This diary entry follows a wildlife biologist with a $137,000 joint income as she tracks her spending over a week. From rent and groceries to birthday gifts and retirement savings, we get a glimpse into her financial habits and the anxieties surrounding money that many individuals experience.
This diary was written prior to the current fires in LA starting; otherwise my week would probably have looked quite different. As a biologist in southern California, I have learned a lot about the importance of fire regimes for our native vegetation. There is a delicate balance between wildfires and the ecosystem, which has tipped dangerously in one direction due to population increases, mismanagement of habitat, and habitat loss.
I urge everyone interested to read more about the topic; [this is a great resource](link to resource). I am sending warm wishes to any readers who are affected by the fires, and the hope that this will be over soon. My boyfriend makes about $70,000 a year. We live together, and we split finances 50/50. We don’t have any shared accounts or a super defined way of splitting bills — we split rent/utilities etc in half, and then total up groceries, cleaning supplies, dinners out at the end of the month and make sure the cost is about equal for each of us. Usually I do all of the grocery shopping (because I love grocery shopping, lol) and my boyfriend usually buys any food out at restaurants and other expenses.Checking account: $7,500; HYSA: $8,050; Roth IRA: $5,780; 401(k): $2,020 (I contribute 6% of each paycheck, but get no match from my employer). I am not sure exactly how much my boyfriend has in retirement/savings. He is a freelancer, so has no employer benefits or 401(k). We both opened Roth IRAs earlier this year after my parents suggested I open one. He currently has very little in savings as he was unemployed most of last year due to strikes in his industry (film industry).$1,650 for my half of the rent on a two-bedroom apartment. This includes water, electric, trash, and a tandem parking spot.$400 a month to my HYSA (this amount is automatically withdrawn from my checking account to my HYSA each month. I use YNAB, so I am usually saving more per month than this, but the $400 is specifically for my “emergency fund” as opposed to dollars I put towards saving for specific things in YNAB).Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it? Yes, it was expected that I go to college. I went to an in-state school for my undergrad. I got a scholarship that partially paid for my tuition, and my parents paid for the rest. The scholarship was merit-based; if I hadn’t gotten it, my parents would have been able to pay for all of my college costs. They paid for my housing, food, and all other expenses. I also got a master of science, and attended two and a half years of a PhD program (which I eventually quit due to a toxic advisor and a realization that academia wasn’t for me). I did not have to pay tuition for either grad program, and got a stipend for both (about $1,000 a month during the master’s and $2,500 a month during the PhD). My parents helped me pay for my rent and all other expenses my stipend did not cover during this time. Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s)/guardian(s) educate you about finances? My parents did not have many conversations about money with me growing up. They would often talk about immigrating to the US from a European country in their late 20s with little money and no job prospects, and how they worked really hard to be where they are now. But most of these conversations were focused on the importance of working hard and doing well in school, not so much on the money aspect. Since I have been working at my first real job after grad school, they have been having more conversations with me on how much I should be contributing to retirement accounts and savings etc., which has been really helpful.My first job (not counting being a TA or doing research in grad school) is the job I have now. After quitting my PhD, I moved in with my parents (I was living in another state for the PhD) and took about a month off just doing nothing. I did not really plan to quit the PhD — it was a build-up over time and one day I had a bit of a breakdown and realized I just couldn’t do it anymore — so I had no real plan of what I was doing next. I then began applying for environmental consulting jobs (my degrees were in ecology and conservation biology, and my research was focused on birds) and my current job is the first one I got.No. I grew up in a bubble — my parents had/have well-paying jobs, and so did (or at least I assume) all of my parents’ friends. Only when I went to college did I really encounter people who were not well-off.I worry a lot about topics related to money, but not money directl
Money Management Spending Habits Financial Anxiety Wildlife Biology Retirement Savings Relationship Finances
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