Money – #MoneyGoals

Our Personal Spending Report for 2023

Here’s every dollar we spent in 2023 (our first full year of being married):

Housing – $24,590 total // $2,049 per month // $1,025 pppm¹ (up from $14,990 in 2022, a $9,600 increase)

We lived in Denver from January to June, and Minneapolis from June through December. This figure includes rent, utilities, moving expenses, parking ($40/month in Denver, but $175/month in Minneapolis – yikes!) and other random fees. The increase in December was a penalty to break our lease since we are buying a house in 2024. Without that penalty, our housing would have been ~$3k less for the year.

The overall cost of living is less in Minneapolis than Denver at the moment, and rent is a big part of that. Our apartment is comparable to the one in Denver (same size, beds/baths, etc) but is newer and has a washer/dryer in unit.

Cell Phone – $335 total // $28 per month // $14 pppm (down from $705 in 2022, a $370 decrease)

This includes 2 cell phone plans for $10/month with 2GB of data each (from our friends at Tello), as well as a Spotify Premium Duo subscription at ~$16/month for July onward.

Annie continues to use a 5 year old iPhone X, while I upgraded to an iPhone 13 mini last year (which was why last year was higher). Annie might be due for a newer phone this year, but I said the same thing last year and it didn’t happen so we’ll see!

Groceries – $5,328 total // $444 per month // $222 pppm (up from $3,665 in 2022, a $1,663 increase)

There are two distinct periods in our food spending this year:

April to June – $600/month average. We found out we were unexpectedly pregnant in April. Annie had some gnarly morning sickness/nausea that led her to only wanting to eat certain things, and I made multiple trips a week to our neighborhood Whole Foods to buy/cook whatever she was feeling like that day. We unfortunately had a miscarriage in late June, so the pregnancy-fueled grocery boom came to an end.
Rest of the year – $390/month average. This is more representative of our typical food expenses in a month.

We continue to eat as healthy as we can, buying 95%+ organic food, healthy whole ingredients, and making the vast majority of our food at home. One wonderful thing about the move to Minneapolis has been access to Mike’s Discount Foods, which has tons of healthy, organic options for a fraction of the price that we would pay at Whole Foods or Natural Grocers.

Dine Out – $1,469 total // $122 per month // $61 pppm (up from $952 in 2022, a $517 increase)

~50% date nights and ~50% meals with family/friends. This spending category is a completely social one – the amount we spent on restaurant meals because we didn’t want to cook or just wanted to have something different was $0.

Travel & Entertainment – $3,262 total // $272 per month // $136 pppm (down from $3,736 in 2022, a $474 decrease)

Last year was over 50% snowboarding-related expenses. This year’s travel included a few more snowboarding trips, a trip to Dallas/SD over Easter weekend, a week-long road trip in which we saw 8 national parks in April, an AirBNB cabin vacation with the Peasley family in September, a North Shore Lake Superior camping trip in September, and Portland/Denver in October to visit our friends.

We also had some smaller trips here and there to visit family/friends, went to a couple concerts and attended a handful of professional sporting events in both Denver and Minneapolis.

Transportation – $3,510 total // $292 per month // $146 pppm (up from $3,341 in 2022, a $168 increase)

Patty the Nissan Pathfinder put in another stellar year of duty, carrying us up/down mountains for snowboarding, visiting 8 national parks, hauling a Uhaul with all of our possessions from Denver to Minneapolis, and serving as our sleeping quarters on a couple of camping trips.

That said, I still cringe a little bit every time I see how much we pay for owning a car. While it’s very convenient, I was spending ~$200 a YEAR on transportation prior to owning a car. Now that’s what we pay for 1 month to park Patty in our parking garage in downtown Minneapolis (which isn’t included in this transportation cost btw, if it was it would be well over $4,000).

Gifts – $ 1,468 total // $122 per month // $61 pppm (up from $1,119 in 2022, a $349 increase)

Largely wedding gifts, paying for friends/family’s meals while at restaurants, and other random donations. We did not buy any Christmas gifts this year, as both of our families are focusing more on experiences together rather than material gift-giving amongst adults.

Other – $4,236 total // $353 per month // $176 pppm (up from $2,064 in 2022, a $2,172 increase)

This category had by far the biggest % increase since last year. Looking at my notes, it was ~$700-800ish of clothing, ~$1,000ish of health-related items (exercise equipment, vitamins/supplements, pregnancy appointments), ~$500ish of housing supplies, and an assortment of other things including a $40 speeding ticket Annie got in Denver which claims funniest transaction of the year.

TOTAL – $44,198 total // $3,683 per month // $1,842 pppm (up from $30,573 in 2022, a $13,625 increase)

The $14k increase this year mainly came from housing (+$10k), food (+$2k) and other expenses (+$2k). I boldly predicted that our pppm cost would decrease in 2023, and was wrong – although without breaking our lease it would have been within $30 of last year. I also predicted that our spending would land between $35-38k this year, and was wrong again there.

There were a lot of things we didn’t expect this year (pregnancy and house purchase being the big 2), that made for some higher-than-expected spending, but living below our means allows us the flexibility to navigate unexpected situations and spend more when we need or want to.

Spending $44k in a year seems ridiculously high (after all, I did spend $8.7k in the entire year of 2017), but at $22k per person, we are just barely spending more than a full-time minimum wage earner makes in Minnesota ($21k/year at $10.59/hour in 2023).

If you have any questions, if you want to know more, or if there is anything I can help with, feel free to send me an email at hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com. Happy New Year!

¹Per Person Per Month (monthly cost divided by number of individuals in our household which was 2 for the entire year)

Past years reports:

2022 Spending Report
2021 Spending Report
2020 Spending Report
2019 Spending Report
2018 Spending Report
2017 Spending Report

Our Personal Spending Report for 2022

This was a special year, with the most special moment being marrying my lovely wife Annie in July. While a fantastic development in my life, it does make accounting for this year tricky.

For the purposes of this post, January through June/July includes just my expenses, while July onward includes combined spending for both of us. In reality, we started combining a lot of things in the months before we got married, so the numbers may not be perfect, but close enough. Also, I’ll be calculating an average per-person-per-month (pppm) figure for every month, helping to compare to prior years and illustrate some of the efficiencies of combining finances¹.

Let’s get to the juicy stuff – here’s every dollar we spent in 2022:

Housing – $14,990 total // $1,249 per month // $832 pppm (up from $9,545 in 2021, a $5,445 increase)

Includes rent, utilities, moving expenses and random other apartment fees. Pre-marriage, I lived in the same apartment in uptown Dallas I had been living in for the last 2 years. A 2bed/2bath, ~1,000 sq ft for ~$1,600 all in, split with a roommate. For single Greg, this was an incredible set up.

Then, in August, we moved to Denver. We wanted to live within walking distance of the Barre3 studio Annie is an instructor at, so ended up paying a little more for a prime location. For a ~700 sq ft 1bed/1bath we spend ~$2,000 all in. The sticker price is still a bit shocking to me after a few years at about $800 per month, but 1) we won’t live here forever and 2) per-person-per-month comes out to $1,000 which isn’t too different from my Dallas living situation.

Cell Phone – $705 total // $59 per month // $39 pppm (up from $100 in 2021, a $605 increase)

I bought myself a used iPhone 13 mini for ~$500 in February, and my friends at Tello continued to provide wonderful service for $9 per month. Annie also hopped on a Tello train with a higher data plan for $10 per month, and she had a $10 Spotify membership that we paid for a couple months. Then, we found out that my employer would cover a family Spotify plan for us (thanks RH!) and that expense went away.

I decided to go with the higher data $10 plan towards the end of the year since we were road tripping and using navigation a lot. We’ll probably be at $20 per month for both of us for the time being, but Annie is due for a phone upgrade sometime soon here, so this category may be similar in 2023.

Groceries – $3,665 total // $305 per month // $204 pppm (up from $1,337 in 2021, a $2,328 increase)

This was the second biggest change from last year, going from just over $100 pppm to over $200. There are a few driving factors behind this increase:

A greater variety of foods in my diet, including more animal products (mainly eggs and chicken), largely influenced by Annie’s preferences. Turns out normal people eat more than rice/lentils/beans (did you know this?!)
Buying organic. In prior years, I stuck to organic options for a few foods, but nowadays 90%+ of what we buy is organic.
We have a weekly dinner party with our Denver friends, which we host on average once a month. Our weekly grocery haul is typically doubled on the weeks we host.

I’d categorize all of these as optional luxuries. I’m confident we could live off of $100 per person (or less) still eating healthy food if we needed to.

Dine Out – $952 total // $79 per month // $53 pppm (up from $432 in 2021, a $520 increase)

Mainly date nights and going out with friends. Any meals we shared with friends/family that we paid for were categorized as gifts. This category has consistently increased over the years as I’ve prioritized spending quality time with the awesome folks that make up our family and friends.

Travel & Entertainment – $3,736 total // $311 per month // $208 pppm (down from $3,988 in 2021, a $252 decrease)

This year we’re including entertainment for snowboard expenses. Snowboarding accounted for about half of this category’s total, with season passes, used gear and gas to get to/from the mountain shaking out around $1,900 total for both of us. Other big travel expenses included a bachelor party in Denver (before moving there), flights to SD/MN and road trips to SD/MN for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Transportation – $3,341 total // $278 per month // $186 pppm (up from $228 TOTAL in 2021, a $3,113 increase)

Those $0 months in the front half of the year marked the final hurrah for my lack of car ownership, which lasted almost 8 years. Annie brought Patty the Nissan Pathfinder into our marriage, and while I have enjoyed the freedom a car brings, I’ve also received a 6 month crash course in the financial horrors of car ownership (warning: rant inbound).

Before it takes us a single mile in a given month, we need to pay ~$100 for insurance we hope to never use, $40 for a parking space in our apartment’s garage and it depreciates simply by being an older vehicle. For easy math, let’s say it depreciates $1,200 per year or $1oo per month. Just for sitting there, it costs us ~$240 a month or $2,880 a year. For comparison, I spent $1,869 on cell phone bills, groceries and dining out combined in the entire year of 2021.

Then you add on some variable expenses like gas and the killer, maintenance. That $2.4k in November was mostly from one quick visit to the mechanic. YIKES!²

Gifts – $ 1,119 total // $93 per month // $62 pppm (down from $3,695 in 2021, a $2,576 decrease)

No engagement rings were purchased this year, nor were any Christmas gifts purchased this year. Both of our families are starting to lean more towards shared experiences/spending time together rather than giving physical gifts, which Annie and I are alllll about.

Most of our gift giving this year consisted of wedding gifts and paying for other peoples’ meals while dining out.

Other – $2,064 total // $172 per month // $62 pppm (up from $1,126 in 2021, a $938 increase)

Mainly apartment supplies/furniture after moving to Denver, experiences (concerts, musicals, sporting events, float tank/massages, pickleball gear/court times), clothing and hair/skincare products. Coolest transaction of the year was landing tickets for a Broadway musical called Come From Away for $9 per person.

TOTAL – $30,573 total // $2,548 per month // $1,699 pppm (up from $20,450 in 2021, a $10,123 increase)

The $10k increase this year mainly came from housing (+$5k), food (+$2k) and transportation (+$3k). I expect all three of those categories to be even higher next year, since it will be 100% combined Annie & Greg expenses instead of 50% Greg/50% combined like this year.

Even with the sharp increase in total spending this year, the pppm figure actually went down ($1,704 with just me last year). I’ll make a bold prediction for next year, and say that our per-person-per-month expenses will decrease even further.

In last year’s report, I estimated our spending would land between $27 – $34k, and was right on the money. That was a pretty wide range though, so I’ll give us a tighter range for next year. I think we’ll spend between $35 – $38k in 2023 (roughly $2,900 – $3,200 per month or $1,450 – $1,600 pppm).

2022 felt extravagant. Between dining out more regularly, living in a fancy neighborhood in Denver, buying snowboarding gear and season passes, traveling and road tripping, owning a car, attending concerts, sporting events, musicals, weddings… we did a lot and spent a lot. However, even if we were both earning minimum wage in Colorado³, we would still be able to maintain the lifestyle we are currently living.

If you have any questions, if you want to know more, or if there is anything I can help with, feel free to send me an email at hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com. Happy New Year!

¹PPPM=Monthly Expenses/1.5 (one entire year of Greg monthly expenses and half a year of Annie expenses)
²I might put together an analysis of whether we’d be better off financially taking Ubers/using shared cars (there are a lot in Denver) since we don’t drive all that often. Look out for a future blog post.
³Minimum wage in CO for 2022 was $12.56 per hour (roughly $2,000 a month pre-tax, $1,650 a month post-tax)

My Personal Spending Report for 2021

2021 was a fantastic year for me, and might have been the best year of my life so far. There was one big change that impacted my spending this year, and that change was named Annie Peasley. I met her at a wedding in June, and by December we were engaged. We are planning on getting married summer of 2022, so there will be more changes to my yearly spending reports in the future.

All right, let’s jump into it — here is every dollar I spent in 2021:

Housing – $9,545 total // $795 per month (down from $9,659 in 2020, a $114 decrease)

Includes rent, utilities and any moving expenses. This was my third full year of living in downtown Dallas, and the second year of living in the same apartment, so housing expenses were about the same as last year. The ~$100 decrease was mostly due to a new roommate I got in March 2021, who was on board with not using heat/AC as much as possible, so our electricity bill was quite a bit lower than it had been previously.

My apartment complex did increase rent when I renewed my lease in September, but it was a ~2% increase (I negotiated it down from a higher amount, which consisted of sending one polite email that took less than 5 minutes to type out). This lease runs through September 2022, and my next home will likely be a 1 bedroom apartment with Annie after we get married.

Cell Phone – $100 total // $8 per month (down from $109 in 2020, a $9 decrease)

Another incredibly inexpensive year of phone service provided by the good folks at Tello. The $0 month in February was from one of my friends using my referral code to switch to Tello, and the account credit offset my entire phone bill for the month.

While my refurbished 2017 iPhone SE is still functional, it’s starting to slow down and have some issues after 4 – 5 years of use. I’ve also been shooting more YouTube videos lately (see Mexico City and G lacier NP trip videos if you’re interested in what I’m making), and would like to upgrade to a newer phone with a better camera. This will likely happen in 2022, so my phone spending should increase next year.

Groceries – $1,337 total // $111 per month (down from $1,420 in 2020, an $83 decrease)

My spending on groceries was close enough to last year that I’d call it virtually the same. The core of my diet has stayed consistent — rice, beans, lentils, veggies, nuts, peanut butter and coconut oil account for the vast majority of my calories. I did start buying more walnuts, pecans and cashews this year, which were more expensive than the almonds I’ve eaten more heavily in previous years.

It was interesting to see the variation from month to month on my grocery spending. The really high months (September/October), I was preparing meals for both myself and Annie, and stocking extra things like berries/other fresh fruit for Annie and my parents visiting Dallas. The really low months (June, November, and December), I was traveling a lot, so relying on restaurant meals or other people’s groceries for food (thank you other people!).

Dine Out – $432 total // $36 per month (up from $293 in 2020, a $139 increase)

This isn’t a complete picture of the amount of times I ate at restaurants this year — some of the restaurant spending was accounted for as Gifts, as I paid for meals for family/friends when I was out to eat with them. I think going forward, the Dine Out section will be whatever Annie and I eat at restaurants, and anyone’s meal we pay for will go into Gifts.

I expect this category to continue increasing in coming years as I continue to focus on spending more time socializing and connecting with people I love.

Travel – $3,988 total // $332 per month (up from $1,203 in 2020, a $2,785 increase)

2021 was a wild year of travel after very little traveling in 2020, and the over 3x increase in spending reflects that. I did not take a single flight for the first four months of the year, and then from May to December 2021 took 49 one way flights (roughly 1.5 flights per week, every week for the last 8 months of the year). Work travel ramped up quite a bit at first, then my personal travel increased with weddings, baptisms and trips to Mexico City and Glacier NP over the summer. I’d estimate that $1,500 – $2,000 of my yearly total was for personal vacations/events/family gatherings I was traveling to.

Then things got really crazy when I started visiting Annie in Phoenix consistently. For the last few months of the year, I was traveling during the week for work and then on the weekends to see Annie, which contributed to my low grocery expenses in November/December. I’d estimate that my Annie-related travel expenses totaled around $1,500 – $2,000 — well worth it! 🙂

Travel for work and to see family/friends will likely continue in 2022, however Annie has now moved to Dallas so I won’t be taking flights every 2 weeks to see her any more. I believe my travel spending will decrease in the next year, but I gained a few more family members to go visit in South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota, so we’ll see!

Transportation – $228 // $19 per month (up from $69 in 2020, a $159 decrease)

The vast majority of my transportation consists of walking, with some biking thrown in there when visiting friends a little further away. I still don’t own a car, so most of my transportation spending is either related to getting to/from the airport (Uber/Lyft/train rides) or the occasional transportation to/from faraway social gatherings.

While the financial benefits of designing my life to function without car usage are obvious, there are tons of less quantifiable physical and mental benefits as well.

Annie does currently own a car, but she has operated without a car for a year while she was living in San Francisco and is open to going carless as a couple at some point. This will be an interesting category to watch in the next few years after we get married.

Gifts – $3,695 // $308 per month (I didn’t track Gifts as its own category in 2020, but I estimated it to be about $800 last year, so roughly a $2,900 increase)

Most of the gift spending this year was in November and December, which consisted of purchasing an engagement ring and picture frames, candles, roses, etc to propose to Annie. That said, even after ring/proposal spending, my gift spending almost doubled this year.

The non-engagement gift spending included lots of wedding-related things (bachelor parties, tux rentals, wedding gifts, etc.), aforementioned meals bought for people, charitable contributions and Christmas gifts.

Other – $1,126 // $94 per month (down from $1,692 in 2020, a $565 decrease, but it used to include gifts so it was probably around $900 without gifts last year)

Big miscellaneous expenses this year included clothes and tailoring (~$400), tickets to sporting events (~$100), household supplies (~$200, upgraded a few things before Annie visited Dallas the first time :P), stamps/envelopes/thank you cards (~$150) and assorted other random things. I also spent $50 on my first ever pedicure in July with my dear friend Mai, then immediately went backpacking for a week and destroyed the prettiest toenails I’ve ever had.

TOTAL – $20,450 // $1,704 per month (up from $14,445 in 2020, an $6,005 increase)

By far my record for most money spent in a year, beating out 2019’s previous high of $15k by ~33%. It was obvious where the increases came from — every category stayed within ~$100 of last year’s totals except Travel and Gifts, which made up nearly all of the $6,000 increase from 2020’s spending.

I predicted in my 2020 report that my spending would increase quite a bit this year, and I am happy it did. The additional spending led to countless new experiences, new connections, new friends and a year full of memories I’ll be looking back on fondly for decades to come.

This is the first time since starting these reports that I don’t think I’ll be able to accurately predict what my spending will look like in the coming year. Once Annie and I get married in the summer, we’ll combine our finances, and 2022’s spending report will be 50% solo Greg living and 50% Annie/Greg combined living. With that in mind, I’m going to estimate my/our spending next year will be something around $27,000 – $34,000. Stay tuned!

As always, if you have any questions about what I’m doing/not doing, if you want to know more or if there is anything I can help with, feel free to reach out at hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com. Happy New Year!

Stimulus Check Update #2: One Year Later

Wow. What a year. Exactly 12 months ago this Wednesday, I invested $1,000 into an S&P 500 index fund (Ticker symbol VOO). We were a month into feeling the widespread effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the stock market had suffered its worst decline in 10 years. No one knew what was going on, or what the next year would bring.

While it was the first pandemic most of us had seen, it wasn’t the first time the stock market had taken a nosedive – we saw a very similar story play out in 2008. As I outlined in my post a year ago, if you had invested in the stock market in 2008 when it felt like the world was ending, you would have made a lot of money (nearly quadrupled your investment by 2021).

So when stocks were crashing and it felt like the world was ending in March/April 2020, I saw it as a great opportunity to invest. And the government even sent me some extra money (thanks ~~government~~ my fellow taxpayers!).

I purchased $1,000 worth of VOO on April 21, 2020. Exactly one year later, that $1,000 I invested is now worth $1,541, representing a 54% return.

54% in a year. That is wild compared to the stock market’s average return of ~7% a year for the last hundred years or so. I was kinda hoping that stocks would continue to decline so I would have a good story about sticking out the ups and downs and holding on for the long term. But I’m sure that day when we hit another big downturn will come eventually (maybe one year from now? 5 years? who knows!).

For now, I’ll just pat last-year Greg on the back, and remind you again… when the stock market drops, that is a great time to buy. As Warren Buffett, arguably the greatest investor ever, says, “Be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful.”

I’ll leave you with a fun hypothetical. Let’s say I kept that $1,000 invested for the next 40 years, and it continued to increase by 54% each year. By the time I was 65, it would be worth roughly $31,000,000. I give that a 0.00% chance of happening, but it just illustrates how high of a return that is in a year.

As always, if you are interested in chatting about anything personal finance related, or you just want to say hello, feel free to reach out to me at hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com.

Previous installments of the Stimulus Check Experiment:

What I’m Doing with My Stimulus Check – April 2020

Stimulus Check Update #1: My First Dividend! – July 2020

#MoneyGoals

My Personal Spending Report for 2020

Here is every dollar I spent in 2020:

Housing – $9,659 total // $805 per month (down from $10,621 in 2019, a $962 decrease)

Includes rent, utilities and any moving expenses. This was my second full year of living in downtown Dallas so expenses stayed roughly the same. The ~$1,000 decrease came from a sweet deal we got on a new apartment mid-pandemic when everyone was moving out of downtown, combined with no laundry expenses after purchasing a washer/dryer set in 2019.

This category will be the biggest wildcard for 2021. My lovely roommate who has lived with me for the last 2.5 years is ~~unfortunately~~ getting married in March. I am confident we’ll be able to find a replacement for him, but if not I could either be on the hook for a 2 bedroom apartment for a few months or break my lease. While I’d love to continue living with a roommate, there is a possibility I may move into a 1 bedroom place by myself which would increase the housing expenses quite a bit. We’ll see what the new year brings!

Cell Phone – $109 total // $9 per month (down from $274 in 2019, a $165 decrease)

Likely the most boring category this year. My refurbished 2017 iPhone SE still works like a champ, and I’m still rocking the crazy cheap service provided by my friends at Tello. My $9/month plan gets me unlimited texts, unlimited calls and 500MB of data (which I hardly ever use since I’m on wifi 99% of the time). If you’re looking for more data, they’ve got low cost plans for you too! This is one of the easiest categories to optimize, and a lot of folks could benefit from exploring other cell service providers.

Groceries – $1,420 total // $118 per month (up from $1,286 in 2019, a $134 increase)

2020 was the first year since 2016 that my grocery costs increased from the previous year. There have been no changes to the staples of my diet (rice, beans, lentils, veggies, nuts and copious amounts of natural creamy peanut butter and coconut oil). However, I explored some new recipes during the first few months of quarantining, and made a lot of meals for my quarantine buddies. There were at least 4 pesto pasta and garlic bread dinners early on, and my vegan cheesecakes were seen more frequently than in previous years.

Additionally, the Monday lunches, fancy dinners and regular travel for work dried up almost completely for the majority of the year. This likely added a bit more to my grocery bills.

Dine Out – $293 total // $24 per month (down from $458 in 2019, a $166 decrease)

You know why. While I still put effort into supporting some local restaurants by getting takeout, the lack of friends’ birthday dinners, casual stops by Roti walking home from Klyde Warren Park on a Saturday, and the cancellation of the second annual Chipotle burrito fest led to the ~30% decline here. I’m looking forward to spending more time with friends in real life and spending more dollars at restaurants in 2021.

Travel – $1,203 total // $100 per month (up from $1,108 in 2019, a $95 increase)

As one would expect, I took maybe 20% of the flights I typically do in a non-global-pandemic year, so why was this higher than 2019? About half of the total was buying gear in preparation for a backpacking trip in Arkansas. After spending the night trying to survive a monsoon, we had to hitchhike twice to get back to our car – if you haven’t heard the story yet, it’s a good one. Most of that backpacking gear will be used on future trips, thereby reducing some travel expenses in the future.

The balance of the spending was made up of trips to MN to close on my first rental house and visit the fam for the holidays, as well as the annual pilgrimage to the promised land in Colorado.

Transportation – $69 // $6 per month (down from $114 in 2019, a $45 decrease)

This is likely the biggest difference between my spending and that of the average American. I have intentionally designed my life to so that 95% of my transportation is less than 2 miles away from my apartment, allowing me to walk most of the time and ride my bike when needed for longer trips 5 – 25 miles away (shoutout to my Plano friends who are worth a 25 mile bike ride to hang out with).

Even if you would rather give up a limb or two before you ditched your car, I would encourage anyone and everyone to shorten their commute to work if possible. Not only will it save you money, but it’s been shown to increase your overall wellbeing as well.

My transportation spending this year included Lyft/Uber rides to/from social gatherings in January/February (and often split with friends), a few rides on public transportation (all of those $3 months) and one Lyft home from the airport when my flight got in too late for me to reasonably ask any friends to pick me up.

Other – $1,692 // $141 per month (up from $1,411 in 2019, a $281 increase)

Gifts/donations totaled ~$800 this year, and I’m thinking I should make this its own category for next year. It would be a great way to get myself to give more generously as I’ll be trying to convince you I’m a decent person 🙂

The remaining half of my miscellaneous expenses included paying for another 3 years of blog hosting ($350), health care expenses ($300) and a bunch of random other stuff. Funniest transaction of the year goes to the $20 my coworkers convinced me to spend on a Love is Blind-style virtual speed dating event. It ended up being a blast, so even though I’m still single it was worth the 20 bucks!

TOTAL – $14,445 // $1,204 per month (down from $15,269 in 2019, an $824 decrease)

This is the first time since I started publishing my yearly spending that the total has gone down, which is mostly attributable to the $962 decrease in housing costs. All other categories stayed roughly the same give or take 100ish dollars.

While I can’t complain about saving more, I wish this number would have been higher. I missed out on a ton of fun adventures, such as a trip to Europe I had tentatively planned in the summer of 2020 and countless outings with friends. I still had 11 of my 15 allotted vacation days left by November 1st this year, and will be making a point to have that not be the case next year. If you’re trying to go somewhere or do something in 2021, hit me up!

Which brings us to my forecast for next year. I’m going to aim high, and say that 2021’s spending will land in the range of $17,000 – $20,000 as I ball out on travel and experiences. I will be attending at least 5 weddings and will be in the wedding party for 3 of them. There has also been talk of hitting Kilimanjaro or Machu Picchu at some point, so it could wind up being an expensive year. I’m assuming I’ll find a replacement for my roommate, but if not that could add a couple thousand dollars more to the total.

All that said, if 2020 has taught us anything it is that we have no idea what will be coming down the pipe in the next 12 months. So strap in for another year, and we’ll check in again next January. Happy New Year!

Questions, comments, criticisms and love letters can be sent to hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com.

The Numbers Behind a Rental House Investment

After about a year of research and planning, I decided to pull the trigger on buying a rental house in fall of 2020. As with my stimulus check experiment, I figured it would be a fun and educational exercise to share the details of this investment with you, and we can track its performance over time.

The Purchase

Purchase Price: $72,500
The house was originally listed at $75,000, but following the inspection I had done, my real estate agent successfully negotiated a $2,500 reduction due to the cost of renovations that would need to be done.
Downpayment: $14,500 (20% of the Purchase Price)
Pre-Close Expenses: $420
An inspection and a flight to Minnesota to see the property and close.
Closing Costs: $5,447
Fees paid to the bank and title company, taxes for the remainder of 2020, the first month of interest and escrow for taxes and insurance.
Renovations: $5,572
Mostly the hard work of my wonderful friends and family (I didn’t charge myself for my work :P), some new appliances (fridge, washer, dryer) and random materials (paint, doors, smoke detectors, etc.)
My Total Out-of-Pocket Cost to Purchase and Renovate: $25,939

Rental Income (the fun part!)

Rent (as of 2020): $780 per month / $9,360 per year
This is likely a bit less than my property could be rented for, however, I have some great tenants that I know personally and I am confident will take care of the place, and they also signed a 2 year lease. I am more than happy to have rent discounted a bit for good tenants and stability.
Estimated Vacancy: 2% per year (roughly 1 week each year)
This is a pretty low vacancy rate – the property is in a great location and the demand for rentals in the area is high.
Net Rent (as of 2020): $764 per month / $9,174 per year

Recurring Expenses (the not so fun part!)

Mortgage Payment: $307 per month / $3,684 per year
$58,000 loan, paid over 30 years at a fixed 4.875% interest rate.
Property Taxes (as of 2020): $103 per month / $1,233 per year
Insurance (as of 2020): $64 per month / $768 per year
Relatively high deductible of 5% brought this cost down quite a bit.
Estimated Maintenance: $121 per month / $1,450 per year
This category will probably make or break this investment. It’s an older house, and while we replaced a lot of things while renovating, there will certainly be more to come. The furnace will likely need to be replaced in the next few years which will cost a few thousand dollars and will eat up this maintenance budget real quick.
Total Estimated Expenses: $595 per month / $7,135 per year

Cash Flow and Total Return

Total Estimated Cash Flow: $169 per month / $2,028 per year
Calculated by subtracting expenses per month from net rent per month. This would represent ~8% cash flow per year ($2,028 / $25,939). The cash flow this property generates should hopefully increase over the years as rent increases outpace higher taxes, insurance and maintenance.
Principal Payment (as of 2020): ~$71 per month / $852 per year
At the beginning of a conventional mortgage, the vast majority of the monthly payment is interest. As time goes on, more will be allocated to paying down principal which will increase my equity in the house more quickly.
Property Value Appreciation: $121 per month / $1,450 per year (or 2% of the purchase price)
Probably a low estimate given that the last time this house sold was in 1999 for $30,000. This means that over the last 20 years, the value of the house has gone up an average of 4.5% per year. That said, the principal payment and property appreciation is not as meaningful to me as the cash flow as I have no plans to sell the house any time soon.
Total Estimated Return: $361 per month / $4,332 per year
Represents ~17% return per year ($4,332 / $25,939), which is fantastic compared to the average stock market return of 7%. There are some big risks with a real estate investment like this, such as costly repairs or long-term vacancies. If everything works out as outlined above (spoiler alert: it will not), I will be elated.

2 Month Cash Flow Performance Update

It has been a little over two months since I closed, and here is where we are at:

October 2020: -$21,045 (Purchase and renovations)
November 2020: -$4,574 (-$4,894 renovations + $780 rent – $460 mortgage/insurance/taxes)
December 2020: $172 ($780 rent – $460 mortgage/insurance/taxes – $148 repairs)

Here’s to hoping 2021 brings more cash flow positive months. I’ll keep you updated on any major developments, and we’ll check in a year from now!

Stay tuned.

#MoneyGoals

Pictured: Deep into the renovations, early November 2020.

My First Dividend! Stimulus Check Update #1

It’s not lookin’ good for those of you who took me up on the bet of a Chipotle burrito in 2030 if my $1,000 I invested was worth more than $2,000. After buying 4 shares of VOO (Vanguard’s ETF that tracks the S&P 500) in April, the stock market went bananas. My $1k has grown to be worth $1,152.98 – up over 15% in a little over two months.

To give you some perspective on how ridiculous this is, let’s say it keeps growing at that rate for the next few years. At roughly 72% growth per year ( (15% / 2.5 months) x 12 months in a year)), my $1,000 would grow to be almost $2,000,000 by 2034… if that happens, I’ll buy everyone who bet me a burrito a Ferrari (sadly, it’s not going to happen, sorry Jyothi).

That said, it does highlight the importance of investing consistently and not selling your investments when the market goes down. Also, if you have any spare cash laying around, the opportunity to buy more stocks in a once-every-10-years market downturn like March 2020 could lead to massive benefits in the future. Hopefully, we will continue to see them as we track this particular $1,000 investment.

Included in that $151 my money has made over the last 2ish months is my first dividend of $5.73 which I received July 2, 2020 (pictured above). This is especially exciting because that dividend is automatically reinvested, so I now have 4.02 shares of VOO instead of 4.00. That extra 0.02 shares will grow and produce dividends of its own, and I’ll be making interest on my interest for years to come. I’m pumped to write a blog post a few years in the future showing how much the dividends have grown.

As I mentioned in the last post, feel free to follow along by investing yourself and watching your own money grow in the coming years! It’s still a great time to invest, and you may have more free time now to get an investment account started if you haven’t already. If you have any questions or if I can be helpful in any way, go ahead and email me at hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com.

Take care y’all! #MoneyGoals

What I’m Doing with My Stimulus Check: An Experiment

I’ve had this idea for a while, but haven’t gotten around to actually doing it – to invest $1,000 while I’m young and track its ups and downs for the rest of my life.

Then the government (read: you and I as U.S. taxpayers) decided to send me some money to inject into the economy and help us all get back to somewhat normal during a global pandemic. What better way to put that money to work than to invest in American businesses?

Into the brokerage account it went. If I weren’t tracking this investment, I would have bought a few shares of my go-to index fund, in which the vast majority of my net worth is invested, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (Ticker symbol: VTI). But then the dividends would get mixed in with the dividends of my previously purchased shares and would be difficult to calculate the exact return.

So I decided to invest in a very similar index fund, the S&P 500, which is a collection of the 500 of the biggest companies in the United States (you can see the entire list here). Vanguard’s S&P 500 fund has the ticker symbol VOO, and was trading at ~$250 per share earlier this week. I was able to buy 4 shares at $250.00 apiece, so invested exactly $1,000.00 as pictured above on April 21, 2020.

I will keep you updated on my $1,000 investment over time, checking in every now and then to see how much money I’m making or losing at any given time. If you would like to follow along on your own, you can just type “VOO” into Google (or click this link) and see how much one share is worth at that exact moment. As of the market close Friday, one share was worth $260.14, meaning my investment has increased by $40 already ($260.14 x 4 shares = $1,040.56).

Better yet, feel free to follow along by investing yourself and watching your money grow in the coming years! Now is a great time to do it, and if you need any assistance getting started I’m happy to help. Feel free to send me an email at hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com.

Stay tuned.

#MoneyGoals

Pictured: The actual purchase of my 4 shares of VOO on April 21, 2020.

Some additional thoughts if you are starving for more content while in quarantine:

I’m planning on holding on to these 4 shares of VOO for the rest of my life. Assuming my $1,000 grows 7% each year (which is about the stock market’s average), it should be worth the below amounts each decade. I’ll check in many times before then, but we’ll see if I double my money in the next 10 years. I will bet anybody a Chipotle burrito that it will be worth more than $2,000 by April 21, 2030 😉

2020: $1,000
2030: $1,967
2040: $3,869
2050: $7,612
2060: $14,974
2070: $29,457
2080: $57,946
2090: $113,989
2100: $224,234

The reason why I would take that bet, and the reason why I say it’s a great time to start/continue investing is that 1) the stock market is down and we are either in, or on the brink of, a recession. This is the best time to buy stocks and make investments because prices are low (think of buying an apple tree that typically costs $100 and produces $7 each year in apples for 30% off) and 2) because recessions are typically followed by periods of strong economic growth.

For example, if you would have purchased $1,000 of VOO 10 years ago on April 21, 2010 as we were coming out of the housing market crash and Great Recession, it would be worth ~$2,900 today. Almost tripling your hypothetical investment in 10 years, and easily surpassing the estimated returns for the coming decades I have above. Get out there and invest y’all!

Coronavirus and Control

The coronavirus pandemic has reminded us that nothing is guaranteed. Everyday aspects of life we took for granted have disappeared – graduation ceremonies, restaurants, toilet paper, maybe even your job or income. It feels like we aren’t in control any more.

We never were.

While many of the ideas I discuss on this blog revolve around the concept of managing your life in a way that maximizes your health, wealth and happiness, it’s important to remember that we can only really control our internal world of thoughts, decisions and reactions. We often assume we are in control of our external world (I click a button on Amazon and almonds are brought to my doorstep), but that illusion has been shattered in recent weeks.

That said, the things we can control can help us be better prepared to weather the storm of the uncontrollable, such as having multiple years of expenses saved up, staying in good physical shape and being able to cook your own food. The benefits of living a simpler and more financially sustainable lifestyle become obvious when shit goes sideways and folks who were spending as much as they earned suddenly cannot sustain their lifestyle.

So let this weird hiccup in our lives be a reminder to control what we can, accept what we cannot, and live in a way that is less dependent on uncontrollable, external circumstances.

#MoneyGoals

Pictured: Practicing controlling my thoughts next to the infamously uncontrollable Lake Superior, July 2019.

My Personal Spending Report for 2019

Here is every dollar I spent in 2019:

Housing – $10,621 total, $885 per month (up from $7,804 in 2018, a $2,818 increase)

This number includes rent, account setup/administration fees, utilities and a washer/dryer set purchased in July. 2019 was my first full year of living in downtown Dallas, and the ~$3,000 increase over 2018 reflects that.

While I could move further outside of the city and cut my rent in half, living downtown allows me to walk everywhere (work, friends, groceries, events) and not own a car. As I noted last year, the quality of life that comes with never having to commute is well worth the higher rent.

Cell Phone – $274 total, $23 per month (up from $140 in 2018, a $134 increase)

I purchased a ~~new~~ refurbished and few-model-years-old iPhone SE in February to replace my 5 year-old iPhone 5c. The newer phone allowed me to change to a cheaper service provider, Tello. I am currently paying $9.24 per month for cell service, so next year this number will likely be around $110.

Groceries – $1,286 total, $107 per month (down from $1,377 in 2018, a $91 decrease)

This number surprised me, and this is the second year in a row my grocery expenses declined ($1,475 in 2017). Not much changed with my diet – still rice, lentils, beans, veggies and nuts all day erry day, but I did travel more and eat out more this year which could have led to the decrease here.

Dine Out – $458 total, $38 per month (up from $319 in 2018, a $140 increase)

The increase in non-grocery food costs was intentional as I said yes to almost every invite from my friends to go out to eat, paid for 20 people’s Chipotle for my birthday, and paid for a few other friends’ meals at random times. I hope this expense continues to increase in 2020, as it will mean I’m spending time with my friends and enjoying life.

Travel – $1,108 total, $92 per month (down from $1,236 in 2018, a $128 decrease)

Travel expenses were kept low this year as my two big trips were subsidized heavily by my parents (road trip through Minnesota and Ontario) and my company (flight, hotel, transportation and food in Hawaii). About $300 of the total is skydiving in Hawaii, with most of the balance coming from a few flights to Minnesota and one to Colorado. I expect this category to increase in 2020 (anybody trying to go backpacking in the mountains?)

Transportation – $114 total, $10 per month (up from $100 in 2018, a $14 increase)

Even if my employer didn’t pay for my public transportation pass, this would stay the same as 99% of my transportation is walking or biking these days. The total consists of occasional Uber/Lyft rides, tips for friends driving me to/from the airport and paying for parking when my friends have driven me somewhere.

Other – $1,411 total, $118 per month (down from $2,258 in 2018, a $847 decrease)

My miscellaneous expenses included concerts/events (~$250), gifts/donations (~$400), activities with friends like volleyball leagues, museums, paddle boarding and movies (~$200) and shoes/clothes (~$200). The funniest transaction of the year was paying Shruti $1 for being a peasant and not owning AirPods 😛

TOTAL – $15,274 for the year, $1,273 per month (up from $13,234 in 2018, a $2,040 increase)

The $2,000 increase from ’18 to ’19 came from $2,800 more housing expenses offset by $800 less miscellaneous expenses. All other categories stayed the same, give or take ~$100.

Looking towards 2020, I expect to spend around $15,000 – $17,000, with the forecasted increase coming from travel, dining out and more fun experiences with friends and family.

If you want more detail or have any questions, comments or anything I can help with, feel free to comment or send me an email at hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com. Happy New Year, happy new decade, and happy saving and investing to all of you! 🙂

Related Reading:

My Personal Spending Report for 2018

My Personal Spending Report for 2017

How I Save $720 Per Year on Cell Service

Buying Happiness