Your Money or Your Life (YMOYL) – January
February 3rd, 2007 § 5 Comments
This year, some time between the 1st and the 7th of each month, I will post the cash flow details of the previous month. I’m sure the way I do it will advance over time, it’ll be pretty rudimentary today.
I’ll start with my income, everything after that is an expense. The expense will be followed by a 0, + or -. 0 means it’s cool, + means I’d like to spend more in that area, – means less. There are some more tricks I’m suppose to use that are in the book, but a friend is reading it right now. One of the tricks is figuring out your real hourly wage (after adding travel time and subtracting costs from the job) and comparing how much you spend to your “life hours” or something.
Income 36,015NT | 1094US
Not a big month for me income wise this month. Can’t say that February will be much better with Chinese New Year’s break and all. I plan on having some good stable hours worked out for March and get my save on all next semester.
“Business” 1,371NT | 41US | 0
“Business” is pretty much my hosting costs. I actually collected enough money from “clients” last year to cover my and their hosting expenses for a year so I suppose that’s OK.
Com. (Cell/DSL/House) 3,848NT | 117US | -
I’m not going to split it all up, but I know I can reduce my cellphone bill, and maybe even DSL if I pay attention to what plan I’m on.
Food 6,811NT | 207US | +
This includes all junk food, nice places, groceries and all that. I think it’s lower than it should be because my wife buys a bunch of stuff that I don’t know about. I’ll have to contribute more to the nice dinners at home fund. Junk food was really low last month at 543NT (17US.)
Health 2,460NT | 75US | 0
I can’t complain complain about health care costs like these. That represents the monthly fee for health insurance (might be off a bit) and what I pay for a hospital visit and medication refill.
Recreation and Leisure 1,440NT | 44US | +
WTF?!? Only 44 bucks on R&R? More than half of it is beer. The other 40% went to a board game I bought and played last weekend (I’ll get pictures up.) Actually, I should be happy about that I suppose. Most of my leisure time is spent online, playing a video game, reading a book or drinking beer I suppose. All really cheap past times for me. It still wouldn’t hurt bumping up how much I spent in this category 
.
Shelter 9,000NT | 273US | -
There’s not a whole lot to do with this number. This is half of rent (I split it with wife.) The extra space we have here will come in handy in March when the Brazial Black Belt comes. He’ll be staying at my place.
Transportation 2142NT | 65US | 0
I’ve already paid for my scooter and gas is cheap. This number is a little higher than it should be because I was taking a train to Yingge 4 days a week, plus an extra 2 MRT trips. There’s also some Taxi fees in there now that I’m a resposible drinker.
Misc ???
There are some small things I didn’t include. ATM fees, a light starter thing for some light bulbs, things like that.
Income – Expenses 8382NT | 254US
Considering that this is one of my lowest earning Taiwan months, I’m quite happy that I came out positive. I’m sure that my new habit of tracking my expenses has helped. One of the first things that happens when you can look back on where you money went over a month’s time is you start finding out where you can reduce unnecessary spending. Now I best start working on leveling up my monthly income.
Thoughts
I’m really pleased with the results I’ve gotten from following the steps in the book “You Money or Your Life.” I would recommend this book to anyone. If your looking for a book that will help you get your finances under control, it’s for you. Even if you already have your finances under control and do the investing stuff, I think there are still some gems in here for you. This book is about getting Financially Independent. This book helps you find that balance between money and good times.
This was fun. I’m looking forward to next month.
Wow, that was great. I got that book over 10 years ago. Now if I could only do so good at tracking my expenses. I’ll have to soon when my income drops by 2/3.
Yeah, I think I’ll have a more detailed account for the March version (that’ll come out in April.) Maybe even the February version. I bought the book about 1.5 years ago and it took about 1 year before I stayed stable with the daily tracking. I’m always improving my system, so it get easier and easier as time goes by.
You make me proud.
hi, miltownkid
[...] Posted on August 5, 2010 by miltownkid MAN! The last time I attempted to do this was back in February of 2007! Over 3 years ago! My goal with posting this is to keep myself more accountable about my spending [...]