When Can I Retire? Case Study: Nola, MD

CASE:
My first case study is a friend from college. She graduated with no debt from college due to an academic scholarship and generous parents.  By the end of medical school and residency, she had about $200,000 in student debt.  This brings us to now, almost 3 years after entering practice as a physician.

Current Spending: (estimates as she does not track her spending)
$2,500/mon on rent and utilities
$2,000/mon student loans
$400/mon eating out
$400/mon shopping
$450/mon travelling (couple trips a year)
Total spending: $5750/mon
Annual: $69,000 (65.7%)

Savings:
$3,000/mon (toward a down payment for a home)
Total saving: $3,000/mon
Annual: $36,000 (34.3%)
Assets: $100,000 in cash/savings

Other:
Has not given much to retirement.
Does not contribute to her 401k (expresses a desire but is not quite sure how to sign-up). Thinks there is a 5% match!
Knows that there was some automatic retirement contributions made during her residency years but is unsure how to access this information.
Her financial and lifestyle goals:
Pay off her student loan debt.
Buy a house between now and Oct 2018 with a $100,000 down payment.
Pay off house to minimize total interest paid.
Whenever she does retire, the Caribbean sounds nice.

RESULT:

At her current spending: $69,000/mon x 25 (using the rule of 4%) = $1,725,000 needed to retire
Using the Calculator, at her current savings, an compound interest rate of 6%:  Nola can retire in 21 years.

WHAT IF:

If Nola, were to spend like a resident ($45,000/yr net avg while in residency) and save the rest, her projected retirement using the variables above would be in:  12 years 
Annual spending: $45,000/yr
Amount needed to retire using 4% rule: $1,125,000
Annual savings: 105,000 - 45,000 = $60,000/yr

Suggestions:

• Consider tracking spending with a helpful tool like Personal Capital.


• Speak to HR rep and enroll in 401k. Max out 401k.


• Make a point to track down information for retirement contributions made during residency.


• To make a big impact on retirement goals, consider living like a resident, and saving like a physician.


• Open an investment account like Vanguard or Betterment and initiate auto-deposits.


• Consider a budget with any number of free budget spreadsheets available.

CONCLUSION:

Either way, with a hefty salary, Nola, age 34 could still leave the workforce before age 65 (traditional retirement) and retire in the Caribbean. If she lived like a resident, she could stand to reach that goal 9 years earlier!
Comment below with your thoughts!

UPDATE:

After I did the case study with Nola, she contacted her HR person at her current job and was able to locate information from residency for a 403b. She learned that her employer contributes 5% of her salary after 1 year of work even if she does not contribute! Free money! And she had a balance of $17,000 in her 403b plan from residency which she has rolled over to her 401k. Kudos to NOLA on a job well done! This is one FIRE'd physician! 

Related Content:

• What The Heck Does That Mean: A Beginner's Guide to Investment Vocabulary


• Enron and Madoff and Ponzi! Oh My!: How to Background Check Your Financial Professional

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Wednesday Weekly: August 29, 2018

Most popular post on My Early Retirement Journey this week: Poverty and You: How does your FIRE budget compare?

Wednesday Weekly is a round up of what I stumbled upon this week on the world wide web because sharing resources and information is what the internet is all about.

WHAT I STUMBLED UPON THIS WEEK

Rebel developers are trying to cure our smartphone addiction — with an app (The Washington Post)

Why collaborative thinking beats individual smarts  (The Economist)

 

WOMEN ON THE WEB

9 things productive people do before noon (Business Insider)

 

THIS BLOGGING BUSINESS

Five Steps to Creating a Winning $25k Blog (ESI Money)

SEO Tutorial For Beginners in 2018 (hobo)

 

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My Early Retirement Journey Featured on The Financial Diet

In case you missed it, here's My Early Retirement Journey's feature on The Financial Diet.

Head over there now for my Aug 2018 feature and some great tips for all things young and money!

Oct 2018 Feature: The Life Crisis That Finally Made Me Get My Act Together & Get Rid Of $30K In Debt

My Alternatives to Returning to Work After Sabbatical

So for awhile now, I've been toying with the idea of taking a sabbatical in 2020. Why not, you say? Well the biggest mental hurdle is that if I waited until 2025, I'd probably be able to FIRE for good. Check out my budget calculations for more details.  I don't think I'd be able to fully enjoy the sabbatical knowing I'd have to come back to work.

Read more:
Notes on Life | Aug 3, 2018: Floor Mattress, Blogging Nook, Writer's Retreat
Notes on Life | Jul 27, 2018: Doctors Without Borders, Repo Man, Hotel Holiday
Journey Update | Week Ending Jun 29, 2018: Evil, Gums, Chocolate

But with my ridiculous ongoing aches and pains and just the general feeling that I'm getting dumber and less functional, I can't shake the feeling that there has to be something more to life than this. I thought I'd be okay with a mediocre life, but it turns out I was wrong. No one around me inspires me, further more they drive me to complacency and selective silence. I've all but lost my voice as it were. Pretty ironic for someone who works in a call center. A couple more late nights stewing on this Sabbatical vs FIRE internal debate and I recently became 51% sure that I wanted to take the Sabbatical in 2020, instead.

How did I get here? Well, I started brainstorming what it would take other than more money which I can't seem to squeeze out of my budget (or this blog).

I asked my brain supportive questions at night and in the morning until the decision came to me. ~Natalie Bacon

What are my alternatives to returning to work in 2025?
After a couple of hushed whispers to myself of  'I'm going to die at this desk,' I actually tried something I glancingly gleaned from another blogger about asking yourself a question before you go to bed a few nights in a row. I didn't read her full post on how this actually works (or sign up for her paid course), but I tried that part of the process. So I asked my brain something along the lines of what are my alternatives to returning to work in 2025 (at age 41). The best thing about my brain is that I don't have to give it a back story, it already knows what I mean.

So after some Googling and some late night awakenings by my brain, this is what I've come up with thus far.

• Join a convent
  
  
  
  • A life of service that comes with free room and board. I'm not mad at that.
  
  
  
  


• Join Peace Corps
  
  
  
  • I apparently have no skills for Peace Corps Response. But Peace Corps would probably take me and it's free room and board for 2 years and I get to do some good, or at least say I did.
  
  
  
  


• Join Mercy Volunteer Corps
  
  
  
  • Do some good with free room and board. This organization is new to me and popped up when I was checking out some international volunteer opportunities on the Catholic volunteer network below.
  
  
  
  


• Find some temporary placements on Catholic Volunteer Network
  
  
  
  • Just stumbled upon this in one of my frantic weekend searches to try to find some way to not go to work come Monday. It serves as a job board of sorts for volunteer opportunities that usually come with room + board or a low paying job in a needy area, e.g. teaching 5 kids in a Catholic school for a year. I could that for a year, I think.
  
  
  • This I think is the more valuable of the resources I've encountered so far. I don't know how much of this is true, but I like to believe I may not have to go through a rigorous application process for volunteer work because perhaps the supply is low.
  
  
  • Perusing this list actually introduced me to some possible FIRE locales like Missoula, MT-seems kinda like what I pictured in my mind when I think of an early retirement locale.  Maybe I could do a volunteer post there and get a feel for the place on someone else's dime and do some good too.
  
  
  
  

 

Other options that may require a bit more effort both in applying, skill, or job duties. 

• Apply for Catholic Relief Services International Development Fellowship
  
  
  
  • I applied to them before, but my heart maybe wasn't in it. Hmm. Maybe it'll be different if I really want it? Mmm..and the participants look extremely young. I'll be in my 40s by then. But you never know.
  
  
  
  


• Administrative work with Doctors Without Borders
  
  
  
  •  Ok, maybe not for this single 30-something. Just took a second look outside of a sleepy haze. You actually need to be extremely skilled and bi-lingual even for non-medical positions. But maybe for someone else out there. Hmm.
  
  
  
  


• Apply for a job on an Indian Reservation
  
  
  
  • Maybe as a teacher or in healthcare. Seemingly they are always looking for people, but I have had no experience even getting an interview for other positions on the usajobs.gov site. Hmm.
  
  
  
  

What about you? Any alternative lifestyles out there for you that would allow you to leave your current work situation.

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Notes on Life | My Week Ending Aug 24, 2018: Fasting, F Bombs, Liar

Welcome back to My Early Retirement Journey. In case you're just joining us, here's a little bit about me.  I am a single 30-something, openly Christian, hesitantly immigrant-y, human woman. I love watching TV while eating takeout, and I want to retire early. I currently work as a consultant in a tele-health call center making around $40/hr. I started my professional life in 2015 at the ripe ole age of 31 after a few false starts. I spent 2016 paying off about $10,000 worth of credit card debt. I spent 2017 paying off about $20,000 in private student loans; I still have about $300,000 in federal student loans for which I am currently on an income-based repayment plan for the next 25 years, give or take.  I started really getting into savings and investing late 2017 when I stumbled upon the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) community.  In 2018, I made the decision to try to save for a sabbatical and maybe if all goes well continue the journey to early retirement.  Along this journey, I give weekly more personal than finance updates just like this one. Come along with me, I urge you!

	monday	tues	wed	thurs	fri
finance	$10 Peruvian takeout	$2 Wendy’s	$8 Chinese takeout $9 Peruvian takeout	$9 Thai takeout	TBD
work	9:45a – 7:30 pm	9:15 a – 9p	9:30 am – 6:00 pm	9:30 am - 6:15 pm	Time Off

Monday - Doctor’s appt this morning. Still have granulation tissue. Wound from surgery still won’t heal. Decided to do chart this week because going to be busy. Attempting to work 10 hour days because off Friday to check on Aunty MERJ in Tampa.

Thinking of doing a gluten and dairy fast till my next appt Sep 28. Gluten is a protein that can cause inflammatory process, makes me bloated and just general malaise (but cookies are so yummy!).  Milk is a protein my body generally doesn’t digest but have had some success lately with A2 milk. May stop that for awhile.

Tuesday -  Pretty mild summer I have to say. My skin hasn’t wanted to melt off every day. Work is so busy, there’s no time to think. Fear making a mistake. Lower tolerance for nonsense. Feeling ddgy with coworker across the cube who bangs on his desk all day and swears up a storm. Actual F bombs. It makes me anxious.  This 10 hour day thing is not working out. Why do I keep fooling myself into thinking I will willingly work more if I just say I will.

Another convo with random co-worker about career plans and retirement. Some suggestions for other options to make more money. All in all, I think my focus is saving money for my sabbatical, at least 1 year, maybe 5, maybe 10, maybe forever.  I’m open to a new job for more money but I’m past the stage where I am aggressively pursuing that. Did that for a year.

Wednesday -  Realized last night as I’ve been thinking- it is pretty mild these days. Didn’t even use a/c last night. Wow. Mid-August in NC with no a/c?!  Eye twitch continues. Cousin mad that I prefer email instead of calling her. She wants to help; I give her to do list; she says what exactly do I need her to do? Whatevs. Affirms my decision to be relatively phone-less. 16 months and counting.

Selfish me really doesn’t want to go Tampa. Working extra hours to have day off to go do more work is not really what I want.  Will I ever be a better person? Doubt it.  Glad I didn’t purchase future tickets especially for September. Looking forward to having that whole week for myself. Thanks, Brain. Well really, thanks God, of course, but also busy PTO calendar that didn’t have free days for the time I was going to spend with Aunty MERJ in Sep.

For first time since starting Wed Weekly, I forgot to create the post last night. Whoops. I guess there’s not really a good reason I can’t create these on Sundays. Didn’t think about that.

Glad savings was set up and automated at beginning of the year. When I feel this way, I just feel like making bad decisions. That usually means poor self-care (not flossing, cookies for dinner) and careless financial decisions (buying random stuff).  DirecTV raised their prices to $40/mon. Realized how much joy I get out of scrolling channels (works) but I rely so much on the OnDemand service (crashes) that I have to pause about signing up for their service. Free trial ends tonight.  Decided to go with Hulu 1 month free trial to see if it meets my binge-watching needs for the fall. Got sloppy though and signed up with FB profile for my blog because I didn’t want to create another log-in!  Stay tuned!

Thursday -  Another cool morning. North Carolina has made a liar out of me! I complained so much about the skin melting summers and this summer has been unexpectedly mild. Had another mild breakdown last night getting ready for trip. This no-phone life definitely has its inconvenient moments. Super Shuttle from airport is $50/way. So decided to get Uber app. Had to have a cell phone to verify. Ugh. That took 23 minutes to find a work-around.

Friday - In Tampa with Aunty MERJ!

TV this week: Bachelor in Paradise (via free trial of DirecTV Now and free trial of Hulu)
Takeout this week: see above

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Related Content:

• Last week's update


• And the week before that

I Took A 3rd Look at My 401k and This is What Happened

So in the wee hours of the late night or early morning before a work day, I try to find just one more way I can accelerate My Early Retirement Journey. I know I can probably cut it down comfortably to 15 years from 30 years, but can I do just a little bit more?

The FIRE blogosphere (millennial rev, ROG, jlcollinsnh, etc..) all swear by Vanguard. They tout the benefits of the Vanguard Total Stock Index and Vanguard Total Bond Index and denounce cherry picking stocks as according to them no one can outpace the stock market. Fine, I’m a big fan of #easychoice / not re-inventing the wheel. So I felt confident enough to put my new found knowledge into practice. I was going to allocate using the above index funds in an 80/20 allocation.

Behold my surprise when my 401k did not have both of those options. It had the Vanguard Total Bond Index but not the total stock! Not wanting to lose momentum, I tried to make the 80/20 allocation work with different funds I did find. My mind was unsettled and I stared at The Prospectus for 2 to 3 hours struck with decision paralysis. After the sun went down, I gave up. And kept my Target Date Fund at 0.77% management fee. Defeated.

Then two nights ago, I re-read jcollinsnh's post on a simple path to wealth for his daughter. He spoke more about tracking the S&P 500. It was a phrase I had seen circling the blogosphere but one to which I had not given additional thought. My brain finally remembered it had seen that in The Prospectus. (Admittedly, some of my better ideas come after the fact…) So I looked back at the Vanguard Funds available in our 401k.

I clicked on the one that looked most similar to what I was looking for. It was called the Vanguard Institutional Index (VINIX). It’s description read: The investment seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of large capitalization stocks. The fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, a widely recognized benchmark of U.S. stock market performance that is dominated by the stocks of large U.S. companies. The advisor attempts to replicate the target index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in the stocks that make up the index, holding each stock in approximately the same proportion as its weighting in the index.

Aha! S&P 500…that’s what I was looking for.
I turned to Google to find out the difference between the two (VFINX vs VTSMX).

MorningStar had this to say: For those who might be unfamiliar with the two index types mentioned, the S&P 500 tracks 500 of the largest U.S. stocks as measured by the value of their shares. ...Total stock market funds, on the other hand, include both large-cap stocks and the many small- and mid-cap stocks left out of the S&P 500.  As we've said, a total stock market index fund encompasses a wider universe of stocks than does the S&P 500, but the difference might not be as great as you think. Stocks in the S&P 500 make up about 75% of the total U.S. equity market, so the overlap is considerable. That said, the roughly 25% of the market that is found only in the total stock market index fund does provide greater diversification because of the presence of smaller stocks. For investors with small-cap exposure elsewhere in their portfolios, the large- and mid-cap S&P 500 fund may suffice. But for a broader, one-stop-shopping fund, the total market index offers maximum diversification within the U.S. equity universe.

Eureka! I could make this work even though Vanguard 500 Fund is yet another fund, but it's close enough to what the Institutional Fund is trying to do for my intents and purposes. I had decision paralysis no more. So this is what I decided to implement in My Early Retirement Journey 2018 Q2:

80% Stocks (3/4 with VINIX, expense ratio, 0.04%; 1/4 with VEXAX, small and mid-cap exposure, expense ratio 0.08%)

20% Bonds (VBTLX - Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Adm; expense ratio: 0.05%)

Current: Fidelity Freedom Fund 2045, expense ratio: 0.75%, managed allocation of 90/10 stock/bond

DISCLAIMER: One of the potential pitfalls with the ‘easy choice/don’t reinvent the wheel’ method is that one person’s idea often gets recycled over and over throughout the blogosphere. I’ve seen that many times in various listicles on myriad subjects outside of personal finance. And of course, there is always the never forgotten pillar that everything on the internet is TRUE. That being said, I do try to look at the background of the bloggers and other posts to see where they get their ideas. Many of them do point to other blogs so I at least have some semblance of point of origin.

Not one FIRE blogger that I follow is a financial analyst. In fact jcollinsnh has a B.A. in English. So I do consider all these things as I make these major financial, potentially life altering decisions. I do do some separate internet searches on things like indexing and Vanguard and its founder to get different perspectives. And I persist, open to the idea that it’s all one big hoax and we could all sink in the same boat but at least I’d have company.

Related Content:

• What The Heck Does That Mean: A Beginner's Guide to Investment Vocabulary


• Enron and Madoff and Ponzi! Oh My!: How to Background Check Your Financial Professional

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Poverty and You: How does your FIRE budget compare?

So in managing my elderly parent's finances, I've applied for quite a few assistance programs and become familiar with the poverty level in America. I think a lot of us are familiar with the concept, but do you know what the actual level is..say even for your family of 2 or 3 or 5?

What's more, for those FIRE and extremely frugal bloggers out there, I thought it'd be interesting to highlight how as this one article pointed out, frugality may be for the rich. Some people are actively choosing to live this way while some were born into it. I think in this community we forget the profundity of the difference. I have a brewing post on the privilege of choice but there are so many roads that could go down, my mind hasn't settled on one just yet.

In the United States, the government publishes the poverty guidelines (and thresholds) as a census tool and as a guideline for eligibility for various social service programs they administer. Here's a look at the 2017 Poverty Guidelines.

Household Size	Federal Poverty Level	175% of Poverty Level	200% of Poverty Level	225% of Poverty Level	400% of Poverty Level
1	$ 12,140	$ 21,245	$ 24,280	$ 27,315	$ 48,560
2	$ 16,460	$ 28,805	$ 32,920	$ 37,035	$ 65,840
3	$ 20,780	$ 36,365	$ 41,560	$ 46,755	$ 83,120
4	$ 25,100	$ 43,925	$ 50,200	$ 56,475	$ 100,400
5	$ 29,420	$ 51,485	$ 58,840	$ 66,195	$ 117,680
6	$ 33,740	$ 59,045	$ 67,480	$ 75,915	$ 134,960
7	$ 38,060	$ 66,605	$ 76,120	$ 85,635	$ 152,240
8	$ 42,380	$ 74,165	$ 84,760	$ 95,355	$ 169,520
each additional household member	$ 4,320	$ 7,560	$ 8,640	$ 9,720	$ 17,280
	Source: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines 1.22.18

 Source: https://www.nc211.org/federal-poverty-level

So how does this compare to various published budgets around these frugal and FIRE interwebs.

My Early Retirement Journey:
2018 Estimated FIRE Budget: $30,000
Household Size: 1
Poverty Level: A little more than 225% of Poverty Level

Aunty MERJ:(Social Security + pension)
2018 Estimated Income: $17,100
Household Size: 1
Poverty Level: below 175% of Poverty Level

Root of Good:
2018 Estimated FIRE Budget: $40,000
Household Size: 5
Poverty Level:  below 175% of Poverty Level
*At one point they were at $30,000 which would have put them just about at the poverty level for their family size.

Saving the Crumbs:
2017 Expenses: $10,482
Household Size: 3
Poverty Level: below the Poverty Level by almost 50%

Points with a Crew:
2017 Expenses: $60,000
Household Size: 8
Poverty Level: below 175% of Poverty Level

Jessie Fearon:
2016 Estimated Expenses: $44,940
Household Size: 5
Poverty Level: below 175% of Poverty Level

Early Retirement Extreme:
Estimated Annual Expenses: $7,000
Household Size: 1 (just his expenses)
Poverty Level: below the Poverty Level

Notes. For some reason I thought this post would be a lot easier to write, but suddenly when I was actually seeking other blogger's budget, income, and expense reports, I couldn't find any relevant ones. What the..? I felt like when I started blogging I was inundated with the amazingly frugal income and expense reports. But hmm, suddenly all I could find were really high earners living a pretty financially reasonable lifestyle. Bait-and-switch?

Some additional food for thought on poverty in North Carolina.
Living Wage Calculations for North Carolina

Hourly Wages	1 Adult	1 Adult 1 Child	1 Adult 2 Children	1 Adult 3 Children	2 Adults (1 Working)	2 Adults (1 Working) 1 Child	2 Adults (1 Working) 2 Children	2 Adults (1 Working) 3 Children	2 Adults (1 Working Part Time) 1 Child*	2 Adults	2 Adults 1 Child	2 Adults 2 Children	2 Adults 3 Children
Living Wage	$11.36	$23.80	$27.25	$34.16	$18.71	$21.55	$24.57	$27.15	$16.59	$9.35	$12.77	$15.20	$17.39
Poverty Wage	$5.00	$7.00	$9.00	$11.00	$7.00	$9.00	$11.00	$13.00		$3.00	$4.00	$5.00	$6.00
Minimum Wage	$7.25	$7.25	$7.25	$7.25	$7.25	$7.25	$7.25	$7.25		$7.25	$7.25	$7.25	$7.25

source: http://livingwage.mit.edu/states/37

And because we all love a good infographic, had to share this...

Source: NC Justice

 

(23Aug2018 MERJ)

How does your budget compare? 
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Wednesday Weekly: August 22, 2018

Most popular post on My Early Retirement Journey this week:

Why I Love My Roku So Much! (Cable – whathat?)

Wednesday Weekly is a round up of what I stumbled upon this week on the world wide web because sharing resources and information is what the internet is all about.

WHAT I STUMBLED UPON THIS WEEK

Two Cities, One Fare: How Airline Stopover Programs Can Work for You (The New York Times)

18 Gmail settings that will change how you think about your inbox (Fast Company)

WOMEN ON THE WEB

The Cooper Review (The Cooper Review)

THIS BLOGGING BUSINESS

The Science of Pinterest Scheduling: Finding Your Best Consistency, Frequency and Timing (Buffer)

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Comparing An Actual Retiree's Budget to My Proposed Early Retiree Budget

I recently took over managing my aunt's finance. It's just paying her bills really because she "just doesn't know how."  Not only does this scare me about getting older and losing my ability to care for myself, but it brought up a curious case of, will my FIRE budget really work?.

I recently decided my bare bones budget for both an unexpected loss of income or FIRE is: 500/500/500 (rent/expenses/loan,other, cushion) 

The 67-year old Retiree Budget

 

Auto-withdrawals
GEICO (car insurance)	13th	$70.23
Globe Life	9th	$14.24
Subtotal1		$84.47
Remainder (Total Income - subtotal 1)		$1,340.53
Recurring Bills
Tampa Electric		$76.00
Metro PCS	1st	$45.00
Rent	1st	$433.00
Santander (car loan)	24th	$252.61
Spectrum		$0.00
Subtotal2		$806.61
Remainder (Total Income - Subtotal 1 - Subtotal 2)		$533.92
Living Expenses
Food		$200.00
Gas		$30.00
Dependent		$30.00
Subtotal		$260.00
Remainder (Total Income - Subtotals x3)		$273.92
Remainder for Miscellany		$273.92
Prescriptions
Doctor's office
Gifts
Other

I copied the above data straight from a spreadsheet I'm using to keep track of her finances. For the sake of comparison, I reorganized the line items into the three main categories in my projected FIRE bare bones budget Housing/ Expenses/ Other. I also added $80 for internet and cable as an estimate. It's cancelled right now for Aunty MERJ for non-payment, but it's something I plan to have in one form or another.

 

HOUSING	Projected Cost	Actual Cost	Difference
Mortgage or rent	$500	$433	$67
Tampa Electric	$0	$76	-$76

Total

$500

$509

-$9

 

Expenses	Projected Cost	Actual Cost	Difference
GEICO		$70	-$70
Metro PCS		$45	-$45
Santander		$253	-$253
Spectrum (internet and cable)		$80	-$80
Food		$200	-$200
Gas		$30	-$30
Total	$500		$500
Total	$500	$678	-$178

 

Other	Projected Cost	Actual Cost	Difference
Globe Life		$14	-$14
Dependent		$30	-$30
Medical			$0
Other/Gifts			$0
Total	$0	$44	-$44

Now let's sum these and compare..

Final thoughts.
Based on this actual retiree's typical living expenses, it seems I would be able to get by. Some things would be different for me. For example, I likely would not have the car payment ($253/mon) that Aunty MERJ has. However, since I would not be of Medicare age, I would likely have some sort of health insurance premium. I don't even know what the range of something like that would be.  Overall, I think I would be able to live a simple life and get a couple trips or big expenses in now and then.  Big expenses would likely not include home repairs. So home ownership is probably unlikely unless I increased my  FIRE number or owned the home by the time I retired and thus could re-allocate some of the housing budget for repairs and maintenance.  This exercise was good food for thought and a great jumping off point for future projections.  Thanks for stopping by!

Related Content:

• Financial Update | June 2018 Income and Expenses


• Financial Update | June 2018 Savings and Investment

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My Back to School Shopping and Life List

My body is rejecting my current level of inactivity. But obviously, like a human, instead of trying to fix the problem, I'm throwing money at it. I love back-to-school season anyway. It's a new spring so to speak. Historically, I do better with structure and automation. The less decisions I have to make in any one day, the better. In trying to get my life back on track so I can make it to Sabbatical 2020, here's some pending expenses to hit my budget this Fall.

 

1, A new mattress
Rationale: I've been waking up with back and shoulder pain which is only compounded with my 8 hour workday behind a desk.  I looked at the two mattress companies that appeared first on a Google search. One has 2 locations on my way to work. Stopped in and it was mildly helpful, but went with the the one, US Mattress (no affiliate), that had the better clicking experience and hauled my old mattress away. I picked the mattress based on number of reviews, cost, and estimated comfort. Eh, we'll see. It took me about 10 days to make a decision from when I identified the problem.
Cost: $700 (rounded) for mattress + box spring + frame
Budget Category: Incidentals, $340/mon x 3 mos + Miscellany, $144/mon  x 3 mos

2, New shoes
Rationale: Because of back pain, along with shoulder pain, my tailbone starts to hurt near the end of the work day and the end of the work week. My work has accommodated me by providing me a sit-to-stand desk. However, while the standing desk alleviates pressure off my tailbone and shanks (do humans have shanks), it makes my feet and legs hurt.
Cost: $125 $0
Notes. I mentioned interest in getting Dansko clogs (no affiliate), and my nurse colleague offered up her old ones from her clinical days. Win for the single 30-something!

3, Meal plan
Rationale: I haven't been eating well lately. I thought I'd kick off back-to-school season with some prepared meals (not meal kits) delivered to my house. I  did a quick Google search and a few names (no affiliate) popped up that met my lactard needs (lactose-intolerant): The Good Kitchen, Pete's Paleo, and  Trifecta Nutrition. The Good Kitchen provided the easiest clicking experience, so I ended up going with them. I might try the others, might not.  Trifecta Nutrition was definitely the most interesting, but it was too many clicks.
Cost: $75 (rounded) for 5 meals
Budget Category: Groceries, $200/mon

4, An Activity
Rationale: So I guess I'm taking a small step in doing something about the rapid decline of my physical health. Walking for free hasn't really worked much in the last 2.5 years. Although I promised myself that I would never buy a gym membership since I'm not that girl for a number of reasons, desperation and loss of common sense got the better of me. I picked out a class in the community recreating guide, T'ai Chi, that may help me loosen some tension and fits in with my schedule.
Cost: $88 for 7 classes
Budget Category: Incidentals, $340/mon

5, Working late shift
Rationale: I'm having so much trouble sleeping lately, I decided to ask my boss for a more regular shift. Usually we rotate start times between 8a-12n. The two reasonable options were 11a -7p or 12-8p. I don't like being the last person walking across that dark parking lot, so I think I'm going to go with the 11a-7p. At the very least I can wake up a few times during the night and still have time to fall back asleep. And maybe staying up longer will help me stay asleep longer.  We'll see.
Rationale 2: Also helps automate my life as I focus on getting to Sabbatical 2020. Regular shift can mean regular bed time, regular meal times and regular times to decompress.
Rationale 3: Work day goes a little slower, but overall the day goes by more quickly.
Cost: $0 but we'll see (I may end up eating out more, or I may end up eating less altogether)

6, Plane tickets to visit Aunty MERJ (Aug - Dec 2018)
Rationale: She's not doing well and I feel a sense of duty because she took care of my first 10 years in America. And I'm managing parts of her life until we can get her full time care. I spent about 2 to 3 hours searching Allegiant (budget airline), Southwest, and Kayak and looking at open vacation days on my work calendar to pick out these monthly visits. I was initially thinking every 3 months, but I don't know, somehow this seemed easier. She just seems to need so much little stuff done and last minute flights not only increase my anxiety but cost more, so I'll just start here and see.

Cost: $1608, est. initial transactional cost  + whatever incidental expenses that come with travelling
Budget Category: Tithe/Gift, $250/mon x 5 mos +  Incidentals, $340/mon x 1 mon + Miscellany, $144/mon x 1 mon
Note. Hmm, now that I look at this number, this would probably be a good time to look into credit card travel-hacking, but I'm trying to automate my life not add asterisks to it. So, while I hear the virtual frugalists cringing, I've accepted my limitations.

Total estimated costs: $2471 (my budgeted expenses for a month! Will see how this stacks up at next quarterly or annual income and expenses report)

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