The Budget Breakdown aims to broaden the conversation on money and offer insights into various approaches to spending, saving, and investing.
✨ Want to share your monthly budget breakdown with us? Please fill out this form here and we will get back to you (can be posted anonymously like this one 😉)
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💰 Income (shared with dependants)
Monthly Gross Income: $12,000
Monthly Net Income: $9,800
Dependants: 4 children, 1 partner, 2 fur babies
🏡 Monthly Fixed Expenses (shared with dependants)
Mortgage: $1,500
Utilities (Electricity, Water, Gas): ~ $250 (more in winter and summer, much less in spring and fall)
Internet: $45
Car fuel: ~ $250
Life Insurance: ~$50
Car Insurance: $84
Health Insurance: via employer - deducted from paycheck
Partner’s student loans: $200
Subscriptions: $35 (annual professional memberships for self and partner)
Cell phone: $100
Charitable donations: $50
🛒 Monthly Variable Expenses (shared with dependants)
Groceries: ~$700
Eating Out (Restaurants, Bars): ~$200
Entertainment (Movies, Events, Hobbies): $50 (mostly only birthdays, anniversaries, friend gifts, etc.)
Clothing: $85 (I wear super old crap. :( But…for the kids→ tons of money!)
Personal Care: $10
Travel: $800/month (based on 2-3 family vacations/year + 1 personal trip)
Career Coaching (current, but not ongoing): $12/month
Holidays & gifts: $45
Family photography: $20
Monthly date night: $200 (it’s $100+ just to have the babysitter!)
💸 Monthly Savings and Investments (shared with dependants)
Retirement Savings:
$1,167 (Roth IRA for both)
$1,900 (deducted automatically for 401K)
Investments: $300 (IRA)
College savings accounts: $200
🎁 Monthly miscellaneous (shared with dependants)
Gifts and Donations: $150
Daycare: $550
Summer Camps: $450
Enrichment activities/sports lessons: $100
Music lessons: $240
Pet Insurance: $75
Pet food vet, etc.: $70
Health and Wellness: $60 (hard to predict copays as they can vary wildly. We can drop $800 on glasses for all who need them in one year, but not the next.)
AAA membership: $8
Credit card fees: $16
⚖️ Final balance
Total income: $9,300
Total expenses: $10,738
Final balance: -$172 (likely due to the unexpectedly high cost of summer childcare this year. Working to rebalance this.)
💭 Money Reflections
1. How much does tracking your personal finances influence your spending, saving, and investing habits?
Probably not as much as it should, looking at that negative balance. Now, the side work I do sometimes pays more, sometimes less, and so is quite hard to predict or adjust down to the “small” monthly level budget.
2. Is there anything you wish you would spend less money on?
I wish we spent less on food. We sometimes have food waste as well, which is frustrating. I’d like to spend less on charity, but feel a moral obligation to “give back” to organizations working toward equity, especially given my own relative privilege in the USA. Childcare and summer camps are so wildly expensive, even though we use the “cheap” (almost bad) options. I don't know how to spend less there. It's a totally broken system.
3. What do you consider important to spend money on?
I feel like the vacation costs are higher than I realized, but I also value travel and ensuring that my kids see and know my side of the family including my elderly dad. This necessitates some travel for us, which is pretty expensive as a large family. I also had a lot of student debt to repay and want to be able to help my kids defray the cost of college by having some savings in a 529 plan for them.
4. Do you have any short-term or long-term financial goals?
To retire early-ish, if possible, since I don't expect to have a particularly long life (genetic factors). I would like to enjoy some non-working time with my kids, if possible. I also want to save enough so that they have what they need in the future if I'm not working or have passed on. Short-term: try to figure out HOW to figure out a plan for the above. Also to figure out how to move away from paying for managed accounts and begin owning my own financial journey again.
5. What is your approach to saving/investing? Are there any specific strategies you follow?
My only basic goals are to max out my 401K contribution and Roth IRA each year, and as early in the year as possible. I also max out my spouse's Roth since they do primarily Childcare in the home along with a little part-time work. I keep our emergency fund in a HYSA, and try to put any “extra” money towards 529s or the mortgage. Since I'm using managed accounts, I don't have a specific strategy for the investments themselves and I rely on target-date funds for non-managed accounts like the 529s. But I want to stop using managed accounts, so learning and creating my own investment strategy is a top priority for me.
6. What was your relationship with money like growing up? Did you talk about it with your parents/caregivers?
Money was mostly a source of stress in our house. There was clearly never enough (we were a large family that, for many years, also included a disabled grandparent who lived with us). I remember the stress finances caused for my father in particular and that it was a volatile topic at times. The only times we “discussed” money as a family was when my dad would have to tell us that we couldn't do something or that we would find “other ways to celebrate” upcoming birthdays or Christmases besides gifts. It was clear that those conversations were hard for him, so we didn't dig deep about it but just accepted it. We rarely ever had what we “wanted” and many times even struggled to have what we actually needed. I grew up with hand-me-downs and rejected toys, but honestly didn't think too badly about it at the time. It was just our reality.
7. Did you receive any formal or informal financial education growing up? If yes, where did you learn to manage your personal finances?
None at all when growing up beyond maybe figuring out on my own whether to save a small money gift I received vs spend it immediately. I Never had an allowance or much earned income as a minor. I didn't learn anything about investing and real savings until my 30s.
8. Do you feel well-versed in personal finance? What resources have you used to educate yourself?
Not at all. I fell really ignorant and like it's all a black box of mystery, especially when working with an FA. That being said, I've read a lot of blogs and articles online as well as “classic” finance books. So I realize that I have a handle on the basics, at least, but I still feel so deficient.
💡 Ask the community
I feel frustrated that so much of financial advice geared towards women is far too basic, focuses only on making a budget (ex “have you considered doing your nails at home yourself to save money?”), or is pandering or plain rude (ex “stop buying all those lattes, ladies”). I know how to budget (ignore that temporary negative number above, please!). And I know how to save. I also know that some people - especially privileged white men - seem to be making more money WITH their money than I am able to with mine, and I don't know why. Is it just that they have more income overall perhaps due to pay gaps? Or that they don't do the caretaking, gift-giving, charitable stuff that many women feel an obligation to do in order to make the world a better, kinder place? Or some other special intel they have that I don't?
Personally, I value being able to talk to real people about their money and investing, but I haven't been able to find a group like that. I know some male “buddies” with a “casual” investment club, but they didn't feel “comfortable” adding me in. I've tried to find other females but they often tell me their male partner handles it or that they have an advisor who does everything. I feel really isolated without a group of my own. Do others feel this way?
My current financial quandary is trying to figure out whether I can retire at all early (even just at 55 or so). How do I know if I have enough money for that - or even how to make a plan for that possibility - especially when I'm the primary income for my family, have young children, and our health insurance is through my employer?
