 10
Somewhat required   
My share of utilities - 217
Car Insurance - 73
Healthcare/prescriptions -  50
TOTAL EXPENSES    $2,660
   
Other Savings   
Roth IRA    - 458
Brokerage (all in VSTAX)    - 1,500
TOTAL OTHER SAVINGS    $1,958

Remaining    $643


I don't pay anything for rent or mortgage out of my income, it is covered through our rental property cash flow.

Clothes/makeup/hair- Yikes, I can cut back. I really enjoy fashion as a hobby
Dermatologist - This is leaning towards necessary- I have horrible skin and it really affects my confidence. I'd sacrifice in other areas to keep this in.
Dining out/bars - This is alot. My husband probably spends a similar amount, if not more than me here. We really like to socialize.
Fees- so dumb. Parking tickets and random late fees... I need to be less lazy in paying things.
Gifts- I have a brand new niece and my sister's family is struggling. I also go to a ton of weddings.
Household furniture- probably won't continue. We have bought about one piece of furniture every 3 years :) Finally replaced our bed from the one that my husband had from high school.
Travel- Sooo many weddings- out of town. My parents, sister, and brother all live across the country from me, in different directions.
Phone and anything else I am missing- my husband pays. I've always paid for health insurance, which used to be way more expensive. We live in one of the units in one of our rental properties, so the cash flow from the other units means we don't have housing costs. My husband handles all of the properties, I just contribute a little each month.

This is inspiring me to make some changes. I wonder if we should start budgeting a few things together- like groceries. Would be a good conversation. We just have different priorities on the overall goal of saving, but I am lucky in that the big things (KIDS, housing, cars, other stuff our friends do like crazy vacations, gambling) we mostly agree on.


Edited to clarify a few things
« Last Edit: May 31, 2017, 03:10:43 PM by AriesFire »

Gin1984

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4945
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2017, 02:02:17 PM »
Are you maxing your HSA and 401k, I can't tell?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk


AriesFire

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 17
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2017, 02:13:04 PM »
Yes, I max my 401k and HSA for a family plan- my employer contributes $1,500 so I can contribute $5,250. I also max a Roth IRA.

My husband doesn't have access to a 401k at his work, but he does max an IRA.

Is there a better way I should format this to answer those questions?

Lady SA

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 556
  • Age: 33
  • Location: Midwest
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2017, 02:15:31 PM »
Your salary+bonus is 108k; can you break out all your pretax deductions? Do you file your taxes separately or jointly? Can you look at the sticky and input your info to the spreadsheet and paste it here? That gives us more accurate info.
What I'm trying to get at here is how much money is coming your way and how much is being deposited into your bank account so we can see how you are doing in relation to your expenses.

Salary: 108k, = 9k per month
pretax deductions:
401k - 1,500
Health Savings account (my employer contributes $1,500) - 438
=$7042
Taxes, would be best if you used the spreadsheet in the sticky, but I'm spitballing at like 25% tax bracket with no fanciness, and your exact share of fed tax, state tax, medicare, and SS is not in there at all. So this is absolutely not accurate in the least, just to give me something to base off of.

7042*.75 = ~$5295 per month paycheck

Liablities   are these shared liabilities or just your share?
Mortgages and HELOC - 290,000
Student Loans - 5,000

Somewhat discretionary
where is your share of the mortgage? Or does your DH pay for 100% of this?
Looks like you also have student loans, where are your payments here?
Amazon(Supplements, food items, books, misc) - 85 this would be more accurate if you allocated the various things you get on amazon to their correct category; ie health, entertainment, grocery
Clothes/makeup/hair/etc    - 330 definitely cut back on this; I spend less than $25 on personal expenditures per month. Embrace thrifting and focus on classic staples. Cut your hair less often/style it less so it gets less damaged, or even go as far as cutting your own hair (easy to do yourself with a bit of bravery and practice)
Dermatologist    - 140 sounds like this is important to you, and I'm not a doctor. I used to have terrible skin and I learned through lots of trial and error that leaving it alone, no makeup, no harsh cleansers, was the best thing for it. If this is having a positive impact, great, but make sure you are getting good value out of this expense.
Dining out/bars/entertainment - 500 this is crazy. Socializing is one thing, but you don't need to buy when you are at the bar. You can get a glass of water instead, or eat beforehand. Lots of ways to cut this down but also enjoy yourself.
Work café    - 40 not sure what this is. It's small, but is it necessary?
Groceries    - 185 I have to say I am very curious how you separate out grocery bills by person.
Supplies and cat food (charity, cleaning,vitamins etc) - 90 are the amazon supplements included or not here, you list vitamins. Also, I would break out cat supplies separately from household supplies
Fees    - 30 this is you taking dollar bills and burning them in your backyard grill. stop it.
Fuel    - 50
Gifts     -125 sounds like your sisters family is struggling, so I don't fault you for this. Would they enjoy experience gifts instead? something to think about, you could cut this down slightly. Also, I would set a budget for all these weddings you go to, depending on your relationship to the couple. Going to weddings is a big expense (travelling, lodging, gift), so really determine if its important for you to go or if you can decline and send a nice gift or card instead. Last year I had 4 weddings we absolutely had to attend so I feel your pain, but this isn't the norm.
Household furniture and plants - 160
Subscriptions(netflix/hulu/spotify/iphonestorage) - 35
Travel -540 again, depending on your relationship to the couple, see if its possible to decline
Gym    - 10

Somewhat required   
My share of utilities - 217
High deductible health insurance - 124
Car Insurance - 73
Healthcare/prescriptions -  50
TOTAL EXPENSES    2,784 this is kind of outrageous for a single person's share of household expenses, and I don't even see where your share of the mortgage is in here. 2.7k/mo is what my husband and I both spend jointly per month total, so we spend $1300-$1400 each per month. you have a lot of room to improve here.
   
after tax Savings   
Roth IRA    - 458
Brokerage (all in VSTAX)    - 1,500
Emergency fund in cash (car, house repairs, etc) - 250
TOTAL SAVINGS post tax    2208

TOTAL (expenses + post tax savings)    4992
according to my inaccurate estimated paycheck above, you should be getting ~$5295 coming in, so according to my spitball numbers you aren't living above your means, though your expenses are MUCH higher than needed and is hindering you from saving more.


Questions:
Does your employer match in your 401k?
Have you calculated your take home pay (salary+bonus+any matching, -taxes -pretax health ins and other deductions (but not 401k contributions))?
overall, seems like there are a lot of things missing in your budget and it isn't clear why (mortgage, student loan) and your budget could use some tweaking on the categories and what is allocated where, and looks like you already know your problem areas.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2017, 02:36:43 PM by LadyLB »

notactiveanymore

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 212
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2017, 02:35:08 PM »
What are your goals?

You can clearly look at your current spending and see where you could cutback. But if your priorities list early retirement and increased savings rate below helping out your sister and visiting family regularly and also going to bars/restaurants to socialize, then the equation looks a little different. I definitely think that putting together a budget or at the very least a spending plan is helpful for almost everyone. So much money leaks out on unnecessary or poorly planned purchases. But you can almost always cut back further, so first you have to think about your long term goals and priorities.

I would start by considering what you really want out of retirement and out of financial independence. Is there a ramp down you'd like to do into a different phase of your career or maybe a side project you'd like to be able to quit your FT job for? Maybe you want to travel or dive into a hobby that will cost a little bit of money? Or would you just like to save enough to retire completely, live modestly and never have to work ever again?

Once you start figuring that out, you can assess how much you will need to live on in retirement. Subtract your share of the property income (if you feel comfortable that the rental income will be stable) and then multiply the resulting number by 25. That is how much you need to save in investments to comply with the 4% rule.

After that, you can decide how you want to act. Maybe you can get to that savings target in 5 years while maintaining current spending. Or maybe you could get there in 3 years if you really focused on eliminating the fluff out of your current spending. You just need to do a little bit more backwards planning so that you know what your target is.

AriesFire

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 17
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2017, 03:24:42 PM »
LadyLB- Thanks for the response. I edited my post to clarify a few things and add in the take home pay, but you were pretty accurate.

My husband does handle all of the mortgage and house expenses, but we live in one of our rental properties and these expenses are handled by the cash flow from it. I don't handle this on a day to day basis, and I really should look into the financials here. The student loans are all his, and he pays them himself too.

I have to look into the amazon and household categories- they were all from drugstores and amazon so I would have to find the receipts. Is there any software to help with this- maybe Mint? I have't tried anything else yet, this is my first time trying to assess my spending.

I file jointly, but I don't share finances with my husband. His take home is about $4,500/month and he saves around $450/month for an IRA but I don't know beyond that. I think he probably spends as much if not more than me. Thanks for all of the comments- I really needed to see this in black and white to get motivated to cut back. It's definitely hard to say no to family weddings, showers, and birthday parties- I have almost 50 cousins so sadly there is no end in sight for the weddings (and we are a very close family).


AriesFire

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 17
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2017, 03:29:33 PM »
What are your goals?

You can clearly look at your current spending and see where you could cutback. But if your priorities list early retirement and increased savings rate below helping out your sister and visiting family regularly and also going to bars/restaurants to socialize, then the equation looks a little different. I definitely think that putting together a budget or at the very least a spending plan is helpful for almost everyone. So much money leaks out on unnecessary or poorly planned purchases. But you can almost always cut back further, so first you have to think about your long term goals and priorities.

I would start by considering what you really want out of retirement and out of financial independence. Is there a ramp down you'd like to do into a different phase of your career or maybe a side project you'd like to be able to quit your FT job for? Maybe you want to travel or dive into a hobby that will cost a little bit of money? Or would you just like to save enough to retire completely, live modestly and never have to work ever again?

Once you start figuring that out, you can assess how much you will need to live on in retirement. Subtract your share of the property income (if you feel comfortable that the rental income will be stable) and then multiply the resulting number by 25. That is how much you need to save in investments to comply with the 4% rule.

After that, you can decide how you want to act. Maybe you can get to that savings target in 5 years while maintaining current spending. Or maybe you could get there in 3 years if you really focused on eliminating the fluff out of your current spending. You just need to do a little bit more backwards planning so that you know what your target is.

Wow, this is so insightful. Thank you!
You're right, I need to decide on this. I really would like to have the option to retire or quit my job. I don't have a specific goal of what to do with my free time yet.
I would probably choose to work a bit longer over not contributing to my family to help out or missing out on family time and gatherings. There probably is a balance I should look for here.
Socializing in an area that I can find balance too- less fancy bars and less alcohol. I really just had no idea I was spending that much overall.

marty998

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7372
  • Location: Sydney, Oz
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2017, 03:42:36 PM »

My husband does handle all of the mortgage and house expenses, but we live in one of our rental properties and these expenses are handled by the cash flow from it.

What does this mean? Do your tenants live with you in the same house?

AriesFire

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 17
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #8 on: May 31, 2017, 03:59:52 PM »

My husband does handle all of the mortgage and house expenses, but we live in one of our rental properties and these expenses are handled by the cash flow from it.

What does this mean? Do your tenants live with you in the same house?

We have a few multi-family rental houses and live in one of the units. There are 2 other units in this house and the rental income is more than enough to cover the mortgage, taxes, and other expenses.  I don't contribute anything to our mortgage for this house from my take home pay.

Lady SA

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 556
  • Age: 33
  • Location: Midwest
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2017, 04:22:32 PM »
I would start an account with mint, and as you purchase things on amazon, go in and allocate them to the correct category. Ie you buy a bottle of vitamins, the charge appears on amazon as "shopping"--go in and set the category instead to "health" or whatever you deem fits it best. You buy a new shirt, same thing, allocate it from "shopping" into "clothing". You can also go back in time as you remember and categorize these charges more accurately if you wish, but that seems like a waste of time to me, too much digging for receipts, meh. Just keep track going forward. You have a general idea of your spending at this point, going back in time is useful to determine your historical spending but not necessary.

Right now, with your new numbers, your take home pay is 9k+(.04*9k match) - 1026 taxes - 651 FICA - 124 ins = $7559
Your savings rate is $7559 - $2,660 expenses /7559 = 64%

64% is pretty good, but that means you are spending 36% of your income on things that are NOT a mortgage, which should be the biggest chunk of your expenses. But you don't pay for those, which means if you are wanting to prioritize FIRE, you are burning money, but you know that. If you had to pay for half the mortgage, your savings rate would probably go down to 30% or so, so I wouldn't consider the 64% savings rate to be a marker of savings health. Don't get me wrong, you are miles ahead of 99% of the population, but you can definitely streamline even more. With your high income, this is definitely possible.

Honestly, here's my ideal goal budget for you, but take it with a grain of salt because I don't know the COL of your area. I would do more research into all the bills you have and make sure there is an equitable share between you and DH over who is paying for what. Sounds like he is taking primary responsibility over most household bills, but you should still learn what those bills are and how much they are.

NEEDS:
mortgage: $0?
grocery: $180, you're already doing pretty good for one person
health (doctor, prescriptions): $100
travel: $400
utilities (for one house or all rentals? just electricity or is this combining a few bills? seems high currently, our electricity bill is $100 total): $217
gas: $50
phone bill (ting or google fi): $25
entertainment (hulu/netflix): $35
your share of internet bill: $30-40 (there are cheap plans out there)
car ins (shop around for a good rate): $50-60
personal care (clothing, hair, etc): $150, I'm giving you a good buffer but I personally spend less than $25 per month
cat supplies: $20
household supplies: $50
work supplies (what is this work cafe? can you work from home instead?): $20

Necessary total: $1347

WANTS:
restaurants: $100
bar/alcohol: $50
gifts: $125
gym (you can do home workouts if you were desperate so I categorize this as a want): $10
fees: $0

TOTAL expenses: $1632, or $19.5k per year
This is quite generous--as I mentioned above, $1300-1400 is about what my DH and I would pay separately for our expenses, which includes housing. This new goal budget is well over that, but doesn't include what would be the biggest budget line item, but YMMV :)

With the goal budget above, you now have a savings rate of $7559 - 1632 / 7559 = 78%.
Learning to live on this new budget, with your take home income of ($7559*12 = $90700) and with your current assets of $220k, you can retire in 3.2 years.
https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=90700&initialBalance=220000&expenses=20000&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4

However with your current rate of spending, you won't be financially independent until 7.5 years from now.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2017, 04:36:24 PM by LadyLB »

Lady SA

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 556
  • Age: 33
  • Location: Midwest
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #10 on: May 31, 2017, 04:30:17 PM »
Also, have you and your DH considered opening a joint bank account for shared expenses such as utilities, mortgage, netflix/hulu, food? Each of you deposit a set amount of money into the joint account each month for these expenses and it demystifies a lot of household spending. You can determine among yourselves what should be covered from this account and what is a fair amount for both of you to contribute.


AriesFire

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 17
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #11 on: June 01, 2017, 08:14:50 AM »
I would start an account with mint, and as you purchase things on amazon, go in and allocate them to the correct category. Ie you buy a bottle of vitamins, the charge appears on amazon as "shopping"--go in and set the category instead to "health" or whatever you deem fits it best. You buy a new shirt, same thing, allocate it from "shopping" into "clothing". You can also go back in time as you remember and categorize these charges more accurately if you wish, but that seems like a waste of time to me, too much digging for receipts, meh. Just keep track going forward. You have a general idea of your spending at this point, going back in time is useful to determine your historical spending but not necessary. I am signing up for mint right now

Right now, with your new numbers, your take home pay is 9k+(.04*9k match) - 1026 taxes - 651 FICA - 124 ins = $7559
Your savings rate is $7559 - $2,660 expenses /7559 = 64%

64% is pretty good, but that means you are spending 36% of your income on things that are NOT a mortgage, which should be the biggest chunk of your expenses. But you don't pay for those, which means if you are wanting to prioritize FIRE, you are burning money, but you know that. If you had to pay for half the mortgage, your savings rate would probably go down to 30% or so, so I wouldn't consider the 64% savings rate to be a marker of savings health. Don't get me wrong, you are miles ahead of 99% of the population, but you can definitely streamline even more. With your high income, this is definitely possible.

Honestly, here's my ideal goal budget for you, but take it with a grain of salt because I don't know the COL of your area. I would do more research into all the bills you have and make sure there is an equitable share between you and DH over who is paying for what. Sounds like he is taking primary responsibility over most household bills, but you should still learn what those bills are and how much they are.  LCOL except for property and other taxes are quite high

NEEDS:
mortgage: $0?
grocery: $180, you're already doing pretty good for one person
health (doctor, prescriptions): $100
travel: $400
utilities (for one house or all rentals? just electricity or is this combining a few bills? seems high currently, our electricity bill is $100 total): $217  I don't know our utility bills- I pay nothing else towards the mortgage, household bills like our phone and internet, or utilities other than this amount. I don't know if I am contributing a fair amount or not and am planning on having this conversation tonight or this weekend- maybe over dinner I cook at home :)
gas: $50
phone bill (ting or google fi): $25
entertainment (hulu/netflix): $35
your share of internet bill: $30-40 (there are cheap plans out there)
car ins (shop around for a good rate): $50-60
personal care (clothing, hair, etc): $150, I'm giving you a good buffer but I personally spend less than $25 per month
cat supplies: $20
household supplies: $50
work supplies (what is this work cafe? can you work from home instead?): $20 This is the work cafeteria- I buy lunch and breakfast or drinks and snacks here when I'm not eating lunch out or bringing from home. I can't really work from home right now more than a day or two a month.

Necessary total: $1347

WANTS:
restaurants: $100
bar/alcohol: $50
gifts: $125
gym (you can do home workouts if you were desperate so I categorize this as a want): $10
fees: $0

TOTAL expenses: $1632, or $19.5k per year
This is quite generous--as I mentioned above, $1300-1400 is about what my DH and I would pay separately for our expenses, which includes housing. This new goal budget is well over that, but doesn't include what would be the biggest budget line item, but YMMV :)

With the goal budget above, you now have a savings rate of $7559 - 1632 / 7559 = 78%.
Learning to live on this new budget, with your take home income of ($7559*12 = $90700) and with your current assets of $220k, you can retire in 3.2 years. Seeing this- 3.2 years! I think I can work towards the budget totals you list here. I am going to talk to my husband tonight about joining some portion of our finances. I am hoping he is open to this- we literally never talk about money and don't want it to become an issue in our marriage at all.
https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=90700&initialBalance=220000&expenses=20000&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4

However with your current rate of spending, you won't be financially independent until 7.5 years from now.

Lady SA

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 556
  • Age: 33
  • Location: Midwest
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2017, 08:30:23 AM »
I am going to talk to my husband tonight about joining some portion of our finances. I am hoping he is open to this- we literally never talk about money and don't want it to become an issue in our marriage at all.

Having frequent conversations about money is what will keep your marriage healthy, making sure each spouse feels like things are fair, if any changes need to be made, etc. Literally never talking about money seems like a recipe for a slow trainwreck lol. So I'm glad you are putting yourself out there and starting the conversation.

I would frame the conversation around YOUR goals to be financially independent, and then try to sit down and get a full picture of your financial landscape -- all bills, debts, assets, payments, etc for the entire household. Make sure things are fair between you and your DH. Since it sounds like he is carrying most of the responsibility for housing, he may take issue with you retiring in 3 years if he has to keep working to keep a roof over your head, so those are some things to approach carefully and make sure he feels comfortable with that.

Don't feel like you need to have a HUGE one-time conversation about all of your finances in one go--use this conversation as just an opener, and you can over time fill in the rest of the blanks. Big convos like this, especially if conversations like this are not usual, are kind of stressful, so don't feel like you have to overwhelm yourself or dh in one night. Good luck!

AriesFire

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 17
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #13 on: June 01, 2017, 08:46:14 AM »
Thank you sincerely for the advice and time spent answering- it is so helpful to get perspective and some goals to work towards!

To do list
1. Talk to my husband about finances
2. Potentially open joint account
3. Sign up for mint and set up budget categories

Lady SA

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 556
  • Age: 33
  • Location: Midwest
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #14 on: June 01, 2017, 05:19:20 PM »
Please let us know how the talk goes! Your to-do list looks like a great starting point!

Tyson

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3320
  • Age: 53
  • Location: Denver, Colorado
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #15 on: June 02, 2017, 10:27:17 AM »
Mint will be eye opening for you.  When I signed up for it, I went through all my spending and holy cow was there some dumb/wasteful/thoughtless spending going on! 

For me, it was especially enlightening around unplanned, convenience expenses.  Like, "oh, we are out and about and now we're hungry, lets just stop at this fab restaurant we've been hearing about".  Stuff like that.  Mint is enormously helpful in adding those 'one-off' expenses and letting you see just how much waste is happening.

caracol

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: Case Study: Avoiding lifestyle creep
« Reply #16 on: June 02, 2017, 11:03:02 AM »
It looks like you have an honest look at what you're doing. Also kudos to you for separating out your finances from your husband's since he is not on board with your financial goals. For ER in your 30s and 40s, I would imagine you might want to rethink some of the 401k and IRA contributions because those have age-related access limits, so why are you squirreling away money you can't touch for a 15+ years? It wasn't clear if the VSTAX contributions were into a IRA, Roth IRA, or normal brokerage account.

Mint, or any tracking, might be helpful, and based on your assessment a lot of them are in-the-moment buys, like amazon and dining out or failing to find a cheaper plan. You sound like a smart person, and the problem is when you're smart, you can talk yourself into nearly everything in the moment from $80 haircuts to that new book for book group or justify that leather jacket to yourself later. Figure out how you're spending. Do you spend more when you're with other people (dining out?) or do you spend more by yourself? Once you understand the social and habitual nature of the $500 eating out, then start placing roadblocks. Only use cash when you're dining out, be the DD, or take your credit card off amazon so you have to enter it in every time before you buy something.

It's weird that you guys never talk money, and it won't be a negative issue but a positive one, over time, because you're in a pretty strong position. It's more fun to have a teammate than seeing him as an opponent. Saving on groceries and dining becomes a game with a best friend.