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Welder: My budget and planning for the future

Neil talks about his budget, the added benefit of per diem, and catching up on retirement savings.

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Video transcript

My name is Neil, I am 32. I'm a welder and I make, usually, between $70,000 and $90,000 a year. This job is first job I've ever had where if feel truly 100% totally secure. That's a good feeling. I make between 70 and $90,000 a year. Because I work hourly it kind of varies, so I'll pick 80. That brings the monthly pre-tax, about $8,333. They take out the usual taxes and health benefits and my 401k. They take about 1760 for that. Brings the take-home monthly to about 5,280. I also get on top of that, which is non-taxed, I get a per diem, which is the living expenses. That's the money that we get to live where we're working at for the job. But because I don't maintain a permanent residence, I basically get to bank that. That is $805 a week currently. It kind of tends to vary a little bit based on where. That's about $3,200 a month, which brings my monthly take-home to about $8,450. The rent that I pay, obviously, varies again, depending on where I'm living. Right now it's about $1,200 a month. Usually the living situations that I end up in, I don't have to pay utilities or internet or anything like that. I do have my phone, which is about $75 a month. I own a car so I don't have a car payment. But you gotta put gas in it and keep it on the road. It's kind of old so it takes a lot to keep it on the road. That's $200 a month. I have $0 is student loans for the reason that my grandfather thankfully and very wisely set up a savings plan for my college and education when I was young. Don't cook that often, but when I do cook, I like to eat healthy organic food that costs a lot of money. I would say I spend about $200 a month on food. Few monthly expenses, namely Netflix and Spotify. So that comes to about $25 a month. I do, because I'm a welder, you need to own your own tools. I spend more on tools than the bare minimum. I end up usually spending about $500 a month just for things that I want or think are cool. I eat out a lot. It's just easier when you don't have a total permanent residence to live at. So I would say I averagely spend about $1,500 a month eating out in restaurant and entertainment and that kind of thing. That brings my total savings to $5,280. Every week I take 30% off of my check and I save it in two separate savings accounts. One is for the ultimate savings account for when I retire a long time from now. The other one is kind of a fun that I might use to buy a house eventually. I save 30% every week, so that ends up being about $1,500 a month, which brings my total monthly in the black number to $3,250. At the end of the job if I feel like I have enough money, and I want to take some time off, I'll ask the company if maybe I can take two months off or something. I like to focus on my physical health. Like I said, welding is hard on your body. So I like to really focus on my physical health and getting my body healthy so that I can do those long grueling days. I like to travel too. Go to places and seeing things. I have friends throughout the country who I've visited since I've been doing this. I have the time and the money to go visit them. The thing I wish that I had known earlier is the money you save when you're young is worth more than the money you save when you're old, because of interest. Money, when you save in your teens and 20s, which I didn't save anything when I was those ages, but if you do that money grows over the course of your life. Money that you save when you're in your 30s and your 40s and your 50s does not have as much time to grow. You can go on the internet and look at all kinds of graphs about how dramatic this effect is. That's one of the reasons I save so much, is I didn't really save anything until I was 30. So I'm behind the ball on where you should be.