Looking back on the numbers from February I don't remember much happening - my car decided to meltdown (figuratively, but I suspect the heat had something to do with it), I settled new home loans at a ridiculously lowered rate, and I stuck to my plan to buy nothing new. Otherwise, I had a quiet month.
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.
In February this went great. I spent nothing in the 'Other' column of my budget, and while I didn't quite keep the pets under budget I did resist the urge to buy fun things. I just paid a couple of memberships, and bought food.
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.
$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.
In February I finalised an equity release on my properties, so this goal leaped from $75,000 to $175,000. I have a delay on investing this because the bank sent the settlement funds to the wrong person (I sh!t you not...) so I need to wait for them to undo their gigantic error.
And then the markets in February were almost worse than January, and we didn't move the dial very far at all.
Invested in February: $10,200
Invested in 2022: $15,625
Gains in 2022: $3,169.23 (market change, down $12,455.77)
For now I plan to stick to the same new goal ($175k), 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 February, which includes the save-to-spend amounts.
Category | Spent | Budgeted | 12 Month Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | $700 | $954.17 | $1,473.64 (no change) |
| Under Budget. 2 rounds of rent. | |||
| Investment Property 1 | $927.39 | $750 (down $300 from 2021) | $1,188.92 (down $14.38) |
| Over Budget. Just a little over - paid the council rates. | |||
| Home turned IP2 | $1,252.32 | $950 | $994.00 (up $41.86) |
| Over Budget. House insurance pushed me over this month. | |||
| Personal Bills | $137.10 | $137.50 | $137.10 (up $0.53) |
| Under Budget. Nothing new. | |||
| Groceries | $315.19 | $200 | $208.40 (up $17.17) |
| Over Budget. No way to ignore that grocery prices are going up... I've been focussing on clearing our pantry and eating beans, and this is still happening. | |||
| Pets | $315.19 | $350 | $416.64 (up $0.45) |
| Over Budget. Over again... I avoided buying anything unnecessary or impulse - instead I bought 3 months of cat food, 2 training club memberships and another month of dog food. | |||
| Roller Derby | $41 | $150 | $91.20 (down $22.29) |
| Under Budget. A few more crafting supplied, and then savings for later. | |||
| Travelling | $50 | $100 | $50 (no change) |
| Under Budget. Just putting aside money for the future. | |||
| Comfort Food | $22 | $50 | $30.83 (up $0.03) |
| Under Budget. Date lunch at a lovely Japanese place in the hills. | |||
| Car | $295.02 | $200 | $232.13 (up $0.88) |
| Over Budget. Remember that emergency fund? I spent it all... and now my car lives at the garage as I wait for a part from China :( | |||
| Donations | $0 | $15.52 | |
| None. | |||
| Other | $5 | $175 | $343.12 (down $54.20) |
| Under Budget. This is where my 'buy nothing new' goal really shines. I just, didn't buy anything. I thought about it a couple of times, but I didn't need to. | |||
| Total | $4,050.43 | $4,016.67 | $5,181.49 (down $29.97) |
| Total ex. Donations | $4,050.43 | $5,165.97 (down $29.97) | |
| Over Budget. Not as good as January, but not bad considering a large car bill, and house related bills. Only $30ish over budget isn't half bad in my book. | |||
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