Also important for me was that this task enabled me to both attack my debt and save for the future. Because both can have a measurable impact on my goal, therefore giving me room to be my jittery, impatient and sometimes unfocused self when it came to me and my money.
So how am I doing with my money so far this year?
Sad part is, while some of that 30% can be attributed to extra payments on both my student loans and my credit card from that balance transfer I did last month, it really only upped the percentages by no more than 8%. Meaning that even when paying minimum balances on my debt, it still eats up a whooping 25% of my regular salary. Oye.
(Yeah, yeah, yeah I need to make more money)
As far as savings are going, I was surprised to discover that it was going pretty well as far as the percentages were working for me. Between my paycheque deductions, as well as planned TFSA and e-fund contributions, around 18% of my gross pay (because those retirement deductions does not get taxed due to them being deducted off my pay) goes to distant future savings, which was better than I was expecting anyway. Nevermind the short term savings I have so far made this year, which are small but still significant
Other notable pie pieces include:
- Money spent on clothing came in at about 2% of my money earned so far this year, or around $150 total spent on two jackets, a scarf and a shirt. Given that I've once been prone to $200 online shopping sprees not too long ago, especially around winter to spring time (right now), I'm counting this as a big win for me and my money. Keeping track of my money does work, at least it did in this category anyway.
- Restaurants (casually eating out) came in at 3% of my money spent, or around $200 dollars spent in three months. Now I don't know about you and your regular spending habits, but sheesh I need to seriously cut back on this laziness of mine!
- The above doesn't even include the outings for food I've had with friends, which I counted towards miscellaneous entertainment (cable not being included), which came in at around 4% of my money spent. Granted, it wouldn't be anywhere near this high if not for a massive outing that saw me spend close to $200 on a trip to the bar in January. Hahahaha... oops.
- I don't know how much I'm supposed to be spending on food (groceries plus restaurants) but according to my pie chart, I'm spending the same amount on transportation as I am food these first three months at about 8%. Which I'm going to slowly conclude that that isn't terribly high or unreasonable and leave it at that?
- Between groceries, rent, transportation and internet (which is included due to it being included in our shared rent payment), 36% of my money goes towards needs, which is... a little higher than I was expecting it to be but all things in perspective, not too shabby at all.
At a glance, even with the above indiscretions, things more or less look as if they're heading in the right direction for me and my money this year and that I'm not misbehaving as much as I had worried I was in the first quarter.
However, with that said, I'm still a bit behind on my goal of raising my net worth by $15K. At the quarter point of the year, I have presently increased my net worth this year by $3,493.52. It should be at about $3,750 after three months, or $1,250 a month saved in order to get to my stated $15K goal by year's end.
Granted, right now I'm simply just trying to increase my net worth by just $1,000 a month, so it's really all about the perspective, right?
Either way in light of this, I will be making a bigger effort to throwing more of my money in the direction of my debts and e-funds every month this next quarter in order to boost my net worth savings upward. Maybe even my TFSA.
There's also plenty of exciting money opportunities coming my way this month not to mention a few experiences I'm thinking of exploring as the weather warms up. So onward and upward we go.
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