January was a rough month filled with a couple financial hiccups. I spent way too much money. I wrote a bit about that in this post, where I talk about how I still live paycheck to paycheck. It was also pretty difficult to watch the last week of the month drop my 401k by $6,000 (about 3%), though admittedly the first half of the month was fantastic.
I also made the decision to take out a $5,000 “balance transfer” from one of my credit cards. It gives me 0% until June 2019, though I did have to pay a one time 4% fee for the privilege. What did I do with this money? I correctly paid off about $1300 that was on my high interest credit card, I finished some remodeling on some walls in the house, and I stuck the rest in savings so I could finally say I have 1 whole month of expenses saved as an emergency fund. Was it smart to do this? Probably not financially, but psychologically I feel for me personally it will be easier for me to tackle the debt now that it is all consolidated onto once card, at 0%, and knowing I have money in savings if I need it. I think it will help me not use the credit card as much as I do, or not feel resigned to being hopeless about the situation.
My Net Worth increased just over $5,100 this month again again being mostly gains in my 401k, along with a small extra contribution made to my HSA by my employer.
January 2018 Financial Statement
| Account Name | Previous Balance | Balance | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $100.00 | $0.00 | -$100.00 |
| Savings - Personal | $1000.96 | $4,000.03 | $0.02 |
| Savings - Personal (CU) | $2,124.00 | $1,135.93 | -$988.07 |
| Checking - Personal | $3,615.00 | $771.06 | -$122.59 |
| Checking - Business | $4234.67 | $2,475.89 | -$1,758.78 |
| Retirement - 401k | $173,229.35 | $181,250.85 | $8,021.50 |
| Credit Cards | -$10,728,07 | -$14,644.47 | -$3,916.40 |
| Retirement - Pension | $24,263.26 | $24,265.52 | $2.26 |
| Retirement - HSA (Investements) | $5,666.62 | $5,910.30 | $243.68 |
| Retirement - HSA (Cash) | $3,119.20 | $3,862.36 | $743.16 |
| Asset - Vehicle 1 | $14,923.00 | $14,525.00 | -$398.00 |
| Auto Loan 1 | -$16,095.48 | -$15,734.54 | -$360.94 |
| Asset - Vehicle 2 | $6,500.00 | $6,500.00 | $0.00 |
| Asset - Precious Metals | $400.00 | $500.00 | $100.00 |
| Asset - Home | $141,808.00 | $142,495.00 | $687.00 |
| Mortgage - Home | -$141,291.90 | -$140,207.00 | $1,084.90 |
| Net Worth | $211,968.61 | $217,105.93 | $5,137.32 |
A few things to note this month:
- My credit card debt went up, but it’s all now on a 0% plan until May/June of 2019.
- My personal savings went up because I took some of that balance transfer money to feel like I have an emergency fund started.
- My Savings – Personal (CU) went down and my Checking – Business went down, because I am redesigning my business website.
- My mortgage dropped more than normal because of the dates/times of my posts and my payments posting for last month and this month.
Side Business Income
For January, my side business did $1,700 in revenue. I used about $400 of that to buy a workstation my team can use to complete customer orders faster, and as I mentioned before I am working on a really awesome website redesign. If I’m going to hit my goal of $100,000 in revenue this year, I’m really going to have to kick it into high gear once the new website is up and running!
Retirement
It’s really great that I’m starting to see my 401k increase every month by several thousand dollars, and this month’s $5,137.32 was great to see. Emotionally, however, I do still feel like I am VERY behind where I should be and want to somehow figure out how to save even more.
With retirement accounts totaling $205,516.37 and using a 3.5% safe withdrawal rate (SWR), that would allow me to take $599.42 as income each month, an increase of about $23 over my position last month! It’s really great to see this forward progress in potential retirement income.
Safe Withdrawal Rate (3.5%) monthly income: $599.42
I think I would need at minimum $1,500 a month to live comfortably in Ukraine with my lady right now, so we’re not there yet. Even if we were, I’m not planning on being lean-fire, and will continue the march forward.
Spendaholic Ways
As mentioned above, I spent $6,000 in the first 2 weeks of the year! See what I had to say in this post, where I talk about how I still live paycheck to paycheck.
I spent over $700.00 on pets, taking care of my fiance’s household cost me $800.00 a month, I had some painters come in and paint the last few hard to get walls in the house, that was $900, and I spent $560 eating out (again). Eating out is one of my hardest vices to kick. I don’t really drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t even gamble that much anymore, but I do eat out a lot. For February, I’m going to make it a personal goal to eat at home more. Today, as I write this, I ate at home for all meals – which it honestly has been a long time since I could say that. Baby steps.
I also spent $160 on 4 months of DirecTV NOW, their new TV streaming service, which I like, plus I got a FREE Apple TV. Needing a TV for when my immigrant fiance and child join me is how I rationalized it. I do think the English programming will be helpful for them to both improve English and see more about our popular culture, but I can’t deny it was a “want” and not really a “need”.
On the bright side, I did make it to my gym to cancel, but due to their policy I must still pay for February’s membership. Starting in March, however, that will save me $79 a month!
I am returning to Ukraine to visit my fiance and step-daughter in March, I booked a cheap rental car, and used my points for my flight. It’s still going to cost me in spending money and pet sitting though!
Looking Ahead
Over the coming months, I will continue working on the personal finance aspects of my journey, but there are some key points I must consider going forward:
- Fiance and step-daughter will move to the USA in June 2018
- I will return to Ukraine to visit them in March, and am already dreading the $1000 pet sitting bill.
- Projecting my side business will start bringing me monthly income starting in May.
- I will continue paying down my mortgage faster than normal
- March 31st, I should receive a bonus from work (fingers crossed!)
- My primary car is slightly underwater, I will make a large extra payment on it with the previously mentioned bonus
- I’m still cosigned on $29,000 debt from an ex’s student loans that I will try to get her to refinance this year
- My employer is swapping the pension, for additional 401k deposits come 2019