Solve for X

Harold Combs

You really don’t appreciate how attached you are to spending money until you can’t.

We’ve been on a financial diet at my house since February. Last year, between salary and stock, I made X amount of money. I paid nearly 30% of X in taxes, which I found funny, since it was more than I was making before I took a job here in 2016.

In any case, this year I’m on track to make about 60% of X. While that will make filing my 1040 easier, it’s made living a skosh harder from a Cash Flow perspective. On top of that add:

  1. A new roof ($30,000)
  2. A new chimney cap ($4,000)
  3. A few, a lot of concerts since February (Priceless)

So in sum, I live on a 10 acre ranch that’s worth roughly 2 times “X” from above, with roughly “X” in equity, I entered the year with roughly 20% of “X” in emergency savings, and an overall net worth of 4 times “X”.

All that to say: Depending how you look at it, I’m broke.

I’m living the Dave Ramsey anecdote about “money comes in, money goes out…only the names are changed to protect the innocent.” Eat out? Seldom. Movies? Nah. Buying stuff? Out of the question.

Every discretionary expense is audited and axed.

This is me in 2025: Making “X” and asking why?