honorharrington's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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honorharrington
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2013 1:12 am

Post by honorharrington »

Hello everyone!
In this journal I plan to record my experiences as I work towards financial independence. I'm sure an overwhelming majority of you are working for the same goal. Glad to be here.
In the next few days I will post my financial stats, what I am currently doing, and my plans for the future.
-HH


DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by DutchGirl »

Welcome! I'm curious...

bulgaria
Posts: 70
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2013 5:28 pm

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by bulgaria »

Welcome.. I'm also curious.. so post some stats! :)

honorharrington
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2013 1:12 am

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by honorharrington »

DutchGirl and bulgaria, thanks for the warm welcome. I’m sorry I took this long to get back to you.

Layout - I will describe myself, then my goals, and lastly, my current financial situation.

About Me – I am turning 23 this year, and I live in Las Vegas. I attend UNLV, where I will graduate from in 2 years (assuming I stick with my current plan). I work as a barista at a local coffee shop.

Goals – Become financially independent by my 30th birthday.

My Financial Situation
Income: 940/month (Wages + Tips)

EXPENSE AMOUNT
Internet 75
Trash 15
Gas 15
Water 20
Electricity 24-100
Sewer 18
Home Ins 53
Taxes 67
Food 40
Car Ins. 112
Gas (car) 28-84
Class 40-70

Total (Worst Case): 669
Total (Best Case): 507
Total (After Radical Changes): 413

Explanation of expenses
Internet: I realize this one is ridiculously high. I don’t need all the connection speed I pay for. I will reduce it by August.
Trash: Don’t know how much I can do with this one. I believe my city mandates that every house have trash pickup. I don’t produce much waste, (I may take 3 months to fill 1 trash bag). I will look into having the service cancelled anyway. I’m pretty sure my neighbor wouldn’t mind me putting my trash in his can.
Gas: I think this is mostly from the water heater. I’m considering turning it off. I already take cold showers and I am fine with them; the only thing I worry about is dishes. Does the hot water help to kill germs, or is the soap all that’s needed?
Water: This should go down drastically because I shut off my leaking toilet.
Electricity: In the winter I don’t need the air conditioner, but during summer I do. This accounts for the drastic change in the power bill. I have the a/c set at 86F during the day, which will allow me to save more than if it were set at 77F.
Sewer: I don’t know if I can get this reduced, but I’ll look into it.
Home Insurance: I need to shop around to see if there is a better deal for this as well.
Taxes: I don’t think I can change this one at all.
Food: This is low because I eat for free at work.
Car Insurance: Because of my age I don’t foresee this going down anytime soon, that’s why I am considering selling my vehicle.
Car Gas: I attend a class on the other side of town 4-12 times a week. I figure it costs me $7 to make the round trip so that’s how I got these numbers.
Class: The class costs $10 each time I go or $70/month.

Explanation of Totals
Worst case: In this situation I am unable to reduce any of my expenses, and all of the variable ones are at maximum.
Best case: In this case all of the variable expenses are at minimum.
After Radical Changes: In this case Internet, gas and water are reduced; while car insurance and car gas are eliminated.

That’s all for now. Let me know if you want more specific information, I’ll post my numbers for July at the end of the month.

-HH

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TheWanderingScholar
Posts: 650
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:04 am

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by TheWanderingScholar »

honorharrington?

Just curious: Does that come from the fictional character?

Seneca
Posts: 915
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 4:58 pm

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by Seneca »

Hello honorharrington- regarding dishes

I used to work in a hospital kitchen. For power outages where we might lose hot water, we kept bleach to mix in to the solution for dishwashing to kill the germs, regular soap is not enough.

The other thing you could do is just boil a pot of water for dishes. This would probably be what I did.

Very frugal buget, nicely done. Welcome!

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TheWanderingScholar
Posts: 650
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:04 am

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by TheWanderingScholar »

Oh-sorry I forgot.

Welcome to the forums.

Seems like you are doing pretty good considering you are a just a barista and going to college full-time (I pressume).

secretwealth
Posts: 1948
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:31 am

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by secretwealth »

Welcome to the forums!

Your worst case scenario is a SR of 30% and your radical changes scenario is a 56% SR. You're doing much better than 99% of your peers, so rejoice on that.

Now, assuming you never get a better paying job (absurd--of course you will), you'll still be able to retire at 37. That's also terrific.

I noticed no mortgage costs--do you own a home free and clear?

honorharrington
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2013 1:12 am

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by honorharrington »

REPLIES:

YoungAndWise – Yes the name does come from the fictional star ship captain. Those books are my favorite set of sci-fi novels.

Seneca – Thanks for the information. I’ll use my electric kettle to heat water.

secretwealth – That’s good to know. How does one go about calculating SR? I don’t own a home, instead, I live with my parents still. We have a good relationship, and I want to save money, so I’m fine with it.

THOUGHTS:

I’ve been considering what sort of higher paying job I want to get. My priorities for the job are: at least 30K/year; 2 years from training to employment (maximum); working from home would be preferred, but not required. With these constraints in mind, I have come up with a few options:

1. Computers – I could change my degree to Computer Science, and graduate in probably 2.5 years. I would have the credentials to get a job that pays really well. I’m unsure which area of CS I would concentrate on. A job working with computers would meet 2/3 of my criteria. I would be making at least 30K/year, and I could potentially work from home.

2. Auto Mechanic – A family member runs a mechanic shop. He has said he would be willing to let me start working there. I figure that I could learn a valuable skill, and as my technical skills increased, I could find a job that would pay well. If I focused on it, I think I could learn the fundamentals in 2 years. This would meet 2/3 of my criteria. Training within 2 years, and probably 30K/year.

3. Working the shale oil fields in North Dakota. I would most likely begin as a manual laborer, and the work would be hard, but the money would be good. I could learn skills on this job as well. Many companies pay for CDL training. This meets 2/3 of my criteria as well. Way less than 2 years training, and more than 30K per year ( I assume).

If anyone has suggestions for jobs that meet these criteria, I’m all ears, or eyes in this case.

Thanks, HH

Natha
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:32 pm

Re: honorharrington's Journal

Post by Natha »

I don't know what your current level of programming skill is, but if it is not nonexistent, then if you do option #1, you can probably get internships and/or other pleasant and reasonably well-compensated work even before the 2.5 years are up. For example, when I was an undergraduate, I had a student-work programming job with my college's web development team. And once you graduate, you can probably eventually make quite a bit more than 30K/year as a programmer with a BS in CS. To me, this seems way better than the other two options, but I guess it depends on your personality.

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