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Finances

March 2019 Debt and Spending Analysis

April 1, 2019May 13, 2019 Leila Leave a comment

Happy April!

I AM DOWN ALMOST $10,000 IN DEBT FROM FEBRUARY 2019!

Now before anyone gets too excited, I have an explanation.

As you know, I moved out on my own and my sister sold our house. We bought the house in 2013, it was a foreclosed home and house prices were lower overall.

Well, fast forward to 2019 and our house gained over $70,000 in equity. To be clear, my name was NOT on the loan. However, I did put a down payment on the house and I had been paying for it monthly.

Throughout 2017 I went several months without paying anything for the house. I had a lot of debt and simply couldn’t afford to. Luckily my sister was kind enough to trust me that I would eventually pay it back to her.

That IOU eventually came out to about $6,750. Plus I wanted to give her an extra $1000 to make up for it.

Well, since we sold the house and I put almost $20K into it, she dropped the money I owed her AND is giving me several thousand dollars. It all works out and I’m very grateful for it.

That it why my debt dropped by almost $10K, most of it was what I owed her, and then I paid off my last credit card.

Oh and that’s another thing, I’M NOW CREDIT CARD DEBT FREE!!

I’ll still be using my credit cards for fixed expenses though (gas, dental bills, a flight, etc.), only to maintain my credit score and to take advantage of the points/miles.

Anyway, let’s get into the good stuff!

From now on I’ll be including my Roth IRA value as well! Once I pay off all my debt, I would like to start sharing my positive net worth too! 🙂

DEBT PAYMENT/INCOME SPREADSHEET

Current FICO Score: 725
Current Debt:
$63,953.65
Roth IRA Value:
$1,595.64

THE GOOD NEWS

I am credit card debt free

I’m pretty excited that all of my high interest credit cards are paid off! I honestly don’t feel much different. I was happy that I paid them off but I feel overwhelmed about how much I still have to go.

I set up automatic Roth IRA investments

I know some people (Mr. Ramsey) don’t believe you should invest while in debt, but I don’t want to waste all this precious time. I have set up automatics payments of $100 to my Roth IRA each month. While it’s not even close to maxing it out each year, it’s still something and it will help in the long run!

March generated over $400 in Mediavine Ad revenue

My page views dipped pretty significantly this month, but I’m just so grateful that I’m making any amount of money consistently from my blog anyway. It’s awesome and I can’t wait to use some of it for paying off more debt!!

THE BAD NEWS

I filed my taxes incorrectly

My full-time income is not taxed. I have to pay my taxes manually every quarter. Well I ended up not reporting my income correctly back in February so I messed everything up. It’s probably going to end up costing me a few hundred in fees. Plus, I’ll have to file an amended tax return and I’ll be going to my tax guy for help, which is going to cost more. Bummer.

At first I was really stressed about it, but it’s not in my control at this moment. I messed up, it’s not the end of the world.

Refinancing my student loans is still a bad option for me

Awhile back I tried to refinance my student loans. I was rejected twice. I tried to co-sign with my dad, but they wouldn’t give me a interest rate without hitting his credit, so I said forget it. This time I tried, and the lowest interest rate I was offered by SoFi was 6.9%. Which is higher than all of my student loan interest rates!! That wouldn’t help me at all.

Another site offered a 5.8% interest rate with a minimum monthly payment of over $900!! HA no thanks. Maybe in a couple of years I’ll try again.

SPENDING

Savings/Sinking Funds: ($180+) I’m not including this in my “spending” total because it’s not actually spending. $180 went to my sinking funds which I’m SO GLAD I’m doing (I use Qapital for sinking funds), and BOA automatically transfers some of my money to my savings for me but I didn’t bother adding it up. I didn’t transfer my usual $1300 to my Marcus account because I will be paying my quarterly taxes the first week of April.

Investing: ($100) Like I said, I set up $100 to auto invest into my Roth IRA each month.

Donate: ($50) Every month I want to donate at least $50. This month I donated to an older blind doggy named Wonder Boy!

Rent: ($1,316) The cost of my one bedroom one bath apartment near Atlanta, GA!

Renter’s insurance: ($16.66) I am required to have renter’s insurance for my apartment.

Trash: ($35) Valet trash is mandatory at my apartment. Dumb, I know.

Wi-fi: ($65) I have Google Fiber. It is $50 a month and then the additional $15 is from the half of February that I had it set up.

Electricity: ($74.37) This includes a $30 service fee (one time fee). The rest is my electricity bill for the month which isn’t too bad!

Water: ($0) I will pay my first water/sewage bill on April 1st.

Food: ($368.83) OK I give up, should I bump my food budget to $400/month?!?! I might as well.

Gas: ($56.21) I got gas twice this month and the price increased a ton over the last couple weeks! I was hoping this would be a bit lower but it’s OK.

Health: ($32.40) This is the price of my Ritual multivitamins.

Car: ($340.73) My minimum payment for my 2015 Toyota Camry is $315.73. I also paid $25 for an emission test. However, since I have a sinking fund for my car maintenance I transferred $25 back to checking account.

Student Loan Debt: I pay $288.37 every month.

Credit Card Debt: ($1,631.90) BYE BYE credit card debt.

Insurance: ($147.15) This includes vision, dental, and life insurance. I have health insurance through work on top of my salary which is really nice.

Business: ($292.33) This includes paying for hosting/my domain for this blog and G Suite (by Google), which is $12.99 and $5 each month. I also pay for a Tailwind membership ($14.99). However, I decided to switch from GoDaddy to SiteGround, so I paid about $160 to make the switch (for the whole year). I also had a $100 giveaway on my YouTube channel!

Google Play: I pay $9.99 to listen to any music ad free.

Lor (Phone bill/car insurance): ($220) Lor = my sister. She pays my phone bill so I pay her for that. I also pay for my dad and step mom’s phone bills because my dad pays for my car insurance…the costs basically equal out. That will be about $220 each month.

Other: ($833.79) This category basically includes unnecessary spending. I wanted to break this down to exactly what I spent my money on.
Amazon Prime – $12.99 (I forgot to cancel my free membership)
Gifts – $27
Can Opener – $32.31 (mine broke)
Energy drinks and deodorant from GNC – $39.09
Amazon – $147.94 (protein powder, The 4 Hour work week, shampoo and conditioner, vegan collagen pills, and balcony lights)
Victoria’s Secret – $70.20 (I needed underwear, they had a sale)
USPS certified mail – $4.20 (letter to the IRS)
AirBnB (half payment) – $316.47 (me and my bf are going to Miami in August!)
Airplane ticket to Boston – $183.59 (In May I am going up to Massachusetts to see my family)

Excluding my savings and debt I spent a total of $3,542.73.

Let’s review my March goals

  • Invest $100 into my Roth IRA CHECK
  • Pay off my last credit card (over $1600) CHECK
  • Make over $600 from Mediavine NOPE

April Goals

  • Put an extra $1000 toward my car loan
  • Make over $600 from Mediavine

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January 2019 Debt and Spending Analysis
5 Ways I Disagree with Dave Ramsey

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I've been vegan for 5 years as of yesterday. It's I've been vegan for 5 years as of yesterday.  It's still the best decision of my life.  I've gained the most strength and look my best as a vegan.  It's also worth mentioning I was vegetarian for 13 years before going vegan, which is why I had to bust out a double bi in photo 3 lol  So yes, I do get enough protein despite not eating animals 😏  As a vegan I've also learned to cook better, eat more types of foods, and have discovered amazing restaurants, recipes, and vegan alternatives all without harming animals.  I never want to push veganism on anyone, but I encourage everyone to explore this lifestyle.  Personally, having an animal suffer for my food, clothes, and products just isn't worth it. Being a perfect vegan isn't necessary, but even small changes can make a large difference.  My sister (@loka1089) made this shirt for me for Christmas by the way!!  #vegan #bekindtoeverykind #veganfortheanimals #veganweightlifting #vegangains #strongvegan #veganwoman #vegananniversary #GoVegan #veganbodybuilding #anythingyoucaneaticaneatvegan #LivinglikeLeila
Happy March!  An update on my February goals:
▪️Pay off my car ✅✅✅🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️  ▪️Jump rope for at least 2 minutes daily ✅ (Well, I missed ONE day but otherwise I enjoyed this challenge a lot)  ▪️Start 'Phase 2' of my training program ✅ (it's more intense than I expected but my strength and body are improving!)  ▪️Finish reading 2-4 books ❌ (I finished 0. I stopped reading a fiction book because it was boring. I've been taking my time reading The Brain That Changes Itself because it requires focus lol)  ▪️Stick to my usual habits better ❌ (Feb was tough for me honestly. Sometimes I have bouts of intense fatigue and lack of motivation which I believe is associated with PMDD. Idk honestly)  March is usually a pretty transformative month for me, so here are my goals:  ▪️Put at least $600 to student loan savings
▪️Make over $1K online
▪️Finish The Brain That Changes Itself
▪️5 minutes of abs daily (new challenge!)
▪️Walk 10K steps daily again
▪️Stick to my habits/routine (for real this time!! I'm feeling better 😊)  #NewMonth #debtfreecommunity #debtfreejourney #blogger #youtuber #goals #february #habits #march #personaldevelopment #strong2021 #fitness #vegan #fitnessgoals #health #healthy #LivinglikeLeila #DebtOverIt
I just wanted to say a big thank you for all the l I just wanted to say a big thank you for all the love and kind words on my previous post ❤🥺  It amazes me that I have this growing community of support and I'm so grateful for it.  I know paying off a car and paying off debt isn't a big thing for everyone, but it's a huge part of my life and I genuinely appreciate that everyone is proud of me and celebrating with me!!  I do hope my progress and my openness on my finances encourages more people to look into theirs and improve it. Improving my finances has made a HUGE difference in my life.  No, money may not buy happiness. But when shit is in order you have less stress, more clarity, and more faith in what's to come👌  These blue light glasses are from @tijneyewear 👓 (gifted)  #thankyou #financialindependence #finance #debtfreecommunity #debtfreejourney #DebtOverIt #blogger #financialcoach #debtcoach #personaldevelopment #neverstopimproving #LivinglikeLeila
I paid off my car today 🙂 27 months EARLY!!! T I paid off my car today 🙂 27 months EARLY!!!  This car should have cost me about $22K, but it ended up being about $30K!!! I'll break down why that is in a future video.  But for the first time in my adult life I am paying $0 in interest right now 😭  I started my debt free journey in June 2018 with $82,200 of debt... I'm now down to ONLY my student loans of $36,200. Which are in forbearance and at 0% interest right now.  This is like a little preview of the debt free life 🥺  Not to mention, my minimum car payment was $382.55 and if I invested that monthly, it would grow to over $200,000 in 20 years.  You may be able to afford that car payment, but it comes with a HUGE sacrifice.  My debt free journey has changed my life and I'm so, so excited for my financial future. 🙏💰  #cardebtfree #finances #debtoverit #cardebt #debtfreecommunity #debtfreejourney #money #finance #studentloandebt #financialfreedom #financialindependence #firemovement #financialindependenceretireearly #TransferTuesday
'Living like Leila' will always be my first born b 'Living like Leila' will always be my first born baby business, but as my personal finance business has significantly grown I've realized I just want LLL to encompass Me.  If you haven't noticed, I am VERY multi-passionate. I love fitness, finance, personal development, veganism, plants, books, food, planning, habits, business. I literally lose sleep at night because I CONSTANTLY have ideas lol  So I know this IG and my LLL YouTube covers everything under the sun, but that's exactly what I want it to be. It's just a digital journal of my life and even though it can be a lot, it's just a reflection of my life and the things I value.  This has allowed me to put less pressure on myself for the content I create, and I truly just enjoy it all as a hobby now.  So I understand that some of my content may not resonate with everyone, but I appreciate ya'll being here 😊❤  And as a side note, if you decide to start an online business...niche down to ONE topic. It will go a lot further, at least from my experience 👀  #multipassionate #livinglikeleila #vegan #personaldevelopment #books #debtfreecommunity #finance #debtfreejourney #business #onlinebusiness #habits #fitness #life
Post-filming, pre-workout selfie ✌ hence the mes Post-filming, pre-workout selfie ✌ hence the mess.  My January finance update and February budget will be up Friday 😊  Also these are the best leggings ever from @ptulaactive  #ptulafamily #ptulaactive #ptula #youtuber #health #fitness #vegan #fit #igfitness #blogger #debtfreecommunity #debtfreejourney #debtoverit #budget #finance #livinglikeleila
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