Life Situation: Divorced, 0 mini-humans, 0 dependents. Living in Seattle, WA. 27 years old. Full time Business Operations Lead and part time “my own CFO”. Physically active with 1000
activity minutes per week while I read, write, play video games, and socialize in the rest of my time. I live in a small apartment, walk to work, and cook cheap food in bulk from raw ingredients.
Generally, I am proud of how far I've come this year. However, I want some fresh eyes on my numbers, and outside opinion. Most of my friends are uncomfortable discussing this topic so I have very few people to discuss this with. Thus, internet forum friends, I ask for you to review my numbers and weigh in on my goals.
Gross Salary: $53,000 yearly (after 32.5% raise recently (I’ve been busting my ass at work)) $4,416.67 monthly.
Pre-tax deductions: 401k catch up: $1,757.16 per month, maxing to $18,000 on dec 30th.
(Will drop down to $1,541.67 per month jan 1, with new $18,500 max for 2018.)
Taxes: $337.88 for FICA, $380.57 predicted for income tax (assuming a 15% tax rate)
Resultant Monthly Pay: After FICA, 401k deductions, and income tax, I’m looking at:
$2156.56 a month
6 Month Average Expenses:
Total -$1,340.55 6 months of expenses averaged out
Rent -$655.00
Utilities -$144.84 cell, internet, water, garbage, electricity, car insurance
Healthcare -$142.45 therapy, torn plantar fascia, head trauma, wisdom teeth
Restaurants -$105.59 1 weekly outing with co-workers, 1 weekly outing with friends
Hobbies -$85.79 bouldering gym, bouldering shoes, running shoes, kettlebell, mat, writing supplies
Groceries -$81.44
Automotive -$48.40 bike wheel, brake pads, bus
Entertainment -$21.71 metal shows, trick or treating
General Merch -$18.33 washing machine, wallet
Travel -$13.00 boltbus, woo
Other Expenses -$12.67 treehouse, parking that one time
Gifts -$11.33 whiskey gift, headlights for friend
Assets: 401k with Schwab S&P 500 and Total Market indices. 100% equity. $16,718.29 balance (I started this year).
Liabilities: I owe nothing (except to my upbringing and background and the amazing opportunities I’ve had that lead to living a life of insane luxury while still being able to save for the future)
The meat of it all: My goals for 2017 were to hit a 30% reduction in food, housing, and transportation each and to max my 401k. I got a 36% reduction in housing, a 34% reduction in food, and over 50% (at some point I stopped keeping track) in transportation. That’s the “big three”. Doing so helped me max my 401k. Now, I’m looking for what’s next.
My 2018 goal is to max out:
401k
2017 Roth IRA (deadline 4/17/2018)
2018 Roth IRA
With $2,000 left over to invest in a taxable account. According to the “investment order” advice, this is the order I should take (ish. I gambled earlier this year by funding 401k first, hoping to be able to do roth ira now. I understand that’s normally sub-optimal)
Please help me squeeze more savings out of my budget for 2018 so I can find the ~$3,200 I’ll need to make this happenPredicted Audience Questions:
(Assuming you know anything about housing costs in Seattle) Is that a typo in the rent line? No. I have discovered that having excessive space does not increase my enjoyment of life. So, I live in the smallest, cheapest apartment I could find that includes all of the required features--shelter, place to cook, place to sleep. I live in a sub-200 square foot studio; it’s big enough and 47% the cost of a cheap 1 bedroom.
Where’s your clothing budget? Instead of buying clothing, I don’t buy clothing.
What about cleaning supplies? This is all rolled in to groceries. I spend a negligible amount on cleaning supplies because of how small my apartment is.
Why is your grocery bill so small? I get subsidy from my parents, so to speak. I estimate without my mom’s insistence that I take food on the regular, I’d spend $95 a month instead (=$81.44 * (7/6) assuming every other weekend is fully “fed” by my parents). In addition, I go to restaurants for 8.5% of my meals. So, without subsidy or restaurants, I’d be at $103.83 (=$95/(1-8.5%)) a month.
What about other hobbies? Some of my “hobbies” are actually in the entertainment category. Other than that, my hobbies are free-ish. I like biking, hiking, reading, playing video games, and cooking. I invested heavily in video games more last year and before, to the point where I have a 3-4 year backlog. Biking is in the “automotive” category, and is cheap if you do your own wrench-jockeying. Plus books from the library.
Why is biking in the automotive category? I find it fun to bike but almost exclusively use it as means of transportation.
Why don't you cut your restaurant tab? Perhaps I will. I'm getting over social anxiety, during which process it is incredibly important to go out with others regularly. I'm now dialing in on where my enjoyment caps out. I do, for example, eat out for $13 per incident on average. In Seattle, a typical sit down burger with beer is more like $25 all considered.
Boy that’s a lot of health care! Well, that’s not a question. But to address the concern, yes. I see a psychologist every other week with a $30 copay (used to be every week) and I’m, as best I can tell, a defective unit. In the last 6 months I’ve torn my plantar fascia, had my wisdom teeth out, and had a vasovagal syncope attack (I passed right out and concussed myself). Also, I've been to the urgent care clinic and ER for something as yet undiagnosed. So it goes.