July 15th, 2021 paycheck

Created: Jul 4, 2021

I decided to leave the contribution to my 401(k) the same; 17 percent. Because I don’t have the same amount going to future equipment purchases I could probably increase it; however, I’m not feeling as stable in my employment at the moment and want to ensure cash on hand in case of layoffs, transition periods, or relocation.

This paycheck is awkward because it was available on the first (wasn’t supposed to arrive until the second) and is supposed to be the check used for the fifteenth. I’m still going to stick with the plan to make the moves to various savings accounts and will hold back what I can to pay bills and things until it’s a bit closer to the fifteenth.

1 percent to the Profit account. 2 percent to the Tax account. 47.72 percent to the Invest account. 23.5 percent to the Operating Expense and Runway accounts. The rest to the equipment release accounts.

Things have been a bit crazy at work and I’ve been ordering in food a bit more at the moment; also found out that the app I use splits purchase from tips, which I appreciate but, only the purchase earns the three percent reward not the tips. My housing percentage is roughly 30. The membership fees are also a bit high this year because of the lifetime membership; so, it should be dropping through the rest of the year. Food and dining are roughly equal at the moment, which just reenforces how much cheaper it is to buy food and cook at home.

I’m also seriously debating on dropping the indemnity insurance. I’ve been compiling a list of procedures I’m wanting to have performed before the end of the year. I will be calling the plan provider to ensure qualifying procedures and how much reimbursement and offsetting will be available.

I’m admittedly concerned I’m not putting enough in the Operating Expenses and Runway accounts; this is another reason I’m considering dropping the indemnity insurance, which would recover that expense to establish a more steady baseline. The indicator here is that after projecting paying off my credits cards there isn’t enough to cover half my housing costs from the Operating Expense account. I also don’t have enough history with the Runway account to determine if its steady balance is increasing or steadily decreasing. (The July 1st paycheck was the first one where I transferred funds from the Runway account to the Operating Expense account to cover things.)

The desktop fund has matured and is available. Given I’ve decided if I get a desktop computer it will be a newer Mac mini instead of the 2021 iMac, I can use about half the money saved in the desktop fund to help me dial in.

I’m putting more into the Future Earth pie with M1 Finance than the Brand pie right now to keep moving the overall portfolio into balance. The Future Earth pie has a higher percentage in small- and mid-cap US equities than the Brand pie.