Hello! I’m 23 and will start my first real job in February next year. I’m currently single, frugal, and not too tied to any one place yet.
I live in an area where public transit is decent enough to get me to work and back, so I am planning not to have a car for now. I do ride a motorcycle for fun, commuting on nicer days, and for the occasional longer trip. I might get an e-bike to shorten up commute times on less nice days.
Note that I do not have any student debt due to picking a college where I had nearly a full ride (not quite, but youth savings + internships covered the rest).
My personal rule of thumb is a modified version of the 50/30/20 rule that focuses on aggressive investment:
- Based on after-tax, after employer Roth 401k match income
- 50% savings/investments
- 30% needs (basic rent, food to survive, transit, basic wellness)
- 20% wants (motorcycle stuff, eating out, etc.). I deserve to treat myself somewhat.
“Spending” money is money that I can spend at my discretion, even if it counts for a need. So groceries and transit fares count as spending money, but a gym membership or motorcycle insurance doesn’t because those are constant pre-planned expenses.
I’d like your feedback on my model and comparisons between your plans!
Things look pretty good. I have a couple recommendations that I do myself.
- I’d start a mini savings account for travel, so it can be more than just smaller trips.
If you’ve been utilizing the ~700 in wants for things like travel, put a few hundred into a “trip” fund. That way youre always ready for bigger travel plans in the future, without dipping into other money.
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Plan for clothes and shoes as you will always need these (over a long enough time).
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Put some of the savings away for specifically for a new motorcycle. You can just track it on the spreadsheet monthly and then pull it out of one of your savings avenues when you need a new one. Make it less stressful when you need a new vehicle.
Otherwise, the ratios are very good, keep tracking this every month and be sure you’re following it. Since you are starting now, you can even reduce the savings amount to have more fun while you can. Saving anything over 30% is a huge benefit to your retirement though!
The clothes and shoes fall under miscellaneous needs. I rarely need new clothes since I don’t care much about fashion.
I have thought about separating wants into a short term and medium term wants categories. For now I’m keeping them together, and if I have a lot of money stored up, I can unleash it on a larger trip (probably motorcycle track days…)
I have a 2012 Triumph Street Triple 675R, and it’s the perfect bike for me. It’s stupidly fast, very agile, and I am simply nowhere near the capability of this motorcycle. I plan on keeping it until it either blows up, gets totaled, or if I move or give up motorcycling altogether. If I did get another motorcycle it would be something like a Kawasaki Z125 to mess around on.
Just a quick look:
$150/month for food??? Plan for $150/week groceries minimum.
Entertainment/vacations/travel: You are 23 and need to do some shit. Consider it an investment into your personal development and growth. Have fun, get out and see the world. Budget funds to do it. Put it down as a mental health need. Working a full-time job is exhausting and you need to take the breaks you can.
Retirement plans: don’t dump too much into them at this point. Take advantage of any company match but no more.
Shit is going to happen so be prepared for it. You need to look into building up accessible savings. Money market accounts, short term cd etc. Build up 3-6 months of take home wages to start.
$150/month for base food, for just me. This means no eating out, no “high-end” groceries, and doing the majority of spending at Aldi. Lots of cheap fruits and veggies, cheap chicken nuggets, and rice. With this, I’ve been able to spend about $30 per week on groceries and have some individual meals cost me under $1.
As for entertainment/vacations/travel, as you can see I have a fairly large $750/mo allocated for this stuff after the motorcycle expenses, and my motorcycle gives me some of the most fun I can have. It can be even used for weekend getaways.
For accessible savings, I have some money stored in CDs that are meant for just that and will allow me to survive for several months. If things get worse, I can sell some stocks.
Rule 1 of budgeting: Never budget for the minimum. It ain’t going to happen so don’t waste your time. Make it realistic or slightly above where you expect it to be.
Buy good quality food, not expensive food, but quality (not cheap chicken nuggets). You are relying on good health to generate the income. Feed and take care of your body appropriately. The very last thing you want to cheap out on is food.
I’m not sure how budgeting against an empirically realistic value is “budgetting for the minimum.” Aldi really is that cheap. Perhaps I can trade my time by swapping the chicken nuggets for raw chicken for the protein.
i got really jaded with my roth losing its ass due to mismanagement by the company. it has turned me against it even though i feel it still makes the most sense logically. anytime you dont have a guarantee, expect the managers of the money to vampire it away.
