Payday breakfast

Because today is payday. I'm usually excited when money comes and who isn't? This is my favorite part of the month and it is not really that I go in a spending spree or paying last month expenses or credit card.
One of my first posts here in Steemit was about the rat race and how o cut credit card and what were my reasons for that.

I'll explain today how I'm currently making a distribution of my income and how it was and how it is now.

I'm currently paying a little above 36% on mortgage and house loan, yep they are separate.

Around 14% goes to different saving products. Around the same goes to different groceries expenses but will not past above 14%.

Around 21% will go directly to my healthcare and pension fund. This is a whole topic on how it works in Costa Rica but that amount is also excluding the taxes and everything else before hand, so if you are an employee chances that you can avoid taxes are zero, none.

So then I have around 15% of money for gas, beers and other expenses like internet, mobile bill,etc. I even have a cash saving jar and I also have some USD in cash so if I ever need them will have them handy.

Almost 3 years ago I did not know this numbers or percentages, every time I got paid I would do 2 things, make saving transfers and pay credit card, and this was funny because I had to work a whole month to get paid the last working day, then I paid credit card for what I had spend the whole past month ( no interest as I usually could pay the whole thing) and then start using credit card for the next month expenses,so there was no control, no budget and no realization when I had overspent in a category.

What change after I cut the credit card was about 3-4 months struggling to make ends meet because again I had to pay what I own to the credit card for the last month I used it, live with what was left and survive until next payment. It was really hard but now given almost 3 years of strict control and budgeting I find it more than pleasant when money comes as:

• last month was paid fully and it is gone.
• New salary is used and spent accordingly to the budget and most big purchases are planned.
• Once I managed to cover the basic expenses there is some money left for savings, emergency fund and even vacation fund ( trust me they are more fun once they are fully paid before hand).
• I think this whole transformation was inspired by reading FIRE articles and blogs. I won't say I'm there yet but sure I feel like I'm on track and even if I never managed to retire early I can clearly see the benefits of a life less stressed out by money.

You can see how the ups and downs have been along the way, there is no linear path to improving your finances it is like a rollercoaster that once you get to know it because very easy to anticipate and prepare. You can see when balance has been negative means major purchases or emergencies have happened.

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