Hello! I'm 23 and will start my first real job in February next year. I'm currently single, frugal, and not too tied to any one place yet.
I live in an area where public transit is decent enough to get me to work and back, so I am planning not to have a car for now. I do ride a motorcycle for fun, commuting on nicer days, and for the occasional longer trip. I might get an e-bike to shorten up commute times on less nice days.
Note that I do not have any student debt due to picking a college where I had nearly a full ride (not quite, but youth savings + internships covered the rest).
My personal rule of thumb is a modified version of the 50/30/20 rule that focuses on aggressive investment:
- Based on after-tax, after employer Roth 401k match income
- 50% savings/investments
- 30% needs (basic rent, food to survive, transit, basic wellness)
- 20% wants (motorcycle stuff, eating out, etc.). I deserve to treat myself somewhat.
"Spending" money is money that I can spend at my discretion, even if it counts for a need. So groceries and transit fares count as spending money, but a gym membership or motorcycle insurance doesn't because those are constant pre-planned expenses.
I'd like your feedback on my model and comparisons between your plans!
The clothes and shoes fall under miscellaneous needs. I rarely need new clothes since I don't care much about fashion.
I have thought about separating wants into a short term and medium term wants categories. For now I'm keeping them together, and if I have a lot of money stored up, I can unleash it on a larger trip (probably motorcycle track days...)
I have a 2012 Triumph Street Triple 675R, and it's the perfect bike for me. It's stupidly fast, very agile, and I am simply nowhere near the capability of this motorcycle. I plan on keeping it until it either blows up, gets totaled, or if I move or give up motorcycling altogether. If I did get another motorcycle it would be something like a Kawasaki Z125 to mess around on.