September 13, 2005
Monthly Wrap-Up:
August 2005
And so another month is gone. Here's how things looked at the end of August, 2005:
| NOTE: I carry no revolving, interest-bearing credit-card balance. I do, however, use credit cards to my advantage whenever possible. This includes using credit cards to generate rewards from normal, everyday usage. However, I always pay the full balance each month. I also use low-rate offers to generate profits via arbitrage. At this time, I am holding a balance of roughly $7488 on one card, carried at zero percent interest through November 2005. Those funds are concurrently held in an account at ING Direct, where they earn me 3.3 percent annually. |
After quite a few months of keeping my discretionary expenses in check, August saw me step off the curb and spend $1,024 on a Dell laptop computer.
I will be the first to admit that having a second computer wasn't a necessity. Will it help me with work? Yes, as it turns out, though I was oblivious to that possibility before I bought the thing. Will it help me be more productive with side projects? Absolutely. Does it make my life easier and more enjoyable? Undoubtedly, yes. And perhaps the most important question: Does it make my wife's life easier and more enjoyable? (She enjoys computer time about as much as I do, I suspect.)
Yes.
So as of right now, I'm going to say that the $1,024 was money well spent.
Of course, that $1,024 blew my "Wants" spending right out of the water. Here is August's breakdown on a Balanced Money Formula, 50/20/30 basis:
I overshot my Wants spending by $287, and underfunded my Savings by $241. On a simple cashflow basis, my income surpassed my outflows by roughly $684. Most of this surplus went into investments — namingly, my 401(k) — as my liquid assets increased by only $137.
Got Gas?
Just for fun, and because it seems to be on everyone's mind right about now, I figured I'd let Quicken do some work and show me what I've spent on automobile fuel so far this year.
For the period of January through August, 2005, our household has spent an average of $62.77 per month on gas. The month-by-month breakdown looks like this:
What happened in August? Well, I took on a weekend consulting gig for a little extra income. This out-of-state excursion rolled an extra 300 miles onto my odometer ... and contributed to the higher fuel expense you see above.
I get the feeling that regarding monthly fuel expenses, I'm in a much better situation than a lot of people. My wife, being a stay-at-home mom, doesn't drive too much. And my daily jaunt to work makes for a round trip of only 16 miles. With two 4-cylinder, manual-transmission vehicles to get the driving done, we haven't shed any tears at the pumps yet.
Gas at $3 per gallon? I always knew there was a reason why SUVs just didn't appeal to me that much.
Michael |
September 13, 2005
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