MBN Group Writing Project: My finances ten years back

May 22nd, 2008 | by User Imagembhunter |

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(This post is part of an MBN Group Writing Project.)

JD came up with this topic for our monthly group writing project:

Compare your personal finances today with how they were ten years ago (or, if you weren’t yet in college, “during college”).

I was in graduate school ten years ago. It was my fourth year of a six-year run for my PhD. At the time I was in my own apartment ($400/month, included everything) and had a car. (Gas was in the low-$1 range so it wasn’t a big expense.) My take-home was about $600 every two weeks from my research stipend. Fortunately I didn’t have any debt at all (thanks Mom and Dad!) I had been living in an apartment with two roommates for less than half the rent, but those circumstances changed and I had my own pad for a while. I was putting money away each month in a stock index fund rather naively — this was right before that bubble — but at the time I was enjoying my little nest egg. Things were pretty simple, if slightly Spartan.

Now, I’m making a bit more than $600 every two weeks, but my mortgage payment is twice what my rent was, and I’m supporting a family largely on my income. Plus there are other considerations like life insurance, health insurance, property maintenance, multiple vehicle maintenance, and higher gas prices. We’re saving for retirement expenses and other things.

Overall I know that I’m much better off in absolute net worth than I was ten years ago, but it’s definitely more of a challenge to keep that going upward with the other expenses of having a family. I wouldn’t ever want to go back, though.

How have your finances changed over the past ten years?

Here are some of the other posts from the writing project:

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