Welcome to The Pickup’s Money Journal series, where we (anonymously) snoop on our Tulsa neighbors’ finances. Want to be snooped on yourself? Fill out our Money Journal submission form, or email Matt Carney at matt@thepickup.com. Thanks to our pals at Racket for sharing this format with us.
Job: Program Manager
Age: 33
Neighborhood: North Tulsa
Education: Bachelor’s degree
Estimated annual income: $92,000
Partner's salary: N/A since we live separately right now
Dependents: None now, but hopefully a couple in the next few years :)
Estimated net worth: $168,000
DEBT
Home mortgage
ASSETS
House, car, 403b, Roth IRA, brokerage account
MONTHLY INCOME
Full time job
A little income from renting out a room in my house every now and then
MONTHLY EXPENSES
Normal things like mortgage and house expenses (owning a house costs waaaay more than just the mortgage), food, car insurance, phone, monthly house cleaning, gym membership.
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MONEY TALK
Did your family talk about money growing up?
My dad taught us to save our allowance and to be honest with money. As my siblings and I got older, he opened up bank accounts for us and encouraged us to speak with his financial advisor who had become a family friend. I took him up on it and she gave me good advice, although as an early twenty-something at the time, I didn't fully understand my 401k package offerings. It felt like another language. I understand retirement packages much better now. When it came to actively budgeting and learning how to invest and manage my assets, I mostly taught myself as an adult with books, podcasts, YouTube, and talking to trusted adults and mentors.
Did you worry about money growing up?
No, I didn't. I know now that I had one parent who was super financially stable and one who was less so, but my parents were good at making sure any financial discussions or hardships didn't impact our psychological safety.
At what age did you become financially self-reliant?
I was working and living on my own in another city by 22, but I job-hopped a lot in my twenties and stayed with family for a couple stints (several months the first time, and then for a good chunk of COVID in 2020) before finding the next job. Because of that, I would say I became truly financially self-reliant at 28, which feels a little embarrassing to write out. A little over 5 years ago, I went from making under $40,000 a year to $60,000, and since then, my salary has only gone up, so that's helped a lot with stability and self-reliance.
How did you learn to keep a budget?
Google Spreadsheets! I looked up other people's spreadsheets and made my own. When I was living in New York in my early twenties and making about $35,000 a year, I put every dollar I spent into a spreadsheet. New York was insanely expensive and taxes were very high; I had to track everything carefully otherwise I'd easily spend more than I made. Meal prepping saved my budget. I don't budget so closely anymore, but I do review my spending on a quarterly basis and adjust as needed. Now I use Ramit Sethi's Conscious Spending Plan to get a more birds eye monthly view.
Have you ever received inherited income, major financial gifts or a large insurance payout?
My dad gifted me $6,000 as part of the down payment for my house. I didn't do it alone!
Do you worry about money now?
I do worry. I see how precarious everything is. No job is guaranteed. An increasing number of people who've been laid off from tech and other industry sectors in recent years have reported being unemployed and actively seeking work for up to a year. That's scary. I worry about friends and family losing jobs and suffering in the current economic climate.
Even though I have a good job and the safety net of my family as a place to live if things got really bad, I worry that I won't have enough for retirement, I won't have enough to give my future kids the quality of life I want them to have, and that I won't have enough to take care of my mom in her old age, especially if there are medical expenses and things like Medicare get cut. Life necessities (rent, food, healthcare) and higher education have gotten outrageously expensive in my lifetime and wages have not risen adequately to meet the increase. Because I job-hopped in my twenties, I've been playing catch up with my retirement since I turned 30. I'm in a good place, but I feel pressure to save and invest way more for anticipated major expenses.
How much do you think a person or household needs to earn to live comfortably in or around Tulsa?
Hard for me to say! If a single person can find reasonable housing, maybe $45,000-60,000? I know a lot of people are living on far less.
What are your financial goals?
Can I say "win the lottery?"
My short-term goals are to hit six months of emergency savings, max out my Roth IRA this year, and finish paying off a small loan I took out three years ago to insulate my attic (last payment is in October!).
My long-term goals are to increase my 403b contributions and eventually max it out, contribute more to my brokerage account, save 12 months of emergency savings, save money for a vacation (instead of going on vacation and paying it back afterward like I've done in the past), donate more by finding another place to make a monthly donation, or just setting aside a small pot for mutual aid as need pops up among loved ones and people in my community. Oh, and I guess increase my income?
Do you have any habits around money that you consider to be beneficial or harmful?
Beneficial: I've gotten good at saying "no" to trips I can't afford. I've automated almost all of my finances (credit card payments, auto-savings from my paycheck, auto-investing). I like sharing my financial knowledge with others.
Harmful: I probably look at my accounts too often. I'm sure certain family members might say I've been a little pushy about reading certain finance books when I got too excited about them...
Is there anything you'd like to add?
Money made me very anxious in my mid to late twenties when I realized I didn't know what I was doing, but that I'd have to learn in order to have stability and a retirement. I thought I'd never understand money, but by reading books like The Simple Path to Wealth (great foundational and easy-to-read book for investing), automatically saving a portion of each paycheck to my savings account, and taking encouragement from my mentor, I finally feel like I have both feet on the financial ladder instead of dangling off the bottom. It's been a journey.
Consuming a lot of financial knowledge and content, even podcasts like Money for Couples, has allowed me to learn about the psychology of money and how it affects relationships by osmosis. I taught myself a lot in my thirties for free or very cheap, and I encourage anyone who feels like they don't understand money to just start reading or find free, local resources. It'll feel like drinking from a firehouse at first, but eventually, things will start to make sense.
