How time flies when one is having fun! This month is going to be a bit ‘wonky’ for several reasons. I am afraid this will be true for the next month as well
As mentioned before: no investment gains are taken into account and our monthly mortgage payments (which are by far our highest expense) are viewed as an expense.
Personal account:
Income: 1 545,88
Expenses : 1 889,55
Savings: – 343,67 or – 22,23%
Income: 1 545,88
Expenses : 1 889,55
Savings: – 343,67 or – 22,23%
A negative personal savings rate!
Biggest reason is the drop in income due to the fact that once again I am unemployed. The temporary job came to an end 31st of january and well, I suck at job interviews! This is where a nice stash comes in handy as I am not particularly worried finance wise. If it was not for the house renovations we still need to do I would have been tempted to pull the plug now. It is something deserving its own post so more on the whole ‘being unemployed’ in the future.
Another reason was expenses. My part for the Vespa came was 1 500 euro which was the bulk of my expenses. second highest expense for me was actually 60 euro to go swimming again. Yes I have started to exercise again: feeling good and also something that deserves its own post!
No payments to the joint bank account as we had a nice tax return this month. Let’s take a look at that.
The joint bank account
Income: 5 771,43
1 100 euro each and a tax return of 3 571,43, we front load our joint account that is why this month the joint account still received funds of each of us where we did not incur the cost this month. The joint bank account will receive no funds in April as we will first eat up the tax refund.
Expenses: 2 907,84
Savings: 2 863,59 or 49,62%
Things now get a bit tricky to calculate my own savings rate. Best I could think of is add half of the tax refund to my ‘income’ of the month and then add half of the savings on the joint account to my savings.
Total income would then be 3 331,59
total savings would be – 343,67 + 1 431,80 = 1 088,13 or 32,66%
Not bad for an unemployed person who also bought a Vespa!
Next month will be the reverse: good savings on the personal account and deeply negative on the joint account. This will all average out when I do a full year round up so I am not that concerned about this wonky month.
We also had an expensive restaurant visit and a wedding to attend this month. Otherwise we would have been closer to 40% savings rate on the joint account.
Life happens. All the best with the interviews!
Good that you sport again. Being healty makes FIRE even better. I am just back from a pool game with beers… And by bike. this way, the good evens out the bad, right?!?
Thank you. And live is about finding balance so yeah drink away, as long as you cycle it off afterwards!!
I love what you can do with accounting to affect the savings rate 😉 But I have to agree, the tax refund is income, it’s technically overpaid taxes that you should have gotten as income in the first place.
As noted by AT, well done on getting you butt back into the swimming pool, good for you!
Good luck with future job interviews, hope you find some income again.
Thank you! And who says I do not have an income? Perhaps I have been a bad boy, stretch my leverage a bit wider and started daytrading again …
That’s unfortunate on the job front but I’m sure it’ll be temporary. Sounds like you are spending wisely and on things that you value 🙂
O yes, I find I am in a pretty good place mentally and spending accordingly. Which is a pretty good feeling considering I was in a full burn out about 18 months ago. I did all the work but some posts in the FIRE community really did help in offering a good framework!! I want to work because it is the final missing puzzle piece but I do not NEED work right now. That is a liberating feeling and I am actively trying to enjoy the free time I now have. Even being unemployed, I am really enjoying my life at the moment. And now I am off to enjoy an almost empty swimming pool (most people apparently do not go swimming at 12u30!).
My cousin’s wife just had a baby, and since we were really close growing up, I want to get him and his family an expensive gift. Unfortunately that means I will probably go over budget this month, but that’s life. There are always some one-time things you can’t prepare for.
That is indeed life. And that is also the reason why we now keep track of our budget; I think i can live on 1.500 euro a month once major renovations on the house are done budget the budget will show me if this is indeed the case or not. Keeping a budget for several years will show use our average spending, one-time exceptions and all …
Sorry to hear about the job, definitely practice on your interview skills. Good luck!
Hello Tawcan!
great to have a Canadian reader!
In all honesty, I am not in any particular rush to go back to work. Enjoying this ‘improptu’ sabbatical. Next post I’ll go deeper into it…