{"id":248,"date":"2023-12-25T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/i-reviewed-our-personal-finances-like-a-management-consultant\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T20:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:31:11","slug":"i-reviewed-our-personal-finances-like-a-management-consultant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/i-reviewed-our-personal-finances-like-a-management-consultant\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Review Your Finances Like a Deranged Management Consultant"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Last year, my husband and I started a new financial tradition (okay, maybe it\u2019s fairer to say <em>I<\/em> strong-armed him into it) in which I tap into the small, shameful part of me that\u2019s still in awe of management consultants despite their <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/169558\/escape-mckinseyland\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">well-documented crimes<\/span><\/a> against humanity and I churn out a deck like I\u2019m getting paid $225,000 plus a bonus to do so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Seriously\u2014I AirPlay a 26-page slideshow to the family room TV. It usually elicits great questions from those in attendance (read: my husband) like, \u201cWait, do I actually have to pay attention?\u201d and, \u201cHold on, why are we spending so much money?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/unnamed283929.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Having been pretty #InTheWeeds with our finances throughout the year as the member of our household who fills out our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneywithkatie.com\/wealthplanner\" target=\"_blank\">Wealth Planner<\/a> every month (and, you know, what I do for a living), I was mildly skeptical that going through the motions of presenting this information to someone else would dredge up any interesting insights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">But as Nick Saban will remind you\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Process_thinking\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">trust the process<\/span><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Here\u2019s the executive summary:<\/p>\n<ul data-rte-list=\"default\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Our net worth grew by 50%.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Our most over-budget category grew nearly 3x this year (as in, we spent roughly three times what we had planned).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">We\u2019re going to be financially independent in three years! Maybe!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<h2 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The difference a bull market makes<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">One of the major findings right away came from pulling a slide from <em>last<\/em> year\u2019s report: In 2022, for every dollar we contributed to our assets, our net worth grew by just 67 cents. This made it feel as though every dollar we dumped into the pile promptly caught fire and lost 33% of its value.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This is, of course, because the <em>whole<\/em> of our assets were getting incinerated in the worst bear market <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/us\/futures-slip-last-trading-day-torrid-year-2022-12-30\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">since 2008<\/span><\/a>, and our new additions weren\u2019t enough to compensate. In 2022, our new contributions made up about a quarter of the total value of our entire net worth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Not exactly an encouraging environment for saving, but we stayed the course and pulled through\u2014and this year, we were rewarded.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">In 2023\u2014a year in which the S&amp;P 500 has returned an astonishing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slickcharts.com\/sp500\/returns\/ytd\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">24%<\/span><\/a> (as of this post\u2019s publishing)\u2014our overall assets grew by 51%. This amounted to <em>three times<\/em> the growth we saw in 2022. 66% of the asset growth was thanks to our contributions, and the other 33% was purely the market going up.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Seeing back-to-back years with wildly different outcomes is a little disorienting, but a word of feedback to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/a\/animal-spirits.asp\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">animal spirits<\/span><\/a>: I much prefer 2023\u2019s vibe, thanks!<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>Takeaway:<\/strong> Sticking to your investment plan\u2014regardless of whether you\u2019re seeing red or green in the markets\u2014has always* paid off.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<h2 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">When you tweak your budget to perfection, sometimes your bad behavior just goes underground<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Ah, <em>just<\/em> when you thought the entire reflection was about to be a KGT Victory Lap\u2026think again!<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">No, when it comes to the things I actually had control over (read: my spending), the grade was decidedly less glowing. We spent a total of $157,190 in 2023. I know! I already know what you\u2019re thinking. <em>What?! $150 big ones?<\/em> But hear me out. Your honor, in my defense, I was having a good time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">And by having a good time, I mean\u2026<\/p>\n<ul data-rte-list=\"default\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/blog\/lifes-big-transitions-and-what-being-self-sufficient-means\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Moving our entire life<\/span><\/a> 1,000 miles west to California.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Paying for multiple surgeries and procedures for a dog with bone cancer.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Going to see Taylor Swift\u2026and the Taylor Swift movie\u2026and then seeing the movie again\u2026(I better have my own slide on <em>her<\/em> financial annual review.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Oh, yeah, and buying a <a href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/blog\/the-real-pros-cons-having-luxury-car\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Porsche Macan<\/span><\/a>\u2014understandably, the biggest item.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">We also traveled to\u2026<\/p>\n<ul data-rte-list=\"default\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Vail, Colorado<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Dallas, Texas<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">London, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento, California<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">New York City (five times for work, though the Brew paid for this\u2014I\u2019m still including for travel street cred)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u2026and, I\u2019m sure, approximately six other places I can\u2019t remember right now. Point is, we were living, baby!<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Despite all the above hoopla, the majority of our spending plans actually went\u2026well, according to plan. As in, we <em>intended<\/em> to spend that much (okay, not <em>quite<\/em> that much, but it wasn\u2019t an order of magnitude above our goal).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It\u2019s funny\u2014as the year progressed and I lived the spending, Travel was the category that I <em>expected<\/em> would be heinously over-budget. But it was only 8% over. Not bad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">On another note, I\u2019ve mentioned it no less than six times this year, but we were really focused on wrangling our food spending in 2023. And <a href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/blog\/a-lifestyle-creep-reversal-success-story\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">we did<\/span><\/a>! I learned to cook, and our food budget and health are happier for it. We ended up 7% <em>under<\/em> our planned spend for that category.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Where things really went off the rails was the lawless wasteland of the Miscellaneous budget, which encapsulates our respective \u201cGuilt-Free\u201d categories and Gifts. Turns out, we both need to feel a little more guilt.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>*Insert drop of Thomas going, \u201cWait, why are we spending so much money?\u201d here.*<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This category represented 16% of our total spent for the year\u2014we spent more than double (closer to three times) what we had intended (see also: Taylor Swift, moving cross-country, buying a car, etc.).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This, of course, presents a pickle for me, because unlike a food or gas budget gone awry, \u201cGuilt-Free Spending\u201d requires a little bit of deeper digging. It\u2019s a category that, when you really get down to it, can only be shrunk by having a little more self-control. To quote that twenty-something in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C0kcpOfMxD1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">TikTok I shared<\/span><\/a> recently\u2026 \u201cI need to (re)learn how to tell myself \u2018no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Takeaway: The best types of budget breakthroughs are the kind that leave you staring at yourself in the mirror, going, \u201cIt\u2019s time to find some cheaper hobbies.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>*Crosses \u201cPorsche collector\u201d off list&#8230;.for now.*<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<h2 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Now, for some (more) good news: Despite our shortfalls, we still beat our savings contributions goal by 13%<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Not because we were miraculously under-budget elsewhere (we weren\u2019t), but because we ended up earning more this year than we had anticipated\u2014and for that, I would like to thank the kind folks with wonderful taste at Penguin Random House.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Our current net worth could support a retirement lifestyle that costs $72,000 per year. Not bad! (But\u2026well, too bad, because *checks notes* that\u2019s less than half of what we\u2019re spending right now.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">When I revealed this #FunFact to Thomas, he goes, \u201cWait, you\u2019re telling me we could quit work forever if we just spent less than $72,000 per year? Wow, that\u2019s tempting\u2026\u201d I reminded him that would mean moving somewhere cheaper, traveling a lot less, and living a life without a dog or children, and he reconsidered his enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It does make me chuckle that my financial bad behavior seems to be playing a game of Whack-A-Mole: I manage to cut it out with my food spending, but what do you know? There\u2019s a lot of <em>other<\/em> fun stuff you can spend money on that you <em>don\u2019t<\/em> eat. Check and mate, Katie. At least my vices are legal (for now).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Still, the most exciting learning from our breakdown was that we\u2019re expected to become financially independent (should the animal spirits receive and honor my suggestion box entry) in approximately <strong>three years<\/strong>, which means\u2014if history repeats itself\u2014I have 36 months to promptly triple our spending again and go, \u201cOops! Just kidding!\u201d Maybe this is my subconscious sabotaging me because I know my life would be less fun without work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>Takeaway<\/strong>: There\u2019s more than one way to brush a cat (we don\u2019t condone feline violence on this site, per Sam Cat).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<h2 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Looking ahead, we\u2019re *ahem* making some changes<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The first major change is I\u2019m going to stop spending my \u201cguilt-free\u201d money like a dinosaur who sees the asteroid in the distance. I will not be buying a luxury vehicle in 2024, and I\u2019m also going to reinstate my old fire-and-brimstone approach to budgeting to get it back on track (e.g., if you\u2019ve already spent your allotted amount, you\u2019re waiting until next month).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The second (and more fun) change is the addition of my \u201cDevelopment\u201d category. I haven\u2019t quite decided on the allotment\u2014partially because I\u2019m hoping some of it can be a business expense\u2014 but this will be inclusive of things like an editor\/writing coach, potentially an executive or business coach, an online membership to The Class, and other things that\u2019ll #enrich me as a human. Hell, maybe I\u2019ll throw piano lessons or a Spanish tutor in for good measure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I keep insisting to myself that 2024 is a year of \u201cleveling up,\u201d which means continuing the good habits I began in 2023 and refining them further by investing in my professional and personal growth. Because, as I recently learned, there are two ways to reach a savings goal\u2026and it turns out one is a <em>little<\/em> more fun than the other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">If you enjoyed this year\u2019s financial reflection, don\u2019t miss last year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/blog\/how-to-care-less-about-your-financial-goals-in-the-new-year\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">distinctly more emo one<\/span><\/a> about realizing that pursuing financial independence was a sign of a quarter-life crisis (albeit of a more productive variety than the kind that causes you to cheat on your wife and buy a Camaro).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">At the end of that piece, I suggested I was going to try to care <em>less<\/em> about money and enjoy life more in 2023. Well, Katie, good news: mission accomplished. And for the record, the last-minute T. Swift tickets? Totally worth it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/unnamed28429.webp\" alt=\"  A picture from the Eras Tour in Denver, Colorado, which encapsulates how I imagine men at sporting events feel: safe, seen, and among friends.  \"\/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A picture from the Eras Tour in Denver, Colorado, which encapsulates how I imagine men at sporting events feel: safe, seen, and among friends.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u2014<\/p>\n<p class=\"sqsrte-small\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>*Past performance is not indicative of future returns, but you knew that already.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last year, my husband and I started a new financial tradition (okay, maybe it\u2019s fairer to say I strong-armed him into it) in which I tap into the small, shameful part of me that\u2019s still in awe of management consultants despite their well-documented crimes against humanity and I churn out a deck like I\u2019m getting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-everyday-spending-and-budgeting.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[45,41,62],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spending-and-saving","tag-everyday-spending-and-budgeting","tag-relationships-and-family","tag-popular-relationships-and-family"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - 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