You have plug your leaks for sure. Here's my data sheet.
I link all my accounts to
mint.com and calculate my average monthly expenses and make sure I don't get too far out of line. I take care to avoid the months where I travel internationally, knowing that I save for those.
If you're in an urban area in the US most of the time, T-Mobile is probably the way to go for cell service. If you don't travel internationally or make a lot of calls, go with their
prepaid service plans with unlimited data.
Cable is pretty absurd and I should cancel it. Try to find someone to let you borrow their HBO account. If you have family with cable have them create a second email address under their account for your HBOGO usage. Netflix isn't that expensive and I'm guilty as charged.
Clothing is important but for most of us looking good has little to do with the cost of the clothes. We all probably just need to hit the gym and put down the cupcakes, cronuts and heavy wheat beers and IPAs. After that it is mostly about fit. You can buy cheaper clothes and take them to a tailor and out dress most people.
Unbranded jeans are nice and levis even has some nice raw jeans. Uniqlo has some good basics for the price. If you aren't wearing sneakers, one place you can't really skimp is shoes.
Electronics can be a huge waste of money. TVs especially depreciate fast and a year from now better tech will be out and be cheaper. Do you best to delay your electronics purchases. When you know you need to upgrade, delay the gratification to some point in the future, never impulse buy. Never buy top of the line. Buy rarely but pick something up that is quality but not quality enough where the cost gets totally out of line. Nobody really pays attention to how nice your electronics setup is.
About cars... I don't have much to say about this as I've been car-less for almost 4 years and just spend too much on Uber but most people make really bad financial decisions around cars. Do everything you can to avoid long term financing. Also if you buy a slightly used car nobody will realize a year from now it's 3 years old instead of 1.
Credit cards - Don't run a balance but use them for everything. You need to have one or two great rewards cards that you use for every transaction. Don't pay for stuff with your debit card. Use a good rewards card and it's basically a 1-2% discount on life at the expense of poor people and people that can't manage their finances. Check out
nerdwallet.com to research and if you really know how to live get one with no international fees.
Bank accounts - You need to be using online checking probably with a credit union. They will give you actually interest, up to around .7% now for checking. Interest will rise in the future. Depending upon how much you keep in your checking account in might only be $20 a year but over many years and compounding that is actually something. If you need better ATM access keep a retail bank account with some money in it just for the ATM withdrawals.
Investments - if you save you need to put your money to work for you. The best thing to invest in is yourself, through health, education, career advancement, and adventure and experience. That said, put something aside for the future in the markets, probably with a diversified low expense ratio strategy unless you want to gamble or following finance all the time.
Personally I'll pay for convenience at this point in life because time I can not spend doing chores is more time I can concentrate on my career and projects that will have more upside for me. I tend to use a lot of the apps for food delivery, transportation and occasionally take my laundry or at least shirts to get laundered. I also go to a nice gym because its the most convenient.
Right now most of my discretionary income goes to food, booze, Uber, gambling on dice with friends at shadey asian bars and travel. I don't really like buying things that much as your possessions own you as much as you own them.
