Another budget.
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Anonymous
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Thoughts? What would you change about it?
Mortgage: $2300 Property taxes: $1250 Homeowners's insurance: $165 Utilities (internet, electricity, gas, water): $500 Maid service: $150 Other insurance (auto, umbrella): $160 Groceries: $700 Alcohol: $200 Eating out: $300 Travel: $300 Entertainment and clothes: $500 Misc kids stuff: $200 House maintenance and furnishings (one more year): $1000 Car payment (one more year): $900 Daycare (one more year until youngest in K): $1200 Misc: $500 Total budget: $10,325/month. Net $16,000/month after 401k contributions (around $55k including employer matching) and health care premiums. Expect expenses to drop by at least $2k after next year. |
Anonymous
| Nothing. You are doing fine. |
Anonymous
| Im the broke back budget OP. So jealous! If only our take home was double!!! |
Anonymous
| Is your home a $2M home? |
Anonymous
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Just curious whats the gross that supports this net income? $314K?
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Anonymous
No, we live somewhere with high property tax rates, and the assessment is the actual sales price.
Slightly under $350k. I don't know how accurate our withholdings are. |
Anonymous
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Holy fuck. $900 car payment? Are your property taxes per month??
I'm not being snarky- just a paycheck-to-paycheck 20-something and shocked! |
Anonymous
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So what do you do with the remaining almost $6K? I make savings a specific part of my budget to ensure that they get prioritized. (We have wiggle room and move the extra to savings periodically, but I still have line items for 529s and other general savings)
I think it's weird that someone at your income level would need to have a car payment (particularly one that large--is that 2 cars or one?) and household furnishing payments. I would just buy them outright. If they are holdovers from earlier days, I don't understand why you don't just pay them off. You have an extra $5000 a month, why hold on to loans and pay interest on them? Even without taking anything out of savings, you could pay them off in 4 months and have that extra $2k a month now instead of a year from now. |
Anonymous
| Agree the car payment is ridiculously high and I don't see why you have one at all (should buy outright with your HHI). Other that that it's great. |
Anonymous
| So net is 16k and expenses 10.5k. Where does the extra 5.5k go? Savings or misc spending? Good job either way. |
Anonymous
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Oh--the two things I would change after you ditch the loans are:
1) I'd spend more on travel. 
2) Charitable contributions |
Anonymous
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OP here. The car payment is for 3-yr 0.9% financing. We could pay it off anytime but there is no reason to.
Yes, property taxes are per month. The amount for furnishings (and maintenance) are what I expect to spend this year in cash, divided by 12 to get a better sense of monthly expenditures. We save and invest the remaining $6k but don't have a line item for savings. |
Anonymous
| A lot of money on alcohol. |
Anonymous
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Just curious why you think the household maintenance will go away in a year? I'm guessing because the furnishing aspect will be done, but are the assorted infrastructure systems all recently repaired? (We just bought a house from an elderly owner, so I'm seeing just how deferred maintenance adds up, and I'm expecting there will also be additional unforeseen expenditures in that area down the road.)
Also - once daycare is over, will all that money be freed up, or will there be expenses for aftercare / camps / etc.? |