It's become a tradition for me to organize all of my finances at the end of the year as a way of passing the time during the holidays. During these times, I have been able to relive the experiences I've had throughout the year by recalling what it was that I spent money on. I've also been able to spot trends as they develop. This year was characterized by a mix of good and bad trends. I hope to continue with the good trends next year while simultaneously... discontinuing the bad ones.
Good trends for this year
I've increased the amount of mortgage payments I've made this year. This stops the trend of falling mortgage payments for the past three years. I hope to continue this trend next year.
My income grew this year. This is thanks to the new job, as well as a nice bonus at the old job, and an unexpected signing bonus at the new job (predicated on my staying at the new job for two years).
Bad trends for this year
The amount I've spent on things related to the house is now almost half of all my recorded expenses. This now dwarfs the previous major categories of my spending: technology and food.
I've increased my spending on food (eating out) substantially this year. I hope to cut down substantially on this category next year. This will be challenging as I tend to eat out for dinner on the weekdays after work in order to avoid traffic. But, I must stop this trend from going any further.
I've increased my spending on unnecessary things, such as technology. I hope to keep this under control next year.
I had more expenses this year than income. This is alarming, and is something I must rectify next year.
Thus, next year will be the year I temper myself and rein in my spending habits to a more sustainable level. I admit that I went overboard this year. It was no surprise; I had a feeling that the numbers were going to look ugly. With next year around the corner, this is a great opportunity to have a fresh start. Thus, the theme for next year will be restraint and moderation.
In addition to organizing my finances, I also recently begun picking up calligraphy again. I had dabbled in calligraphy back in middle school. However, the pens that are usually labeled as calligraphy pens have a fixed width and cannot be used for the more modern types of calligraphy such as Copperplate and Spencerian. Thus, my progress with calligraphy ended with the Gothic style, which was adequate. It was only over Thanksgiving, when I visited my brother, that we started talking about calligraphy again. First thing I discovered was that for Copperplate or Spencerian, I needed a pen with a flexible nib. Nibs are usually sold by themselves, separate from pen holders (straight and oblique are the two pen holder types). These are all old school dip pens. I was surprised at how easy dip pens are to use. It might just be that good quality tools exist, but people just don't know about them. Using bad tools make the process prohibitively difficult.
I hope everyone has a happy new year, and a bright next year!
