Layout:
Home > In the red for month of June

In the red for month of June

June 28th, 2016 at 11:25 pm

I did my expense report a little early. I'm in the hole for $324 this month, meaning expenses exceeded income by that amount. Bummer. That hasn't happened in a while.

I had a lot of atypical expenses all the way around, including my $150 annual borough tax, a $196 tab for framing mom's art, I blew $100 taking dad out for Father's Day, my $149 Ancestry.com membership, $160 in co-pays for physical therapy, Waldo's $330 vet bill and oh yeah: $438 in groceries this month!

Not great.

I think I may skip doing my monthly investment report. I don't want to see how much I lost, on paper.

11 Responses to “In the red for month of June”

  1. NJDebbie Says:
    1467154372

    I managed a $150 savings this month Frown . I'm not use to it but hopefully we will begin saving tons come September. June, no bueno.

  2. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1467166126

    Yeah, I don't want to look at my investments either.

  3. LuckyRobin Says:
    1467191351

    What is a borough tax?

  4. Bluebird Says:
    1467242471

    Great job with all the extra expenses and only being in the hole $324! Knowing you, you'll compensate next month, and it will even out! And of course, some of those are annual expenses. I put away 1/12 every month for that stuff so it's there when I need it.

  5. rob62521 Says:
    1467337026

    Sorry about the red ink. Bet you figure out a way to turn it around in July, I am with you...not looking forward to seeing the investments.

  6. Dido Says:
    1467393837

    The S&P 500 opened June 1 at 2093.94. It closed June 30 at 2098.86, a GAIN of 4.92 or .23%.
    Barclay’s aggregate bond index for the month of June is up 1.8%.

    If you are invested in a diversified, risk-tolerant index, you have nothing to worry about, and I will BET you that you are in fact UP for the month overall.

    Turn OFF the financial news, it is focused on the day-to-day changes which have virtually NOTHING to do with long-term trends, and people get completely misled and make bad decisions when they focus on it. Or at least, as in your case, they fret needlessly.

    Same thing with your monthly income/cash flow report. One month is a poor proxy for the year given that expenses like car insurance and property tax and emergencies hit only occasionally. It's a poor metric in the short term. In fact, depending on how you assess it, it can be misleading in the long-term. I show expenses more than take-home income more often than not, but I increase my net worth in the long term because the take-home income, which is what I focus on, doesn't reflect withheld taxes (and my eventual tax refund) nor (the big one) the money put away in my retirement accounts.

  7. Dido Says:
    1467394057

    Also, look at the VALUE of what you got for what you put out. Were having a wonderful father's day with your aging father, framing and thus preserving your mother's art work, treating your cat's medical issues or your own numbness issue worth it?

    You can't just focus on the dollars and cents. Focus on the dollars and SENSE instead!

  8. Dido Says:
    1467395360

    Are you familiar with Your Money or Your Life (YMOYL)? (by Joe Dominguez & Vicky Robins). That is the book that radically altered my perspective on money. In it, they discuss treating money not as money, but as LIFE ENERGY instead. You can think about your expenses not in monetary terms but instead in terms of the number of HOURS you needed to work to get what you purchased.

    In doing this, you first calculate your REAL hourly wage. Your REAL hourly wage is your hourly wage LESS taxes paid LESS (and this is the big one) the additional costs that you incur because you work--for example, gasoline for commuting, increase in clothing costs because of buying work clothes, increased restaurant costs for when you eat out because you are too tired to cook....any extra expenses that will go away when you stop working. For me, this brings my "real" hourly wage down from 38.625 to 28.125 (which I round to 28). So for example, that weekend that I spent with you basically cost me one day's worth of work when I take into account the B&B, gas, and meal costs and divide it by my REAL hourly wage. Then instead of focusing on the expense, I can ask myself, was it worth spending a day's worth of wages to have a weekend that I'll remember?

    The value part is the output....so experiences that I can savor in memory forever have a much higher value to me than material objects that are consumed and then gone...while the "real life energy" calculation is the output. You can then ask yourself for each item, was this worth it? The answers you get when framed this way are much more telling than looking at just the dollars and cents, because they ask you whether you are spending your time = your life energy in line with things you truly value--in other words, are you living with integrity, in a way that will maximize your happiness and well-being.

    Dollars are the wrong metric. Hours of life energy spent for value attained is the core metric that I try to use.

  9. Dido Says:
    1467395501

    the real life energy is the INPUT, sorry

  10. Dido Says:
    1467395647

    (in other words, you did not "blow" money on that weekend with your father....I think that phrasing, to someone who has no parents left, is what set me off on this rant.)

  11. PatientSaver Says:
    1467400113

    LR, the borough tax is about $150 a year. It's just an extra tax that purportedly pays for street lights that most of the town doesn't have. It's annoying, but having a borough form of govt within the larger town ensures they don't build a walmart down the road, or that sort of thing.

    Dido, yes, poor choice of words when I said I "blew" money on things that are all very valuable to me. I often feel, after many years of seeing very little of my father, that I am making up for lost time with him, and the clock is ticking.

    I did read Your Money or Your Life and I liked it very much. It does still cause me to ponder purchases more thoughtfully than I used to. I'm going to check my investments now, as I do every month, but I wholeheartedly agree that one month does not a portfolio make (or break). I value your intelligent take on all money matters becus it usually makes me feel better...thanks!

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]