I'm an engineer, single, and living in San Francisco. I'm spending way too much money. I'd like to see how my expenses compare to those of others in the same industry, and see if I can learn from you on where to cut it. I spent 84k in 2019. Here's the breakdown: - Home/Utilities: 30k, out of which 27k is rent. - Food/Alcohol: 9500, out of which $3k is alcohol. - Transportation: 5500. - Entertainment: 2000. - Side Projects and Learning: 3000. Includes attending a conference for ~1200. - Shopping: 2200. - Hobbies: 8000. (Yeah I know this is insane). - Travel: 14000. - Health: 2200. - Gifts: 2400. - Fees: 2000. - Misc: 3000. What do your expenses look like? TC: ~400k
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How high is your base salary? Given that a lot of your TC must be illiquid, was curious to know. I spend ~40-45k, but bought a car recently so should go higher.
46k last year
LESS CANDLES
cut hobbies by half, zero alcohol, zero gifts, cut travelling by half. Also why the high transportation costs? After doing all that you should still have top notch lifestyle and you will have resolved your issue
>cut everything enjoyable how boring
That’s not what I said. OP spends a gigantic amount on these things, cutting by half will still leave him in a pretty good situation. Alcohol is the only thing that is debatable, but believe me - it is totally not worth it. It destroys your body, in exchange for very little. Find something else that gives you pleasure in its place
I'm pretty sure I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. My family's total spending is probably closer to $250k. The biggest chunks of that are house payment, house maintenance/improvement, car payments, and savings.
What are fees and mics? Are you paying late fees as you are forgetting to pay the bills on time? Put everything on auto pay. Link your accounts to mint or similar service and monitor what you are spending on. Block out one sat/Sunday morning to review your spending once a month. Make a budget. Put a set amount into a post tax retirement account from your paycheck and forget you had the money. Cut all your expenses by 1/2. Nope you don’t need cable and Netflix. Go to bogleheads, read everything there and be enlightened. P.S. you could easily retire in 10 years if you plan well. Also can I get a referral to Stripe. 🙂
Thanks. Fees are a mix of CC annual fees, late fees, finance charge fees, as well as wire transfer fees, account maintenance fees (mainly for accounts I can't control, like HSA). Misc is mostly cash, so I'm not completely sure exactly where it went. Due to places that only accept cash (e.g. haircuts, some bars), I take out about 200/mo. I do use mint, which is how I got these numbers. I do have a blocked off Saturday every month and have a budget, but I haven't been disciplined. Thanks for the suggestion. There's only so much to put in post-tax retirement account, given income level, right? I don't have cable nor Netflix, lol. Where to do you suggest starting in bogleheads (rather than "read everything"?). Assume I'm fairly financially literate. And sure, DM me.
You can put as much as you want post tax, but the gains will be taxed. Considering how low long term investment tax is, it’s a good strategy. I used Wealthfront ( when I had money to put away) and ploughed in 2k per month post tax. Saved my down payment. My net returns inclusive of fees was 25%+. You could also do simple (100-age) % in stocks and rest in bonds. Bogleheads has good investment forums, and is fairly addictive just like Blind 😊 At your TC, you could always consult a financial planner atleast to see what they have to say. A good one via referral is worth it.
I live paycheck to paycheck so however much 120k salary translates to after withholding and 401k.
😱 what are your expenses? 120k qualifies for low income in Bay Area for a family of 4.
? I'm single. Idk where my spending goes except that rent is 1700
What are your hobbies? PS. Good for you. Having travel 7x your health costs is a good year.
Many hobbies, but the one driving costs is flying, which accounts for 7k out of the 8k last year.
So u say 7k In flying. Did u count that twice in hobbies and vacation? Or did u mean flying small planes as in u have a PP license and just fly small planes for fun?
What the f is the fees for?
Credit cards
I have to investigate that one further, but some of it is annual credit card fees (e.g. $450 for Chase Sapphire), some of them are CC late fees and finance charges (I usually pay on time but I forgot a couple times), and some of them are random wire transfer fees or account maintenance fees (the maintenance fees are on the accounts that I have little control over, like my HSA).