Budget as of June 2009
2009 June 24
I truly believe that budgets are a very useful and powerful tool. With it, you can examine your current circumstances and project how much wealth you can accumulate in the future. You can help limit your expenses so that things like credit card debt and home mortgage loans don’t end up eating away at your net worth like a cancer. As a result, I set up budgets and then revise them as time passes (usually within six months to a year) to make sure that they are still relevant.
Below is my current monthly budget:
Income:
- Salary (after tax) – 2,600
- Rental Income (no tax since negative cashflow) – 700
Total Income: 3,300
Expenses:
- Rental Costs (HOA of 276, mortgage loan of 870, property tax of 150, internet of 50) – 1,350
- Student Loans – 190
- Prepayment of Rental – 500
- Savings – 660
- Discretionary Expenses – 600
Total Expenses: 3,300
The net result of following the budget over a period of one year is:
- Savings of 7,920
- Prepayment of Rental of 6,000
- Pay off of Mortgage Loan (excluding interest) about ~5,500
- Pay off of Student Loan (excluding interest of 530/yr) about ~1,750
- Maxing out 401k of 15,000
Total increase of income/decrease of debt: 36,170
Things to Note:
- Discretionary Expenses of 600/month – Having a SO can be expensive >.>
- Savings of 660/month – This fluctuates depending on whether I spend more or less money that month with my SO.
- Other expenses (Rental Costs, Student Loans, Prepayment of Rental) – All pretty much fixed so there really isn’t much wiggle room.
- Income sometimes is greater depending on the month (due to tax rebate, work reimbursements, HSA reimbursement, etc…) so that is kind of flexible.
- Salary is after tax, after insurance, after 401k contribution, and after HSA (health savings account) contribution. That might be why my monthly salary is kind of low.
- I try to max out my 401k every year, thus my salary is limited by quite a bit.
Related posts:
putting together a budget is key to getting ahead. Most people have no clue where their money goes.
Does your $600 discretionary cover car payments or have you paid it off already? also, does the SO contribute to the income, or only to the expense ;-)
The car has already been paid off, bought it used directly from another owner and paid it all in cash.
The discretionary income covers everything from eating out, traveling, buying food, clothes and other random junk… but mostly eating out. Yes good food is my one weakness.
I keep my income and expenses separate from Bae (we have only been dating for 1.5 yrs) and so discretionary expenses also include my spending time with her. Bae also uses her own earned income (not included here) when we hang out together. Bae only makes a little less than me.