Phayen's Journal
Okay! Here are the numbers for November and December. Things are still going great. Managed to continue the over 50% savings rate. Had a couple of high expenses, but was planning on them so I guess that works out. Food was high as we had our son's first birthday part (maybe $200/food to feed 40 people). Auto was high because we travelled so much over the month due to the Holidays. Home was expensive as we bought some new blinds and some gifts for the house. All of it was planned though and it all fell to where I thought it would. So no real surprises.
All the accounts are still trending up. I moved some money to the emergency fund, but its just bucketing at this point. I really only want $30K in the emergency fund and $5K in the operating. So we have some cash that we need to either invest or pay the mortgage down with.
Category Breakdown:
For 2012 we're going to keep paring down the food expenses. Its really the main area we need to focus on. Our son has moved on to mostly real food and whole milk, so no more expensive formula (or at least limited exposure). No more expensive baby food either. I still don't see it going below $450 regularly, but that'll be the stretch goal.
Home will go up as I'll start apportioning the property taxes on a monthly basis instead of two large hits throughout the year. Not sure how I'll do this yet as I only made one payment last year and will have three this year (tax reasons). I'll probably just use the total of 3 payments/12.
Autmotive will decrease as my bike is now commute worthy. Just got my bike rack attached last month and have everything set up. I've been practising the ride ont he weekends and don't think it'll be a problem to go the 3 miles in traffic. Granted, it's only a 3 mile commute one way, but it should save 30-40 bucks a month. I'm also swapping out my company vehicle from an SUV to a 4-door hatchback effectively going from 19 MPG to 35 MPG. DW will use this for all the trips to see her mom. This will save us around $100/mo hopefully.
Utilities will go down as well. My cell phone contract is up this month (FINALLY) and we'll be transitioning to page plus once its over. Currently we have two smartphones with data through VZ at approx $125/month. We'll both be going to PP $30/month plan (so $60). Should be an easy $50/month savings (accounting for random overages and initial set ups).
The rest of the accounts are pretty much set at this point. Once we get the cash accounts finalized and consolidated, we'll do something with the excess money in the emergency fund (invest or pay down). I'll keep putting the max Roth IRA amount as well as an equal amount into my company 401(k) (for company matching). I'm not adding any money to the lending club account, but not taking it out either. I just keep rolling it to see what will happen.
Income wise, I'm probably not getting a raise or a bonus for 2012. So it'll stay flat. But DW and I are trying to start a small company at home using out specialized skill sets. We've got one client so far and are getting about $100/mo. It's only a couple hours a month, but trying to grow it.
In the last 9 months I shaved 20 years off my estimated years to retirement. Sadly this started at 135 years. 115 more to go. (Although, if I continue to shave off 2 years per month, I'll be done in about 5 years...)
So January is off to a pretty rocky start.
Bad News:
- DW’s car broke down and had to pay $600 to get it fixed up and perfect again.
- Food was almost $900… not sure how that happened. I didn’t eat it. I know we paid for a dinner for DW’s sister’s bday ($120). $55 of this is renewing Costco membership. Either way, $600 or so went to groceries. Which is out of control. We’re going to have to take a better look at this and identify where the money went and if there is a way to reduce it. Other than those two items, things look about as they should.
- I thought my income would stay flat, but I didn’t count on not getting some government assistance that we received last year. Between that and no bonus, might be making $7K less this year.
Good News:
- I’ve made some good changes this month too. We are no longer using Verizon for our cell phone plans. Moved both plans over to PagePlus. This will save about $65/month in the Utilities category.
- I’ve also started biking to work (only 6 times last month, but a start is a start). We’ve also gotten my MIL to pay for some of the gas because most of it is used to trek up north each weekend to visit. So gas was only $60. Hopefully we can keep it to 1-2 tanks a month.
- I’m showing the Home exp line to include a portion of the property taxes so it evens things out a bit. And we used some of our excess cash to pay down the mortgage ($5K).
- DW and I are increasing the side hustle to a real operation. We funnel clients through her mom’s company, it’s in her name, but we do all the work. We get 80% split of the revenue. This make it easy as far as paperwork and structure. MIL gets a cut, but she takes the risk so that’s fair to them. So far, it’s made about $500. Haven’t gotten paid, but that’ll happen once clients pay. We’ll see how much time this takes up and if it’s worth it, but if it is, it’ll go a long ways to covering my primary income shortfall.
To Do:
- Most of our accounts are all balanced now. I still need to do something with about $10K of cash. It’s earning .9% right now, which isn’t great. Mortgage is still 5.125%, so that’s always a good choice, but I still want to start a taxable account. Still can’t refinance as the HOA is still in the midst of litigation.
- I’m going to try to bike to work at least 10 days in the month of February.
- DW and I are going to Vegas in February, separately. So this will add a few hundred in expenses. She’s going with some friends for a 30th bday. I’m going with work people. Hopefully not too expensive.
- Household expenses will vary throughout the year as I redo both bathrooms. I’m going to attempt to do most of it myself and take my time. I haven’t bought anything yet, but have been studying this for months and feel comfortable taking it on now.
- Food challenge in our house to spend less than $400 in groceries.
February was much better than January. This is more like a typical month and things went better than planned.
Our Food was down to $439 which is almost to our food challenge level. I really didn't think it would go that low. If we take out some meals that will be reimbursed, our food was only $372! Pretty happy about that. We did eat a lot less meat though. Vegetarian mondays. Limited eating out. Bringing lunches to work.
Biking to work is going well. We only spent $90 on gas which is a substantial win. That is only biking about half the time too.
Household category is doing fine. We spent some money putting up blinds and babyproofing last month and it was in line with projections.
Utilities are coming down as expected due to switching our cell phones from VZ to P+. The going from post-paid to pre-paid is kind of annoying though.
In other news, I have a job interview tomorrow. It's a second round, but its closer to a sure thing at this point. I've been losing sleep over the stress of it though. There are some good things about it: I'd be getting more money (aka closer to ER), I'd be working for a better company in a better organization (more stability and opportunity). There are a lot of uncertain things too though: We'd have to move (not altogether bad, I'm tired of paying HOA fees 380/mo!!), we'd be farther from in-laws and would have to spend more on gas (an extra 60 miles... could be a good thing
), we just put our son in some gymboree classes and he'd have to leave that. I just don't know what to do if I do get an offer or how to properly value it. I asked for about a 10% increase in pay, but that's still negotiable. Just not sure if its enough to warrant moving. I'd like to get out of this condo and into an SFR so the money is going to equity instead of HOA fees too.
What do you guys do in a situation like this?
I think I would try to project out a few years if I were you instead of just looking at what changes would be in your immediate future. Which position will put you closer to your goals in 3-5 years -- the one you have now or the prospective one?
You'll want to write down some "best estimates" of your finances in addition to the other consideration.
It sounds like you will be fine whichever one you pick, so don't stress out about it too much. There will be many more forks (opportunities) down the road.
Oh, and its better to move around when the kids are smaller than when they get older, because they are not really much attached to their school/friends/environment when they are little.
You'll want to write down some "best estimates" of your finances in addition to the other consideration.
It sounds like you will be fine whichever one you pick, so don't stress out about it too much. There will be many more forks (opportunities) down the road.
Oh, and its better to move around when the kids are smaller than when they get older, because they are not really much attached to their school/friends/environment when they are little.
So I had my interview on Friday and it went pretty well. Apparently I'm far enough in the process where we discussed comp and signing bonuses etc.. If I switched I'd get about a 15K raise post taxes. Which is substantial. About a 30% raise in take home. This would bump my theoretical savings rate from 38% to 52%. This is a conservative estimate as well, bonuses are probably higher and I didn't include the one time signing bonus (paid over 3 years), the relocation bonus (would probably use on actually relocating) or the increase in 401(k) match. Some expenses would be higher, gas, car (would no longer get company vehicle), housing. But those increases would be marginal compared to the increase in pay.
Going forward the increases and bonuses would both more with the new opportunity. Both in pay and in promotions. There are some drawbacks though. I'd have to move. Have to make new friends. Have to find a new place to live. Would have to work more (currently do 40, but really work about 30. would go up to 50 or so). Financially, seems like a no brainer. Realistically, I think its still a no brainer. I guess change is just hard and its something we'll have to get over.
Thanks Dragline for the advice and Livinlite for letting me know its not just me
We'll see how the real offer comes out and I'll keep everyone up to date.
Going forward the increases and bonuses would both more with the new opportunity. Both in pay and in promotions. There are some drawbacks though. I'd have to move. Have to make new friends. Have to find a new place to live. Would have to work more (currently do 40, but really work about 30. would go up to 50 or so). Financially, seems like a no brainer. Realistically, I think its still a no brainer. I guess change is just hard and its something we'll have to get over.
Thanks Dragline for the advice and Livinlite for letting me know its not just me
We'll see how the real offer comes out and I'll keep everyone up to date.
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secretwealth
- Posts: 1948
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:31 am
As someone who has moved a lot, let me suggest that you don't worry too much about making new friends, a new place to live, etc. Moving is a lot easier than most people assume IMO. Also, you should be able to move close enough to work that you can walk or cycle to work.
A 52% savings rate should help you get to FI really quickly, plus if you are moving to a cheap enough locale, your savings rate may go up even further.
A 52% savings rate should help you get to FI really quickly, plus if you are moving to a cheap enough locale, your savings rate may go up even further.
So interesting bit of news to report today. My company called a town hall meeting to give us some news. There will in fact be layoffs this coming year. On top of layoffs, there will be no bonuses for the next two years. But they will be offering voluntary incentive packages for people who choose to leave.
I guess this pretty much makes my decision for me. I did get some good news yesterday in that the HR rep from my future company let me know the interviews went well with good feedback and asked for references to contact. So we'll see where we go from here. If I do get an offer, I'll probably have to take it. Hopefully I can double dip into whatever offer my current employer has for voluntary leaving.
I don't think I could stay at my current position. Long term, I don't think we'll be around. And if we are, it'll be because someone purchased us and there would be more people eliminated.
So I actually feel much better about everything and looks like it'll be better than expected.
Secretwealth: Thanks for the encouragment on moving. It's been almost a decade since I moved to where I am now. Where I'd be going is slightly more expensive, but we could move into a smaller rental and save some money that way.
It's going to be an interesting March!
I guess this pretty much makes my decision for me. I did get some good news yesterday in that the HR rep from my future company let me know the interviews went well with good feedback and asked for references to contact. So we'll see where we go from here. If I do get an offer, I'll probably have to take it. Hopefully I can double dip into whatever offer my current employer has for voluntary leaving.
I don't think I could stay at my current position. Long term, I don't think we'll be around. And if we are, it'll be because someone purchased us and there would be more people eliminated.
So I actually feel much better about everything and looks like it'll be better than expected.
Secretwealth: Thanks for the encouragment on moving. It's been almost a decade since I moved to where I am now. Where I'd be going is slightly more expensive, but we could move into a smaller rental and save some money that way.
It's going to be an interesting March!
Okay, first update. I received more information regarding the jobs status at my current employer (CE). CE is offering a buyout of almost $30K, but I'd have to work through 6/15-6/30 ish timeline. Prospective employer (PE) is offering a starting incentive of about $36K as well as a raise of about 20%. They want me to start around 4/16-4/30. My new goal is to get these timelines to meet somehow.
CE won't confirm if my buyout is accepted until 4/30, so ideally I'd be able to get both companies to meet in the middle around 5/15. Just not sure how flexible everyone can be. PE will want me to start ASAP and CE needs me to stay on to train replacements through 6/30. I talked with PE today and they said the latest they could possibly do is 4/30, so looks like I'd have to give up the buyout option.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Or ideas of what I should do? Is it worth saying "no" to PE? Is it worth passing up the buyout?
CE won't confirm if my buyout is accepted until 4/30, so ideally I'd be able to get both companies to meet in the middle around 5/15. Just not sure how flexible everyone can be. PE will want me to start ASAP and CE needs me to stay on to train replacements through 6/30. I talked with PE today and they said the latest they could possibly do is 4/30, so looks like I'd have to give up the buyout option.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Or ideas of what I should do? Is it worth saying "no" to PE? Is it worth passing up the buyout?
Alright, done is done. I've accepted the new position! It'll be a good move for my family and a return to where I grew up. Also, my savings rate should notch up quite a bit. Lots to do in the interim though. Need to fix up my current condo so its ready for rental. Need to find a rental management company. Need to pack up. Need to get full usage and reimbursement from FSA and Wellness company funds. Excited to be moving on to something new and better!
So March was crazy. April's looking to be about the same.
I accepted new job. My current job was terrible and unfulfilling. They also announced layoffs. My new position is with a huge fortune 100 tech company. And I'll be doing more interesting work, but in the same field. I'm really excited to work with real professionals again. Pay is going to be better (10% better) and I'll get about $5K incentive up front and $10k/year for the next 3 years.
Timing could be better, could be worse too. Due to quitting, I took advantage of the FSA loophole and had LASIK done. Now I have a negative 1500 balance. I was in the middle of a refinance unfortunately. Not sure how that will affect it. It should be completed before my last day at the current employer, but hopefully it works out. Would lower our mortgage from 5.125 to 3.875 percent and save us $150/month.
With the new job though, I'm going to be relocating. Sad face. Especially since we put a lot of work into our condo. At least we'll be able to rent it out fairly easily and slightly profitably.
April is going to be weird. Need to do some small renovations to the condo to get it ready for renting out. Need to find a rental property management company to look out for it. Need to figure out if we're going to actually get a 2nd vehicle. Need to find a place to live. I should have a lot of extra income. Signing bonuses. Tax refunds. Vacation payout from current employer. Reimbursement from LASIK. But a lot of extra expesnes. Mortgage and Rent payments. Renovation costs.
I just want things to calm down.
I accepted new job. My current job was terrible and unfulfilling. They also announced layoffs. My new position is with a huge fortune 100 tech company. And I'll be doing more interesting work, but in the same field. I'm really excited to work with real professionals again. Pay is going to be better (10% better) and I'll get about $5K incentive up front and $10k/year for the next 3 years.
Timing could be better, could be worse too. Due to quitting, I took advantage of the FSA loophole and had LASIK done. Now I have a negative 1500 balance. I was in the middle of a refinance unfortunately. Not sure how that will affect it. It should be completed before my last day at the current employer, but hopefully it works out. Would lower our mortgage from 5.125 to 3.875 percent and save us $150/month.
With the new job though, I'm going to be relocating. Sad face. Especially since we put a lot of work into our condo. At least we'll be able to rent it out fairly easily and slightly profitably.
April is going to be weird. Need to do some small renovations to the condo to get it ready for renting out. Need to find a rental property management company to look out for it. Need to figure out if we're going to actually get a 2nd vehicle. Need to find a place to live. I should have a lot of extra income. Signing bonuses. Tax refunds. Vacation payout from current employer. Reimbursement from LASIK. But a lot of extra expesnes. Mortgage and Rent payments. Renovation costs.
I just want things to calm down.
Why hello there forum. It's been a while. Huge month of changes. So here we go:
Basics. My expenses were way less than anticipated. We ended up not doing the renovations we planned on. Instead, I did a lot of it myself and opted not to do quite a few things. I was also able to use a lot of old gift cards so my out of pocket was minimal. Income was way more than normal. DW had $2k income from the 1st qtr. Tax refunds of $2.5K. Relocation bonus of $2k. I had my vacation payout from my previous employer. In a nutshell, my savings % was 78. An all time high. Prior year % was 32%. This year is trending to be 48%. The job change has a lot to do with it, but so does a lot of our personal choices during the change.
Some wins:
With the job 60 miles away from our condo, it makes the transition difficult. Part of my reloc package was temporary housing, but we still only had one car. Instead of buying a car, I opted to rent a car for 3 weeks (only $318). This gives me a lot more flexibility going forward. More time to research if I needed to buy a car or not as well as gave us time to find a proper home to live in that is close to work (3 miles so I don't have to get a car). This will save us countless dollars as well as give me some more exercise.
With our condo, we're opting to rent it out. Saving us $12k in selling costs. We're also opting to do a lot of the renovating ourselves, saving us another $7K as well as gaining a lot of skills. (although sleepless nights
).
To Dos:
Need to get a property management company in line to take control of our property (already in discussion)
Finish the move (new employer is paying for movers/packers, almost non-issue)
Continue on with our basic expenses as we've been doing. May have an increase in our utilities (rent doesn't cover any, promotion period on internet is over), auto might go up a little bit on average as we have a longer drive to see the in laws. Might start to get rental income starting 6/1, it will barely pay for all the costs. So probably a net zero cash flow wise, but if we count equity and tax loss it's still a net benefit. Plus the non-selling savings shown above.
May should be interesting too. Might not have as high as a savings % as normal. Have to pay 1st month's rent and security deposit, but I'll also get a little bit more pay than normal (signing bonus). We'll be settling into the new place and finishing getting our old place ready to rent.
I'll try to keep posting here monthly to keep myself on track and to keep all of you updated.
Basics. My expenses were way less than anticipated. We ended up not doing the renovations we planned on. Instead, I did a lot of it myself and opted not to do quite a few things. I was also able to use a lot of old gift cards so my out of pocket was minimal. Income was way more than normal. DW had $2k income from the 1st qtr. Tax refunds of $2.5K. Relocation bonus of $2k. I had my vacation payout from my previous employer. In a nutshell, my savings % was 78. An all time high. Prior year % was 32%. This year is trending to be 48%. The job change has a lot to do with it, but so does a lot of our personal choices during the change.
Some wins:
With the job 60 miles away from our condo, it makes the transition difficult. Part of my reloc package was temporary housing, but we still only had one car. Instead of buying a car, I opted to rent a car for 3 weeks (only $318). This gives me a lot more flexibility going forward. More time to research if I needed to buy a car or not as well as gave us time to find a proper home to live in that is close to work (3 miles so I don't have to get a car). This will save us countless dollars as well as give me some more exercise.
With our condo, we're opting to rent it out. Saving us $12k in selling costs. We're also opting to do a lot of the renovating ourselves, saving us another $7K as well as gaining a lot of skills. (although sleepless nights
).To Dos:
Need to get a property management company in line to take control of our property (already in discussion)
Finish the move (new employer is paying for movers/packers, almost non-issue)
Continue on with our basic expenses as we've been doing. May have an increase in our utilities (rent doesn't cover any, promotion period on internet is over), auto might go up a little bit on average as we have a longer drive to see the in laws. Might start to get rental income starting 6/1, it will barely pay for all the costs. So probably a net zero cash flow wise, but if we count equity and tax loss it's still a net benefit. Plus the non-selling savings shown above.
May should be interesting too. Might not have as high as a savings % as normal. Have to pay 1st month's rent and security deposit, but I'll also get a little bit more pay than normal (signing bonus). We'll be settling into the new place and finishing getting our old place ready to rent.
I'll try to keep posting here monthly to keep myself on track and to keep all of you updated.
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
Nice updates. Consider taking some photos prior to move in, or a home video, to preserve your security deposit. I know it's one extra thing to do but it just takes 5 minutes and it could save you a lot of headache later on.
Since you're moving anyway, maybe check out the other internet companies to see if they are running any promotions? Or have your wife sign up with the same internet company for the same promotion again?
Good luck with everything - sounds stressful but it will eventually calm down soon. Congratulations on the new job
Since you're moving anyway, maybe check out the other internet companies to see if they are running any promotions? Or have your wife sign up with the same internet company for the same promotion again?
Good luck with everything - sounds stressful but it will eventually calm down soon. Congratulations on the new job
Alright, so May was just as hectic as anticipated. Savings % is still just shy of 40%. High expenses and high income in May. Income due to signing bonus and 3 paychecks. Expenses due to paying for our no longer empty rental.
I've biked to work most days in May. That's going well and preventing/delaying us from getting a second car. Its 3 miles, but those 3 miles home after working 12 hours is a pain in the butt. More and more thinking about buying a scooter for $3K and beoing done with it. The biking is making me also workout at the gym at work and then shower. So overall its probably good for me health wise just as much as financially. I plan to continue this as long as possible.
We just got our old condo rented out as of June 1 so that'll be a big relief financially for us. It cost us a bunch of money to get it ready to go, but seems like it paid off. Excluding equity we'll only have a positive cash flow of $50-100/month. We knew this going into it, but it beats selling it and paying seller fees 6%. With equity and the tax deduction we'll get its probably a solid net win. We'll see how it goes through the year. We're using a property managment company but they seem easy to work with and charge us 6%.
We spent $900 on food last month. Out of control. Double the normal. A lot of this is because we were in transition almost the whole month. So no making food at home. That costs us about $200 extra (lots of value in making food at home). We also joined a CSA. its a 2 month trial, but all $150 hit in May. This number will come down in June as I start to bring lunch to work and we eat at home more often.
Work is going well. Had a week of 12-15 hour days, but that deadline is over so back to normal. I still feel like it was a good change of pace for me career and life wise. I have my RSU's in an investment account I can see now, but the vest dates are so far away I try not to look at it. (I don't count it in my net worth). Should also be getting a raise and a fairly substantial bonus in November. (also so far away).
Getting to the point where our net worth number is increasing slowly again. Won't have a lot of room to cut costs going forward either. We'll be focusing more on the income side for the rest of the year. After that I guess its just waiting.
Just another 18 years to go.
I've biked to work most days in May. That's going well and preventing/delaying us from getting a second car. Its 3 miles, but those 3 miles home after working 12 hours is a pain in the butt. More and more thinking about buying a scooter for $3K and beoing done with it. The biking is making me also workout at the gym at work and then shower. So overall its probably good for me health wise just as much as financially. I plan to continue this as long as possible.
We just got our old condo rented out as of June 1 so that'll be a big relief financially for us. It cost us a bunch of money to get it ready to go, but seems like it paid off. Excluding equity we'll only have a positive cash flow of $50-100/month. We knew this going into it, but it beats selling it and paying seller fees 6%. With equity and the tax deduction we'll get its probably a solid net win. We'll see how it goes through the year. We're using a property managment company but they seem easy to work with and charge us 6%.
We spent $900 on food last month. Out of control. Double the normal. A lot of this is because we were in transition almost the whole month. So no making food at home. That costs us about $200 extra (lots of value in making food at home). We also joined a CSA. its a 2 month trial, but all $150 hit in May. This number will come down in June as I start to bring lunch to work and we eat at home more often.
Work is going well. Had a week of 12-15 hour days, but that deadline is over so back to normal. I still feel like it was a good change of pace for me career and life wise. I have my RSU's in an investment account I can see now, but the vest dates are so far away I try not to look at it. (I don't count it in my net worth). Should also be getting a raise and a fairly substantial bonus in November. (also so far away).
Getting to the point where our net worth number is increasing slowly again. Won't have a lot of room to cut costs going forward either. We'll be focusing more on the income side for the rest of the year. After that I guess its just waiting.
Just another 18 years to go.
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George the original one
- Posts: 5406
- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
- Location: Wettest corner of Orygun
Thanks George. I just went through my journal to get some perspective. I make about 14% more and my expenses have fallen about 18% from a year ago. Not too bad for some year over year analysis. However, that's mostly cause I wasn't trying at all back then. So its good to see that the low hanging fruit makes a big impact.
The biking to work is good and bad. Had a rought night with our 18 month old being unable to sleep. Already being super tired I didn't want to bike to work in the cold and wind. I did, and did my workout before work too. Don't feel good about it. Summer is still upcoming so the morning weather should be a bit better going forward, but hard to keept his going indefinitely.
The biking to work is good and bad. Had a rought night with our 18 month old being unable to sleep. Already being super tired I didn't want to bike to work in the cold and wind. I did, and did my workout before work too. Don't feel good about it. Summer is still upcoming so the morning weather should be a bit better going forward, but hard to keept his going indefinitely.
Hey Phayen,
Great post. I am glad to see you are making good progress. Wealth-building is all a matter of awareness and consciousness. It's amazing how things change once you start tracking things.
As for your real estate property, the cash flow will improve with time as your mortgage payments decrease. As long as it cash flows positively, you'll be fine. Imagine having 100 houses with $50 of positively cash flow each month. You could be retired by then!
It's good that you are using a property management firm too. That should save you time and energy to focus on your increasing your income at work and cutting your expenses at home.
Keep up the good work!
Great post. I am glad to see you are making good progress. Wealth-building is all a matter of awareness and consciousness. It's amazing how things change once you start tracking things.
As for your real estate property, the cash flow will improve with time as your mortgage payments decrease. As long as it cash flows positively, you'll be fine.
Imagine having 100 houses with $50 of positively cash flow each month. You could be retired by then!It's good that you are using a property management firm too. That should save you time and energy to focus on your increasing your income at work and cutting your expenses at home.
Keep up the good work!