Okay, friends, settle in. I am about to get brutally honest about what my money situation looks like today. I’m talking REAL numbers about how much money I make and what my bills look like.
Why am I doing this? Because I think we need to be more honest about money and not feel ashamed to talk about our salaries and budgets. Sure, my salary may not be all that impressive to other people, but it’s fine for my needs and it allows me to support myself easily.
I was inspired to write this post after listening to an old episode of the Girl Next Door podcast (I’m slowly making my way through their back catalog of episodes) where they got real honest about their money situations, including what they make and what debt they have.
So, let’s do this!
At this moment in time, I’m 30 and I work a full-time job as an SEO content writer. I’m in my fourth year in this current position, although the position itself has grown and changed drastically over time, and each year, I’ve gotten a great raise that has put me in a fairly comfortable financial position. I also dabble in freelance writing, but I’m only working with one client who needs content every couple of months or so. It actually works out really well for me because I quickly realized the freelancing side hustle was not for me. This way, I get consistent work without having to spend hours and hours hustling after it. And the money feels like a bonus. It’s never accounted for in my budget, and I usually funnel it to my debts.
So, what does my salary look like? My gross salary is around $47,000, but once I account for taxes, health insurance, and my flexible spending account that I use for healthcare costs, I’m earning around $37,000 a year. And I usually make around $3,000 a year from freelancing, although that doesn’t account for taxes, so when all is said and done, I’m earning a little under $40,000 a year.
Now let’s talk about my expenses. I’m going to break this up into a few categories: housing, debts, auto, and other. These are my fixed expenses that I have to account for with every budget I put together. (Friday, I’ll talk about discretionary spending and where my money goes after the bills are paid.)
Housing
Like most people, this is my biggest expense. One of the reasons is that I have chosen to live alone. Obviously, I could save more money and pay down my debts faster if I had a roommate, but it wasn’t worth it for me. I really, really wanted the experience of living alone, and after 18 months of it, I can say with certainty that it was the right decision. It just means that all of the housing and utilities fall on my shoulders, but it’s totally worth it for me.
Currently, I spend $825 a month to rent a one-bedroom apartment in a great location. And I’m getting a steal because most one-bedroom apartments around here are around $1,000 a month. There are certain sacrifices I’m making: my apartment is tiny (under 600 square feet with no dining area to speak of), the appliances aren’t updated, the countertops and cabinets are a gross beige color, etc. But I honestly didn’t want to pay much more than $800 and I’m really happy with the apartment and location, so I’m hoping to stay here for at least a few more years.
My other bills related to housing include utilities (water and electric), which usually run around $100 a month, sometimes a little more. I also pay $75 a month for high-speed Internet, which feels really pricey, but I literally never have issues with my Internet and it’s lightning-fast, so I can’t complain too much. I don’t have cable, but pay $12 a month for Netflix.
Debts
After housing, my next biggest expense is paying off my debts. I carry three specific debts: a school loan, a car loan, and credit card debt.
My school loans total $13,409 currently and I can’t see myself paying those off for… well, a long time. I try not to think about it too much, haha. I pay the minimum balance on two of the loans and I have a third loan that’s under $500 that I’ve been very focused on paying off. In total, I pay $200 a month for my school loans. I don’t regret my student loans because they were the only way I was able to pay for college, so I try not to think of them as a burden. They just… are. I had to have them and they will be paid off one day. I refuse to feel bad about my school loans or the fact that I may be in my forties and still paying them off.
(You may be wondering why I haven’t consolidated my student loans and the truth is, I just haven’t done the research to figure out how to do this. It’s pure laziness on my part.)
My car loan is almost paid off – I have less than $900 to go. Woop! Once the car is paid off, my plan is to take the money I was spending on my car payments every month ($228) and put it into a savings account for a car down payment. I don’t want to buy another car anytime soon, but I want to have a hefty down payment saved up for when the time comes for a new car. Once I’ve saved $3,000 for my down payment, I want to start throwing that monthly payment toward my school loans. (Honestly, I’m not sure if this is the best decision because all the debt blogs say to pay off debt before saving, but I also know I’d feel more secure knowing I have a down payment saved up, should my car give out on me in a year.)
Lastly, my credit card has a $600 balance. But considering that balance was over $2,000 just a few months ago, I’m feeling rull good about this balance. So sue me.
Auto
I really, really wish I lived in a more walkable city with a dependable public transportation system, but I don’t. I have to drive everywhere. My car is old (2005) and is nearing 110,000 miles, but it’s in great shape and I’m hoping it’ll last me another few years.
My auto expenses include:
- Car payment – $228
- Gas – I fill up once a week for about $20
- Auto insurance – My six-month premium is just under $900, which feels insanely expensive, but every time I quote out another auto insurance company with the same type of coverage I have, the price is about the same. (Am I over-covered? I dunno! Tips welcome.)
- Oil changes – Around $30 every three months
- Car registration – $30 once a year
I’ve been lucky in that my car hasn’t needed too many pricey repairs. I replaced all four tires a few years ago and recently had to get my brakes replaced, but that’s it. But now that my car is getting up there in mileage and years, I know I’m going to need more frequent repairs and replacements. But so far, she’s held up well and drives just fine! (*knock on wood*)
Other
Some of my different miscellaneous bills that don’t fit into any of my bigger categories include my cell phone bill, gym membership, and Spotify Premium. My cell phone bill is around $100, but this includes my leasing agreement for my iPhone and unlimited data. I pay $35 a month for the gym and $10 for Spotify Premium, which is worth every single penny (and I’m not even much of a music person!)
I’m also part of two monthly subscription services – Book of the Month, which is $15 a month, and Sephora PLAY!, which is $10 a month.
But that’s what my expenses look like today! On Friday, I’m going to talk more about my discretionary spending and specifically where my money went (after bills) during the first quarter of the year.
Truthfully, it’s going to be damn hard to push publish on this post because it feels so incredibly vulnerable to be this honest about my financial situation today. But I’m also tired of reading personal finance posts where it feels like people have all their shit together and can put away thousands of dollars into their savings or toward their debt. That’s not my situation because I’m a single person supporting myself on my own and I don’t want to live so frugally that I miss out on the things that make me happy. And honestly, I don’t have my shit together (something you’ll definitely notice in Friday’s blog post) and that’s okay. As long as I’m willing to admit my mistakes and learn from them and try to be better, that’s all that really matters.
And, honestly, I’m proud of where I am today because life was goddamn hard when I was growing up. Financial literacy is not a thing for those of us who grow up poor and functioned in survival mode for most of our growing-up years. I’ve had to learn financial literacy the hard way, which included getting into credit card debt before I even graduated from college. But I’ve taken the time to learn and grow, and I’m in a pretty damn good place today. Maybe not by a financial planner’s standards, but by my standards. And shouldn’t that be the standard that guides my life? I think so.
I love this post! We definitely have a stigma about money. We make decent money as a household, but between our bills (mortgage, student loans, timeshare, car lease, and taxes) we struggle to put any money in savings or ever get ahead…and we don’t pay for childcare! I can tell from your post that expenses are much lower in Florida versus Connecticut – specifically taxes, utilities, and your student loans – but I *think* Florida has better programs for loans if I remember correctly (I had a friend who moved to Florida for a year to become a resident before starting college). On the other hand, salaries in CT are higher, so maybe it balances out overall? We’ve talked about moving south but I think we’d end up in the same boat financially because we’d make less.
One thing we do that’s not smart is vacationing. We really should cut those out until we get a decent savings and pay off some debt but…life isn’t guaranteed. So we prioritize vacations and time as a family because it’s important to us and something we value (hence the timeshare loan we are paying off).
Great post!
I was lucky to leave college with less than $10,000 in student loans, but I also had a pell grant and a scholarship that paid for 75% of my tuition costs. So that was helpful! (Of course, once I finished college, I stupidly kept putting my loans in deferment so I’m paying off so much interest right now. Sigh. They don’t prepare you for stuff like this!)
I’m with you on prioritizing vacations! All the debt blogs tell me I need to make my debt a priority, but it would take me YEARS to pay it off, even with being super, super frugal and that kind of lifestyle isn’t for me. I’m as frugal as I need to be right now without feeling like I’m depriving myself.
you probably should switch your auto insurance to just liability insurance. if you were to get into an accident, the car wouldn’t even be worth anything especially that it’s a 2005. basically this is what it is: liability coverage and you cause an accident, costs related to your injuries or damage to your car will not be covered. … Liability insurance covers bodily injury and property damage claims resulting from an accident that is primarily your fault.
That’s what we did with our pontiac vibe, switched it to liability because it wasn’t worth anything if it got totaled.
otherwise get those credit card debt paid off! and i think it’s great you plan on stashing away money for a future car down payment, I’d do the exact same thing!
Oh, this is such good information! Thank you! I’m going to look into this more fully because I think you bring up a great point that my car wouldn’t be worth anything if I were in an accident.
I live this post & find it really personally helpful/insightful AND am proud of you for being so honest & transparent & vulnerable. I am really struggling with finances, & it’s ridiculous, to be honest, because I make more than enough. Like, I had financial issues when I was making $30k less than I do right now; shouldn’t that $30k have evened it all out? Like, whattt is my deal? I need to get a handle on some of my spending – namely, going out to eat because I HATE COOKING – but other than that, right now a lot of my money is going toward paying down my bills, including a credit card bill. When that’s done ($1,000 to go!) I think I’ll be able to breathe more easily & really focus on saving & habit-changing…
I hear you, friend! I feel grateful that I’m finally at a place in my life where I feel financially comfortable, but I still have a lot of anxiety when it comes to money and I spend a little too much when it comes to eating out (I hate cooking so much, too. It brings me no joy!) Like you, I’ll feel so good when I finally get the credit card paid off and can start using that money to bulking up my savings and paying off my student loans. We’ll get there!
Great job sharing – I know it is SOOO hard to publish financial stuff like this, but it’s also so helpful. For me, I like seeing it laid out every month, and knowing that people are reading helps me stay motivated to stay on track.
You are so close to the credit card and car being paid off – HOLLA! Hahaha. That is amazing. Looking forward to seeing more!
Thanks, Steph! I am uncertain how often I want to share financial reports like this, but maybe on a quarterly basis! Just to check in on some of my debts like my student loans and credit card, as well as talking about how I’m spending my discretionary money. We’ll see. I am grateful for the response this post got because it was very hard for me to publish it!
I love this post. I am all in for people getting honest about their money situations. And I think it’s very brave of you to share when you don’t feel like “you’ve got it all together”. I read a lot of financial independence/early retirement blogs and a few of them have called out the folks in that community for what you’re speaking to – ie looking perfect and not being transparent about where their money comes from/how much they make/made to get to where they did. It also burns me when people make $100,000-200,000 and retire early and are like anyone can do this!!! haha, no.
Mostly I’m so curious to see how everyone lives… It is so helpful I think when people get open and honest about their finances because I think it’s something many of us are clueless about. (Also I think having money or coming from a financially privileged background doesn’t guarantee financial literacy either… sometimes it just means you can avoid ever getting into situations where you have to learn or worry about money/debt/financial literacy. )
Oh gosh, don’t even get me started on people who are retiring early, but make triple my yearly salary. Like, yeah, I know there is a lot of sacrifice and hard work necessary to make that happen, but it’s also MUCH easier when you can set aside thousands and thousands of dollars every month. I wish that were my reality!
Also, I totally understand where you’re coming from when you say that coming from a financially privileged background doesn’t guarantee financial literary. Absolutely! I think I was just trying to explain why it has taken me so long to really understand my finances and work towards a better future for myself. It’s really hard to understand this stuff and work towards financial stability when all you’ve ever known is being poor and never having enough money.
Stephany, I LOVE that you shared this so openly with the world. I wish more people would open up and break down their income and spending. It’s so helpful to see how much other people earn and how they make it work.
While I am a huge advocate of talking about finances, I haven’t shared my numbers as openly as you have today (maybe I would if I was single, but as it is, our finances don’t just involve me)… I just thought it was super-helpful to see what other people budget with.
Question: does the $10,000 difference between your gross and take home pay include contributions to a retirement account ( because I thought I remembered that you had started contributions, but you didn’t mention it here)?
I was trying to do the numbers between my gross and net pay and realized that health insurance, taxes, life insurance, and 401k take up a HUGE chunk of my pre-take home expenses.
Maybe I will share more exact numbers sometime, but just for a reference: I take home 58% of my gross pay after all these deductions.
Yeah, it’s a bit easier to share my numbers knowing it only impacts me. I think it would be much different if I was accounting for a second salary in my household. But I think that’s why it’s so important, especially nowadays when living on your own is downright impossible for so many of us. I wish more single people would share their incomes in this way! It’s really eye-opening when it’s laid out like this.
I’m not currently contributing to a retirement account. I don’t like to talk about this much because it makes me feel so ashamed, honestly. (And sick to my stomach when I realize how I’m ever going to catch up…) I’m going to start contributing in July, when the open enrollment starts, and I’ll most likely get a raise around this time, so I’m hoping it won’t impact my overall take-home pay that much.
I love this post. You are so brave to share the numbers. I could n
Whoops. Phone commenting strikes again. Anyways, I could never share my numbers because I am so private. It took years of dating for Phil and me to share how much we made. We both knew we were doing well and living below our means but I had a hard time saying what I made. But I do try to be open about where my money goes with the annual spending post. I just recognize that I work in a really well compensated field so it’s easier for me to save more but I would never expect someone to have the same financial situation as we do. That said, I worked super hard to get to where I am with my career between my CFA and MBA… so there is luck to where I am financially but also lots of hard work and grit.
I felt the same way you do about your student loans when I was still paying mine off. They were a necessary evil as it just wasn’t possible for my parents to pay for my college since they had 5 kids!!
Again, super proud of you for being so open and honest!!
Thanks, Lisa! It’s a little bit easier for me to share my money situations because I’m single and I’m only talking my own income, so I totally understand why other people don’t want to talk about it. But I also think we need to stop the stigma around salaries and just be okay sharing them! It’s just a number! And we need to get better about talking about debt and sharing actual numbers there. Because it’s one thing to say you have student loan debt; it’s an entirely different ballgame to share that you have $13,000 in student loan debt. There’s something powerful about putting an actual number behind it and helps people (hopefully!) feel better about their own money situation, even if they don’t feel as if they have it altogether.
Love how honest, open and vulnerable you are getting on your blog my friend. Since you like The Girl Next Door you’d probably also enjoy Kelsey & her husband’s podcast Matrimoney. I love that they share REAL numbers. I feel like budgeting posts mean nothing to me without real numbers behind them.
Honestly, Eric and I just spent about 20 months making insanely good salaries, almost triple what we made in our old city, but he had to work an insane amount of hours and I had to work for a really toxic company. He recently took a new job and I’ll be going to a new job once my maternity leave is over and we’re taking a sizeable paycut between the two of us, but happiness is so much more important than money. Plus even though we did save a significant amount we also spent A LOT of money too, so now we just have to adjust our lifestyle to match our new salaries!
Yes, yes, yes! I have thought a lot about this, too, the idea that happiness in my job is way more important than a salary. Honestly, every now and then, I contemplate looking for a higher-paying job, just to give myself a better financial cushion, but I really, really love what I do and my company. I never get anxious on Sunday nights, it’s low stress, and you just can’t beat half-day Fridays. Those benefits outweigh the potential for making more money at a company that might not be the best fit for me. A lot of my coworkers are moving on to new challenges and different career paths, but I don’t feel any sort of calling to do the same. Would I like to make more money? You bet. But at the expense of my happiness? Heck no!
I’m sorry to hear that you worked in such a toxic work environment! That’s so tough, and I’m glad you’ll be on your way to something new (and that’s hopefully a much better fit!) once your maternity leave is up.
I love this! I’m fascinated by how people spend their money and how they make it work with their own financial situation. I’ve also tried to be better and smarter about my money this year.
It has been hard, sometimes, to come to terms with my money situation, but I always appreciate the feeling of being in control and on top of my finances. It’s so easy to get lazy about budgeting and tracking my spending! I’m trying to be better about it in 2018.