ATX78701
Recycles dryer sheets
Single, 50, still in a j*b.
After expenses for income taxes and 401k (I see 401k as an expense in my spreadsheet as it reduces my salary and income), my total for 2019 was $60,788.08. The biggest contributors were property tax at 32.84%, medical costs at 20.20% and entertainment (vacations, streaming service, and baseball tickets) at 9.74%. Because of the impact of property taxes I'm selling the home in 2020 to reduce housing costs and have more for the savings bucket.
I'm an accountant. I track everything - even the $1.08 coffee daily from 7-11. Yes, it can be excessive on the front end, but now that my spreadsheet is setup and has 7 years worth of accurate data it's really not much trouble for me to continue to use. I enjoy numbers and Excel, and like your Dad, it's more a habit.
I like the spreadsheet over other applications because I can use it offline, I can easily modify it to my configuration, and I can create the charts and graphs that I like, and it keeps my Excel skills up to date since I still am in the j*b.
As I approach FIRE (hopefully class of 2021), managing to the penny has been very useful to see where I've had money spent that was unnecessary. Basically I update after I return to the house, or at a minimum I place the daily receipts on the computer for input the next time I sit down. Takes only a couple of minutes. Been great to catch errors from restaurants. Anecdote: there was one restaurant I frequented often, yet every time I went they acted like they didn't know me. My ego was hurt. I decided to see how much I had spent at the restaurant over the past few years using my spreadsheet and my autoupdating pivot table in excel. Turns out, I didn't eat there as much as i though...months would go by actually. So to them, I wasn't a frequent diner. Ego checked.
I did try Mint years and years ago. I basically put everything on credit cards and pay off in full every month. Mint was ornery back in the day and I found it difficult to back it show the correct data after it downloaded everything from credit cards and banks.
Thanks everyone for sharing their numbers. It's an interesting thread!
After expenses for income taxes and 401k (I see 401k as an expense in my spreadsheet as it reduces my salary and income), my total for 2019 was $60,788.08. The biggest contributors were property tax at 32.84%, medical costs at 20.20% and entertainment (vacations, streaming service, and baseball tickets) at 9.74%. Because of the impact of property taxes I'm selling the home in 2020 to reduce housing costs and have more for the savings bucket.
If I may ask to the ones itemizing every penny and categorizing to a specific account, why?
Not a criticism to you or what your method is, but how do you use that info each year and do you change what you are doing when you see the results?
My dad did this type of bookkeeping and I beleive, he did it more from habit and for fun to see where money went.
I'm an accountant. I track everything - even the $1.08 coffee daily from 7-11. Yes, it can be excessive on the front end, but now that my spreadsheet is setup and has 7 years worth of accurate data it's really not much trouble for me to continue to use. I enjoy numbers and Excel, and like your Dad, it's more a habit.
I like the spreadsheet over other applications because I can use it offline, I can easily modify it to my configuration, and I can create the charts and graphs that I like, and it keeps my Excel skills up to date since I still am in the j*b.
As I approach FIRE (hopefully class of 2021), managing to the penny has been very useful to see where I've had money spent that was unnecessary. Basically I update after I return to the house, or at a minimum I place the daily receipts on the computer for input the next time I sit down. Takes only a couple of minutes. Been great to catch errors from restaurants. Anecdote: there was one restaurant I frequented often, yet every time I went they acted like they didn't know me. My ego was hurt. I decided to see how much I had spent at the restaurant over the past few years using my spreadsheet and my autoupdating pivot table in excel. Turns out, I didn't eat there as much as i though...months would go by actually. So to them, I wasn't a frequent diner. Ego checked.
I did try Mint years and years ago. I basically put everything on credit cards and pay off in full every month. Mint was ornery back in the day and I found it difficult to back it show the correct data after it downloaded everything from credit cards and banks.
Thanks everyone for sharing their numbers. It's an interesting thread!