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
Monthly Gross Income: $8,758
Monthly Net Income: $6,695
Other Income Sources: $1,200 (condo rental)
🏡 Monthly Fixed Expenses
Note: My partner and I split our expenses equally. I’ve included only my share of the expenses.
Rent: $0 (My partner and I live together in his condo and I rent out my own condo to a friend)
Mortgage: $1,302
Utilities (Electricity, Gas): $60
Internet: $35
Health Insurance: $283
Homeowner’s Insurance: $266
Car Insurance: $208
Personal Loan/Credit Card Payment: $600
Car Payment: $411
Subscriptions: $31 (Netflix, Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime, Spotify and Omnibus Patreon)
Cell phone: $36
Storage Space: $189
🛒 Monthly Variable Expenses
Groceries: $600
Eating Out: $350
Entertainment: $180 (running supplies and race fees)
Clothing: $40
Books: $30
Personal Care: $30
Travel: $400 (monthly savings for 3-4 yearly vacations for running races and outdoor adventures)
Gas: $30 (I have a car, which my partner and I split the gas for)
Parking: $20
Train Fare: $30 (My job is hybrid and I take the train to work 1-2 days a week)
💸 Monthly Savings and Investments
Emergency Fund Contributions: $600
401K: $800
Roth IRA: $50
🎁 Monthly Miscellaneous
Gifts and Donations: $12
Gym Membership: $99
Medical: $300 (Doctor’s visits and medication for chronic illness)
⚖️ Final Balance
Total income: $7,895
Total expenses: $5,992
Final balance: $903
💭 Money Reflections
1. How much does tracking your personal finances influence your spending, saving, and investing habits?
Tracking my expenses significantly impacts how I spend and save. I find it comforting to have a clear overview of where I am at so that I am prepared when something unexpected occurs.
Having a clear budget also makes it easy to talk to my partner about our shared expenses and if we are on track there.
2. Is there anything you wish you would spend less money on?
In terms of everyday expenses, I feel I am pretty frugal while also being satisfied with how I get to spend my leisure time. The only thing I wish I spent less on is my debt. Knowing that my credit card and loan payments eat up $600 every month really motivates me to pay them off.
3. What do you consider important to spend money on?
Spending money on outdoor activities and buying back my time to do so is very important to me. My partner and I share a love of running and in addition to driving to our local trails, we also budget so that we can take multiple running vacations a year. I also place a lot of value on purchasing quality medical care/health insurance. I never want to feel like there is a barrier to seeing the kind of provider I need at the time when help is needed.
4. Do you have any short-term or long-term financial goals?
Short Term
- I want to pay off my credit card and personal loan by next year before I apply to grad school. Around $20k.
- Create a clear plan for financing my graduate school education.
Long Term
- Retire debt-free when I am ready.
5. Are there any specific saving or investment strategies you follow?
I use You Need A Budget (YNAB) as a savings and budgeting tool and I would be lost without it. The way things work in the application just clicks with me. It's not about mindlessly tracking expenses but instead focuses on portioning out the money you have today and being very intentional with how you spend it.
6. What was your relationship with money like growing up? Did you talk about it with your parents/caregivers?
My relationship with money as a child was very far removed from the actual value of money and where it came from. My parents had really bad habits with money but disguised their lifestyle as seemingly normal and middle-class. Only later did I find they were deeply in debt. We never talked about how money worked and it was only when I found myself on my own that I really had to craft my own money philosophy.
7. Did you receive any formal or informal financial education growing up? If yes, where did you learn to manage your personal finances?
My grandfather sat me down at 15 and tried to teach me about savings and investments, but I wasn’t ready for it and don’t recall the conversation at all. Then about 15 years later he and I sat down again and I showed him what I had picked up on via the internet and reading a ton of personal finance books. I’m glad I ended up figuring it out even though I should have been paying attention much earlier.
8. Do you feel well-versed in personal finance? What resources have you used to educate yourself?
I think I’m fairly well-versed in personal finance. I’ve read books by Ramit Sethi and Vicki Robin and others related to the F.I.R.E movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). I finally feel like I'm on the right track with my retirement plan but I’m interested in learning more about investing. I also think it's really important to normalize feelings around money and I really like the podcast This Is Uncomfortable which focuses on how money impacts relationships, families, our mental health, and many other parts of society.
9. What advice about money would you give to your younger self?
Don’t regret spending on experiences but spend less money on clothes and cheap stuff, those things matter so much less. Start a retirement fund! (I waited way too long to get that going.)
💡 Ask the community
Any advice for someone in their late 30s who only started saving for retirement 5 years ago?
