The amounts below are cash amounts and are net of taxes, insurance, 401k contributions, HSA, etc. In other words, the amounts are what get deposited and withdrawn from my accounts.
Day job (take home pay) --- $11890
Dividends/Interest --- $185
Total net income --- $12075
Expenses --- $10806 (Taken from Mint)
Savings $1269 --- Rate 10.51% (DOUBLE OUCH!!)
What in the hell happened?? What didn't is the better question!
First the good news! I had my best income month of the year and even better I hit the payroll tax limit in July so I got to keep an extra 6% or so which helped increase my take home pay. Business is also booming in September, so hopefully most of Houston's woes are behind us.
Now for the expenses....The biggest expense can be seen in the picture above. While it is true that I prepaid all the hotel and theme park related expenses a few months ago, that as many know was just the beginning.
Since we took a road trip, additional hotel, gas, and food expenses were incurred. On the way back to Houston, we hit the Baton Rouge floods and had to take shelter which added another few hundred to the expense totals.
Those were the small expenses. If you think you are going to take a trip to Disney World with two kids and get out cheap, you really need to pull your head out of your ass!! Mickey and his crew are very well trained at extracting every penny they can out of your pockets. LOL I have been to theme parks before, but nothing compares to DW. Literally every major ride ends inside a gift shop! I spent so much money on photo packages, Mickey ears, t-shirts, backpacks, and a ton of other cool shit.
On top of the onslaught of merchandise, the payment method was always a quick easy scan of my DW bracelet which might as well be a portal which connects my bank account to their cash registers.
All in all, it was a fantastic month and the memories will last a lifetime! The whole experience is another reason I recently started to accumulate Disney stock. They have one of the best run companies I have ever seen and create an insane experience for everyone who visits!!
Other notable expenses included a new refrigerator ($1800), yearly homeowners insurance, 6 month auto insurance, and back to school expenses. The month was a perfect storm of expenses, unfortunately I've hit several of these storms already this year. Oh well, life is about the living and I have had some of the best adventures this year.
I can't wait to go back in a few years...
There is a big world out there and I want to see as much of it as possible!
DEFY MEDIOCRITY
