I crunch numbers every financial quarter to ensure I am staying on track with my Big Picture Budget for the year. I break-down all expenses into specific categories and track them between quarters to make sure there are no alarming surprises. This time, I am covering my Q2 2019 finances.
For the sake of simplicity, all finances discussed in this series will be post-payroll amounts, meaning only my take-home pay exclusive of taxes, 401K, and other benefits.
Make sure to read Financial Check-In: Q1 2019 for comparative value.
The Budget
After Q1, I decided to have 1 more aggressive saving quarter since we are planning to travel a lot in the 2nd half of the year. Having 2 back-to-back aggressive saving quarters has allowed for added flexibility in the budget if needed.
It was a good thing that my budget was flexible this quarter, because we took a last minute All Inclusive getaway and applied for a new credit card that had a great sign-up bonus. The sign-up bonus was for 80,000 Reward Points, which paid for our Italy Trip flights! To get the sign-up bonus, we had to spend $5,000 in 3 months which resulted in some additional spending but not by much since we reverted some of our normal spending to the credit card.
The Report
Previous Reports
The Analysis
Looking at the Q2 Report, my saving was not as aggressive as I had planned, but still not bad at 40% of my expenses. The categories for Bills and Entertainment saw decreases while every other category saw increases. Expenses on Travel increased by 11% which accounted for most of the decrease in my savings.
For Q3, I expect the Travel budget to stay about the same with anticipated decreases in Bills and Merchandise. If I stay at the same Savings budget, I am still far ahead of my annual savings goal.
