January 2022 Update

Welcome to 2022 - the first month was a financial whirlwind to say the least.

In 2022 I'm tackling two goals. Firstly, buy nothing new. Secondly, increase my investments by a heck load - specifically $75,000. 

Buy nothing new

This goal is simple. For the year of 2022 I want to not buy anything new, unless I really, really need it. The intention is to first scope of second hand and buy nothing groups. This is partially a spending reduction goal, and partially a waste reduction goal. I'm sick of accumulating stuff that I don't want for more than five minutes.

Invest a lot

I picked out $75,000 as a goal because it's a stretch, but an achievable one. But also because in December 2019 I was spending a mere $50 a month on my pets. In December 2020 I was spending $250 a month on my pets, and in December 2021 that had rocketed up to $423 per month. Obviously this is ridiculous.

Thanks to goal #1 of buying nothing new (including far too many dog toys) I should be able to bring my pet spending down to a more respectable $300 per month, aka $50 a month on the cats and chickens, and $250 a month on the dog. Which is still a lot and I would love to see a number lower than that. But lets start with achievable wins.

$250 a month for a dog, following the good ol' 4% rule, is equivalent to $75,000 in income-producing assets. Which makes it a lovely target figure.

Or, put another way - in 2022 we're going to invest enough to pay for a dog. 

Year of Investing - round two

In 2017-18 I gave my investment goal the catchy title "The Year of Investing", and raised my accounts by $37,288, with $33,666 deposited, and the rest through growth. 

This time around I plan to raise my investments by $75,000, with $63,000 coming from my pocket, and the other $12,000 from market growth.

The joke here is that I wrote the above plan before the markets decided to throw the most epic of tantrums in January. The plan was to invest about $5,250 per month, and have the growth account for the rest. The reality was that after I invested $5,425 the markets decided to laugh, flip me off, and drop by a staggering $9,390.44. Which puts my net gain for the month at negative $3,965.44. How. Dare.

For now I plan to stick to the same goals, but if the markets keep diving, I'll need to reassess. I perform best when I have an achievable, but stretchy goal.

Spending

Here's what I spent in January, which includes the save-to-spend amounts. 

There are some noteworthy changes to the budgeted amounts. Investment Property 1 budget is reduced from $1,050 a month to $750. Thanks to a refinanced homeloan (effective in February) the average cost per month on this property is significantly reduced. Also noteworthy is that the budget for Investment Property 2 isnt reduced. I also refinanced it, and was able to release a lot of equity. Thanks to a much better interest rate, my monthly cost is unchanged.

I also reduced 'Other' by a bit. Even though I'm planning to buy nothing new, this category tends to fill up with gifts and medical appointments.

Category	Spent	Budgeted	12 Month Average
Home	$500	$954.17	$1,473.64 (down $45.84)
Under Budget. 2 rounds of rent, but my partner owed me $200 for balancing the bills in 2021.
Investment Property 1	$952.58	$750 (down $300)	$1,203.30 (down $12.29)
Over Budget. Just a little over - paid the water bill and I'm still on the old mortgage for another month.
Home turned IP2	$900	$950	$952.14 (up $2.54)
Under Budget. Mortgages and $40 put aside for repairs.
Personal Bills	$137.10	$137.50	$136.57 (up $0.53)
Under Budget. Nothing new.
Groceries	$335.30	$200	$191.23 (down $0.19)
Under Budget. I've been taking more responsibility for the household shopping so I can cook cheaper meals. Ironic that 'cheaper meals' means I end up spending more. But my partner is spending less, so overall a win.
Pets	$313.51	$350	$416.19 (down $6.90)
Under Budget. Ironically for my first month, I spent over the planned $300. The majority was on food, including feeding the hens. I also loaded up on treats for when training goes back in February.
Roller Derby	$45.64	$150	$113.49 (down $4.25)
Under Budget. Mostly I bought craft supplies. I love crafting season.
Travelling	$50	$100	$50 (no change)
Under Budget. Just putting aside money for the future.
Comfort Food	$0	$50	$30.80 (down $0.92)
Under Budget. None! Some of the groceries budget probably belongs here.
Car	$150	$200	$231.25 (up $9.42)
Under Budget. A tank of petrol and money aside for later. I have almost $1,000 in the car emergency fund now.
Donations	$0		$15.52
None.
Other	-$341.87	$175	$397.32 (down $32.74)
Under Budget. Yes, it really is negative. I got the insurance reimbursement and since this is the category I logged most of the spending against, I have logged it as un-spent.
Total	$3,042.26	$4,016.67	$5,211.46 (down $90.62)
Total ex. Donations	$3,042.26		$5,195.94 (down $90.63)
Under Budget. A good start to the year - even without the refund I'd be sitting well under budget. I stuck to my intentions to buy nothing new (expect obvious disposables like food) which mostly meant not buying dog toys for the hell of it.