"How Do I Budget with a Variable Income?"
Money Guy Show
Brian Preston, CPA, CFP®, PFS and Bo Hanson, CFA, CFP® | Fee-Only Fiduciary Advisors
4.7 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2023
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Derek's question is up next. |
| 0:09.5 | He says, my income is variable, so how do I make the decision of what my 25% of housing |
| 0:17.2 | should be? |
| 0:18.2 | Because we say housing expenses shouldn't be more than 25% of your gross income. |
| 0:22.3 | For some context, he said in 2020, he made 200K, 2021, 300K, 22, 22, 400K, but he's |
| 0:29.8 | not confident that the income will be as good this year based on how things are going. |
| 0:35.2 | So how should he think about this? |
| 0:37.6 | Man, this one is a really, really tough one, Brian, because here's how we see this manifest |
| 0:42.1 | with clients a lot, too. |
| 0:43.1 | We'll have a client who says, hey, I work for a tech company and I make $100,000, $150,000 |
| 0:48.6 | a year, but because I have RSUs that were granted to me a number of years ago, the annual |
| 0:54.4 | income I show my tax return is way different than what my salary is. |
| 0:58.8 | So I might have $150,000 of RSUs that vest every year. |
| 1:02.8 | So when I think about my household income, do I actually make $150,000 or do I make $300,000? |
| 1:08.9 | Now, the thought around saving is pretty easy there. |
| 1:11.9 | It's easy for me to think about how to get to 25% savings, but some of these other rules |
| 1:15.7 | like housing, what guidance and counsel would you give Derek to make sure that he does |
| 1:20.7 | stay inside those lines? |
| 1:22.5 | Yeah, I mean, I think we're hitting on the same things as I want to know how much your |
| 1:26.0 | pay is fixed and how much is variable, because go ahead and stratify those two things. |
| 1:31.9 | And then I would, the first, because look, I have clients and technology clients have done |
| 1:38.0 | so good for so many years, but then right now it's just been a tough spot for them. |
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