Getting my personal finances back in line

I mentioned last week that I was in the process of rebalancing my portfolio. In order to do that, I get an update on Sophia and my balance sheets. I try to do this “asset check” every quarter at minimum but sometimes I’ll do it as frequently as monthly.

It’s a tedious process to get all my accounts lined up and I don’t love the process of counting my money as often as I do. However, it’s necessary for two reasons.

The first is to make sure that my portfolio is in line with my targets. My investments go up and down and I need to rebalance to make sure that I don’t go over or underweight too much. With the rise in crypto the last month, I especially wanted to check that my crypto allocation has not gone too far or else I’d need to rebalance.

Secondly, it helps get things in line and ensure that I’m on track for my savings goals. I use the opportunity to also track how much money I’m putting into the market versus spending. A year ago, I made the goal to split my earned income into 1/3rds. A third goes towards taxes, a third goes towards rent and spending, and another third goes into savings.

It’s a lofty goal for sure but I was able to deliver on it in 2023. Unfortunately, things have been a bit off in 2024. We’ve been spending quite a bit a bit more recently and dipping into my savings allocation quite a bit. The market performing well has masked quite a bit of our spending habits.

Some of this is personal as we’ve had to travel a lot the past few months due to my father in-laws illness. That of course is okay. But on the other hand, I find myself splurging a lot more on other things such as meals out and my hobbies. It was a good reminder to myself that I need to reel things back and start being more conscious of my spending.