Bravo, 3,070 euros per month: “I don’t understand anything about taxes”

Talking about money is still taboo in France. However, it is a fascinating subject… and feminist in some respects! In our section Settle the accounts, of the people of all kinds come to peel their budget, tell us about their relationship with money and their financial organization as a couple or alone. Today, Bravo agreed to open his accounts for us.

• Name: Well done

• Age: 31 years old

• Profession: Economist in a public group

• Net salary net of deduction at source: 2,300 euros

• Lives with: spouse

• Place of life: an apartment owned by the spouse in Paris

Bravo’s income

Bravo works as a permanent economist in a joint stock company. Due to your employer’s special social security system, you are still considered a trainee, but at the end of the year you will get official permanent employee status. In this position, she wins € 2,300 per month. A salary that she admits she’s comfortable with, but struggles to manage:

“Even if my salary is slightly lower than what I would receive, at my level of studies (bac +8) and for the same job in a private company, I am well paid. Frankly well paid, right? According to the median and also the French average, I am financially comfortable. But in view of my way of life, pass ric-rac, I would say. “

Indeed, the thirty-year-old announces it from the presentation, it is considered obsessed with money … In a way she considers it very negative:

” I’m very (Very) spendthrift, regularly devalued and unable to really cope with the large planned expenses let alone the unexpected ones.

So, here it is, it’s a little bit mine my fault privileged girl. And I am willing to stretch the stick of the article to be beaten in the forum comments that I find to be always full of good advice! “

For her, money is a source of terrible anxiety:

“I’m impulsive, so I don’t watch what I spend, and when I manage to be careful for 10 days straight, I reward myself by spending. “

She also owns an apartment that she rents € 770 per month. In all, he manages a budget of € 3,070 per month.

The organization of Bravo and his partner

Bravo lives with their spouse and to manage common expenses they have a joint account which is used for their daily life.

” The joint account is used for purchases, the payment of expenses for two and the preparation of purchases for the apartment.. “

Bravo’s expenses

Bravo and his spouse each own an apartment.

“We are both owners. Him, from the apartment where we live, me, from an apartment I bought in 2020 with a terrace, in a suburb of Paris. I was going to buy it to live on, but I didn’t understand the signals my boyfriend was giving me at the time (could have been more explicit, the signal is expensive). Eventually, I moved in with him a year later. “

For this apartment that he bought for 160,000 euros, he is repaying a loan € 550 per month to which are added various types of charges and taxes:

«I rent this apartment and collect a rent of € 770 per month.

I refund my credit of 550 €, the property tax is € 63 per month, and I include my tenant’s internet box and electricity (which cost me approx € 50 per month). I also pay property income taxes € 110 per month leveled over the course of the year. Lastly, condominium expenses amount to € 150 per month, and I pay the monthly insurance a € 10. “

Once the rent for this property is collected, the apartment you own costs you approx 165 € per month. At the same time, he now lives with his partner in a Parisian apartment:

“We have a nice apartment that we had redone on the top floor of a somewhat old building, with a view of the Eiffel Tower and without vis-à-vis. This is the ideal apartment considering that 7 floors without a lift are not a problem. “

If he doesn’t pay his partner’s rent, he relocates every month € 800 on the joint account: one half for his share of the shared expenses, and the other, as rent and share in the expenses for his partner. This sum finances their purchases and their common expenses.

“This money is used for shopping, for our common outings, sometimes for vacation expenses, and every month it helps us to pay a purchase of one hundred euros for the house (sometimes the necessary for DIY, sometimes a decorative object or plants for example). We are also deducted from this account from € 36 per month for a UGC duo card that was drawn when we were full of good intentions (and we used it twice this year, a huge waste). “

This amount therefore includes, in addition to their UGC subscription, each month € 80 for fruit and vegetable baskets, one hundred euro the purchases for the house, the common outings and the grocery shopping that do most of the time at Monoprix.

“For competitions I prefer practicality because I get knots in my head when it comes to getting around (I’m on a bike or on foot and even if I take 10,000 steps a day I’m lazy). “

Pay for internet access in their shared accommodation up to 40 € per monthwhich include their box and various streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime …), and its bank charges amount to € 15.

“I don’t understand taxes”

Recently, Bravo has dedicated himself 600 € per month, excluding withholding tax, to its taxes. In addition to the € 173 detailed above for his apartment and rental income € 100 monthly until December 2022: its taxes having been calculated only from the second half of this year, pays in six months what it will pay in twelve months every year from 2023.

Add to this € 33 per month of monthly house tax (” It’s a recovery, because they forgot me last year she explains) e € 300 monthly income tax recovery payments for four months. A confusing calculation, which in reality does not master:

” In truth, I don’t suck. “

The subscription to a self-service electric bicycle that allows him to travel costs him € 10 monthly.

To eat at work, the 30-year-old needs to have lunch regularly – the office canteen doesn’t offer very appetizing vegetarian options, so she spends € 70 per month in restaurants or sandwiches.

Also, well done reimburses € 150 every month to his partner to whom he owes € 2,200 for expenses that he was unable to absorb.

“Every time it is an absolute SHAME to ask for help, and at the same time, not being able to build an emergency mattress, I don’t see how else to do it …

Every month counts € 50 go to the beautician for hair removal, to which a subscription of € 16 at the Body Minute institute that she “ i can’t cancel because the process is boring.”

Bravo’s hobbies

On average, Bravo counts 150 € per month expenses for her clothes, which she buys mainly second-hand: “Sometimes it’s more when I buy a good pair of pumps, sometimes less because I’m only buying 40 euros in a thrift shop.. ”

For his free time, estimate the expense € 300 monthly which include several subscriptions:

“ I have € 25 Gymlib subscription that allows me to access many activities and which I could hardly do without, € 15 for Apple Music, € 6 for Diplo World, e € 2 per Wikipedia per month… But it’s just to clear my conscience!

She counts too 50 € of booksvery often she goes out for a drink and buys gifts for loved ones.

Bravo’s relationship with money

At the beginning of each month Bravo sets aside 400 euros to cover major expenses: condominium expenses, plane tickets for holidays or work. But in reality, he always ends up tapping into this amount to fill his overdraft before the end of the month:

“In total I have 440 euros to indulge myself, but in reality I am regularly stoned and I have to use what I have saved up to make up for it.

I’ve been trying for years to make and stick to a budget, but I’m clearly living beyond my means.. In fact, I know I am SUPER privileged, yet I am drowning in expenses and I want my pace of life: lots of free time, good meals etc.

I’m also just a very bad manager, very spendthrift, very impulsive and I have been discovered every month of my life.

He would like to reduce his lunch budget, but also the cost of his apartment:

“Every two days, by dint of receiving requests for funds, I tell myself that I will sell it. There they ask me for 10,000 euros for work and it worries me completely, I can’t do it … But selling would mean losing my contribution because the price per square meter hasn’t changed much in two years.

In general, money is a source of anxiety for Bravo, but also of discomfort:

“This mismanagement prevents me from considering my two life plans in a serene way: we are trying to have a child, and I worry about not being able to hire him economically. I am also considering a professional retraining that would put me out of work for a while, and towards a job whose average salary is 1,500 euros net per month.

For the poor manager that I am, these projects taken separately are a source of anxiety … Anxiety that reinforces my financial impulsiveness. Overall, it becomes off-putting and irritating.having such an enviable situation and not being able to blossom.

She hopes that sharing her budget in Settlement can help her achieve a more peaceful relationship with money:

“I hope this helps readers who might relate to my situation and that others can share their experience as a good manager to help me put my situation in front of me once and for all: I know I could live a lot better, and I don’t. on a whim. It is very paradoxical, especially since it is still a source of anxiety and a bad image of myself.

Thanks to Bravo for answering our questions!

Photo credit: Karolina Gabrowska / Pexels