Submitted by thrawayfinance t3_10o909d in personalfinance
So my income (pretax) is $165K. $140K base, $25K bonus.
- $280 put into Roth every month
- $390 put into pre tax 401k every month
- $330 match from my company
So I take home about $6,600 every month
Expenses every month
- $1,500 rent (I live with a roommate)
- $2,000 I automatically put away towards my house fund
NOW I think overall I’m doing pretty good.
But every month I’m spending around $3,000 on my credit and that’s inclusive of
- food
- transportation
- travel
- entertainment
- shopping
Should I be thinking of it like, ok I’m putting money into savings (401k, Roth and savings) so I’m free to spend whatever I want on everything else? Which is kind of what I have been doing.
Or should I actively be working harder to spend less? I could definitely tighten the purse strings. But I mostly spend money on outings with friends/trips and sometimes I think it’s worth spending on stuff like this because it makes me happy.
A compromise I thought of is that when I get my bonus. I’m just going to put it automatically into savings. Then keep spending the way I’ve been spending.
But am I being egregious with my spending at my income level?
UPDATE Edit: thanks for all of the advice! I think it’s clear now that if I up my retirement savings, it would help curb my spending a bit. So two birds with one stone really.
I upped my 401K to 16% (from 7%) I dropped my Roth 401K to 4% (from 5%)
This will allow me to reach my cap for the year. I could put more into my Roth 401K but I think I need to educate myself more on what that actually is and how it benefits me.