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

[tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com]

Marriage seems to be a good point to plonk down for a house. You've implicitly said you're going to commit to a person. Committing makes it harder for you to both up and move for a new job (astronomers have to do this every 3 years; not completely unrelated to why I gave up research, not that I have had an SO to worry about for about 5 years now), which means you are more likely to stay put. Which means you can plonk down and don't need to worry about the hassle of selling and buying again in 2 years time when circumstances change.

And if you buy before marriage, what's to say your future SO doesn't also have a house? Then at least one of you have to go through the hassle of selling (and possibly losing a lot of money if you time it wrong relative to this inevitable future crash).