My net worth increased by almost 10 percent in June. Yay for months with 3 paychecks:

Liquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Cash & Checking	$1,085	$1.418	+$333
Emergency Fund	$4,575	$4,818	+$243
Savings Goals	$365	$365	$0
Brokerage Accts	$1,080	$1,203	+$123
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Savings Bonds	$1,603	$1,453	($150)
Home Equity	$16,000	$16,455	+$455
401K	$31,760	$34,236	+$2,476
Roth IRA	$22,641	$23,461	+$820
Liabilities	Start	End	$ Change
Credit Cards	($341)	($387)	($46)
Loans	($17,368)	($15,809)	+$1,559
Net Worth	$61,400	$67,213	+$5,813
% Change			+9.5%

I was not able to allocate my third paycheck amongst the various funds like I had outlined in last month’s post.

Spending

This was my first month operating under my new (increased) budget. I had a (minor) surgery in the beginning of the month and that kind of threw things off. I was able to stay within budget, but it was hard!

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
(1) Bills & Utilities	$275	$237	$38 under
(2) Food	$300	$287	$13 under
(3) Medical	$-	$526	$-
(4) Everything Else	$300	$338	$38 over
Total (1+2+4)	$875	$862	$13 under

My medical expenses were fairly high in June and I expect July slightly higher.  I plan to judiciously cut back on the frequency of my medical appointments since my FSA balance is getting low. If I do end up draining my FSA, I’ll lower my contributions towards my 401K loan. That way I’ll have more money to set aside for medical expenditures. Managing a chronic illness is expensive.

Coming in July

Lately I’ve been pretty terrible about posting anything other than net worth updates. Life’s been kind of crazy with my health issues. I am hoping that I’ll be up for a few July posts detailing how I use google sheets to manage my finances. I’ve become increasingly reluctant to use aggregation platforms like mint and personal capital.

 

In May I got a sizable promotion, and decided to celebrate by splurging. I threw caution to the wind and didn’t follow a budget.  I also had two additional sources of unexpected income, and that made the decision to splurge a lot easier.

While this promotion did result in a sizable increase in income, the promotion means so much more than money.  Working will likely always be difficult for me.  Most days I do not feel well due to a chronic illness that I have. I’m happy that I still, somehow, manage to perform well at work

Anyways, my net worth!!

Liquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Cash & Checking	$1,585	$1.085	($500)
Emergency Fund	$4,338	$4,575	+$237
Savings Goals	$284	$365	($81)
Brokerage Accts	$898	$1,080	($182)
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Savings Bonds	$1,704	$1,603	($101)
Home Equity	$15,368	$16,000	+$632
401K	$30,234	$31,760	+$1,526
Roth IRA	$22,079	$22,641	+$562
Liabilities	Start	End	$ Change
Credit Cards	($1,006)	($342)	+$665
Loans	($17,713)	($17,368)	+$345
Net Worth	$57,771	$61,400	+$3,629
% Change			+6.3%

My net worth increased by 6% which is pretty decent. I think the performance of the stock markets explains most of the increase.

Budget & Spending

My promotion officially kicked in the second half of May, resulting in more to spend. I also had other financial good fortune. I’ve since changed my pay allotments so that the entire increase in income goes towards my 401K loan. Below is my spending for the month, I went $776 over budget:

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
(1) Extra Income	$-	$1,000	$-
(2) Bills & Utilities*	$350	$349	$1 under
(3) Food	$200	$205	$5 over
(4) Medical	$-	$262	$-
(5) Everything Else	$200	$972	$772 over
Total (2+3+5)	$650	$1,426	$776 over

*- I increased my bill budget by $100 to prepay for next year’s amazon prime. The $100 came out of my sinking fund for semi-annual bills.

Even though it was fun to go on a spending spree, sinking funds would have made for a better financial strategy. Of the $776 “splurge”, $600 went to furniture purchases, $100 to clothing purchases, and the remainder to Ubers & Lyfts. I should have saved for the furniture and clothing, as these expenses happen eventually, just not every month.  I’ve now established the following sinking funds and no longer have the more aggregate “Short-term” and “Long-term” sinking funds:

(1) Bills
(2) Personal Loan Repayment
(3) Gadgets
(4) Travel
(5) Clothes
(6) Home Goods
(7) Fun Money

Below are my budgets. Because I do not disclose my housing costs, I’ll use the following symbol to represent my original (pre-June) Mortgage & HOA payments: 🏠.   This table is more for me than anyone else, but hopefully this makes sense to readers.  Note, my income remains unchanged because 100% of my salary increase is going towards my 401K loan.

	Old Budget	June Budget	New Budget
Income	🏠 + $1340	(1.5 × 🏠) + $2010	🏠 + $1340
Loan Payments	–	0.125 × 🏠 + 275	–
Housing	🏠	🏠 – $75	🏠 – $75
Bills & Utilities	250	275	275
Food	200	300	300
Everything Else	200	300	300
Roth IRA	460	460	460
Emergency Fund	100	(0.25 × 🏠)
Sinking Funds	130	(0.125 × 🏠) + $475

New vs Old

My mortgage & HOA payments will decrease by $75 starting June 1st.  I’ll be increasing my “Bill & Utilities” budget by $25, my food budget by $100, and “Everything Else” by $100.  The $600 budgeted for Food and Everything Else will make it easier for me to follow the $20/day budget method. Any money left over at the end of the month will likely go into a sinking fund.

June vs Old

In June I’ll be receiving 3 paychecks. My third paycheck will be going towards my personal loan, my emergency fund and my sinking funds.

Coming up in June

June should be interesting. If the stock markets hold steady, I expect my net worth to increase by well over $4,000. I will be having a minor surgery though. Hopefully those costs aren’t too high.

Because I have not been feeling well, I’m only just now posting April’s net worth. I still want to maintain records, but I don’t feel like getting into the nitty gritty this update.  I’m going to keep this post nice and short. Below is my change in net worth:

Liquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Cash & Checking	$1,824	$1.585	+$440
Emergency Fund	$5,159	$4,338	+$164
Savings Goals	$171	$284	($74)
Brokerage Accts	$877	$898	($15)
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Savings Bonds	$569	$1,704	($294)
Home Equity	$14,775	$15,368	+$775
401K	$28,560	$30,234	+$116
Roth IRA	$20,921	$22,079	($193)
Liabilities	Start	End	$ Change
Credit Cards	($1,141)	($1,006)	($634)
Loans	($11,472)	($17,713)	+$300
Net Worth	$60,243	$57,771	($2,472)
% Change			-4.1%

My net worth decreased due to me taking out a personal loan to the tune of $7,000. This is a 0% interest loan. Thankfully the loan terms are fairly flexible.  Other than that, there isn’t much new to report.

Budget & Spending

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
Extra Income**	$-	$256	$-
Bills & Utilities	$340	$314	$36 under
Food	$200	$221	$21 over
Medical	$-	$513	$-
Everything Else	$200	$405	$205 over
Total	$650	$532	$190 over

I went considerably over budget in April. I think this is due to a need to establish sinking funds. I spent $87 on gifts, for instance, which I should have saved up for. The excess spending was, thankfully, offset by extra income. I’ll start working on my sinking funds in June.

The next post will likely be the May net worth update, and hopefully it won’t be nearly as late as this one. Stay tuned to see how my financial situation has changed

Two years ago, I sold my car and moved to the city knowing that I would need to depend on public transportation to get me places. When public transportation routes were inefficient, I used Uber and Lyft. And for the most part, this wasn’t a financial strain because I could walk places and my transportation to and from work was reimbursed. My mobility has since declined. I can’t walk nearly as far, and even taking public transportation is physically taxing.  Now most places are seemingly too far away.  And I’ve found myself becoming increasingly dependent on Ubers and Lyfts.

So I finally bit the bullet and looked into paratransit in my city.  According to wikipedia:

Paratransit is recognized in North America as special transportation services for people with disabilities, often provided as a supplement to fixed-route bus and rail systems by public transit agencies.

In other words  it’s a door-to-door alternative to using the bus and subway for people who can’t otherwise ride the bus or subway.  My city utilizes shared vans and subsidizes taxis for their paratransit fleet.

To qualify for the paratransit system, I had to have some forms filled out by my doctor detailing my medical conditions; my physical limitations; and my inability to ride the bus and subway at least some of the time. I had an interview over the phone, and I’ll have an in-person assessment for eligibility in a couple of weeks.

A program my city offers is 50% reduced public transportation fares for those with any disability. However, if you qualify for paratransit service, meaning you are not able to ride the bus or subway 100% of the time, the bus and subway are free. This provides a financial incentive to use more traditional transportation on good days.

I’ll be the first to admit that using such disability services felt embarrassing two years ago, and I didn’t think I needed it then (though, in retrospect I probably did). But I can’t afford to keep taking Ubers to and from work. My job won’t pay for Ubers but they will pay for paratransit since it’s considered public transportaiton. Similarly, I can’t afford to spend $10-30 to attend a doctor’s appointment every few days. Paratransit provides a much more affordable option that costs ~$5.

If you live in a city in the US that has public transportation, your city should have a door-to-door paratransit service for those with disabilities. The city may also provided reduced fares for those not in need of door-to-door assistance. I’m glad that I looked further into my city’s paratransit system. I am looking forward to and am genuinely excited about my new-gained freedoms.

I know this is a bit late. Life got…interesting over the past week or so, specifically in regards to my health. I have a new diagnosis that I’m trying to come to terms with. Overall, it’s good I have answers to what’s been plaguing me, but there are a ton of mixed emotions. This diagnosis is difficult because it was missed for years when it really shouldn’t have been. I’m now in need of insanely expensive medical treatment that may not even work. This reminds me of why I started this blog and I do need to start refocusing on finances from the perspective of someone with a disability/chronic illness.

And on a more positive note, I continue to stroll through 2018 with financial stability. I am thinking about posting quarterly net worth updates instead of monthly. I’ll decide for sure next month.

Liquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Cash & Checking	$1,384	$1.824	+$440
Emergency Fund	$4,995	$5,159	+$164
Savings Goals	$245	$171	($74)
Brokerage Accts	$892	$877	($15)
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Savings Bonds	$863	$569	($294)
Home Equity	$14,000	$14,775	+$775
401K	$28,444	$28,560	+$116
Roth IRA	$21,114	$20,921	($193)
Liabilities	Start	End	$ Change
Credit Cards	($507)	($1,141)	($634)
Loans	($11,772)	($11,472)	+$300
Net Worth	$59,658	$60,243	+$585
% Change			+1.0%

It’s a surprise my net worth managed to increase given the market conditions. But things continue to look good.

• Liquid Assets

  • Cash & Checking – For simplicity, I continue to further aggregate this category to now include cash, cash-equivalents (i.e. gift cards), and my checking account balance.
  • Emergency Fund – I contributed and some illiquid savings bonds (ibonds) obtained liquidity.
  • Savings Goals – Birthday gifts!
  • Brokerage Accounts – Stock markets are down.

  Illiquid Assets

  • Savings Bonds – This decrease is due to savings bonds (ibonds) becoming liquid assets.
  • Home Equity – I’m gaining equity!
  • 401K & Roth IRA – the market went down, but my continued contributions  helped cushion the blow a little.

  Liabilities

  • Credit Cards – I sadly continue to carry over credit card balances. But I do pay them off in full by the due date!
  • Loans  – I have two loans and continue to make steady progress towards repayment

Budget & Spending

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
Bills & Utilities	$410	$441	$31 over
Food	$200	$266	$66 over
Medical	$-	$513	$-
Everything Else	$274	$253	$20 under
Total	$650	$532	$77 over

I increased my “Bill & Utilities” budget due to paying two annual bills. I increased the Everything Else category due to purchasing birthday gifts.

My medical expenses were fairly high this month, but I don’t budget for medical costs, for now. I still have a healthy FSA balance so that helps.

I was $31 over budget on Bills & Utilities because I prepaid two months of internet. And I went over on food because I bought groceries a few days before the end of the month. Hopefully this means I’ll be under budget for food in April.

 

 

For the month of February, I stuck to my budget and I eventually came well under budget. I’m proud of myself. Tracking my budget on a weekly basis, and adjusting accordingly seems to work best for me. The markets aren’t doing so great, but my net worth increased slightly. Here’s where I stand net worth wise:

Liquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Cash & Checking	$700	$837	+$137
Gift Cards	$0	$45	+$45
Emergency Fund	$4,100	$4,995	+$895
Irregular Bills	$1,185	$502	($683)
Savings Goals	$245	$245	+$0
Brokerage Accts	$910	$892	($18)
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Savings Bonds	$1,650	$863	($787)
Home Equity	$13,225	$14,000	+$775
401K	$28,517	$28,444	($73)
Roth IRA	$21,548	$21,114	($434)
Liabilities	Start	End	$ Change
Credit Cards	($636)	($507)	+$129
Medical	($735)	($0)	+$735
Furniture Loan	($1,687)	($1,582)	+$105
401K Loan	($10,432)	($10,190)	+$242
Net Worth	$58,590	$59,658	+$1,068
% Change			+1.8%

• Liquid Assets

  • Cash & Checking – I try to maintain a $500 cash cushion in my checking account.
  • Gift Card Balances – This is a new “account” I’ll be tracking in hopes of  maximizing my credit card rewards subject to minimizing my online shopping.
  • Emergency Fund – I contributed a bit and had some illiquid savings bonds (ibonds) obtained liquidity.
  • Irregular Bills –  I hold cash for less-than-monthly bills here.
  • Short-Term Savings, Long Term Savings, Brokerage #1 & 2 – I saved but no investments this month.

  Illiquid Assets

  • Savings Bonds – This decreased due to savings bonds (ibonds) becoming liquid assets. But I did buy some new ones.
  • Home Equity – I’m gaining equity!
  • 401K & Roth IRA – the market went down, but my continued contributions  helped cushion the blow a little.

  Liabilities

  • Credit Cards – I’m carrying over a credit card balance at 0% interest.
  • Medical – I finally paid off all my medical bills
  • Furniture Loan  – A 0% APR loan for furniture
  • 401K Loan – Used to finance my condo.

Budget & Spending

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
Bills & Utilities	$250	$205	$45 under
Food	$200	$147	$53 under
Medical	$-	$832	$-
Everything Else	$200	$180	$20 under
Total	$650	$532	$118 under

I fell $118 under budget. Admittedly, part of the reason for the low food budget was a $40 refund from the month prior. And I did make $50 in online purchase returns.

The third week of February has come and gone and things continue to go well. Tracking and adjusting my spending on a weekly basis is works better for me.

I have (once again) changed how I track my expenses by breaking down my expenses into determinate and indeterminate expenditures (before they were lumped together). In the case of determinate expenses, I know their final value at the beginning of the month. Below is a summary of my spending.

The biggest expense in week 3 was a grocery haul of $80 from Amazon Fresh.  I decided to activate a free trial in order to get 30% off. I’m still in the process of stocking my pantry, so I’m glad I avoided lugging everything myself. I also spent $27 on other “groceries” in the form of a meal kit service.

Additional notable expenses include a bluetooth speaker ($31), a rug ($25) and going to out to see Black Panther ($9).

I’m left with $65 to spend over the last 7 days in February. I’ve actually spent $26 today, but don’t anticipate any more expenses.

This is my spending check-in for the second week of February. In order to keep track of my weekly expenses, I created an excel file to facilitate the process. The table below is one component of the excel file that tracks my income, expenses, and savings. I’m following a zero-sum budget approach. So if I go over budget in one category, I’ll balance it out by moving money from another.

As seen in the table below, excluding medical costs, I spent $186 in the second week of February. Comparatively, I spent $68 in week 1.

I have approximately $124 remaining for food, $124 remaining for shopping and $12 remaining for transportation expenses.

Today marks being a third of the way through February, and as mentioned in my previous post, I’d like to do more frequent check-ins to keep better track of my spending.

My proposed monthly budget for 2018 has me set to spend $400/month on variable expenses.  That means that today I should be at $133 or less in spending. Here is where my money has gone so far:

• Food – $62 ($37 Groceries, $25 Eating out)
• Home Maintenance – $17
• Shopping – $49 ($24 Amazon; $14 Target; $11 Computer Game Purchase)
• Ubers – $5
• Total: $133

While I don’t budget for my health care, I’ve also spent:

• Medical Expenses – $35

I haven’t paid any fixed expenses yet, but my goal is to limit it to $250/month. My fixed expenses include bills for my internet, electricity, cellphone and a furniture loan. This will be my first electric bill payment and since it covers 2.5 months worth of electricity, it will be fairly high. I still should stay within my budget due to prepaying my internet bill and having a credit on my cellphone account.

For whatever reason, Februarys tend to go well for me. It’s the other months that give me a hard time.  I’m exactly where I should be, which is surprising and yet fantastic.

This year is off to a decent start. My net worth increased by a little over 10% in January.  It helped that the stock market performed well and that I received three paychecks. However, as mentioned in the previous post, January was a bit atypical. I took a two week vacation and I’m settling in to my new condo.

I’m still experimenting with how I want to post my current holdings and net worth.  In December I was less detailed than usual. For January, I’ve decided to go back to being more detailed in hopes of controlling my online spending.  Typically the reason why I go over budget during any given month is because of a website called Amazon.com.

Without further adieu, my  net worth at the end of January can be summarized below:

Liquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Cash & Checking	$450	$700	+$250
Amazon Balance	$0	$0	+$0
Emergency Fund	$3,405	$4,100	+$695
Irregular Bills	$0	$1,185	+$1,185
Short-Term Savings	$525	$95	($430)
Long-Term Savings	$0	$150	+$150
Brokerage #1	$502	$530	+$30
Brokerage #2	$195	$380	+$185
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	$ Change
Savings Bonds	$2,135	$1,650	($485)
Home Equity	$11,850	$13,225	+$1,375
401K	$26,235	$28,517	+$2,282
Roth IRA	$20,224	$21,548	+$1,324
Liabilities	Start	End	$ Change
Credit Cards	($0)	($636)	($636)
Medical	($0)	($735)	($735)
Furniture Loan	($1,792)	($1,687)	+$105
401K Loan	($10,748)	($10,432)	+$316
Net Worth	$52,981	$58,592	+$5,611
% Change			+10.6%

Liquid Assets

• Cash & Checking – I try to maintain a $500 cash cushion in my checking account.
• Amazon Balance – This is a new account I’ll be tracking in hopes of curbing my impulsive Amazon spending.
• Emergency Fund – I contributed a bit and had some illiquid savings bonds (ibonds) obtain liquidity.
• Irregular Bills –  I hold cash for less-than-monthly bills in this account. I included this account in my “Cash & Checking” category.
• Short-Term Savings, Long Term Savings, Brokerage #1 & 2 – I saved & invested a little.

Illiquid Assets

• Savings Bonds – This decreased due to savings bonds (ibonds) becoming liquid assets.
• Home Equity – I made my first mortgage payment this month, and I’m finally gaining equity.
• 401K & Roth IRA – the market performed well and these accounts saw a nice increase.

Liabilities

• Credit Cards – for the first time in a while I’m carrying over a credit card balance. It’s not much and it’s on a card with 0% APR. I’m not thrilled about it at all.
• Medical – sigh, medical bills…
• Furniture Loan  – I’m paying this off over the course of 18 months. It is a 0% APR loan.
• 401K Loan – I borrowed money from my 401K to finance my house.

Budget & Spending

One thing I have yet to officially post is a budget for 2018. The biggest change from last year, of course, will be considerably higher housing expenses. I will not be disclosing my housing expenditures. I’ll have to figure out a way to incorporate increases in my HOA fees on this blog. The budget/savings plan I’d like to follow for the remainder of the year is as follows:

Category	Budget
Mortgage	$-
Bills & Utilities	$250
Food	$200
Everything Else	$200
Total	$650

Since January was a weird month, I didn’t intend to follow a budget, but I did want to keep my spending comparable to that of a typical month ($650). Unfortunately I went quite a bit over. Below is my spending:

Category	Budget	Actual
Mortgage & HOA	$-	$-
Vacation	$-	$410
Bills & Utilities	$-	$200
Food	$-	$215
Transportation	$-	$25
Medical	$-	$110
Everything Else	$-	$220
Total	$650	$1,180

• Vacation – this includes everything spent while on vacation including food, taxis, souvenirs, etc.
• Bills – I had an annual bill I paid this month ($50 towards this blog) , I am still waiting on my first electric bill so I expect that to be considerably high.
• Food – I didn’t expect to eat out much after my vacation, but it was Restaurant Week ($85) and I also went out to a going away lunch ($15) for a colleague. I subscribed for grocery deliveries as well ($15) due to being sick.
• Transportation – ubers and lyfts
• Medical – this includes both direct and indirect healthcare expenses. These are reimbursable.
• Everything Else – I did a bit more shopping than planned, mostly on Amazon. Hopefully I do better in February.  Moving in to a new place is expensive.

I was about $530 over budget. Thankfully my extra paycheck and pay raise helped offset the over spending.

Goals

My 2018 Goal Progression is below:

Fund/Goal	Budgeted	Actual	Value
Emergency Fund	$50	$185	$5,750
Roth IRA	$460	$460	$460*
Short-Term Savings	$50	$95	$95
Long-Term Savings	$50	$150	$150
Irregular Bills Acct	$50	$50	$1,180

* – the value for my Roth IRA is my YTD contributions

In February I would like to limit the number of financial spending transactions to the number of days in the month. I’m actually not sure how many transactions I usually make, but I think 28 is a good number to start off with. Last month there were 72 such transactions, but  a lot of that was because of my vacation. I also would like to limit my online shopping to Mondays and Thursdays.

That’s all I have for January folks!