Where the money went, 2006

[fivemack]

(SLC is the Student Loans Corporation; I have not suddenly become an inadequately-tithe-paying Mormon)


If you compare with 2004



I'm surprised how consistent my habits have been; housing's more expensive (a whole house in Cambridge costs more to rent than half a house in Cheltenham), I've stopped learning to drive, and, worryingly, I seem to have become about 25% meaner when I look at the 'charity' and 'gift.out' segments; this latter I need to do something about.

I should probably apologise in advance to American readers for the invisible sliver that is medical costs, and to the taxpayers of the future for the absence of 'savings' segments, though income tax and pension contributions come straight out of salary and don't show up in the data I use for these graphs.

Comments

Re: TMI

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

If you've got a savings buffer that's fine. You've got the flexibility to stop work of be long-term sick without financial worry, or go off on a RTW trip like Frances.

Taking stuff to Oxfam counts as charity of course.

I wouldn't buy a house now, but what do I know, I thought the market had peaked in 2003 when I sold mine to go RTW.

Re: TMI

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I know Frances. In October 2005 I packed in my previous job and went off on a ten-week RTW (India, Thailand, overland to Singapore, Bali, Taiwan, two days in Tokyo, Canada with papersky), returning to Cambridge where I had parents to stay with until I found a job, and where I knew the job market to have a reasonable number of fivemack-shaped holes, one of which I'd fallen into by March; I think prudence would require me not to do that again for a while, though it was good fun.

The next extravagance will be Japan this summer, a couple of weeks wandering around and then the Worldcon; the job I'm in is interesting, enjoyable, lucrative, does not demand sixty-hour weeks, but isn't very generous with holiday. I don't think I've the drive to do the sort of consulting job from which I could decide every couple of years that I wanted to spend the winter in South America this time, though when it is cold outside and someone's posting photos from Machu Picchu there's quite a temptation there.

Re: TMI

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

I managed 8 months on my RTW, 18 months in 2 jobs I didn't like. I'll be 2 years in Colorado, but I'm planning my 6 months in South America already.I enjoy travelling a lot more than working!

BTW if I broke down my salary like you I'd find I was saving about 60% of my income. Ah the delights of tax-free academic visas and being cured of the urge to buy stuff!

Six months holiday a year would be ideal, but I've like to go back to the same company each time, as spinning up in such a complicated field as supercomputing is very hard..