January 2022 Update
Financial Overview
Mortgage (PITI) 35.8% of total expenses
Horses 13.8%
Vehicles 13.7%
Groceries 6.3%
Cats 5.2%
Utilities 4.8%
Gas 4%
Clothing 3.7%
Communications 2.7%
Debts = $102k remaining on the mortgage
Savings rate = 53.8%*
*Does not include pre-tax savings. DH and I both max out our 401(k)s and I max out my HSA contribution. DH does not have the option for an HSA.
Months to planned retirement - 23
Expenses Narrative
Mortgage—This is the same every month. I also am making additional payments on the principal (which I don’t include in this category) and intend to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2023 (earliest contemplated retirement date).
The mortgage % for this month was almost the same as last month which means overall expenses were about the same even though there were different intermittent expenses (insurance for the truck, 5 months of meds for the horse, 4 months of special food for the elderly cat). I have noticed that this is generally true - our monthly expenses are pretty constant. It seems I came up with a system for spreading out intermittent expenses without realizing I was doing it.
Horses—I bought 5 months’ worth of meds for my horse. He went on old age meds last spring. I don’t like spending the money but it is worth it to me to see him have good quality of life. I don’t have a clear exit strategy once he gets too old to ride out on trails. For now my plan is to keep him sound for riding for as long as possible.
Vehicles—It’s interesting to me that vehicles and horses cost me nearly the same amount every year. If I didn’t have horses, I wouldn’t need vehicles so in a way it is all horse expense. My main motivator when I was young was to acquire enough money to have horses and my own barn to keep them in. I bought my first horse when I was 15 and supported him by working in a stable after school and on weekends. I was VERY MOTIVATED to accumulate money until I got my first house and property with a barn where I could keep horses. After that I relaxed. Working in a show stable taught me that I didn’t want to compete in equestrian events. It’s probably a good thing, because not competing and focusing on trail riding kept the horse-related expenses down. Aside from basic feed and care, my main horse-related expense is vehicles. There’s the truck and trailer to haul the horses (and hay), and also a car for commuting from our rural home. Before we bought the rural property, we lived in a condo in town on a bus line and I only used a car on weekends to get to where I boarded my horse.
Groceries—This month was the lowest since I started tracking expenses closely. I'm not sure what we did differently. DH and I did have a conversation about wanting to cut down what we spend on groceries but didn't make any specific plans. Maybe just being more aware made it happen.
Clothing—I bought some softshell tights. I thought I needed them for outdoor activities during cold weather but now I haven’t used them as much as I thought I would. Regret sets in. DH bought a wool face mask. He battles skin cancer and covers up entirely when he does outdoor activities, so it is definitely something he is using a lot.
Other Areas for Improvement
Health and Fitness—I trained in the gym as many days as possible without driving into town on days I was not planning to be at the office anyway. It was frustrating because the gym was closed unexpectedly a couple of times. My deadlift and back squat continue to improve although nowhere near what I was doing prior to getting sick.
I rode my bicycle a few times. I hate riding in the cold so this was good for January.
I was so sick at this time last year that even being able to walk for more than a few yards without stopping to catch my breath is an improvement. I get frustrated at how weak I am and have to constantly remind myself how much better I am than this time last year. I want to push for faster improvement but I know slow but steady is much wiser.
Social—This area definitely needs improvement. Most of my social life revolves around horses and decreases during the winter at the best of times. The pandemic plus being sick reduced all of my socializing almost to 0 and I haven't made the effort to rebuild it. In an effort to be more social, we had dinner at home with some friends and visited the art museum on a free day with another friend. I felt good about both.
ERE projects—I sewed new buttons on a shirt for DH and did various other mending tasks for myself. It's nice to have that done. I put off mending because it is difficult threading the needle. DH looked online and found needles that are designed such that threading isn't a problem. He ordered some before he told me about it. Now I don't know if the mending was actually ERE as it led to unneeded purchasing.
We set up a workout space in the basement with equipment we have on hand. I hope we actually use the space.
DH helped repair my rice cooker. The rice cooker is one of the few kitchen appliances that I have retained through many moves because it is so useful. I use it nearly every day for rice, oats, quinoa, etc. The handle on the top of the lid broke off which made it very difficult to remove the lid while it was hot (hello blistered fingertips). Gluing the handle back on failed but DH found a … thing … in the garage that could be attached and works nicely.
We did a few other minor repairs that I can't specifically recall. Winter months are good for small indoor projects.
I patched the walls and sanded the trim and then repainted my home office with leftover paint we had in the basement. It looks much nicer now, less beat up. Our house went through some hard times before we bought it and we have slowly been fixing it up.
Financial—After I did my taxes last year, I was horrified by the amount we pay in taxes and immediately increased our 401k contributions to max. This has cut into the amount we can pay toward the mortgage. As long as there aren't too many unexpected expenses we should still be able to pay off the mortgage by the end of 2023. I have enough in my investment account to pay off the mortgage but I would rather not do it that way.
I've been helping DH move his money to options with lower fees. Annoyingly, it has involved some additional one-time fees. It is rather appalling how much money gets skimmed out of retirement accounts.
An interesting thing I learned this month is that DH doesn’t look at prices when he buys things, and never considers shipping costs. I first noticed this with a clothing item but have since observed it with other things like coffee and groceries and work on the car. He spends money and has no idea how much he has spent. I think I was probably like that before I started tracking expenses very closely but now it is disconcerting observing it in action. I’m not really sure how to get him to be more cost-aware. I have to let him do most of our necessary shopping because he seems to have a minimum threshold of shopping he HAS TO DO every week. If he doesn’t shop for our necessities such as groceries, then he will go online and order things from Amazon. His mom and sister are very much like this too. They constantly shop and then don’t know what to do with all the things they have bought so they foist them on us. Every time we see them, they insist on giving us bags of stuff. I think the family normative cues about shopping will make it very difficult to change his behavior. Plus trying to change a spouse’s behavior is always risky so I will have to proceed with care.
Reducing—I sold some books at a used book store.
We donated most of DH's ties and some extra shoes to a charity that provides business wear to needy people. At first DH thought my reducing was crazy but now he has decided he can get rid of some things.
The comic books continue to be difficult to reduce responsibly. I have made a spreadsheet and am looking up and recording useful information about each. I was hoping to avoid having to research them but it is going fairly quickly now that I am doing it. I just don't like having to think about comics. I never should have accepted my friend's proposal that I take part of the buyout in inventory. I had already gotten back my original investment plus reasonable growth and didn't care about more. I also feel a lot of regret about the handful of books that I actually bought. I used to get bored working shows and I would go on a search for a particular book just to stave off boredom.
Comic books that have a theoretical value of less than $20 per book I will try to sell very cheaply in bundles through Facebook Marketplace. Ones that have a theoretical value of $20 - $200 I will first try to sell at a local comic book store. If that doesn't work I will try eBay. I don't know yet what I will do with the higher $ ones. Maybe I just need to get over the idea that any of them are worth anything and give them all away.
Goals for Next Month
- Identify grocery budget-busters.
- Write out some possible daily schedules for after retirement.
- Walk at least 4 days per week.
Our grocery bill is too high but I am not sure why. The goal for this month is to identify the expensive items and then figure out alternatives. I already cook most meals from scratch, produce is mostly in-season from local farms, and we eat very little meat. This should be interesting.
DH shared that one of his fears about retiring is that he will miss the way work structures his time. Also that it will be too easy to get in a habit of playing video games too much. So we agreed to write down some schedules for our days/weeks.
I realized that I have dropped my habit of walking every day so I will start rebuilding it. During the summer I am so busy horseback riding/paddleboarding/bike riding that the walking gets forgotten. I need to get better about resuming it in the fall.