2016 – Yearly Expenses

While 2015 was financially spectacular, I did not achieve similar results in 2016. In the beginning of the year I bet on a rallye (didn’t happen) and in the final month on the year I bet on a decline (also didn’t happen). So I lost needlessly money. In between were some good months, so in the end all was okay (but not spectacular).

2012 – 2016 in comparison

But in this post we talk about the expenses, so let’s compare the years:

• 2012 – 42k
• 2013 – 44k
• 2014 – 33k
• 2015 – 34k
• 2016 – 35k

I was expecting rising expenses and wanted to stay below 36k (stretch goal was to stay below 2015’s level). For 2017 I’m expecting slightly lower expenses (around 100 Euros each month).

Expenses by Category

• pension payments – 18 %
• children – 16 %
• housing – 15 %
• groceries – 13 %
• car – 7 %
• travel – 5 %
• clothes – 5 %

Children related expenses jump from the 4th place last year (13 % back then) to the second place this year. We did more vacations than 2015 (or at least paid more for it) and my wife bought a lot of clothes (for our standards).

Goals for 2017

• yearly expenses below 2016 level
• net worth of 450k

I have not really thought about other goals. So maybe I will add some during the year.

Savings Rates for 2014 – 2016

Reader Niterainbow asked about my savings rate. I could not answer it, because I never calculated it. I was very interested in this as well:

• 2014 – 38 %
• 2015 – 41 %
• 2016 – 41 %

For 2017 I predict over 50 %. As I’m now working full-time again we will earn more. Above 50 % is a nice number!

What is even more interesting (at least to me), is that in all 3 years our expenses would have been covered without my salary. I calculated it like this: yearly net worth gain – my net salary. This number was positive even in 2014 (were the net worth gain was only 33.4k).