A Year of Financial Data
Since graduating from college, my financial inflows and out-goes have been only lightly tracked, a condition made palatable by a general sense of making more than I spend, but also a bit nerve-wracking because for the longest time, I did not save and invest much. Sometime in my 30’s—after spending 90% of everything I earned on women, alcohol, and cars (while wasting the rest)—I started to save and invest, realizing that my military pension might not be enough to support me in the style to which I wished to become accustomed.
Keen readers likely picked up the distinction in the previous paragraph between “budgeting” and “investing” that I so artfully kluged, and while I copped to having tackled the latter twenty years ago, I now sit as a 56 year old man who has rarely operated within anything resembling a budget. But this year, the COVID year, the year of opportunity and indolence, I decided that I needed to track my budget more closely. You see, I fancy myself as nearing retirement, and the possibility of scrounging up a few extra shekels each month to go into investments is suddenly quite attractive. But first, I had to know what I spent money on.
So starting at the dawn of 2021, I began to track every penny coming in and every penny coming out. I won’t bore you with the details, but the process is worth the discussion. I made a master spreadsheet, and every day, every single day (well, maybe I missed ten or so), I consulted my personal and business accounts and made goezinta entries and goezouta entries. I identified 41 separate goezouta categories (including taxes, because as a Sole Proprietor, I have to pay estimated taxes) and made daily entries. I used cash sparingly, preferring the debit card so that there would be a little electronic reminder that the money was spent. To the extent that I did use cash, I didn’t track it any further than “ATM”, which could have been a place for mischief, but I was able to summon the required discipline not to abuse this slush fund.
All of this was necessary in order for me to determine what to set 2022 spending budget levels at, a process that I had NEVER even considered before. In doing so, I was able reach the conclusion that IT LOOKS LIKE I WASTE A LOT OF MONEY. I suppose I already knew that, but now I know how big a problem it is. There are obvious candidates for cutting back (“Miscellaneous Amazon” is a category ripe for abuse, and “various subscriptions” and two club’s worth of dues to clubs I rarely visit stick out). But man, there sure is some room for cutting back.
So now I have a budget, one that I intend to live within. My budget leaves me with $.88 at at the end of the month, taking into account that one of the monthly “goezoutas” is a regular contribution to savings/investments. We’ll see how it goes, but the bottom line is that 2022 will be a lot like 2021 in the amount of time I spend tracking money.
Resolutions
On the old Conservative Wahoo blog, I did an annual “Resolutions” post, and an annual “Predictions” post. Rather than split them into separate posts, I’ll just do them each as sections here. I limit myself to five of each.
Resolution #1: Follow through on budgeting emphasis described above. Enough said.
Resolution #2: Turn down the volume, on me. Insert a rheostat, and dial down to .75. Cut my anger by a quarter, cut my ebullience by a quarter, cut virtually every emotion or instinct I have by a quarter. See if I like the result.
Resolution #3: Cut coffee consumption in half. I have these delightful 15 ounce mugs that I have four of every morning here at home (or the equivalent across meetings/out of the house business). I then have one after dinner. For those keeping score, that is 75 oz of coffee a day, or nine and a third cups. I’ve actually already started this one (part of the .75 Me program), and I have two fifteen ouncers in the morning and then a half one after dinner.
Resolution #4: Re-instate the eShabbat. No phone or computer from 6PM Friday until 6PM Saturday.
Resolution #5: Play more games with Catherine. Board games, card games, whatever. She loves them. I love her. This one’s easy.
Predictions
Prediction #1: Russia will not invade Ukraine. Or at least it won’t invade it any more than it has.
Prediction #2: The 2022 House elections will be a 54 seat pickup for the GOP.
Prediction #3: The 2022 Senate Election will bring the GOP back into power.
Prediction #4: After the midterm but before Christmas, Joe Biden will announce that he will not run for re-election.
Prediction #5: By the end of 2022, masking will be recommended but not required on domestic airline flights.
Hey on another personal note…you might not remember me, we met many many years ago through Fred Sheehy, I️ was one of his Arlington roomies…571-271-5146….got some stuff I️ think would be useful for a friend of his to be aware of…text me.
Easy peasy, you just put the same security codes in you use to access the websites for your card, or bank….it hiccups sometimes but they have great customer support I️ have found….and for the most part it works great have had issues where it doesn’t categorizes things automatically but easy to edit yourself. Like I said, I’ve been using it religiously for years and it works great for budgets and reporting…and not too expensive. I’m a finance and spreadsheet guy for a living and it’s much easier than maintaining your own, but there are merits with that approach just becomes time consuming!