September-October Expenses

Thanks to the very kind and friendly JLCollins of the blog of the same name I experienced a slight bump in traffic recently.  I hope some interested eyes have perused my ramblings thus far.  Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question or just want to introduce yourself.  I'll start really quickly:  My names "The Kechi One."  It's a nickname I gave myself.  "Kechi" in Japanese means "cheap" but I'm taking it back and calling it for what it really is frugality.  I have lived in Japan for about five and half years and really enjoy it.  I work at a private high school where I teach English.  I also have a few side jobs.  Last December I paid off all of my debts including student loans, credit card, and car loans.  After, I made the decision to start investing.  This blog it about my journey towards building a portfolio that will allow me to retire by the time I'm forty. 

I like to blog about Japan and why it's a great place to work while going towards FI, biking, my investments and expenses, or anything else that just happens to catch my interest.  I hope you enjoy your stay.

Back to business: 

I get paid on the fifteenth of every months so I track my expenses from the fifteenth of one month to the fourteenth of the next.  In this case we are looking at September fifteenth to October fourteenth.  This was the first month back to basics in that I'm not trying to split expenses between yen and dollars.  In August I was back in the states and it was much more difficult to track.  Here we go!

Income:  ¥317,813

This is for my regular job and my part time job.  This was my second lowest income month for the year.  A big part of that is that I am now paying my city taxes which knocks about ¥20,000 off each paycheck.

Expenses:

 

Total Expenses:   ¥185,167

And as always expenses by day:

 

 Transportation jumped up this month as I was paying off my bullet train pass from the previous month on my credit card.  My bike expenses also were up this month as I purchased a really nice handlebar bag, a good pump with a built-in pressure gauge, and also a set of fenders.  I'm going to do a whole blog post soon on how much my bike has cost me and also how much it has made me.

Doing all of the math then that puts me at a 42% savings rate for the period of September to October.  This is below my annual goal of 65% and puts my average savings rate for the year at 46%.  My savings rates so far for the year have been:

January  58.66%
February  65.25%
March 50.68%
April  -4.40%
May  63.14%
June  39.87%
July 40.08%
August  48.32%
September  41.74%

Not to completely ditch my goal of 65% but I figure if I can pull this number up above 50% for the year I'd be very happy.  That would mean I saved/invested half of every single yen I made even while taking a very unmustachian vacation, buying a new $1000 cycolocross bike and accessories, and still enjoying quite a bit of going out.  I know I can do better however.

Thanks for tuning in!  How are you doing for the year?