Remember when it was New Years and everyone was making jokes about Barbara Walters and The Ramones and thinking, “202 is going to be the year we turn things around!” Doesn’t that feel like it was 10 years ago now?
Now we live in this world where the difference between and the haves and the have-nots couldn’t be laid more bare. People who don’t need to work at all can hole up, safely away from the world. People with the privilege of working from home (like us) get to earn money as usual without putting themselves at risk. And the people who were already living without a buffer are the ones either getting fired or being told they have to show up in person to work and put their lives at risk at the same time.
It’s been pretty eye-opening. Even people whom I know to be libertarian-leaning are shocking me by preferring to stand on fundamentalist soapboxes instead of, you know, caring if people live or die. We live in the richest country in the world. There’s no need to force people to work who don’t need to. We can, you know, provide for people while we work through this! What a sick time to be greedy. You won’t hear me complain about how our stocks absolutely tanked. There are more important things. There ain’t no economy anyway if people are so scared of getting sick that they refuse to work. That’s something these “open it up” people don’t seem to understand. You can’t have an economy without healthy people, and it’s gonna be a while until we’re back there.
Total Expenses: $20,748
Avg Per Month: $6,916
Without Debt PaymentsTotal Expenses: $17,705
Avg Per Month: $5,902
Savings Rate: 18.2%
Summary
| Quarterly Total | Monthly Average | |
| Serious Stuff | $9,651.44 | $3,217.15 |
| Food | $2,245.53 | $748.51 |
| Transportation | $1,519.53 | $506.51 |
| Utilities | $741.51 | $247.17 |
| Fun Stuff | $3,950.39 | $1,316.80 |
| Pets | $468.41 | $156.14 |
| Miscellaneous | $2,170.78 | $723.59 |
The reason that savings rate is so low is completely due to having our bathroom renovated. Sure, we could’ve done it ourselves. Actually, now that I think about it… maybe not. There was a problem with the floor basically collapsing under the toilet that required some serious know-how. But if you were to assume that the renovation isn’t really an expense because it adds value to our house, our savings rate jumps to 46.7%! Now that’s more like it.
My co-worker
One fun thing this month, at least, was that our local humane society held a fundraiser. For $20, they would have a volunteer draw a portrait of your pet, stipulating that few of them were actually talented artists. Naturally, I bought one for each of our pets!
Serious Stuff:
| Quarterly Total | Monthly Average | |
| Mortgage | $2,083.74 | $694.58 |
| Medical | $40.00 | $13.33 |
| Home Maintenance – DIY | $32.36 | $10.79 |
| Home Maintenance – Contractors | $6,336.00 | $2,112.00 |
| Property Taxes | $1,159.34 | $3,217.15 |
No extra mortgage payments this quarter. The property taxes are one half of our county taxes for the year. And the contractor expense is our bathroom.
Mofongo de Pulpo in San Juan
Food:
| Quarterly Total | Monthly Average | |
| Groceries | $1,474.86 | $491.62 |
| Wine & Beer | $66.14 | $22.05 |
| Dining Out | $586.13 | $195.38 |
| Takeout Food | $118.40 | $39.47 |
| Total Food | $2,245.53 | $748.51 |
Most of the dining expense here is from our trip to Puerto Rico. When you’re in San Juan, you have to eat out. Octopus mofongo, mallorcas, ceviche, lots of mojitos, arepas, fried cheese, tacos… Most of our trip, though, was spent on the island of Culebra, where we took advantage of the kitchen in our villa and cooked everything.
We also had a night out with our Vermont friends in January, and taste-tested the Popeye’s chicken sandwich vs the KFC sandwich. (Popeye’s won) I bottled a batch of saison, and am now fermenting a batch of grapefruit IPA.
Ultimate in transportation
Transportation:
| Quarterly Expense | Monthly Average | |
| Auto Loan | $958.47 | $319.49 |
| Gas | $391.06 | $130.35 |
| Bus Tickets | $170.00 | $56.67 |
| Total Transportation | $1,519.53 | $506.51 |
One of the good things about being under quarantine is that everyone is driving less. With Marge and I working from home, you should see a lower Gas and Bus Ticket expense next quarter. Still have to pay off that Subaru loan, though.
Remember Places?
Utilities:
| Quarterly Total | Monthly Average | |
| Cable | $149.97 | $49.99 |
| Electric | $141.88 | $47.29 |
| Gas | $326.15 | $108.72 |
| Cell Phones | $30.00 | $10.00 |
| Water & Sewer | $93.51 | $31.17 |
| Total Utilities | $741.51 | $247.17 |
Same old, same old.
Chilling with my tank on Flamenco Beach
Fun Stuff:
| Quarterly Total | Monthly Average | |
| Entertainment | $512.98 | $170.99 |
| Recreation | $706.40 | $235.47 |
| Travel | $2,731.01 | $910.34 |
| Total Fun Stuff | $3,950.39 | $1,316.80 |
Wow. What a bummer this expense is. Not only because it’s so high, but because so much of what was paid for was or might be cancelled. We had a Postmodern Jukebox show get cancelled. We are supposed to go to Cape Cod on Memorial Day. There’s the wedding in Ireland in July. Who knows what the landscape of restrictions will look like in these places by then.
On the plus side, more musicians are doing live shows online in this COVID world. And as I type this, I’m watching Slim Cessna perform live. He’s been on my list to see forever and I’ve never been able to, so this is the next best thing. I also bought a bunch of records on Discogs for my birthday. Discogs is like going to a huge record fair, but with all the adventure removed. So it’s not as fun, but you can find everything you want.
A big chunk of Entertainment expense was my batch of 20 movie tickets I buy in bulk from my union benefit program. Also the New York Times digital subscription, Hulu, and Netflix.
Pets:
| Quarterly Total | Monthly Average | |
| Pet Sitting | $165.05 | $55.02 |
| Food | $86.44 | $28.81 |
| Medical/Other | $216.92 | $72.31 |
| Total Pet | $468.41 | $156.14 |
Spent a bit paying the pet sitter while we were away in PR. Klaus also had a health scare. He wasn’t eating much and was losing hair on one spot. Brought him to the vet where he got a shot. He’s getting to be an older bunny, so we put some softer surfaces in his house to save his feet. Now he’s being more active than he has in a long while.
Miscellaneous:
| Quarterly Total | Monthly Average | |
| Cash (Untracked) | $64.00 | $21.33 |
| Charity | $250.00 | $83.33 |
| Clothing | $223.50 | $74.50 |
| Gifts | $1,123.70 | $374.57 |
| Home | $256.84 | $85.61 |
| Personal Care | $252.74 | $84.25 |
| Total Miscellaneous | $2,143.78 | $714.59 |
And yes, some of that charitable spending was political donations to a presidential candidate that dropped out. All I can say is, wouldn’t you feel better having at least one choice under the age of 70 right now??
Goal Progress
Total 2019 Non-Debt Spending of $35,000:
- Spent so far: $17,705
- On track to spend: $70,823
Well, this goal is not happening, what with our bathroom renovation expense. We did spend $11,868 not including the renovation, so maybe we can hit it absent renovation expense.
Savings Rate of 65%:
- Savings Rate so far: 18.2%
Here is another goal I’m pretty sure we’ve mathematically eliminated ourselves from. Still, I will see if we can hit 65% absent renovation expense.
Max Out 457 Plan and Roth IRAs
- Goals: $19,500 in 457 Plan / $6,000 in each Roth IRA
- Saved so far: $0 in 457 Plan / $1,500 in each Roth IRA
I haven’t put anything into the 457 Plan yet, and I wouldn’t have put anything into the Roths either, except for the recent market crash. I decided to deploy some cash to buy stock index funds on the cheap. Since the 457 and 401(k) plans are through work and there is a lag, it was easier to take advantage quickly through the Roths.
Contribute to Marge’s 401(k)
- Goal: $10,000
- Saved so far: $0
Another one we haven’t put anything to
Read 26 Books
One very positive book about Nordic model economies. Another which I thought would be a counterpoint to the Nordic model, but actually ended up being positive as well, and very funny to boot. One book by the drummer of the band that did “Closing Time,” and one book by two of the “stars” of Gogglebox. And, of course, the latest Michael Lewis book about the unheralded good done by government “bureaucracy.”
(Funny that I read The Fifth Risk in February because people are now dying because of that risk.)
Burn 3,000 calories on 200 days
I was much better about exercising at the beginning of the year, as everyone is. I had a good routine early in the year because I have a lot of walking built into my normal work day, and I just needed to add a little running on a treadmill to hit that 3,000 mark by the end of the day. Ever since I’ve been working from home since mid-March, it’s been hard to find a new routine. It seems like I need to wake up extra early and get it in before work starts.
Pay off Subaru
Haven’t made any extra payments yet this year.
Pay off HELOC so $10,000 remains
Haven’t made any extra payments on the HELOC yet either.
Years of Savings:
This magical calculation demonstrates how far we could get if we kept living every month like this ones listed above. We take our investable assets and divide them by our monthly expenses above. The number to shoot for is 25, because at that level of savings, you could afford to live forever on your money stash. According to our monthly average non-debt expenses and our investable assets, we have…
5 years of savings
Retirement Location Possibility:
If we take that number of years of savings above, and divide by 25, we can figure out where in the world we could afford to retire right now by dividing another country’s cost of living price index by our own cost of living. I averaged Buffalo and Hartford for our own cost of living since those are the closest to us on Expatistan’s index.
Our International Retirement Cost of Living Number is….
40
Higher spending than normal, plus the stock market crash means we can definitely retire nowhere.