Spending Like Crazy

So this year has been a mixed bag with spending, a little bit of feast and a little bit of famine. Basically alternating months of each. In January (which is always my highest spend month) I spent more than I made by a few thousand because I spend a little of my December bonus money. This year I bought a mattress (from Ketsia which sells "green" mattresses and uses a no pressure sales strategy. Such a nice experience) and a couch.  I also bought a new side table and coffee table. I'm kind of regretting buying those because I actually like my old ones, it's just that I stained the top of the coffee table. I should have just sucked it up and kept it, but what's done is done.

Then in February and March I spent way below what I made even though I went on vacation.

In May I've been really restricting my daily spend, but had big expenses -- long term disability payment for the year, yearly homeowners insurance payment, an education expense for a program I'm starting. Basically about $2400 in extra expenses. The only saving grace is that I might be getting a small bonus payment at the end of the month. Also, I got my tax money back in March, so that actually should cover the overage from January.

Either way, it's strange to feel like I'm constantly watching my money and trying to save but yet spending on abstract expenses like insurance so at the end of the month even though I've been "good" I still don't have a big (if any) surplus.

C'est la vie I suppose.

Booze and $

So for Lent I've given up drinking. I feel fantastic (although I have cheated 2x), but it's also cutting back on my restaurant bills, which is great because that's one of my biggest expenses (outside of rent of course).  I think even when Lent ends, I'd like to cut back to drink only 1 day a week. I just feel a lot better, and booze at restaurants is so expensive. I rarely drink at home. In NYC everyone mostly meets their friends out, not at their apartments. So it's expensive. I wish I lived somewhere where people hung out at each others' houses. I would save so much $.

2013 Breakdown

Today I analyzed where my income went in 2014. It's pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. Even Mr. Money Mustache would be mostly cool with it I think. So taxes ate up 36% of my gross income, I saved 37% of it and I spent 27%. I saved 55% of my net income. Not too shabby. Of course some of that is because I get a bonus in December and I therefore end up saving it all because I have zero opportunity to spend it. In reality I don't spend that much of it. This is a pretty standard year in that 1/3 of my gross income usually goes to each of these categories.

F-You Capital One! Hello, Chase!

So this month (post bonus) has been a how shall I call it? hmm. Spending orgy is probably accurate, haha. Anyway, combined with my business travel expenses, I'm about $500 from the $10,000 limit on my Capital One platinum whatever card. I never applied for this card -- it switched over when HSBC sold their card portfolio to C1. So I applied for a credit limit increase. I got rejected!! I was so mad. I pay in full on time every month on that card and every other card. Always have. Never have had a late payment. AND they told me my credit score is 793. I called and got bumped up to talk to a credit supervisor but they're idiots over there and can't tell me why I got rejected.

I had been thinking about ponying up for the Platinum Amex (it has good travel benefits like they reimburse the fee for the Global Entry program which I've been meaning to enroll in for forever because I'm gold on American and they will add me to their TSA Pre list if I do). Anyway, the Platinum Amex is $400 a year. Even w/ the monetary benefits (I figure I could get about $300 worth out of it), I feel silly spending that on a credit card.  Plus, I love getting cash back. I just got a $500 credit added to the C1 card as a cash back reward.

So I went on CreditKarma and found another cash back card. The Chase Freedom (I know anyone reading this now is like duh of course). Credit Karma has some really useful tools. It showed me that barely any of the cardholders have even the limit I have on C1. I think the C1 cards are more for people who don't spend as much, have worse credit, etc. I'm probably ideal for the Amex, but because I want to keep earning that sweet cash, I got the Chase Freedom card. And I'm pretty sure that they gave me a credit limit of $28K, which sadly I actually might need at some point because of all my work expenses (i pay them and then get reimbursed). There's no annual fee on the card, so it's a win-win.

Starting off the New Year

To kick off the New Year, I met with my Learnvest financial planner. I really like her and value her advice. This year I'm tackling the same problem as last year which is getting my cash surplus invested. It sounds ridiculous, but I haven't even gotten last year's increase invested and now I have a big chunk to invest again this year. I can't keep up. I get so nervous about dumping a lot into the market. But once I set up auto investment, I can truly set it and forget it. It's just that to get the cash invested in a timely manner I would have to be making large buys each month. Right now I'm only going in about 10K at a time, which is not doing much to make a dent in my stash.

I have also convinced my planner that I don't need to replace my full income in retirement or even 85% of it. I know the exact number that I spend each year, and what part of that is for housing (almost 40%!), so in today's dollars I need about 60K a year with a mortgage and 36K a year without one. Of course that # doesn't include inflation.  If I used the Mr. Money Mustache formula I would need to save 25x the amount I need each year, so either  $1.5 million or $900K.  I think to be safe I would only be comfortable with the higher #. The planner's target number is going to be more like $2 million, but that's better than the like $4 million she is currently targeting which is most likely never going to happen.

Happy saving!

Spending It

I have some expenses coming up that are discretionary but I really should take care of them. Case in point - new mattress and couch because they are hurting my back. I can only sleep on one side of the mattress now. I'm off today, hopefully to finalize my choice for a new one. Think I have found the couch I want as well. But once I update the couch, I realize that the coffee table is quite scratched and while the matching side table is perfect, if I get a new coffee table it will no longer match. So that's two more pieces of furniture. Also, I don't have overhead lights in almost every room of my apt. So it's dark. The table lamps aren't cutting it. I plan to buy ceiling fans with lights and have them installed. So that all adds up. I'm not really excited about these purchases, but I feel like I kind of need to make them.

I am thinking of making a big "purchase" that I am excited about which is going in on a shared beach house. If I can pay a reasonable amount each month, I plan to do this, probably starting in March or so. That would be money well spent in my view.

I've been reading about the clothing fasts people are doing on the MMM forum. I'm thinking about joining, because that would help pay for the beach house. Yay for intentional purchasing!

Happy holidays to everyone!

Favorite Time of Year?

In theory, I should be super happy right now. I literally wait for this moment all year long. I found out my bonus and it is higher than last year by 16%. I know how fortunate I am to be well-compensated for doing my job. I know there are people who work just as hard, and sometimes in dangerous or uncomfortable jobs, that are paid much less. That said, I just feel tired and burned out. Work is still very busy and while we finally hired someone to support me so I'm not the only person on my teams, that person was on vacation all this week.  The crowds are bringing me down too. I guess I'm really starting to learn/believe that my career/job and saving/building a nest egg are the most important things.