A Quick Financial Check-In for Jun 2020

Hi, there!

I am hoping to keep this focused with minimal feelings.

It took me most of the afternoon to complete this financial check-in, and I'm not exactly sure why.

But instead of getting bogged down with extemporaneous details, here's where I find myself financially mid-way through 2020 and a global pandemic.

First, here's a look back at some goals and targets I set at the beginning of 2020:

Mid-way through the year, I find my numbers as follows. All rounded and approximated.

Net Income YTD: $38k

Expenses YTD: $15.6k

Post-Tax Savings/Investments YTD: $14.6k

If you're just here for the numbers, that's pretty much it. If you want some more words, keep reading.

Net Income. Most notably, I'm a bit more than halfway to my projected earnings for the year primarily due to a sign-on bonus at New Job, COVID stimulus check, and nearly $2k in bank bonuses. I'm feeling very financially fortunate at the moment.

Expenses. Not too bad. Not the $13k you might expect given my lofty stated projections, but it's on par with my actual annual expenses (of approx. $30k/yr) the last 2 to 3 years. Decidedly it's a bit less than I expected given my COVID stockpiling and transactional costs of mortgaging a house. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of Expenses this year were housing-related.

Post-Tax Savings. Post Tax Savings, really I should say investments, is right on track. This is in large part due to the fact that it's completely automated each month. Because of the bit of extra cash, I'm even a bit tempted to go ahead and max out my Roth IRA early, but I appreciate the structure.

I also updated my FIRE TRACKER, so you can see the stock market is playing along at the moment, and if it continues I may reach my year end Savings/Investments goals.

I hope this Fourth of July brings you some financial freedom!

1 Year Later

With the end of year comes many opportunities for reflection. Today I'm looking back at my first year of My Early Retirement Journey - both virtually and in real life. It's the first year I tracked my income and expenses. It's the first year I maxed out my 401k. It's the first year I invested in a brokerage account (and subsequently lost money). It's the first year I followed other personal finance (PF) blogs. It's also my first year blogging (update included).

Tracking my income and expenses
I tried at least three different spreadsheets this year. I eventually defaulted to the Google Sheets for tracking my income and expenses because it was portable via an internet connection. I use a home-made Excel sheet for tracking my savings and investments.

My issue with Google sheets was that the default sheet had way too many categories for my spending habits.  So for 2019, I decided to stick with it but streamlined the categories going from about 100 line items to just a few categories.

Doing it the way I did in 2018 I knew would be useful because I wanted to track transportation and housing costs for future use and help justify my decision regarding both - own a car, but not own a house.

Using less categories in 2019 will make it easier to trend broad categories especially since I have some version of early retirement where I just make a run for it.  Thus I need a round number of what is needed to cover basic expenses in my head. Right now that number is 18-20k/year. Making my FIRE number = $500k.

Tracking income and expenses is helpful and to a certain extent necessary but not always enjoyable. Because my expenses don't vary that much, I don't see myself updating my spreadsheet anymore than quarterly, and I think in the future I could do annually, if at all. But for now, I'll keep updating semi-regularly.

Read more: 11 Months of Income and Expenses in 2018

Single Girl Money | Dec 2018 Income and Expenses Update

Single Girl Money | Dec 2018 Savings and Investment Update

Trends

From the looks of it I saved as much as I had in 2016 (50%+) before I was even pursing FIRE intentionally. No surprises there, I suppose. I didn’t change much since then. However, it was a curious experiment to see what I really was spending my money on. I like data so that was beneficial in that aspect. No real surprises overall. It was nice to have a sum total of what I spent on Aunty MERJ ($5k+).

I noticed too I was not spending as much on groceries and eating out as I thought. There is probably room for improvement but not enough to warrant any drastic life changes. I recognize that food/dining out and cable are my everyday luxuries. Conceivably there are probably a few categories in which I can trim back a bit, but that would require quite a bit of effort both in thought and execution. While it may save me a bit of money it wouldn't really up my timeline, but I could be convinced otherwise.

Implications

If you recall, I stumbled upon FIRE because around this time last year (2017) I was really wondering do I really have to do this job for the next 30 years? The answer: NO.

I could reasonably escape in 15 years  (with just maxing out 401k contributions) or less. Better. But when I did that fateful Google search in Dec 2017, I was looking for a now solution. Fifteen years just isn’t soon enough.

In fact, I originally thought I can save half my salary for 10 years and take a break for 10 years and then just repeat. FIRE has presented me options but hasn't changed that line of thinking completely. It's still in the back of my mind. As I type this, I still don't know which way I'm definitely going to go. The effects of compound interest require a longer time horizon than my eagerness allows. I’m still looking for a secret door and ultimately I haven’t found it. So on the leaving the workforce NOW front, I’m still mentally eons away. So, takeout and tv it is.

Blogging
Subscribers. Even on my highest pageview day, I got maybe one or two new subscribers. In total, the addition of the pop-up gave me nine new subscribers over two months. It's better than any other two month time frame before the pop-up but it's still  a pretty low conversion rate.  Also, it’s pretty annoying and I don’t like having to worry about maintaining the subscriber list. I got rid of the pop-up (and ads on the sidebar).

Pinterest. Pretty done with creating pins. It's time consuming and I don't enjoy doing them right now. At first I was seeing no traffic, but I have seen some traffic year to date. I have about 100 old pins that get pinned daily via Google calendar. It's actually more work to stop them, so I'll just leave them.

Submissions. My best traffic days have been after a guest post publishes. It is by far easier when something I've already published is reprinted on another site such as The Financial Diet or Women Who Money. Most notable guest post was my feature on Think Save Retire.  It produced my highest pageview day to date - over 1k pageviews.  I have one previously published post left that I plan to submit soon to some external sites but likely not many more in 2019.

Facebook. Facebook is a fun indoor activity for the most part; I feel no pressure to heavily market blog there. I have come to appreciate the groups on my lazy weekends.  Chiming in on the group posts reminds me of the original AOL chat rooms. I miss those.

Twitter. Twitter is easily forgettable. I’ll keep the automatic posts through WordPress. Not sure how much engagement I’m willing to commit to on that platform. TBD. It's not something I was using prior to blogging.

Wednesday Weekly. I started a weekly roundup a few months in. I'll likely not continue the Wednesday Weekly roundup in 2019 although I do like sharing things I read. I suppose I may do a sprinkling of roundups here and there if some interesting posts pop-up on my radar.

Comics.  I do find myself wishing I could draw. I had at least one good idea for a comic that was too difficult to figure out how to illustrate with the available templates. I really like the comics and I think if I can find an easier way to get my ideas across, I could flesh that out more. Those are fun.

Inner Blogger dilemma. I have mixed feelings being back on Wordpress. It was the promise of monetization that sold me.  Since that's not a salient goal of mine at the moment, it seems kind of pointless to be on Wordpress. (Read: I've made no money and I'm tired of trying.)  Plus there was just less pressure on Blogger. I now desire a simpler layout. I'm even getting tired of selecting images to go with each post. So some days, yes, I do regret leaving Blogger.

2018 Stats (via Jetpack for Wordpress and or Google Analytics)

Views: 17,010

Sessions: 6,695 (Oct = 1,433, Nov = 1,157)

Jetpack Top Referrers (views): Rockstar Directory (335), Pinterest (321), Search Engines (318), thinksaveretire.com (285), Facebook (209), Twitter (188)

Google Analytics Top Referrers (views): thinksaveretire.com (1,035), treadlightlyretireearly.com (801), Rockstar Directory (543), financesmiths.com (535), Pinterest (429), strugglingtobedebtfree.blogspost.com (356), Facebook (292)

Email subscribers: about 20 (4 on Wordpress, 8 on MailerLite, 7 on Feedburner, 1 on MailChimp)

Milestones. I've been blogging since February, so technically that puts me about 10 months into this foray. My milestones with the blog are as follows: quite a few guest posts on other sites; hitting 1,000 users in a month; Rockstar newsletter feature; 3 featured posts on The Financial Diet; someone actually approaching me to submit to their site. And overall connecting with a few other bloggers and sharing my story and reading theirs! I'm here for the stories and that's been wonderful!

If there are any highlights I missed or lingering questions, let me know in the comments below.

Single Girl Money | Dec 2018 Income and Expenses Update

I sort of cheated and provided a thorough eleven-month update of income and expenses earlier this month. That one did not have charts! Thus I present to you my fourth quarter or end of year update on my income and expenses for 2018.

Income

My income is primarily from my day job except for this spring when I dabbled in a side hustle. I did not love it.

2018 Total Take Home Pay: $56,960 (rounded)

Monthly Average: $4,750/mon

2018 Total Take Home Pay + 401k deductions: $75,460 (rounded)

Expenses

I used Google sheets to track my expenses all year for the first time. I included Savings and Investments as a line item just to account for where all the money was going. There's a bit of a dip in Savings and Investments in December because I had maxed out my 401k in November. I don't recommend that because I didn't get my company match for the month I didn't contribute anything.

October had a bit of a credit from Aunty MERJ because I was paid back for some of her expenses I covered. Total automated Savings and Investments for 2018 was $41,154.

Above are my monthly expenses without including Savings and Investments as a line item. Home is noticeably higher in December because I prepaid January 2019 due to some administrative issues with the leasing office. Any other questions, ask in the comments below.

2018 Totals

	Total
Aunty MERJ	$5,251	$438/mon
Debt	$6,265	$522
Entertainment	$369	$31
Everyday	$2,959	$247
Gifts/Tithe	$406	$34
Health/medical	$2,087	$174
Home	$13,097	$1,091
Technology	$280	$23
Transportation	$1,558	$130
Travel	$520	$43
Utilities	$458	$38
Other	$148	$12

Total 2018 Expenses: $32,917

Projected 2018 Expenses: $30,000

Difference: -$2,917

Projected 2018 Monthly Expenses: $2,500/mon

Actual 2018 Monthly Expenses (avg): $2743/mon

Difference: -$243/mon

Notes

Even with the addition of Aunty MERJ's expense and more than a few health appointments, I think I did pretty good this year. My projected annual expense was $30,000. I spent $32,917. My three largest expense categories were: Home ($13,097), Student Loans ($6,265), and Aunty MERJ ($5,251). So 2018 Expenses - Home - Student Loans - Aunty MERJ is $32,917 - 13,097 - 6,265 - 5,251 = $8,304. In early retirement, I would not live in such an expensive apartment; I would not have such a high student loan payment; and Aunty MERJ's expenses would be minimal. Thus, with basic annual expenses coming in just around $8,000/yr, I think it just might be possible to live off $18-20k/yr in early retirement.

Savings Rate

A firm tenet in FIRE is recognizing and increasing your savings rate.  Tracking income minus expenses, here is what the data reveals.

For the third quarter, I was fortunate enough to maintain a savings rate greater than 50% across all three months. My average savings rate for 2018 was 57%.

I don't do a zero dollar budget, so how much did I really save? Depends on how you calculate it. If I do Savings = Income - Expenses, I get about $42,500 in savings or a 56% savings rate. If I do Savings = Automatic deposits to 401k, regular savings, and brokerage account, I get about $41,100 in savings or a 54% savings rate. And if I do the average of monthly savings rate, I get a 57% savings rate. So, I'll just pick an unscientific estimated savings rate of 55%. It matters not in the end.

I did some quick scratch calculations of my savings rate through the years, just using old W-2s and Jan and Dec bank statements to get a basic idea of how I did when I was less intentional about my finances. Here's what I found. Again, these are rough estimates.

2016: $34,350 (savings)/ $65,770 (rounded net pay) = 52%

2017: $17,000 (savings)/ $70, 420 (rounded net pay) = 24%

2018: Estimated savings rate = 55%

I think that's it. Questions or comments? How did your 2018 go?

Single Girl Money | Dec 2018 Savings and Investment Update

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I ain't got no friends, so I thought I might as well post this now. 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 all sorts of updates, just like this one.

This is the December 2018 Update of my savings and investments balances, i.e. my personal capital. I don’t call it net worth because my massive student loan debt keeps me at a negative net worth and frankly that’s discouraging.

I am getting a little faster at Excel, so this update did not take quite as long to chart as my September 2018 Savings and Investment Update.  We’ll utilize a similar structure here as well. Let’s get into it!

Let’s quickly recall some budget items:

2018 Savings goal: $37,000/yr (2017: no goal)
Monthly savings contributions: $3115/mon

Investments

My projected investment goal for the end of 2018 was $90,200. I contributed as planned, but I lost a significant chunk of my contributions as of 12/20/2018. It kind of sucked honestly, and it made me doubt this investing thing. I had been planning to update my stock allocation since my first quarter update, but since it was doing well, I didn't feel as compelled. Once I saw the loss, I got a little more motivated. This is NOT what you are supposed to do, but I did. My brokerage's advice blog said not to react emotionally to market fluctuations, but if you do, then do half of what you want to do. I heeded that advice. Both my 401k and brokerage accounts were allocated at 90/10 stock/bond. I changed my brokerage to the recommended 68/32 allocation (based on an early retirement age of 42).

That being said, you'll notice the dip in my investment balance.

Total Investment Balance: $83,815

Investment Losses - $10,000

It's been a hard pill to swallow. By my calculations, I've lost about $10,000 in four months. This is a lot considering I just started and it seems as though people with much larger investment portfolios haven't lost as much proportionally.

Investment Balance (08/30/18): $83,981

Contributions (Sep to Dec 2018): $9,956  (not including employer contributions)

Investment Balance (12/20/18): $83,815

Savings and Investments

When you add in my Safety Net Fund + Regular Savings and Checking, my savings and investment balance is bumped up a bit.

Total Savings and Investments: $120,285

Thoughts

My savings goal was $37,000 this year, I did contribute at least that much, but because of market losses, that is not necessarily reflected in the end of year balance.

For some perspective, here's how far I've come.

Dec 2017 (investments only): $51,333

Dec 2018 (investments only): $83,815

Difference: $32,482 (contributions of at least $37,401)

This is actually a little bit less than where I was at my September 2018 update. Womp, womp. I still have about $5,000 in savings that need to be transferred to my investment account, but I'm holding on to it for now until I get used to the loss. And as I have all year, I still have about 1 year of expenses as a safety net, in case of job loss or if I lose my mind and make a run for it!

So that was 2018, my first year in FIRE, my first year blogging about FIRE and my first year with a defined savings goal. How did your 2018 go?

11 Months of Income and Expenses in 2018

Well, if you knew me in real life, you would know sometimes I get really excited and can't contain it. Some might call this anxiousness. Potato, potahto. Anyway, I've been perusing my income and expenses and I just can't wait the two weeks for December to end to have a more complete picture of my income and expenses for the year.

I've also been sick for a week with little else to do other than blink and breathe, and I  want to knock out some of these updates before my scheduled vacation days next week. So I'm cheating a little bit.

Thus, I bring you a sneak peek at my income and expenses for 2018! Check out how the single girl did, and tell me your thoughts. Remember this is only eleven months of expenses and income (Jan to Nov), but with only two weeks of the year left, I don't expect much to change unless my body or my car dies. God forbid.

Income

Here's a screenshot from Google Sheets of my income for 11.5 months. My first of two December paychecks is included just to keep it confusing.

My Paycheck is from my full-time call center job. Paycheck is sans 401k contributions and after tax.  As you can see it varies because we get paid from the 1st to the 15th and then the 16th to the 31st. So sometimes, that's a lot of hours, sometimes it's just 80 hours. Bonus is annually based on secret metrics. Refunds are for things I return to the store after I buy them and realize I didn't actually need to buy that. Thank you generous return policies. Side hustle is my foray into the side hustling so common in the personal finance (PF) blogosphere. Let me tell you, I didn't love it.

As you can see, I started out doing Roth 401k contributions, then after immersing myself in the PF blogosphere I went with traditional 401k contributions. The conventional wisdom is to go with traditional if you think your tax rate will be lower in retirement anyway. 

YTD Total Income (incl 401k contributions): $72,848

Expenses

Here's a screenshot from my spreadsheet. As I got through the narrative, I realized a couple expenses were left off and were subsequently updated. So some totals may differ from the screenshot. That's what happens when you have a human doing a robot's job. 

I love it too when bloggers include blurry images...

A close-up of totals, YTD, Jan to Nov 2018.

Total
Aunty MERJ	$5,251
Debt	$6,835
Education	$0
Entertainment	$320
Everyday	$2,795
Gifts/Tithe	$106
Health/medical	$2,037
Home	$11,175
Insurance	$0
Savings/Investing	$39,287
Technology	$280
Transportation	$1,308
Travel	$520
Utilities	$424
Other	$148

YTD Total Expenses = $70, 485

YTD Total Expenses - Savings = $31,198

The Breakdown

Aunty MERJ: $5,251

Expenses for Aunty MERJ I count toward my tithe. I don't belong to a particular church, but I still tithe in terms of trying to give away 10% of my spending budget. For 2018, my spending budget was estimated to be $30,000, so 10% of that would be $3,000. I went a bit over with Aunty MERJ as her health rapidly declined and took her mood with it.

These expenses included visits to Florida and paying Aunty MERJ's rent while I got a handle on her finances. 

Debt: $6,835

My whopping $300,000 student loan debt. I sacrilegiously have chosen not to pay off this debt. I know, I know. I am on income-based repayment for the next 25 years. 

Entertainment: $320

This was one fitness class ($88), tickets to the state fair ($14), and three months of cable ($43/mon).  Yes, I know. I still have cable. Last year I was spending $90/mon on cable though, so this is an improvement. My hack was using the DirecTV Now app vs regular Time Warner cable through a cord. DirecTV Now app is loaded on the Roku stick so you can still watch TV on the big screen vs a laptop. And I still get the same channels. A good binge watch + yummy snacks = favorite single girl pastime.

Everyday: $2,795

These expenses include Groceries, Restaurants, and Personal Supplies.  On average, I seem to spend about $250/mon in this category as a whole. That's pretty good considering I budgeted $200/mon just on Groceries alone.  For an itemized breakdown, in the last 11 months, I spent $1,281 on Groceries for one single girl, and  $868 on Restaurants.  Monthly, that's an average of about $117/mon on Groceries and about $79/mon on Restaurants. Not bad! 

Gifts/Tithe: $106

I gave some money to my other aunt who helped me out during my surgery.  My little cousins were going to prom and wanted to buy prom tickets. 

Health/ Medical: $2,037

This category was a stunner this year. I had leftover dental work from 2017 that needed to be completed. I also had surgery. This is with health insurance. But, I thank God anyway. This year was a year of ailments from the root canal, to the surgery, to back and tailbone pain to recurring respiratory distress. As I type this I am hacking my life away with acute bronchitis - a single girl first. I don't know what's going on. Is this what 35 has in store for me? 

Home: $11,175

No real surprises here. My rent went up but overall with utilities I stay around $1,000/mon to house myself. As an aside, there is a new mattress ($708) factored into this total as well. Continuing, I have considered home ownership but I can't afford anything where I currently live and I'm not ready to give up my pretty easy commute. I know- another blasphemous proposition for the single girl. Plus, if I'm honest, the numbers didn't work for me without a long term plan to stay in the area. It would take five to seven years to break even and that's with moving 1 hour away. 

Savings/Investing: $39,287 (really about $36,287)

This is my first year actively investing, and by actively I mean fully contributing to my employer's 401k plan and opening my first brokerage account. After much deliberation, I decided to go traditional on the 401k. No real rhyme or reason in the end. The first blogger I read did it, so I did it too. Plus it keeps my adjusted gross income down for my income based student loan repayment.  My savings goal for the year was $37,000 and I'm just about there. Thank the Lord!  The $3,000 difference is because some of that was money I earned in 2017 that was hanging out in my checking and savings while I got comfortable with this whole financial independence thing. So far, so meh. More on that later...

Technology: $280

This is a few false starts with the blog mainly. Most of this was refunded just not captured in the way I charted my expenses for this category. 

Transportation: $1,308

This was the category I was most looking forward to. I didn't have a clear picture of what it costs to own a car each year after monthly payments are done. Now I have some idea. I drive a 2007 Honda that I bought new, and I'm curious to see how long I will be able to drive it. It has close to 150,000 miles and still runs fine.  When it's time for my next car, it will be nice to have some accounting of the true cost of owning a car.

This category captured: fuel, insurance, license/registration, and maintenance. On average, this year I spent about $42/mon in gas or $459 over the last eleven months. That's a little high attributable to more fill-ups the four months I was side-hustling. In fact during four non-hustling months, I spent less than $25/mon on gas! I spent $708 on car insurance this year, and a whopping $142 for registration and inspection. I still have some outstanding maintenance, but only time will tell if I get to it in the next two weeks. 

Travel: $520

Ahoy! Single girl, you didn't go anywhere?! Yes, that's right. This is the cost of my staycations for the year. Wait, what? Yes, well in May I spent $50 in gas to go to Maryland to see my cousins graduate. In August, I had some serious back pain and spent a weekend in a hotel and called it a writer's retreat. And in September, I bought some delicious food and holed up in my apartment for the week. It was berry niiiice. 

Utilities: $424

This is my eleven month total for power.  Water and internet is paid to my apartment complex with my rent check. Which averages about $38/mon but I carry a credit on that account because I prepay. 

Other: $148

This is mostly the cost to renew my professional license. Work pays for continuing education courses, of which we have to have 15 hours or so. Then at the end of the year we certify we took those courses and didn't do anything bad, then we get a new license and carry on with our lives. It's a nice life. 

That's pretty much it. I enjoyed this conversation a lot more than my updates with graphs. They're pretty, but boring. Stay tuned for the Q4 financial update with pictures and the remainder of December 2018 expenses and income. 

Announcing My Guilt-Free 2019 Budget Projections

Today is Dec 15, 2018 and it's ten days till Christmas. Yippee. With season's greetings come feelings of reflections of the year. I tend to live in the future (not the moment). I've already taken a sneak peek at this year's income and expenses, and I have so many thoughts. I have so many thoughts on how the year has gone, and I am having trouble containing them or even confining them to one space. That's how I know it's time to write a post.

Based on what my income and expenses have shown thus far, here's what I propose for 2019 (God-willing).

My Working Budget for 2019

GROSS SALARY:	$91,000	($44/HR)
NET SALARY:	$71,000	(INCL 401K CONTRIBUTIONS)
SPENDING BUDGET:	$26,000/ yr	($2,167/MON)
TOTAL SAVINGS GOAL:	$45K/YR	TOTAL = POST-TAX SAVINGS + 401K (45K = 26K + 19K)

2019 PROJECTIONS

MONTHLY SPENDING	$2167/MON	26K/YR			SAVINGS	$45K/YR
Student Loans	$570					Per Pay Period	Notes	Annually
Housing/ Utilities	$1,000	(46%)			401K	$731/pp	Payroll deduction	$19,000
[REMAINDER ≈ $600]					[REMAINDER = 26K]
Tithe	$200
Everyday Expenses -Groceries (~$200/mon) -Dining Out -Gas Other (cable, personal supplies, wellness visit, family, other)	$400				Roth IRA	$231/pp		$6,000
					Taxable account	$834/pp		$20,000

For previous versions, see Budget Struggles.

Notes on my guilt-free budget projections. I generally get a couple hours of overtime each month, that will go toward any extra expenses guilt-free.  My spending budget is pretty basic on purpose. I plan to have $400/mon from my paycheck direct deposited onto a prepaid debit card for Everyday Expenses.  I use the Amex BlueBird card (no affiliate) because it has no fees. Extra expenses might include an extra doctor's visit; maybe I'll finally go on a trip; or my family might need help with a purchase. For any larger expenses that might arise, as they often do, I have a built in cushion in my savings budget. Guilt-free again.

More on the taxable account. Yes, my 401k contributions are automatic payroll deductions. Yes, my Roth IRA contributions are automated twice a month to a brokerage account. The remaining savings (20k) are funneled to a broker but those are semi-automated. This worked in 2018, so I'm going to try it again in 2019. I automated 75% of the amount allocated for the taxable account. So each pay period only 75% of the $834 gets routed to the broker. (I use a robo-advisor for now.) The remaining 25% sits in a savings account and is routed throughout the year when the balance gets uncomfortably high.  I do this so that if a big expense does arise, this money is easily accessible. Yes, I do keep a safety net in my checking and savings, but I really do see that as a safety net for job loss. So the taxable account cushion that lingers in my savings account is in addition to an established safety net. I don't want to ever feel strapped for cash.

Overall, while I have a spending target and savings target in mind, my budget is not immutable. I aim to keep financial independence guilt-free. The savings target and spending target are just tools to give my money some discipline and structure; it can't just be hanging out all willy nilly. If I need to spend more, it's enough knowing that I can. If I end up saving less than my target, it really is okay. Keep in mind a reasonable savings rate to a traditional and comfortable retirement is 20%, so anything above that is just gravy.  I want to be mindful not to get to a place where I start feeling bad for spending money that I earn. Financial independence goals are a choice and really not even the end goal, just an avenue to options.

Comparing 2018 vs 2019 Budget Projections

	2018	2019	Notes
Hourly Rate	43/hr	44/hr	Hourly rate based on hourly rate at the start of each year; historically incremental raises go into effect around April each year.
Estimated Gross Salary	89,440	91,000	The estimate for 2018 was calculated using hourly rate x 40 hrs/ wk x 52 weeks. The estimate for 2019 was calculated using a payment model at work.
Estimated Net Salary	67,080	71,000	The estimate for 2018 was calculated on a simple 25% tax rate. The estimate for 2019 was calculated using a payment modeling application at work that accounts for payroll deductions.
Savings Target	$37,000/yr	$45,000/ yr	For 2018, I hypothesized I could save half my salary and spend half based on the observation that I was already meeting most of my expenses from one of my two monthly paychecks. For 2019, after my first year of tracking expenses, I hypothesized I could keep recurring expenses to under 26k/yr and decided to shoot for a target savings of 45k/yr by funneling most of it away from my checking account. No pressure.
Spending Budget	$30,000/yr	$26,000/ yr

Final Thoughts.

I know this 2019 budget update is a little premature since I haven't done my full Q4 update yet, but with only one paycheck left and two weeks left of the year, I have a pretty good idea of what I've spent and what I've earned in 2018. The only lingering thing is whether I take my car in to get serviced before the year ends. The maintenance work has been pending since at least October. Then the weather just got colder and the days got shorter, and I really don't like running errands that require a huge time commitment.  But I'm just so excited to have gotten through this year and actually stuck with tracking my spending, I just had to offer this sneak peek! Let me know what you think...

Stay tuned for the upcoming Q4 update and reflections to see exactly what I did manage to spend and save in 2018!

How My Income Skyrocketed and Net Worth Plummeted with My Education

Welcome back to My Early Retirement Journey! I'm so glad you're here. So we've all heard it from one source or another that one of the best reasons to graduate high school (and eventually college) is not just for the sake of furthering your education, or accomplishing a goal, but for the promise of a higher salary. But is it true? And at what cost?

The data

A recent report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics did in fact find that high school graduates made on average about $400 more per week than their non-diploma holding counterparts.

COHORT	MEDIAN WEEKLY SALARY	ANNUALLY
NO H.S. Diploma	$515	$26,780
H.S. Diploma	$718	$37,336
Bachelor's degree	$1,189	$61,828
Advanced degree	$1,451	$75,452

After simplifying some of the data from that report into a chart for comparison, it is easy to see that statistically, salary does increase as education increases. Conceivably, a high school dropout can reasonably expect to make one-third the salary of someone with an advanced degree. Naturally there are those who defy expectations and you might be one of them, but probably not.

Sometimes you'll even see these cohorts working in the same place. For example a medical assistant at a private practice; or a pharmacy tech at a retail pharmacy;  or a receptionist at a law practice. Is there anything worse than slogging away the same number of hours at the same place, and being paid far less?

My story

Statistics don't often tell the whole story.  They are just a compilation of data points after all. Given all the jobs I've had and the degrees I've earned, I was curious to trend just how much my salary did change with educational advancement.  And at what cost. Here's what the data shows for my story.

No high school diploma

I got my first job in middle school. I used to babysit for my best friend's little brother after school. I was in middle school from 1995 to 1997. During that time frame, I made between $5 and $5.15 an hour babysitting.

In high school, I used to work at my church answering the phones one to two hours a week. I made $5.15 an hour. I did that for a year before we moved. The summer before my senior year of high school, I wanted to go to a dance camp. After applying for "nicer" jobs in the mall, I got a job waitressing at a local diner making about $3.00 an hour (not including tips).  After I made the $600 I needed for dance camp, I quit. I suppose you could say at an early age, I knew long-term work was not for me. I was in high school from 1997 to 2001 and graduated in 2001 (debt-free).

I never worked full time before I graduated from high school. I don't think work permits even allow that for child workers.

The breakdown

My range: $3.00 - $5.15/hr

Median: $4.08/hr

Median weekly (if full time): $163/wk

Annually (if full time): $8,476

High school diploma years

I graduated from high school in 2001 and started college about six weeks later. I was accepted into an early matriculation program, and I was ready to leave my hometown.  I made it through the summer program debt-free because the program was private grant funded. I got through fall break of my first semester of college, and it turned out I didn't have the right immigration status to qualify for federal funding. Surprise! I couldn't afford to go back.

Between 2001 and 2004, I had three jobs (at different times). Two were part-time and one was full-time. My first job was at a hot dog stand in the mall. I finally got a mall job! I was making $5.15 an hour part-time. Then my brother referred me for a data entry job at his company. I started off making $9/hr and ended at $12/hr. I was rich! The company went bankrupt a couple years later, and we were all laid off.

Then I got a seasonal job at my community college's book store. I was making $7.50/hr for the spring rush.  Somewhere in there I also signed up with a temp agency, making on average about $10/ hr.

In 2004, with the help of Google (and God), I successfully applied for and was granted political asylum by the United States. That's the short version. Asylees qualify for federal funding. I could go back to school! Back in college, I had a work-study job that paid $5.25/hr working at the front desk of a 24-hour desk of one of my college's residence halls.

In the summer, I worked at a residential summer camp. They paid us $2,500 lump sum for 3 weeks (12-hr days).  Because of Hurricane Katrina, I spent one semester at another college and worked at their campus grocery store making $6/hr.

The breakdown

My range: $5.15 - $13.89/hr

Mean: (5.15 + 9 + 12 + 7.50 + 10+ 5.25 + 13.89 + 6)/ 8 = $8.50/hr

Weekly (if full time): $344/wk

Annually (if full time): $17,888

 

Postgrad years

I had no job prospects and hadn't even started looking before it was time to graduate. I even missed my college graduation. It just snuck up on me. I guess you had to order tickets. I don't know. Former President Clinton and Former President George H.W. Bush were there so maybe that's why. I graduated in 2006 and went straight to graduate school, so I don't know what the salary was for bachelor's degree only.

Oh wait, yes I do!

For about three months in graduate school, I worked part-time at Blockbuster making $7.50/hr. That was fun. Awe. Remember Blockbuster.

I did a one year Master's degree and got a teaching certificate to boot. I graduated that spring in 2007 and didn't go into teaching right away.  I moved to Hollywood and this is where it gets sticky.  I fully intended to get a full-time job, but with limited experience, no connections, and no desire to be a teacher, this turned out to be harder than expected. However, if ever one wanted to thrive in the gig-economy, Hollywood is the place to do that.

I lived in Los Angeles County or adjacent from 2007 to 2009. While there I held all sorts of part-time gigs and some that paid no money. I halfheartedly tried to join the entertainment industry, hence the unpaid labors of love on different production sets. As a tutor, I made anywhere from $30 to $50/hr. As a substitute teacher I made $135/ day.  As an extra or wardrobe assistant, I made $100/day for a 12-hour day (and free food).

After a couple years of no health insurance and mounting debt, I decided to give full-time teaching one last try. That lasted for a semester at $23/hr.

I moved back to suburban D.C. and signed back up with the temp agency at $10/hr until my aunt referred me for a job at her company. From late 2009 to mid-2011, I made $18/hr as a human resources assistant. Then I went back to school to amass the remainder of my enormous student loan debt.

The breakdown

My range: $7.50 - $50/hr

Mean: (7.50 +30 + 50 + 16.88 + 8.33 +23 +10 +18 )/ 8 = $20.46/hr

Weekly (if full time): $818/wk

Annually (if full time): $42,557

Post post-graduate

I went back to school and got a professional degree. From 2011 to 2015, I amassed enormous student loan debt and chose not to work. My mentality was that I would have to work for the rest of my life and a minimum wage job during my degree program wasn't going to change that. Had I known FIRE was a possibility, perhaps my approach would have been different. As many before me have said, financial independence was not a part of any of my degree programs' curricula. I was not financially woke, as the young kids say.

I graduated in 2015 and was licensed soon after getting my diploma in the mail. I didn't attend this graduation ceremony either. I don't know what my problem is. However, this time I started my job hunt early. I got my first full-time job in my profession before I even graduated after one of my classmates referred me. I started at $41/hr and three years later I'm at $44/hr.

The breakdown

My range: $41 - 44/hr

Median: $42.50/ hr

Weekly: $1,700/wk

Annually: $88,400

 

Effect of education on my net worth

The math for this is simple. I had no concept of financial independence until December 2017. I didn't know it as a concept in abstract or reality. I came to America to escape civil unrest in my country and get a better education which was supposed to give me a better life. It was to be had at all costs.  I obviously started and ended adolescence with no debt. Now in my mid-30s, I have six-figure savings that are outweighed by my six-figure debt.  Ostensibly, I achieved my objective. I got a great education three times over and it has afforded me a better life across almost all counts.  Financial independence will just have to be part of my second act.

Net worth breakdown

H.S. graduation:  +$1,200 in gift money

College graduation:  -$5,000 in debt

Graduate degree graduation: -$60,000 in debt

Professional degree graduation:  -$300,000 in debt

Professional degree + 3 years of full-time employment: - $300,000 (debt) + $100,000 (savings) = -$200,000 (net worth)

The verdict

So did my salary really increase with education as promised? Let's look at the data.

SINGLE GIRL	AVERAGE WEEKLY SALARY	ANNUALLY
NO H.S. Diploma	$163	$8,476
H.S. Diploma	$344	$17,888
Master's Degree	$818	$42,557
Professional Degree	$1,700	$88,400

I am making 10x as much with an advanced degree as I was with no high school diploma. So, I would say that is a resounding yes.

One question to myself when I started this post was something like this: Yes, I am making a respectable salary now, but was it worth the monumental student loan debt it took to get here? In this moment, I would say yes. Shocker, I know!

What you should take away from this

I like to tell the truth as plainly as possible because I too have fallen for the smoke and mirrors show in just about every aspect of my life. So as any college graduate between 2006 and 2010 will tell you, having a college degree doesn't guarantee a job with a great salary. More than a few of my undergraduate classmates found themselves slinging coffee for a few years after graduation until they either found themselves; found their calling; found a network to plug into; or got enough experience to get a better job. Some like me skipped the under-employment line and headed straight for another degree program.



Yes, dear one, that diploma, high school or college, does not come with a job offer stapled to the back, but it does buy you a place in the race. Admittedly, it's a race from which a growing vocal minority of people is now actively trying to sideline, trading in their badges for spectacles.  Nonetheless, unless you have the next great idea or super-talent, furthering your education wisely is a pretty good bet.

 

Single Girl Money | Sep 2018 Savings and Investment Update

Hey there! 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 all sorts of updates, just like this one.

This is the September 2018 Update of my savings and investments balances, i.e. my personal capital. I don’t call it net worth because my massive student loan debt keeps me at a negative net worth and frankly that’s discouraging.

I am getting a little faster at Excel, so this update did not take quite as long to chart as my June 2018 Savings and Investment Update.  We'll utilize a similar structure here as well. Let's get into it!

Let’s quickly recall some budget items:

2018 Savings goal: $37,000/yr (2017: no goal)
Monthly savings contributions: $3115/mon



When you add in my Safety Net Fund + Regular Savings and Checking, the amount is a little more.



 

Am I on target?

Let's do some quick math together.

My savings goal was to save $37,000 this year.

I finished 8 out of 12 months. So that is (8/12) x $37,000 = $24,667 that should have been invested by now.

Let's see:

Dec 2017 end (investments): 51,333

Aug 2018 end (investments): 83,981

Difference: 32,648 (YTD target: $24,667)

Am I on target? Yes! (this includes interest accrued but still on target)

Notes and trends. Fortunately, I am on target and trending upwards. Praise be! Over the last eight months, I've gotten more comfortable with contributing the max to my traditional 401k (after much hemming and hawing at the beginning of the year). I have become a tad bit more comfortable with my brokerage account. Not where I want to be mentally, but I still am funneling extra cash there. So that is trending upward nicely. Like most people in FIRE, all my savings and investment contributions are automated so I don't see it. That's the main purpose of having a second bank. I use that to make automatic contributions to my brokerage account.

I don’t really count my checking and savings amount yet. I see that as my safety net fund. Experts recommend 6 months. I went ahead and saved for about 1 year of expenses ($30,000) for a couple of reasons. First, it was a default choice because I had that first 6 months in CDs and I didn’t want to cash them out when I first started investing in Dec 2017. Secondly, I have this fantasy of just quitting my job and in case I do, I’d like to have 6 months readily accessible. I mean I probably won’t, but sometimes humans do crazy things. Also, both my brokerage account and 401k are using my traditional retirement age of 65 to allocate my funds at a risky 90% in stocks. I keep going back and forth, but in short, it makes me feel better to have one year’s expenses on hand. I know the compound interest lost is causing investment aficionados to gasp in horror, but again, I’ve only been investing “actively” for about eight months now. That’s all folks!

Questions? Comments? What about you...have you hit your targets at your Fall check-in?

Single Girl Money | Sep 2018 Income and Expenses Update

So I’ve been experimenting with lots of different spreadsheets in the last few months.  Check them out here and here.  I used my June 2018 income and expenses to tryout a few more. It turns out Microsoft Excel has loads of templates to try. It’s been really neat to see it all visualized in so many ways.

Without further ado, here’s a recap of my income and expenses for Jan to Aug 2018, a little early I know.  I don’t currently intend to publish these monthly namely because my income and expenses don’t fluctuate with any significance month-to-month. But I think it's worth checking in with myself and sharing with those on a similar journey. Be inspired to check-in on your finance from time to time. My goal this year is not so much a focus on how much I am spending. Rather my priority is to reach my savings goal.  Check back in a few days for that update or subscribe below because you don't want to miss it!

Income

For the spring semester, I had a side hustle as an adjunct professor. I dove head first into FIRE.  To put it mildly, I didn't love the side hustle. However for the sake of exiting the workforce as soon as possible, I am  mildly interested in some other way to earn money.



Of note, income is just my net pay. In the figures above, it does not include my 401k contributions. This is worth noting because in calculating my savings rate, I do count my individual 401k contributions as part of my total income since it is money I would otherwise have to put towards expenses.  (Updated 02Oct2018 when I realized I completely neglected the Income section!)

Expenses

I still haven’t decided on a good spreadsheet. This data was extracted from a Google Sheets doc that lists all my expenses over way too many categories for Jan to Aug 2018, but I like it enough for now.



 



Notes on expenses.
The first sheet includes the amount I put towards savings each month, most of which is automated so I just count it as an expense. The jump in June was not due to an increase in income, but rather aggregated savings that I had no immediate plans for which was transferred to my investment accounts. Savings is targeted for around $3,100 each month. Check out my working budget page for more information.

The second sheet is monthly expenses thus far. To best trend any particular data point, start from the bottom and move up.  My intention is to trend around $2,500/mon or less.  So far I've been over every month except for June. In fact, my target spending for this year is $30,000 of which I'm already at $23,458, and at month eight, I would want to be around $20,000. So I'm over about $3500.

Of note, May was a high expenditure month due to helping out a sick family member.  June was unusually low due to a break I got on my rent.  August was another high expense month because I bought a mattress (classified under "home"), signed up for a fitness class, went on a self-proclaimed writer's retreat which consisted of a weekend stay in a hotel close by (classified under "travel"). I have also been covering Aunty MERJ's rent for the last three months (classified under "dependents/fam").  Transportation was higher in July because I had to pay my six-month premium for car insurance. Medical and health expenses finally came back down after my surgery earlier this year. I'm still healing from that which has required monthly follow-ups at a $40 copay each visit.  Technology in August was for purchasing a hosting plan for my blog. I had been on Blogger prior to this.

For those of you new to personal finance, I would encourage you to start somewhere with keeping track of your finances, e.g. apps, spreadsheets, envelopes. Visuals really help to trend where exactly your money is going. It's easy to round numbers off in your head and think everything is on track. I will admit I don't particularly enjoy putting the reports together but in the end the updates are worth it because it benefits me to have a physical and mental image of my finances and how they are trending. Overall, it's very beneficial and worth the effort. I would strongly encourage you to start tracking your finances no matter where you are in your personal finance journey.

Savings Rate

A firm tenet in FIRE is recognizing and increasing your savings rate.  Tracking income minus expenses, here is what the data reveals.



Closing thoughts.
I am pretty pleased with my financial progress thus far. I'm a little early for quarter three but I have other things coming up in September and I wanted to get this update out of the way for that. This is my first year of My Early Retirement Journey and the financial focus is simply creating awareness and having some sort of framework or plan for what to do with my money. So far, I believe I’m on the right track! Additionally, it really helps to visualize it all! Thanks to Four Pillar Freedom for the great visualization ideas.  Thanks for stopping by!

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