r/personalfinance • u/WhiskeySauer ​ • Dec 07 '16

My 6-Year Journey from $60K College Debt to $115K Net Worth & 816 Credit Score [OC] Other

Getting a good job, paying off your debts, living cheaply, and saving as much as you can is straightforward advice, but it has always been hard for to me follow it without having something to visualize. So I started doing all of my budgeting on my own in MS excel and I’m using it to help me visualize my financial decisions and plan out my strategy to retire early. Here’s the total breakdown of how I have spent every dollar I’ve earned over the last 6 years. By keeping my expenses super low I was able to pay off my debts pretty quickly and my credit score spiked to over 800.

http://imgur.com/WEPAfry

Another great thing about budgeting on my own is that I can plan out the future easier. Here’s my projected spending into year 2030.

http://imgur.com/HRhyANF

If you're interested, here’s how I gather the data to make these spreadsheets:

http://imgur.com/a/zbWa2

And here is a link to my spreadsheet template if you want to start your own budget for 2017:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0/view

Disclaimer: This is a cross-post from /r/financialindependence that I'm bringing here based off the attention the post received on my budget/chart layout.

edit: grammar

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u/aint_got_time Dec 08 '16

This. OP please address this. I also make $30,000 more than you and my bi weekly checks are ~2350, and I pay $0 for health insurance, and 8% 401k contribution. I'm at 3/3 state/fed exemptions. Are you withholding 10 and paying a massive tax bill at the end of the year? Looks like you're not paying anywhere CLOSE to the taxes you owe.

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u/CEdotGOV ​ Dec 08 '16

The OP mentions that he is an officer in the military. Military compensation is not just your base pay, but also includes tax free allowances as well, the main ones being Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH).

The allowances can actually end up being a substantial portion of your take home pay and therefore, your taxable income ends up being appreciably lower compared to civilian pay.

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '16

Also, depending on what state he claims as residency he won't have to pay state taxes.

There are also deployments to tax-free locations(though I'm not sure how often his career field deploys), which can last months out of every year.

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u/WhiskeySauer ​ Dec 08 '16

Right. I've taken advantage of about every tax incentive I can qualify for. I declared residency in FL to curtail state taxes, i opted to live off base and pocket tax free BAH, i also choose DITY moves and go TDY via POV if I can to get the reimbursements. And obviously combat zone tax exclusion was a huge contributing factor.

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '16

What's a non combat engineer doing in a combat zone? Was it when Saudi Arabia or other neighboring states counted as one?

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '16

Qatar is still tax-free last I heard.

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '16

hes military, way different type of pay and taxes than regular people.

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u/RedStag00 ​ Dec 08 '16

3/3 state/fed exemptions

Why so many exemptions?