Reports and Data – Becoming A Happy Person

February 2024 – Monthly Spending Update

It’s true. I haven’t provided a monthly spending update in some time. It has been difficult to capture all of my finances, and it is not until now that I feel comfortable with the new system I have been using. I recently transitioned over to Monarch after the tragic and senseless death of Mint.com. You were good to me, Mint, you were so goddamn good.

In February, I finished paying off my Affirm loan and transitioned towards building up my emergency savings in my new American Express High Yield Savings Account. I do still have a car loan with CarMax that I will focus on paying down in Q2 and Q3 of this year, but for the month of March, I will place all extra savings into my AMEX HYSA.

The Big Picture

In February, I spent so little by targeting the very biggest drains on my finances – restaurants and groceries. I learned to cook my own meals, baked salmon, had lentils on multiple occasions, and made my very first Bacon-Tot-Chicken Alfredo casserole! I also eliminated some, nearly all, subscriptions – I see you NordVPN. But I need a VPN, I just don’t really trust the cyber guerilla, and it makes me feel safe. In addition to all of this, I placed my car in storage mode with USAA, and I saved on my insurance. I also canceled the renter’s insurance and property insurance, so more savings! It’s insane how many savings are “invisible” to you, but when you’re auditing where every penny goes you tend to find the “invisible.”

January Spending: $3,786
February Spending: $1,334

Net Difference: +$2,452

Notes from February

It may seem insignificant, but it is no small feat to keep my Grocery budget under $200 and my Restaurants & Bars under $60. Initially, I had intended to not spend a single dollar at restaurants, “imagine a world where you HAD to cook your own food.” That was my mindset with that, and it allowed me to feed myself at an average cost of $8.32 per day. Most people spend that much on coffee alone, so I consider this a major victory. In January, I spent $528 on Groceries and $291 on Restaurants. Net Difference: +$578

I am also impressed, maybe relieved?, that I managed to spend only $112.94 on Gas. How did I do it? I said no to engine idling. I brought lunch and ate it in my car with the engine off, so I didn’t have to drive anywhere to eat lunch. I drove to and from work at 5 miles below the speed limit. I practiced hypermiling, and on the weekends when I didn’t have to drive, I didn’t. In January, I spent $209 on this category. Net Difference: +$96.

Overall, the difference from month to month is staggering even if I only focus on these 3 categories. This allowed me to increase my American Express HYSA “Emergency Fund” to $1,800 as of this writing, and it puts me in a financial position (no credit card debt, with nearly $2,000 in reserve cash) that I hadn’t been in since 2018.

Pay attention to this quote: “Long-lasting change comes from little steps, repeated regularly, over time.”

I believe when it comes to the world of personal finance, nothing else comes close to describing a natural law. It is not the latte that you want to account for, it is the gas that you consume on the drive to the latte while waiting in the drive-thru. It is the extra nice tip that you pay the barista for serving your warm cup of coffee. It is the time that this adds to your commute, your time away from the things that truly move you. Little by little, these things add up, and you begin to see lasting change.

Summary

In March, I aim to reduce my Grocery budget even further. I challenge myself to spend only $100, which will require me to be even more creative with my meal planning, source coupons, and find new ways to spend less. I challenge myself to spend no more than $30 on Restaurant meals and to spend no more than $50 on gas. Considering my car will be going into storage, this should not be difficult to accomplish.

At the end of this quarter, I plan to provide an updated picture of my net worth. See you next time, be happy!

August 2023 – Monthly Spending Update

As my journey towards financial freedom kicks into full gear, I am beginning to experience progress and difficulties that I did not expect. One of the bigger difficulties this month was facing decision fatigue upon completion of the field exercise. On the flip side, I also made an advanced payment towards my Affirm loan and my Navy Federal Credit Union balance now sits at under $1,000.

The Big Picture

There is no surprise that I would spend less in August than I did in July. After all, I spent 13 days in the field with minimal, almost no, opportunity to spend money. We had our meals and shelter provided for us which limited my chances to engage in impulsive spending. Overall, in this month I saw the most zero-spend days I would probably see at any other time other than deployment. However, I sort of reverted to old habits once I returned from the field exercise. I got some subscriptions, notably Blue Jacketeer ($19.99/mo.) and Spotify ($10.99/mo.). I did not renew my Strava subscription so maybe that is a positive from all of this.

July Spending: $2,289.53
August Spending: $1,772.33

Net Difference: +$517.20

Notes from August

The spending “valley” from August 03 until about August 15 represents my time in the field. Beyond that, the only other significant outlier was a $260 grocery store trip in late August after a 50 mile bike ride. I understand now why we should not shop for groceries when we are hungry, and on this particular day I was ravaged. This one day accounted for most of my spending in food expenses, which once again was my highest expense category.

Once again, rent makes up a huge piece of the pie, but this time food is almost 2/3’s of all my spending as opposed to about a quarter last month. If I can shift my efforts in September so that I can cook more affordable meals at home, I can reduce my spending in the Food & Dining category even more. Overall, the difference from month to month was $19.76 less than July. So, I’ll still call it a win.

I am also proud of myself for spending less than $200 in Shopping. But my commitment to no more new things is becoming increasingly harder to sustain as I am tempted to replace old items. September comes with the launch of a new iPhone and suddenly mine is looking older and used. I also want some darker curtains, a duvet or bigger blanket, some new pieces for my bike. It is easy to re-enter the world of wanting when my habits aren’t yet ingrained. This month will be full of these challenges.

Summary

In my next post, I will provide and updated version of my budget for September 2023. This month, I aim to reduce Food & Dining spending by 5%. So my budget for that category will be $570. I am recognizing that a more gradual approach will work better for me, and I aim to honor that. At the end of this quarter, I plan to provide an updated picture of my net worth. See you next time, be happy!

July 2023 – Monthly Spending Update

Last month I made the decision to revive the happy person blog, which has served as a forum for sharing my writing, poems, everyday experiences, and finances. In my first post about finance, I shared a picture of what my budget would like for the month of July. As a new month begins, I want to pause and reflect on my spending in the past month in order to get a better understanding of how my spending matched, exceeded, or came under those planned expenses.

The Big Picture

In the below graph, one of the first things I noticed is that there are very few days in which I spent an exorbitant amount of money in July, as opposed to in June. In June, reflected in the grey bars, I experienced 4 days in which I spent over $300, whereas in July that only occurred one time. I spent close to $600 in order to cover my rent for the month. The biggest net change to notice is total spending amount.

June Spending: $5,336.55
July Spending: $2,289.53

Net Difference: $3,047.02

In the Weeds

The very important thing to note is that July was a much better effort of curbing my bad spending habits and beginning to form good ones. As a comparison with June, I excelled and spent less than half the amount. But the eye-opening revelation is that as a stand-alone effort, July featured many money “mistakes.”

By taking a quick glance at how I’ve cut up the pie in July, we can immediately notice that food, shelter, and transportation (the big three consumer drains) form the biggest slices of the spending pie. Rent is, as of now, an unavoidable expense, but I can still make improvements in Food & Dining by continuing to cook my meals and avoid supporting the restaurant industry.

In July, I spent $155.09 on restaurants. What would it look like if I spent $0. Restaurants can be pricey, and most of the time leave me feeling quite unfulfilled with the experience. In America, it’s really hard to go to a restaurant and not leave a tip. This seems like a small thing, but it adds up. Imagine tipping $5 on every $20 trip to a restaurants, that’s $30 of tips in 6 trips. So out of those $150, $120 will go to the actual food and $30 will go towards tips. I am not against the restaurant industry, but I am not in a position to be the one supporting it’s workers.

Similarly, with fast food restaurants I experience a pull to spend money on food with very little nutritional value and a high cost for attainment. I spent $55.49 on Fast Food in July, but what if I spent $0. I may not be tipping at a fast food restaurant, but what about the cost-per-mile that it takes to get there, idle in my car as I wait for the order and drive back home to eat it. It’s probably unfair to incorporate Auto & Transport costs into fast food spending, but that’s the reality of the situation.

For Groceries, I allocated $300. But last month, I spent $389.86. Let’s be real, I can. increase my budget to $400 and if I decrease my Restaurant and Fast Food spending, I am making a net gain. While I exceeded this budget, I can recognize the potential to raise it for now, and slowly start cutting back on grocery spending as I learn new recipes, how to avoid wasting produce, and buying fruits and vegetables that are in season.

On the Road

Similar to food spending, I can also make improvements in Auto & Transport by … well, I have no car now so this is going to be an interesting category in August. In July, my biggest car expense was my monthly payment of $156.77. I wonder if I will still have that payment now that I don’t have a car, but if I did I could save a lot on gas by simply driving less. Let’s face it, I have gotten lazy and complacent and I can bike more than I already do. I own two bikes. If I can bike to work just one day per week, that can save me so much money. I can also ensure to avoid driving to base just to work out. It’s not worth the gas money, even though I do enjoy my time working out on the weekends. Instead, I can go for multiple long bike rides upwards of 2.5-3 hours on Saturday and Sundays.

Lookin‘ Good

Let’s face it, the $45 haircuts are nice but I am going to start getting a buzz cut from now on. A simple, easy to maintain buzz will keep me cool in the Summer and save me time in traveling to get a haircut. These simple things cut costs, by a lot!

And no more books! With the loss of my Kindle PaperWhite, I have decided to simply download the Kindle app on my iPhone and begin to transition toward a more minimalist lifestyle. As I slowly start to pare down my possessions, I will eventually have to let go of books that I own. Whether I read them before I retire them is entirely up to me, and right now I have time to make that decision, but by October 1, I will force myself to only choose 5 books to keep with me for the rest of my life, or at least until they are destroyed.

Shopping! Can I commit to no more new things? I can surely try, that’s all I can promise. But avoiding trips to Target, and having no car should help, can position me to save a lot of the income that I have coming to me. If I can commit to not buying new things, I can change my life. In August, not buying anything new will be a goal of mine.

Summary

In my next post, I will provide an updated version of my budget for August 2023. I am very happy with the direction I am trending in, and I am eager to see what comes next in my journey. I am looking forward to providing a net worth update at the end of this quarter as well. Until the next time, be happy!

2022 Financial Report

Happy Person has served as a platform for me to reveal my innermost thoughts in the form of poems, tell-alls, and story-telling. But there is a strange disconnect in that I do spend a lot of time thinking about finances, participating in sports, and cultivating my dream life by pursuing habits and goals that almost never get mentioned. In an effort to better share my story, I want to begin logging and tracking my progress with financial goals, lifestyle changes, and I know that some of them will stick and some of them will not.

In my first post, I want to approach the subject by selecting a baseline for myself. Since 2022 is the last complete year of my life for which I have closely tracked spending by using the Mint.com website and cellphone app, that is the month that I will begin tracking financial progress.

Breakdown of 2022 Monthly Spending

One of the sobering realizations of the 2022 monthly spending breakdown is that there were only 4 months in which I spent less than $2,000 on the month. Once I reveal the categories in which this money was spent, we could understand that there were a lot of financial mistakes made in 2022. Despite having read over 15 books on personal finance, I have failed to apply much of what I have learned. I made emotional and impulsive purchases that have led me to where I am today, with over $10,000 in consumer, auto, and loan debt combined.

Below is a breakdown of the spending totals in a table form for each month of 2022.

One thing I would like to note, despite spending an average of $3,382.84 each month, I managed to cut down my spending in November to $1,146.37 and $548.00 in December. These two months, if averaged out and replicated would lead to annual expenses of $10,166.22, a total savings of $30,427.89 when compared to the $40,594.11 spent in total on the year. These small nuggets provide the most optimistic picture for me as they symbolize the what-if that can result from a radical transformation in spending habits, and once I break down the spending by categories you will see that this is not only a possible way to live, but a responsible way to live.

The 2022 Spending Category Pie

Like many Americans, my top-three spending categories are Shopping, Food and Dining, and Auto & Transport. It is also no surprise that my next two highest spending categories are Travel and Entertainment, which brings me back to the biggest observation: if I am willing to make radical changes to my spending habits, I will be able to live debt-free and even pursue the goal of early retirement or financial independence.

Here is a further breakdown of these categories with the amounts spent on each category.

Shopping consisted of several major impulsive, and as such, unplanned purchases. One of them included a sweet BMC Teammachine SLR Road Bike in Orange that I purchased in July from Biloxi Bicycle Works for $2,138.93. My second most expensive purchase was a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM Optical Telephoto Lens that I purchased in January from Amazon for $1,680.99. Among other expenditures in the Shopping category was a suit from Brooks Brothers to attend a wedding in March for $850.38, and a Goruck GR1 Backpack that I purchased in May for $384.41. Do I have expensive taste? Yes. Am I proud of these decisions? No, not really. But now I can move forward.

Food and Dining amounted to a whopping $9,238.23. Of this total, I spent $4,451.23 (48.18%) at Restaurants, $3,544.27 (38.36%) on groceries, and $1,242.73 (13.46%) on everything else, likely fast food, coffee shops, and snacks. This is a major area for improvement and the budget that I have set for this year includes $200 per month on Restaurants and $300 per month on Groceries, which should bring me to at most $6,000 in those combined categories, a 33% reduction in those two sub-categories. Recently, I have been experimenting with a simple salad, consisting of cucumber, tomato, chickpeas, and onions for my lunch meal. If I can learn to cook, I can save so much money in this category.

Auto & Transport cost me $4,829.45 last year. This is largely comprised of my monthly car payments, about $200 per month, and my auto insurance $1,350.80 for the year. I spend about $140 on gas monthly, and all of this spending reinforces the finance blogs that preach getting rid of your car. These are mostly the expected expenses and don’t include the $250 battery replacement.

2022 Year In Review

What I learned from this analysis is that there are so many financial mistakes that I expose myself to if I don’t actively manage a budget, and there are so many mistakes I am doomed to repeat if I don’t make drastic changes to my lifestyle. Although I am proud to say I have experienced several paradigm shifts, I have to confess that I am not where I want to be financially.

As a general trend, my spending has moved lower over each quarter since 2022 Q1, but I have not been able to consistently maintain this progress. While 2022 was a horrible spending year, 2023 has been a year focused on eliminating debt from my life. I can be very optimistic for the 2024 Year In Review as I hope to learn how to cook, generate income from other sources, and return to investing.

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