Relief!
October came and went without any major unplanned expenses. It felt good to see my weekly Personal Capital report showing a nice smooth expense chart and approximately $4900 lower spending than the last month (which is what I expected without the car and vet bills from last month).
We do have an outstanding balance remaining for the vet bill so the Goal for debt reduction is off track. I expect to pay it off with an RSU that is vesting on Dec.1. More than likely I will pay a little interest on this since the bill is due before the stock vests. Based on my calculations it will be around $50 which is less than it would cost to transfer the balance to my Chase Slate card.
Current Goal Status:
- Reduce overall outstanding debt (including mortgage) by 10%.
- At the end of October, overall debt reduction is 7.77%. This dropped from 8.69% last month due to the outstanding vet bill. Year-end projection is currently 8.87% if we don’t clear that bill.
- Make contributions to investments (taxable and retirement) of 10% of salary.
- Combined saving in investment accounts dropped to 10.06% from 10.71% last month. I made a withdrawal of $900 from a taxable investment account to cover the truck bill.
- Unless we need to withdraw more to cover an unexpected expense, this goal is still on track.
- Eliminate any monthly interest payments due to credit cards.
- We maintained $0 in credit card interest in Oct. for a seven month streak.
- Of the $3200 balance increase from veterinary surgery, ~$2400 remains on the card. We will be able to reduce this a bit more before the bill is due on Nov. 19th. As I mentioned earlier, we may pay a bit of interest on this.
Total expenses for October fell to $6969 which was the lowest of the year. Net cash flow was positive at $2028!
Dining out and entertainment/alcohol expenses were both second to lowest for this month. I am continuing my commitment to cut back in those areas for the remainder of the year but may make an exception for the holiday season.
Getting closer. Cheers!
-cb3