June 2014 Expenses

Let’s take a relaxing breather from those uber-lengthy Job Experience posts and instead crunch some numbers for June.

Category	Total	Notes
Mortgage	793
Taxes	320
Groceries	138
Restaurants	57	Multiple lunch days out. Two meals with friends.
Utilities	66	Electricity, $25 annual HELOC fee
Cable	75	Phone, ISP, Cable
Cell	17	Ting
Medical	0
Pharmacy	0
Clothes	0
Café/Coffee Out	26	High
Entertainment	67	AWS blog hosting Registered for a 10K race in August
Gas	55
Other Auto	790	Yearly Auto Insurance Premium
Vitamin A(lcohol)	0
Misc, See Notes	632	Another Tile Project, Few other house odds and ends
Total	3036

A few comments:

Yet ANOTHER tile project in the house, 3rd month in a row. This is part of our spiffing-up-the-house goals and should help us sell. Total cost: $1180. This includes a new vanity and plumbing costs to install it (the drain broke and I’m not a licensed plumber, had to call a pro for this.). My share: $590.
Auto insurance renewal. 790. This is one of a very small number of costs that I don’t split with my wife, so I’m listing the complete amount here.

Yearly Total

January	2106
February	2013
March	2305
April	2043
May	1876
June	3036
Total	13479

Net Worth Update

Taxable	319K
Retirement 401(k)	299K
Retirement Roth	97K
Home Equity	125K
Total	840K

I dumped extra money into my 401(k) this month, changing the contribution percentage from 20 to 70%. This is the max my employer allows. I’m basically frontloading the remainder of my contributions and will hit the 17.5K max next paycheck.

I did this, incidentally, not because I think the market is poised for serious growth. Quite the opposite, actually — I’m hoping for it to stay flat for a while or even trend down just a bit while corporate earnings continue to rise, thus bringing P/E back in line.

Nope, I did it to give me the option to quit my job early if I need to. My FIRE date is set for April 2015 but there’s an off chance I won’t make it.

Sticky notes on expense tracking

The expenses listed represent half of our total household expenses. I’m 50% of a DINK couple. The same is true for net worth. I only list my personal stash — my wife has her own and I’m not tracking it on this blog. Yeah, we’re completely spoiled.
You’ll notice that there is ~~no mention of car insurance here~~ car insurance is finally mentioned here. I pay my premium annually in June. There’s a 10% discount for paying 12 months in advance, which is a pretty good return on investment.
Similarly, there’s also no mention of home insurance. We pay the yearly premium annually in full every March.
I’d love to cut cable but my wife really doesn’t want to. We have a $150/mo cable/phone/isp package, so my share is $75. It’s something I’ve agreed to live with because she gets a lot of value out of it and she’s pretty good overall.
There are menus at the top of the blog (Finances->2014->Month) if you are interested in additional reports.
I’ve also logged an account of my financial history

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11 Responses to June 2014 Expenses

Winston says:

June 30, 2014 at 4:47 pm

“My FIRE date is set for April 2015 but there’s an off chance I won’t make it.”

So, if you’re maxing out your 401k because of that, it must mean that you won’t necessarily make it to April 2015… i.e., you might cut loose earlier. Right?

- livingafi says:
  
  June 30, 2014 at 8:56 pm
  
  Yeah, there’s a chance I’ll leave before the date I set. There’s probably an 80% chance of me waiting until April but I’m trying to keep my options open. I’m past my FIRE number — I’m really only working to pad and also because I think the market’s overvalued. (Trick question: If you’ve just hit your number, but the market goes down 10% the next day, have you still hit your number? Should you retire?)
  At any rate, it’s difficult to work for these reasons alone. I look outside, the weather is beautiful, and I”m starting to think: maybe my time’s more valuable than just trying to achieve greater security.
  
  - Winston says:
    
    June 30, 2014 at 9:39 pm
    
    Well, all drops are factored into the FIRE number already. You should still retire in that scenario, right?
  - livingafi says:
    
    July 1, 2014 at 8:57 am
    
    Yep, exactly right. Although I might change the “should” to “can” in your statement because I’m super-risk averse 🙂
Thegoblinchief says:

July 1, 2014 at 6:36 am

Are you and DW still relocating within your area, or going out of state? Curious if it’s the latter, since that’s what I’m looking at. If we stay in my state at all, it’s going to be halfway across it.

- livingafi says:
  
  July 1, 2014 at 9:00 am
  
  We’re still targeting the same state (MA). Moving halfway across a state is just about the same as to a different one, unless you life in Delaware or Rhode Island. If we do look out of state we will likely target either CO or the Pacific Northwest.
  
  - Winston says:
    
    July 1, 2014 at 11:51 am
    
    Funny how similarly-minded people tend toward CO or PNW… those are both areas my wife and I talk about.
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