Money and Finance
Getting fit takes planning and patience. Whenever you want to make a change you have to find out where you are, decide where you want to be and then come up with a plan to get there. Each step is crucial in the process to becoming fit. That goes for both physical and fiscal fitness.
The basic formula for weight loss is calories expended > calories consumed. Similarly, the basic formula for financial success is Income > Expenses. Without that formula being true you can't save money which means you can't invest which means you can't build wealth. For the past five years or so my wife and I were doing extremely well. We were DINKs (dual income no kids) with solid income, relatively low expenses and excellent free cash flow for investing.
However, we've let things get a little bit out of control with some of our spending, mainly purchasing a little bit more house than we need and purchasing a new car for my wife. Life happened as well over the last 1.5 years and our debt is now around $50k excluding our house. Of course the downside to having debt is that it increases your required spending each month. Our monthly debt payments, excluding the house, come to about $1,100 which is way above our comfort level.
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- Income Update - July 2013
Keeping track of your expenses is step one for anyone trying to improve their financial situation. After you get a better idea of what you're spending money on, then you can look for ways to save money by smarter decisions or completely stopping...
- Income Update - July 2012
July was a pretty good month for my spending. My income was up higher than normal again which is great because it just adds to my savings amount. My minimum expenses for July went back up due to me forgetting that I'm paying my wife for things a month...
- Income Update - March 2012
I've added a new line on my chart in "Your Money or Your Life" fashion. I'm calling it my FI for financial independence. The way I'll be calculating it is if I take my net worth less the value in my 401k and Rollover IRA since there's...
- Income Update - January 2012
My expenses went back up from December thanks to lots of driving increasing my gas costs. Unfortunately my total expenses for January was pretty much on par with the average for last year. I’m hoping to get my expenses down further to create a larger...
- 2012 Goals
My ultimate goal is to be able to retire by 40 by replacing all of my income with dividend payouts. I have a long ways to go but am working on making progress towards it. Budgeting goals for 2012: Average 70% after-tax savings rate Average less than...
Money and Finance
Becoming Fiscally Fit
Getting fit takes planning and patience. Whenever you want to make a change you have to find out where you are, decide where you want to be and then come up with a plan to get there. Each step is crucial in the process to becoming fit. That goes for both physical and fiscal fitness.
The basic formula for weight loss is calories expended > calories consumed. Similarly, the basic formula for financial success is Income > Expenses. Without that formula being true you can't save money which means you can't invest which means you can't build wealth. For the past five years or so my wife and I were doing extremely well. We were DINKs (dual income no kids) with solid income, relatively low expenses and excellent free cash flow for investing.
However, we've let things get a little bit out of control with some of our spending, mainly purchasing a little bit more house than we need and purchasing a new car for my wife. Life happened as well over the last 1.5 years and our debt is now around $50k excluding our house. Of course the downside to having debt is that it increases your required spending each month. Our monthly debt payments, excluding the house, come to about $1,100 which is way above our comfort level.
Read more »
- Income Update - July 2013
Keeping track of your expenses is step one for anyone trying to improve their financial situation. After you get a better idea of what you're spending money on, then you can look for ways to save money by smarter decisions or completely stopping...
- Income Update - July 2012
July was a pretty good month for my spending. My income was up higher than normal again which is great because it just adds to my savings amount. My minimum expenses for July went back up due to me forgetting that I'm paying my wife for things a month...
- Income Update - March 2012
I've added a new line on my chart in "Your Money or Your Life" fashion. I'm calling it my FI for financial independence. The way I'll be calculating it is if I take my net worth less the value in my 401k and Rollover IRA since there's...
- Income Update - January 2012
My expenses went back up from December thanks to lots of driving increasing my gas costs. Unfortunately my total expenses for January was pretty much on par with the average for last year. I’m hoping to get my expenses down further to create a larger...
- 2012 Goals
My ultimate goal is to be able to retire by 40 by replacing all of my income with dividend payouts. I have a long ways to go but am working on making progress towards it. Budgeting goals for 2012: Average 70% after-tax savings rate Average less than...