Hi! Wow, we’re already at the end of September, and I did remember last minute that I had to update you on my financial situation coming from August. It’s a pretty fun month, since I had 3 paychecks due to the weird biweekly situation with pay, and I’m glad to report that there has been a lot of progress in the net worth view as well.
From the financial perspective, here’s what happened:
| Income | $6,500 | 3 paychecks, baby! |
| Expenses | $8,200 | Still haven’t figured out how to adequately measure combined expenses, and also combined income since we split our spending. Maybe count inflow of money from spouse as “income”? |
| Assets | $10,600 | Slowly but steadily adding to investment accounts |
| Debts | $40,700 | Combined student loans |
| Net worth | ($31,800) | |
We added a good chunk of net worth through repaying more of my student loans with a sizeable part of the paychecks. Can’t wait until all those payments are going straight into our investment accounts!
Another thing I wanted to talk about this month was how much I really struggled with feelings of deprivation and how I still intrinsically tie some of those things to purchases. I know logically in my brain that the more aggressively I save, the more I will be able to retire early, but I also live in the fear of not having enough time to enjoy the simple things in life, some of which unfortunately is tied to money. And due to the budget and my spouse and I’s pretty frugal nature, we don’t usually spend on things that aren’t important to us or give us happiness. So I just try to give myself grace and remind myself that this spend is good spend in that it contributes to my quality of life and happiness anyway, and that there is already enough aggressiveness in our saving/repayment rate that our path will still be relatively short compared to others in the rat race.
I had a bad breakdown about this topic because of the guilt I felt with non-necessary spending, and my spouse basically balanced out the guilt I felt with good advice and his more relaxed perspective on our financial path. It feels good to have a partner that can do that, and still be well on our way to an early retirement for both of us.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with our progress for this month, and looking forward to our continued progress in the coming months!
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