#51 Budget

Savings and Budget go hand and hand for me, so obviously this was going to be the next post. The budget properly happened when I finally started focusing on my savings more because the only way for me to do anything with out touching that savings money was to budget.

If you saw my last post I mentioned I was being aggressive with saving money and because of that I’ve had to be really careful with what I spend money on and really thinking over every aspect of what I can and can’t afford. When I first started my budget it was difficult just cause I was used to just paying it off whenever, but now that I didn’t have the full safety of my full income it made me refocus and go through all my payments.

I started by going through every single subscription and monthly payments that I had. I ended up cancelling a few and going to cheaper subscriptions and it ended up that I was paying around $100 in things I didn’t even care about or use that much. I then stopped eating out every week and now I think I only go out once or twice a month.

The hardest thing for my budget has been when I want cool things. So I usually take a few weeks to decide if I really want something and if it’s just not in the moment. For the most part my thinking has led me to buying the stuff, but I’m glad I thought about it for a few weeks to prepare the money for it and make room in my budget. That way I can still have fun, but also have enough money to live.

Whether I will always stick to the budget plan I have now I don’t know, but it’s been working for me for a while now and I think I’ve developed good habits that I intend to use for the rest of my life.

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#52 Savings

I’ve always been good at saving money and not spending it on items I don’t necessarily need. I do buy things for fun and I make sure to spend my money on experiences that will be worth it, but I also always try to find the right deal for me.

With that said. I’ve never actually had a savings account. So last year I opened one up and I did a quick google search of how much I should have in savings by the time I’m 30. I found a few random numbers that people thought you should have by 30 and I saw some percentages for savings based off income.

In the end of that little research I decided to focus on my savings using the 50 / 30 / 20 rule, which is also what I am currently setting up my budget to be. 50% in necessities, 30% in wants, and 20% in savings. Since I didn’t really start my savings til this year I’ve been a bit more aggressive than 20% of my income every month. I’ve been making sure to divert any extra cash that way to build it and I’ve made sure to have my paycheck split into two bank accounts. That way I don’t even see that 20% ever in my bank account. Makes it way easier to save when it just happening. Bless direct deposits.

My plan right now is to use a portion of my savings to invest once I get to a more comfortable amount in my savings and have it grow that way. As for now I’ve made it a solid year of straight habit to put money in my savings and I feel like that’s a goal worthy accomplishment!

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Financial

I actually wasn’t going to do financial goals just because I hate the topic of money, but it wouldn’t really be plausible for me not to have any finance goals before I turn 30. Money and finances coexist with everything else in life, so best to just get it all out there.

Also, before I get on with the list I didn’t want to do this list mostly because a lot of this stuff is stuff I can’t check off until I turn 30 and it’s more of the long-term goals that blend in together. Which are good, but with lists I just wanna cross everything out and be done. That won’t be the case for this one, as it seems like it is more my financial plan.

Financial Goals:

Budget
- Probably the most common financial goal because everyone needs to focus on their spending. I will say that my budget as a whole is actually not too bad, but I intend to rein it in and do some analysis and see where I should be focusing to get to where I wanna be by 30.
Savings
- Always smart to have money saved up for big purchases such as a home or traveling and at this current time I don’t have much in savings. Which is why it’s on this list so I can actually get saving within my budget and from there I will hopefully get a solid cushion of money in savings.
Start Investing
- With that lovely savings because just hoarding money isn’t fun and I really want to experiment with investing and markets. In order to do that I need money that isn’t going to be too risky and won’t harm me financially if it all goes bad.
800+ Credit Score
- I don’t think this is something I can maintain long term, but I would like to hit an 800+ credit score just for the bragging rights to say I have a credit score over 800.
Passive Income
- The plan is to essentially have enough passive income that will cover my living expenses that way it will never be a worry. But before that can happen I will need to find a way to establish passive income and let it grow on the side.
Financial Freedom
- This is where my passive income will hopefully come into play as well if I have done it successfully. If not I can assume I tried it and still can count that as completing that item. But as for this it’s going to be a big reach and a lot to do in my 8 years until 30. I want to get to a point in my life that I won’t have to worry about living expenses or splurging on a last-minute trip. I’d like to do some of my best and profitable work in my 20s and then just allow whatever I do to grow for the rest of my life.
Pay off all Debts
- At this point in my life my debts are actually low, but since I still have quite a few years to accumulate debt I can’t really consider this done until 30. The main focus will be trying to keep low debt even on bigger purchases or loans that way I am managing debt and not drowning in it.
Proper Accounting
- So here is something odd, a lot of the work that I do is accounting and financial business. The thing is I was more thrown into it and I don’t actually have proper training. I came in to a business and it was a learn as you go experience and I worked with some people who showed me the essentials and then they were like be free. I need to get to a point that I know what I’m doing.
Start my own business
- I’ve done some freelancing and I currently have businesses with my family, but I don’t want either of those to qualify as solely mine. I guess the freelancing can be considered just mine, but at the time I felt more like I was hobby freelancing just to feel it out and it just didn’t feel like a business. Honestly this is something that I am not sure will be successful because though I have businesses those were already mostly created when I came into them. So, for my own I really want to experience starting from scratch, coming up with an idea, fulfilling that idea, and see if it works and to see if I have a little entrepreneurship in me. And if it fails completely then I am assuming I will have learned exponentially from it, so it’s a win/win.
Own a Home
- This is the simplest way I’m phrasing this because the full goal is not only own a home, but find the ideal place for me to live. Financially you have to buy the house, but before that I will need to live somewhere that suits me financially, morally, emotionally, etc. I don’t know if I intend for this home to be the home that I’d like to have for the rest of my life, but I kind of would like to find a place that I would keep forever. If not living in it forever, but then keeping it to rent or something.