Ever calculate how much you earned during your career?

[JDgreen227]

I look back on the year and wonder where I spent it, but never over my entire life. Just going through my monthly bank statement overwhelms me!!!!!

Eddie

Eddie...I have kept a very detailed PAPER BUDGET since 1988...and can tell you how much I spent for the month of December 1992 on gasoline or how much my electric bill was in May of '98, or whatever....get this comparison:

Electric bill, May '89....$31...900 square foot house, electric water heater...same house in May '99 the same bill had gone to $63 a month....then I built on to enlarge the house to 2450 square feet and converted to a gas water heater...and the electric bill for May 2009 was $147 !!!!

People who fail to budget or don't keep track of their spending are simply clueless as to where their money goes...keeping a budget makes it REAL. BTW, I earned near a million dollars during my working career but the smartest thing I did with it was invest $150 grand into a 457K and $47 grand into SS...not that I had a choice about the latter.

 

[radioman]

True. I started to keep paper track of earnings back in 80s but I quickly realized there is no point as my wanting to have place to stay and be able to eat just tells me my earnings is crap. Now I'm semi retired and I'm done messing around with budget. Just payoff your debts that's on paper and live cash only is the ticket to life.

 

[JDgreen227]

True. I started to keep paper track of earnings back in 80s but I quickly realized there is no point as my wanting to have place to stay and be able to eat just tells me my earnings is crap. Now I'm semi retired and I'm done messing around with budget. Just payoff your debts that's on paper and live cash only is the ticket to life.

And MY budget tells me I can easily afford a brand new tractor... does that mean I am going to buy one? No. But it DOES mean I know where my money is going...it's as simple as that.

 

[newbury]

My attitude was nurtured by my Father and Grandfather. When I was about 6 my Father started telling people that when I had a penny I held my money so tight you could hear Lincoln scream.

 

[Parkanzky]

I have a spreadsheet with a tab for every month going back about 6.5 years. I have projections for income and for spending for each item (i.e. Approx how much we'll spend on average on gas/electric, groceries, dining out, clothing, cable/internet, etc. every month). It is a record of every dime we've taken in and every dime we've spent in that time and it's extremely useful when it comes to making long-term financial goals.

We bought this house four months ago, and the spreadsheet helped me to understand how much I'd be able to save every month for the downpayment and "transitional costs," how easily we could afford the higher monthly costs associated with this place, and what our new savings rate would be going forward. Knowing how it was going to look took a lot of stress out of the decision.

 

[Silvic]

Not an advertisement for Intuit but I have been using Quicken in its many versions since 1992, before that all was on paper in notebooks.

While I can not say we are perfect we write up cash receipts for any cash we spend and that gets entered into the program along with everything else. I have very little cash that is unaccounted for on a yearly basis and using the categories and making more subcategories in Quicken, I track just about every penny that is spent. (less than 1/2 of 1 percent of income is unaccounted for, for example cash a $100 check and more than $99.50 of it is traceable as to where it went)
The program will supply graphs, tables, pie charts, whatever you want to show you where your money is being spent. Yes it takes a bit a time to get it set up, but once up and running, it is easy. For tracking expenses and knowing where your money goes it is an invaluable tool. In addition it makes tax time easier.

 

[MacLawn]

When ye parents were married in '34, ye get frugality flowing in ye blood.

This 30% taxes ye think ye paid? Did ye count sales tax, gasoline tax, state income tax if ye state has it, tax on paying ye tax, property tax, another tax on paying ye tax - y'all get the picture. I figure I'm paying closer to 50% total taxes than 30%.

How much I've made? Eh, it comes, it goes. Been paying into SS since '61, haven't take a dime - yet - but if I can survive until February, me first SS lucres, Gubmint check I tell ye, should come to me credit union account.

 

[ovrszd]

but the smartest thing I did with it was invest $150 grand into a 457K .

I've got $125K in a plan. I draw $10K a year from it. It still grows every year. Only thing wrong with it is I should have tripled my investment.....

 

[ovrszd]

True. I started to keep paper track of earnings back in 80s but I quickly realized there is no point as my wanting to have place to stay and be able to eat just tells me my earnings is crap. Now I'm semi retired and I'm done messing around with budget. Just payoff your debts that's on paper and live cash only is the ticket to life.

I totally agree. Financially comfortable retirement isn't dependent on how much income you'll have. It's dependent on how much debt you have.

 

[ovrszd]

Not an advertisement for Intuit but I have been using Quicken in its many versions since 1992, before that all was on paper in notebooks.

While I can not say we are perfect we write up cash receipts for any cash we spend and that gets entered into the program along with everything else. I have very little cash that is unaccounted for on a yearly basis and using the categories and making more subcategories in Quicken, I track just about every penny that is spent. (less than 1/2 of 1 percent of income is unaccounted for, for example cash a $100 check and more than $99.50 of it is traceable as to where it went)
The program will supply graphs, tables, pie charts, whatever you want to show you where your money is being spent. Yes it takes a bit a time to get it set up, but once up and running, it is easy. For tracking expenses and knowing where your money goes it is an invaluable tool. In addition it makes tax time easier.

Then you are the perfect person to answer the question of how much of each dollar is spent serving taxes???