Budgets Are Sexy

Here’s what went down in January… Investment changes: We pulled $12k from our brokerage account and funded our Roth IRAs for 2021. Travel refund: Over a year ago we pre-paid for an all-inclusive trip to Mexico for a friend’s wedding, but never got to travel due to covid… Rental Property + Reserve Account: $234,360 (+$1,132): We funded these Roths on January 4, moving money from our after-tax brokerage account.

Some weeks you’ll pick high numbers, sometimes low numbers, but after 50 weeks of saving you’ll have $5,050 in extra cash! Given my average screen time of 28 hours per week, I’d have around ~$1,500 in extra money aka “fines” at the end of a 52 week challenge. Since $5 bills are rare for me, I’m including $50’s in this challenge as well. I wonder how much I can collect in a year of $5’s and $50’s?

I also heard that the center stone in Princess Diana’s famous engagement ring might be a yogo sapphire, so this eradicated my fear of seeming This got me thinking … Instead of buying a sapphire, why don’t I just visit a mine, ask the workers if I can borrow a pick axe, and dig up my own natural sapphire? The guy said he’d charge me $100 for the dirt and $40 for shipping. :) $140 for the stone + $1,250 for the ring stuff = $1,390.

Let’s assume the current 2010 Prius gets swapped out with a gift of a new (used) 2018 Ford Explorer. That’s an increase of $440 compared to the current Prius policy of $301 for 6 months. Annual maintenance: $368 All summed up, looks like accepting the new car would add $2,125 in expenses annually. Paying the extra $2,000 per year now might save a once off $15,000 replacement cost for upgrading the Prius in 5 years.