Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 9:58:54 GMT -5
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Formerly SK
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Post by Formerly SK on May 1, 2011 10:03:09 GMT -5
If memory serves you just recently started contributing larger amounts to your 401k. Have you done a tax analysis of your liability for 2011 given your taxable income will be significantly lower? You may be over-withholding.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 10:04:11 GMT -5
Oh I got it... yeah whew! I will post an updated list later... We are not in the red. But we are indeed spending that much money on groceries Quicken did not take into consideration my travel expenses refund (over 2K) and also double some entries since some purchases were made with the credit card and then I made credit card payment. If I go by the raw data from quicken it will look like this for march Income/Expense by Category - Mar 2011:2 3/1/2011 through 3/31/2011 Category Description 3/1/2011- 3/31/2011 INCOME Employer Benefit -253.75 Interest Inc 0.04 Salary 4,861.29 Salary Spouse 3,232.00 _401EmployerContrib 0 _401EmployerContribSpouse 64.64 FROM TD - Checking 449.3 FROM TD - Savings 775.05 FROM 401K - Carl 0 TOTAL INCOME 9,128.57 EXPENSES Auto 683.39 Bank Charge 0.5 Cash -3,006.99 Clothing 193.72 Credit Card Payment 300.94 Dining 370.28 Electronics 64.42 Entertainment 20.61 Groceries 300.39 Gym Membership 144 Household 118.65 Interest Exp 130.05 Medical 287 Misc 14.06 Personal Care 24 Rent 1,670.00 Tax 729.07 Tax Spouse 521.08 Utilities 832.46 Vacation 145.6 TO TD - Checking 775.05 TO TD - Savings 200 TO Citi Cards - 8525 249.3 TO Direct Loans - Portia 475.5 TO Hofstra University - Portia 270 TO Honda - Loan 249 TO KIA - Loan 434.61 TO Sallie Mae Student Loan - Portia 527.68 TO 401K - Carl 1,166.88 TO 401k - May-Lorie 711.04 TO ROTH IRA - CARL 132.88 TO ROTH IRA - May Lorie 132.91 TOTAL EXPENSES 8,868.08 OVERALL TOTAL 260.49
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 10:08:22 GMT -5
And for April I got this. I just need to go thru it and clean it up, I use quicken for everything (record everything).
So all the info is in there, just need to clean it up
Income/Expense by Category - Apr 2011:3 4/1/2011 through 4/30/2011 Category Description 4/1/2011- 4/30/2011 INCOME Employer Benefit -203 Interest Inc 0.04 Salary 3,824.47 Salary Spouse 3,232.00 _401EmployerContrib 0 _401EmployerContribSpouse 64.64 FROM TD - Checking 1,422.63 FROM TD - Savings 800 FROM 401K - Carl 0 TOTAL INCOME 9,140.78 EXPENSES Auto 632.11 Bank Charge 0.5 Cash -1,823.25 Clothing 87.2 Dining 304.15 Electronics 75.66 Entertainment 256.24 Groceries 599.55 Gym Membership 96 Household 100 Interest Exp 141.67 Medical 150 Misc 8.8 Rent 1,670.00 Tax 422.02 Tax Spouse 359.17 Utilities 95.42 Vacation 72.8 TO Savings Club 100 TO TD - Checking 800 TO TD - Savings 734.37 TO Capital One - 6139 216.54 TO Citi Cards - 8525 371.72 TO Direct Loans - Portia 475.5 TO Honda - Loan 249 TO KIA - Loan 434.61 TO Sallie Mae Student Loan - Portia 263.84 TO 401K - Carl 957.67 TO 401k - May-Lorie 872.64 TO ROTH IRA - CARL 325 TO ROTH IRA - May Lorie 325 TOTAL EXPENSES 9,373.93 OVERALL TOTAL -233.15
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 10:10:16 GMT -5
About to go out and once I get back home or later I will try ot clean it up and get thru it by hand. But one thing for sure, I don't think we are spending over 2K a month.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 10:11:10 GMT -5
Ok. I'm still confused... Does income from your savings and checking still mean that you are not covering expenses every month? Or is that the extra reimbursement you were talking about?
That actually made it harder for me to understand? Or maybe i'm just confused by different lists at this point...
Why is your gym membership different different months?
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RoadToRiches
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Post by RoadToRiches on May 1, 2011 10:18:19 GMT -5
Cash - 1800? lol what the....
Dude, just stop with Quicken and write everything out in Excel. This is confusing. Too much crap going on.
I just dumped Quicken recently because I noticed that I was using my trusty Excel spreadsheet every time.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 10:27:25 GMT -5
Why is your gym membership different different months? Gym membership is $24/person every 2 weeks. So some months will be more than others.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on May 1, 2011 10:30:33 GMT -5
I just wanted to address the issue of Quicken double reporting when a cc is involved.
This is easily avoided. I have a cc account set up in Quicken. When I buy groceries on the cc, I enter is as "groceries". Ditto gas, and everything else. I can track the running total so there are no surprises. At the end of the month, when I pay the cc, it is entered in Quicken as a "transfer" not an expense.
For analysis, I use an excel spreadsheet.
It does seem like you are leaking money and a budget plan could be very helpful.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on May 1, 2011 10:32:42 GMT -5
ETA At the end of the month, I pull up a spending report from Quicken and enter the numbers in my excel spreadsheet for analysis.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 10:33:52 GMT -5
I'm with the excel camp... i've never been confused with excel...
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phil5185
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Post by phil5185 on May 1, 2011 11:07:09 GMT -5
Auto 683.39 TO Honda - Loan 249 TO KIA - Loan 434.61 So your car costs are $16,404/yr? IMO your system is so complex that you are unable to see the big picture - "can't see the forest for the trees" comes to mind. Detail may be useful, but a bank fee of 50 cents is over the top. As an eye-opener (but not as a monthly working budget) try a Pareto listing based on annual costs. List your costs (eg, cars $16,404, rent $20,040, student loans $15,288, and so on). Your costs should equal your total gross income. Then do a 'descending sort', you will see the "significant few" at the top and the "insignificant many" below. Usually 80% of your costs will be in the top 20% of the items. And you will see that fixing a little $2000/yr latte habit has almost no effect on your $100,000/yr expenditures - to make meaningful progress you must fix the $20k items at the top. What is the make-up the $15,288/yr SL's. - ie, amount, interest rates, durations? Are they 'keepers' or something to prepay? Your 8:04 & 8:08 lists are tidy - and they also remind me that I became wealthy by following a list written on the back of a business card in my shirt pocket.
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RoadToRiches
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Post by RoadToRiches on May 1, 2011 12:06:25 GMT -5
I am with Phil on this one. I used to do it like that too. I would track EVERY CENT and categorize it. It became so complex and involved so much work that I would just give up.
Now I just round things up. If my electric bill is $75.14 for example, I just enter $76 in my spreadsheet.
Just list your stuff in one column. All you bills per month. Then add up your monthly take home pay and subtract your bills from that.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 12:48:05 GMT -5
I put it in my little excel budget calculator and got for April a total income of 9279.19 and expenses of 11229.88. It's misleading though because from what I can tell you are putting money in your TD savings account and then removing the money when you run short. I also didn't include your cash line because I wasn't sure what that was about. My excel sheet said that you have fixed expenditures of around 3284.27 for rent, auto loans, student loans, gym and utilities out of a take home income of around 4445 each month. That leaves you roughly 1160 for gas, medical, food, savings, credit card payments, entertainment and all of that. See why it looks like you are going negative? I didn't include your auto reimbursements and tax refund because like the cash line I wasn't sure what to do with it. It breaks out to around 1.5k a month (wild guessing). When I add tax/auto refund to your 1160 from your income for variable expenses it totals to around $2660 a month total available for variable expenses. In April you spent around $3017 on variable expenses before contributing to your Roth or Savings accounts, again not including the cash line.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 16:32:32 GMT -5
I put it in my little excel budget calculator and got for April a total income of 9279.19 and expenses of 11229.88. It's misleading though because from what I can tell you are putting money in your TD savings account and then removing the money when you run short. I also didn't include your cash line because I wasn't sure what that was about. My excel sheet said that you have fixed expenditures of around 3284.27 for rent, auto loans, student loans, gym and utilities out of a take home income of around 4445 each month. That leaves you roughly 1160 for gas, medical, food, savings, credit card payments, entertainment and all of that. See why it looks like you are going negative? I didn't include your auto reimbursements and tax refund because like the cash line I wasn't sure what to do with it. It breaks out to around 1.5k a month (wild guessing). When I add tax/auto refund to your 1160 from your income for variable expenses it totals to around $2660 a month total available for variable expenses. In April you spent around $3017 on variable expenses before contributing to your Roth or Savings accounts, again not including the cash line. Thanks anne and that basically covers it in a nutshell, sorry I made it so complicated. - I only got a tax refund in Feb, so that is a one time/year thing. - I do take money out of our savings when we run short. - I am now on assignement till June 5 and get refunded for travel expenses. I get refunded about $260/week for mileage but if I have to stay overnight (hotel, breakfast, dinner) I will get more back, like last week it was $435.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 16:57:16 GMT -5
My DH and I solved the problem with business expenses years ago in a very simple way. He had his business checking account and credit cards, and set me up with a household checking account to cover all the "at home" living expenses each month. When he received his monthly expense checks he paid those bills out of his account...as they say "and never the twain shall meet".
You have enough problems with money than trying to mix accounts.
I'll admit, that was many years ago, but we learned quickly to not mix the home and business into one account.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 18:08:18 GMT -5
If you are counting pulling from savings as income though... you have a problem. You also haven't resolved the issue of the student loan, etc., coming from an account that you no longer have... how will those fit into the budget?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 18:33:07 GMT -5
If you are counting pulling from savings as income though... you have a problem. You also haven't resolved the issue of the student loan, etc., coming from an account that you no longer have... how will those fit into the budget? I don't count it as income, quicken does when it runs the report. Money gets deposit into our savings every paycheck automatically, and if/when we fall short we transfer money from the savings. We usually put it back next paycheck. As for the student loans, I think we will be able to cover it with our income after cutting back and moving in June.
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Malarky
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Post by Malarky on May 1, 2011 21:14:40 GMT -5
I don't think we are spending over 2K a month.
I've been haphazardly tracking my spending on SS. Not counting my monthly bills and mortgage, I spend that much. And I don't have student loans, car payments, don't eat out much, my grocery bill is a third of yours, I'm hoping I misread your cell phone bill because I pay less for 4 phones with all the bells and whistles...etc... I think you need to recalculate.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2011 21:45:21 GMT -5
Will you be getting a tax refund next year? What is the cash line for? It really looks like you guys need to look at your budget and modify it. With all your transfers back and forth it looks like you are saving but you are not. It might make sense to hold off on your Roths until your credit cards are paid off.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on May 2, 2011 11:56:45 GMT -5
I'm with the excel camp... i've never been confused with excel... I'm painfully confused by our Excel budget and it's not in Quicken or anywhere else either. DH and I are going to go over it soon (hopefully tonight or tomorrow night.) He admitted that he hadn't set it up particularly well so I'm really hoping that we can make it better. If not, I may be asking the board blank copies of your spreadsheets to crib from...
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