How I'm Able to AFFORD Collecting | Video Game, Figure & Hobby Budgeting with My REAL Numbers

[@wolfuz]

It was very brave and vulnerable for you to show your actual numbers! I think you got your budget nailed down and I believe you do the right thing by being aware of your finances and controlling them! Very nice video and thank you for sharing!

[@avrilwilliams252]

Completely agree! This is why I love Orbalolgy channel so much. Emily makes video's that I I don't see in other collection channels and didn't know I needed. There's such insight and honestly in all her content.

[@SToad]

Yeah I really loved this. Thank you for sharing Orbalology!

[@EnzeroX666]

Love how you are helping others learn how to budget. Game collecting is a slippery slope if you dont budget. I used to use Mint app for budgeting but eventually I took the same approach as you with Excel.

[@JCtheComicGeek]

I thonk she said these were fake numbers she was plugging in just to have an example of her budgeting. Unless I missed something.

[@zero9112]

Shoutout to any fellow collectors that have to pause their hobby to prioritize other expenses. I calculate that I can pick up collecting again in about 8 months. Good luck everyone.

[@rhythmandblues9302]

We just had a baby. Reckon I'm on the sidelines for about 22 years...

[@Sir.YeetusIII]

​@@rhythmandblues9302adulting is tough

[@YukeWeiss]

I genuinely can't believe you showed us your actual numbers. Surprisingly refreshing. I kind of feel you as someone who is a few years out from a PhD but got stuck in teaching. This makes me want to budget a heck of a lot more though because I do not track anywhere near this amount and if I see a game I want, I buy it XD.

[@orbalology]

Yeah I graduated in 2020 with my PhD, so I've been trying to 'catch up' a bit when it comes to retirement stuff 😅 Teaching is actually something I haven't done in a good while, right now I'm a researcher, but I've considered going back to academia for teaching. Depends on what opportunities I have once my postdoc ends :)

[@ilianieves9144]

Very interesting topic! I knew you were highly educated! Congratulations on your PhD.

[@jokerjosh3]

​@orbalology just curious are you single or living with somebody as how do you afford mortgage? Or rent? Do you rent or own? Also what state do you reside in?

[@buddhawasright]

@@jokerjosh3 *cringe*

[@EmilioBrauneFinanzasPersonales]

As a personal finance channel in Mexico and a 3ds game collector this was ver cool to see! I’m really happy you’re planning for your future :)

[@justinu1182]

Great topic. Probably not the topic that everyone will think is the most exciting, but as so many gamers tend to have addictive personalities I think it’s super important to maintain a system that keeps us aware and accountable for our hobby spend. I know I have my regrets about not having any kind of system or spreadsheet for finance when I started my career

[@orbalology]

Yeah I didn't take full advantage of things like compounding growth while I was in school in my 20s, which I sort of regret now but been trying to catch up so to speak lol. I wish I started this system a little earlier as well, but it's good to work in these habits today to set ourselves up for success in the future :)

[@AgentCooper1982]

I proclaim this the KZbin video of the year! Love everything about it, from how informative it is, how you provided a budget template, to how you show your ACTUAL budget and how it’s related to video games/collecting. I hope those that don’t budget make a copy of your sheet! Thanks again for the great content 👍👍

[@mind-of-neo]

I think this is one of the most wondered questions for collectors but understandably we don't ask it much due to the cultural taboo around finance discussion. Very brave of you to make this video, thank you!

[@markkilborn512]

You are way more organized with your finances than I was when I was around your age, and making great progress towards savings/investments. Well done!

[@poppysgtspanky]

Not only am I impressed of how you keep the management of your budget nice and tidy, but this has put things into perspective of how important budging is and how helpful it can be. Very inspiring!

[@sarahlloyd119]

Thanks so much for talking about this. It would be great if more people did! I’ve had trouble recently with overspending and FOMO-buying and I need to get it in check, so it’s super useful to see what’s actually going on in someone else’s bank account!

[@orbalology]

This is definitely a topic more should be transparent about! That way we can all learn from each other :)

[@beautepley8352]

your budgeting is inspirational. Definitely going to take this more seriously starting now so I can take control of my financial life in 2024 and beyond.

[@sanjithechef]

Such an important practice that everyone can always count on to keep themselves in check. As a nerd and person who works in a financial education/support non profit this warms my heart. Thank you!

[@itkirk]

This is actually helpful and insightful into how I see collectors on YT use their finances on their hobby as an investment to keep their channels interesting and on going.

[@snapd2091]

Emily, I briefly watched through some of this video and am appreciative about your opening your finances and sharing this resource to this community. As a former postdoc, I am aware of the limits of a postdoc salary so I empathize with you. With that being said, I commend you on your generosity to share, your strength in being “vulnerable” about a topic not often discussed in public, and your financial maturity!

[@SuperNicktendo]

Might try out that sheet. I don't really spend much on gaming nowadays and actually have been selling off some bloat and use those funds to pay for stuff I want. I think people forget that everyone's situation is different and a lot of people rack up credit card debt in an attempt to, accumulate a vast collection. And just some of the bigger creators accumulate stuff and immediately turn around and sell it or borrow it for the video. Perspective matters!

[@orbalology]

Yup, perspective really does matter!

[@qualitea_individual]

I LOVED this video, and I LOVE Excel spreadsheets😂 I haven't done a proper budgeting sheet since college, but I honestly feel very inspired to do so now! Thanks for sharing, Emily!!

[@guillermoantonanzas9400]

As someone from Spain, is so informative to see the prices there, there's a lot of difference with the salaries/expenses!

[@maximerebelo6601]

It was so brave and honest to share that with us. I am impressed! It jumps to my eyes how I take for granted things sometimes in Canada. Water, health care insurance, things we pay with our taxes.

[@Terranigma23]

Same here ahah.

[@avrilwilliams252]

Same for the UK. I don't have to think about healthcare or income taxe as it's already accounted for when I get my wages. I also pay my pension through work too. Emily has to juggle a lot when managing her finances. I like how she budgets her spare money and accounts for every penny.

[@Eli-s6l]

Wow this is the most transparent video I've seen on KZbin probably ever. Respect the honesty and found this video useful whilst being entertaining keep up the good work. 👍🏾

[@Pyro_LAMBDA]

I really appreciate your clarity and honesty in this video. As a current college student, I'm a bit overwhelmed with financial management but watching this made me more confidant and taught me the importance in budgeting. Thank you for teaching us this important lesson, despite the personal and frequently untouched nature of the topic!

[@MichaelH-1]

The gaming Dr is in!

[@thepaper888]

I actually appreciate this video. I wish financial planning was a standard in all grades of schooling. Definitely inspiring.

[@brammerhammer23]

Thanks for being transparent. Many people see all these people collecting and wish they had the money to collect them like others, when in reality many of those people are going into debt to do so. Always stay within budget and have fun collecting.

[@Mike55690]

Your transparency in your income, to how you approach funding has been super refreshing and enjoyable to watch! I know funding, retirement funds, etc etc, not including stocks or investments if included as well is never black and white and can be rather daunting trying to learn, but the way you break down the numbers and show the process of how you go about it is super approachable for people wanting to learn, it's both informative but also super easy to understand as well! Been looking forward to this video and as always, you do a stellar job Emily! :)

[@orbalology]

Glad to hear this video didn't disappoint, Michael! Yeah stocks & other details were a bit too much for this type of video. But the great thing about KZbin is that there are a lot of resources that discuss those topics in depth, and can be a 'fun' rabbit hole to fall down :)

[@ZTriggerGaming]

I’ve never understood why people are so shy about income. My household income is only about $35k, but we live within our means and still have about $150 left for gaming and $200-300 left for miscellaneous fun money, going to thinks like eating out or seeing movies. We’re more than happy with that. No shame lol. You’re being really responsible though! Good to see 😊

[@Paragleiber]

Wow, you have an insanely high CPM to make $900 from KZbin with what looks to be around 50k-100k views per month. It looks like KZbin considers your channel to be very advertiser-friendly. :) I make gameplay videos and I would need to get more than 500k views to earn that much. Also from a European perspective it's quite a shock to hear "this type of job is known for not being paid that well" and then see a salary of 5k per month, lol. Then again rent and other costs are a lot higher for you as well. I guess as a game collector California is a great place to live though, since things like rent may rise together with your salary but games are just as cheap as they would be if you would live in a poorer part of the US, so they become cheaper in relation to your income if you live in a rich area like California.

[@DKTV84]

Thanks for the numbers and the willingness to share. My budget as a game collector has dropped a lot due to personal reasons and I wish I had the income to spend that much on games but part of me should be playing my backlog.

[@kweirlmang]

This is fairly similar to my approach. Really goes a long way to establishing habits to have flexibility in saving/spending. One thing I've found too is having many accounts is useful for having various buckets to allocate/store funds in, as well as many CC 5-10+ actually being useful for not only credit score but catching various rewards items or structures. Travel cards, bank deals, bonus sign up, so forth. Having separate accounts for different spending goals with a variable slush fund for hobbies or incidentals. Becomes a nice buffer for larger spends regarding home/car/travel type costs and being able to leverage available funds in hand or credit to soften any bigger financial blows, but keep an eye on paying everything off within time periods (just using to buy 2-4 week breathing room and not burn all available on hands funds, while getting cash back) Needs > Savings/Investments > Wants. Once everything becomes automated allotments its easy to adjust numbers around as things vary with lifes ebbs and flows.

[@theonedraven8007]

I feel your pain, im finally out of my internship, and got my LPC certification, where i did my internship hired me on as a counselor and just got my first big adult paycheck, and about spent it all at my retro game store

[@dammyoyesanya4656]

Emily thank you so much for being so candid and frank. You're one of my favorite jrpg channels here on youtube so this is much appreciated.

[@orbalology]

Aww, thank you so much. I really appreciate the kind words :)

[@avrilwilliams252]

Thank you for sharing your personal budget and the tools you use to manage your finances, its really insightful. I live in the UK in a one bedroom apartment (previously in a studio) and I have been collecting just over 10 years. Its really interesting to see the breakdown of how you budget to afford your collection. I live alone so to afford my hobbie I have to make sacrifices like holiday's and cut backs but its totally worth it : )

[@GarryMah85]

Thank you for sharing all of this. It goes to show how much we can do with our money with some good planning and no bad debts. While I'm fortunate not to have any debts, I still have a lot to improve on my financial planning and I've pick up some ideas here, so thanks again.

[@kal-nietzs3896]

You dont have to answer questions like that, go with your hobby and your channel because many people support you and doesnt care things like money or personal facts, I like your channel, I like the form you do this work, I think you have real passion for the world of videogames, I think you are smart and honest person. I wish you the best, greetings from México (sorry for my poor english).

[@Taecwinnu]

Omg a fellow hottest and a game collector ☺️thank you Emily for sharing all the budgeting tools that you use. Knowing how Kpop & game collecting are expensive hobbies that can rack up quite easily, it is always good to keep track and know how much disposable income can go towards that!

[@SebVsTheWorld]

Thanks so much for putting this video together! As a current PhD student I feel like I need to better budget my video game purchases with the limited funds I have and this was very insightful for helping find a method for doing that 😊

[@tuktukla]

Great topic, collecting is such a balancing act between budgets, what your collection is missing and FOMO. So it is interesting to hear how you balance it all! Thank you for openness on this topic 😊

[@orbalology]

Thanks for watching! Glad to hear you enjoyed this topic :)

[@MSDGAMEZ]

I need to start doing this. Thank you. Good job,youre doing well for yourself early in life. Rent over there is criminal.

[@talknplusradio]

This is fantastic, thank you for sharing and we all really enjoy your content :) keep it up please! ❤

[@acidwizard6528]

This is the first video I've seen that discusses how to properly budget to be able to afford a collecting hobby as well as everyday living expenses. I admire this young lady for being brave enough to share her actual finances with a bunch of strangers. One thing from personal experience I can add is how important it is to have some sort of emergency fund. I've been in and mostly out of work all summer due to a kidney condition that has required two surgeries. With next to zero income and thousands in medical bills I would be in serious trouble if I hadn't put away a decent chunk into an emergency fund for just such a situation. Unexpected and unforeseen things can and will happen and it's super important to be prepared.

[@orbalology]

An emergency fund is so important. It's something that helped me survive during the height of the pandemic when I had just graduated.

[@Bowflex2480]

everyone else has already said it but thank you for sharing this, it was very nice and brave of you to do so. given how many great games and stuff is always coming out , it is very hard to show restraint and keep afloat 😅😅 so im very happy you have it under control. teach us your ways master!🤣🤣

[@giannolamichael]

you are dooing exceptionally well given your circumstances. keep on going youll do great to get to your goals. i think the moral of the story is if you work hard and prioritize your needs and wants realisticly you will get far.

[@BulletPr00fGAm3r]

Thank you for this great video! You are doing an amazing job at demystifying various topics where people may have questions on, whether its sharing info on how youtube profitability works, where to find information on full games on discs and cart and now helping people budget by sharing your own personal experience. Amazing work! cheers from Canada!

[@caar6611]

This definitely needs to be talked about more! Thank you for making this, Emily! I admire how incredibly transparent, clear and insightful you are in this video and this will help a lot of people! All the Trails releases this year did dent me a bit so I was recently thinking about budgeting more so this comes at the perfect time! Props. (And it is very reassuring to see you're so concious and responsible with your collecting haha).

[@battledrill]

How brave, informative and altruistic. I knew I liked you for a reason 🥺

[@80spowerextreme54]

great vid! budgeting for the hobby is always the most difficult aspect of the hobby for me, so it's always great to have a different perspective.

[@DrGamingPlays]

It was cool to see how you are planning out how to budget for your collection, and it is impressive that you are doing it on a post-doc salary in a very high cost of living area (my post-doc days are far behind me, but I remember the challenges).

[@davidhall2018]

Many thanks go to you for helping out your viewers and fans. You've done many of us a great service! Awesome video!

[@skywarrior1004]

Wow this is incredible! Thank you very much for sharing and helping your fellow video game/figure collectors

[@therealfornicus]

This was a great video. A lot of people seem to think that collecting is all on the go, buy sell, go picking, the hunt and grind. If youre good, it pays for itself. Nope. Spreadsheets and fiscal responsibilities with focus. Some more organized and thoughtfully planned out, and i aplaud the hell out of you for that. Also, the fact you only show your collecting as an expense/additional variable income and not an investment is great. I have folks think that my collection is an investment and is like antiques or ultra fancy booze not realizing that its entirely speculative and while a recognized collecting market, it shouldn't be considered an asset or anything more than an expensive and passion based hobby. IRL RPG sheets gooooo. Excel warrior!

[@orbalology]

Oof, yeah I think it's best to avoid speculative assets like video games as part of an investment portfolio. That's just asking for trouble 😅 And haha, IRL RPG sheets are the best 😆

[@snuzstillfree]

I watched this video for a different reason of collecting hobbies but it was really helpful how you analyse everything I believe it works for whatever reason you are after for

[@karllong1570]

Can’t say not more but thank you and excellent presentation and showcase 👏👏👏👏

[@TanaBana_]

This is helpful and really good advice. It is always good to be financially smart when it comes to buying videogames. Bugeting is hard especially when a new amazing collector edition that comes out 😂 Anyways this guide is super helpful your awesome!😁👍

[@orbalology]

It can be so difficult to balance everything! And I'm glad to hear the template & explanations were helpful :)

[@akivas9620]

So happy you released this video! This will definitely help with how I budget for games in the future, along with my other hobbies!

[@Welspoke]

I love the fact that you have shown that gamers aren't necessarily broke bums that live in the basement of their parents home. Alot of times after having established a relationship with a co-worker, colleague, or aquaintance they see me with a handheld or they learn through conversation that I am very passionate about gaming and ask me if I am one of those "gamers". Once I share a bit about it, they always seem to be very surprised and share that they always thought that people who play video games are some stereotype or another. There was a time that I remember almost being embarrassed about gaming and I used to talk about games like FF VI as if I were reading a very good book at the time. LOL

[@Welspoke]

Awwwww...., thanks for the love Orbolology. ✌🏼🥰

[@radio2rancid]

It's a really good question but definitely a different answer for everybody.

[@UmildisTV]

This video was awesome Emily, thanks for being so open about your financial journey, and I am glad to see you have a good financial education and is spending wisely on what you love while planning for the future (mega shout out here for prioritizing an emergency fund). Hope this video helps and/or inspires some folks to organize their spending thinking long term, and also that puts to rest this invasive and reoccurring question you get of "well, how can you afford this much?" LOL. God bless you Emily, really enjoy your content!

[@SteppieGaming]

This was a really great video! Not just for budgeting for games but just overall being a bit more financially savvy.

[@femtrooper]

Wow, great video and definitely a brave thing to do to share your personal budget and finances. Good for you because I think this video will help a lot of people! :D

[@orbalology]

Thanks Paige! :)

[@nichifix]

I've been looking forward to this video. And what an insightful and helpful video it was. Lately I've been taking a hard look at my own finances and trying to think of ways to budget better. (Having a lot of hobbies is hard. Especially as a collector 😅). Getting close to 30 has me thinking about how I choose spend my money a lot more. Thank you for the great template, its structured very well and straightforward. Also for your own financial transparency as an example. I will be giving it a try this month.

[@orbalology]

I'm glad this video was insightful & helpful for you! It's great your thinking more about how to balance your finances too! If you are looking for other financial resources, I highly recommend The Money Guy Show and Caleb Hammer's channels on KZbin for more food for thought :)

[@tonyp9313]

Hi Emily. I loved your video a lot. Wow you went into great length of detail showing your budget. I know you said you're not a financial advisor, honestly I think you're an excellent financial advisor. Just stating to have an emergency fund is really important. Yeah you are right you never know what's going to happen so you should have money saved in case the worst happens. I don't think you are bragging at all. You're just helping people in making great financial decisions that's all. You should be proud of whatever it is you do regardless how people feel about that. You'll have people who are jealous of you for whatever reason, & that feeling sucks to be honest with you. To that just stick with 1 positive thing that you do & keep moving fwd. I actually loved the fact you acknowledged that this isn't you bragging. Again you are very humble & I like I said in previous comments, you're a person I gravitate towards a lot & it's a main reason why I watch your vids. So what's up with me? Well I work 5 days a week preparing packages for said drivers. When I finish work I watch my blu ray Collection that I bought of Smallville. On weekends I try to catch up on video games I am behind on. So now it's God of War Ragnarök. Next week I am on vacation for about 1 week. Work is good & everything, but not working makes it 100 times better.

[@orbalology]

I hope you have a great vacation! It always feels great to have a good chunk of time off! Though it can be difficult to go back to work afterwards 😂

[@russb93]

Have you considered another stream of income from becoming a financial advisor for gamers? Kidding aside, this was a really great video. I feel like a lot of KZbinrs give the impression that we should buy buy buy, but it's nice to see the numbers for someone who takes the hobby pretty seriously. I'm sure this will inspire others to start budgeting. This video would have been so helpful to watch when I got my first job after college (8 years ago)!

[@orbalology]

Yeah, I think the collecting community especially hears only the buy buy buy language, without enough discussion around budgeting. So I'm glad to help contribute to this topic!

[@DonWalkJr]

Thank you for sharing and being vulnerable. This was very helpful and I hope no one acts weird to you about this. I'm doing a Ph.D. myself and being a gamer during this process has been pretty rough smh.

[@orbalology]

I found it extremely difficult to maintain my gaming hobby during mine too. But it's all about delayed gratification, best of luck with your PhD program!

[@MrNineties]

Loved the insight into your process, and the transparency with your numbers does provide great perspective. Thank you for sharing :)

[@orbalology]

My pleasure, thanks for watching :)

[@etvow]

I am so glad you are into k-pop as well. I also enjoy listening to k-pop and have bought albums here and there for the past 10 years. My gaming budget is much bigger than k-pop budget, but one day I realized k-pop has provided me joy over the years, yet I have never bought albums or attended any of k-pop concerts etc and only enjoyed listening thru youtube. That is when I began buying albums here and there only on groups I truly like to show some support. Music is extremely important to my soul. If I had to give up music or gaming for the rest of my life (god forbid), as much as I love gaming, I could not live without music

[@orbalology]

Glad to hear you enjoy Kpop too! Who are your favorite groups/soloists? :)

[@etvow]

2NE1 first got my eyes on k-pop. After that, many iconic k-pop songs from t-ara, girls day, sistar, Sunni etc. hooked me into it more. And then I fell in love with Lovelyz. I have almost the entire albums on Lovelyz. I also love the more recent groups such as IVE, Nmixx, Twice, Itzy, and also dig less popular groups such as Rocket Punch, Purple Kiss, Tribe. For boy band, currently I am impressed with Ateez songs.

[@orbalology]

Aww nice, so many great groups!! I've cut down on album collecting to just my top favorites (2PM, TVXQ, Dreamcatcher, and some FTIsland and other girl groups like SNSD & NewJeans). But I enjoy all the groups you listed too :)

[@Timewoven]

It was interesting seeing your perspective of budgeting and solving your day to day financials. You definitely put more effort and structure into your planning, but like you said in the video by creating an actual document, you can compare and learn from spending habits, whether it be something to fix, or to continue with. The part that got me is seeing the value differences since I'm Canadian. While your rent is astronomically higher than what I am currently paying, everything else "seems" cheaper. Like I could not imagine groceries being around 150 a month, I go over that sometimes in a week or two just due to costs. I really enjoy the part where you've listed the items you are going for as well! Cuts down on "impulse" buying. I believe you say in the video as well that by the time you've actually saved the money for it, you've had time to think on if you actually want it. Have there been times you've gone back and decided against an item after you saved for it? Biggest thing I do is have everything "auto" pay/save. Without me thinking I'm always contributing to my retirement/home owning plans, while ensuring everything is paid for before I consider any additional purchases. Groceries would be my biggest weakness though, and that is because I manage a grocery store, so instead of doing a monthly buy; I buy daily. Pros and cons of course. Great video and incite!

[@orbalology]

Ah, based on many others it sounds like my food budget for $150-200usd is kinda low 😅 I take advantage of buying in bulk from Costco & supplementing with other low cost stores like Trader Joes & Grocery Outlet. So that may be why that is lower than expected.

[@Timewoven]

@@orbalology It's just an interesting take! The bigger take is actually how much you don't go out and do most of your own cooking (from what the numbers show at least). That's a rather impressive part in itself in comparison to the generation we're in. It's definitely better for budget, health, morale, and honestly home cooking just tastes better :P

[@Earthling247]

Thanks for another great video. You are always very interesting. ❤

[@freebread_]

It was really nice to hear about your financial aspirations and also interesting to see that our financial profiles aren't that much different 😊

[@outofthemox]

Hugely helpful for someone like me who has a lot of hobbies and finances to manage! Finding that my current budgeting tools aren’t working so well (impulse buys 😖). Thanks for sharing!!

[@jigzyonline]

Thank you. I've been bad recently with buying Retro so this is gonna make me focus on saving again for a while with the odd purchase.

[@user-od5th6zd2f]

I'm glad to see Tio and Estelle are going to be in your budget!

[@RetroGamesNow86]

wow thanks for sharing! loved the approach using a spreadsheet! thank you for the transparency

[@Uutama]

Thank you and I'm really glad to be able to use this budget for myself.

[@Polishkid88]

This is the first video of yours I have watched, and what a great first impression! Nice informative video that takes into account things many people will often overlook!

[@hansolo989]

I’m preparing for a potential post-doc life myself! It is always nice to see other academics enjoy video games

[@orbalology]

Best of luck with your future academic endeavors!

[@hansolo989]

@@orbalology same to you!

[@needszeebs6942]

Thank you so much for this video, I just downloaded the template! Budgeting is something I've been thinking about and wanting to improve on, but the whole process felt so overwhelming starting from scratch. The template is a great help!

[@genefactor007]

Wow! Super, super informative! What I will say is this, I absolutely love your collection. I know I've said that before but I really dig it. The way you display figures with their corresponding games is so cool. I've gone digital when it comes to games but you've placed a bug in my ear when it comes to picking up collector editions. So yeah, I've been considering double dipping. But with my collection being so darn broad, my finances is often left in a state to where I have to seriously pick and choose. So in that regard I'll continue to live vicariously through you. Haha! Again, lovely video and thanks for all the tips.

[@orbalology]

Aww thank you! Living vicariously is one way to help manage the budget 😂

[@timmymeredith7499]

Never saw another channel do that pretty awesome Emily keep collecting

[@orbalology]

Thanks for watching! :)

[@Gaming-Enthusiast]

Amazing upload , love your collection, you are a massive inspiration to us smaller gaming creators

[@theslayer2360]

Emily is the real Goat 🐐 💯 Thank you for showing us the reality of a gamers room! You rock! 🤟

[@JeskidoYT]

Holy cow that postdoc income is outstanding 🤯 very transparent and helpful video! Keep up the good work

[@missmandia]

This was really insightful, Emily! Thanks for sharing the strategies you use to manage collecting, this is really important stuff 😄

[@orbalology]

Thanks Mandy! I totally agree, personal finance is super important, and I hope we see more candid discussions about it in the collecting communities :)

[@Jh9801]

Very unique video. Thanks so much for the transparency.

[@sighswoons]

Awesome budget table! Very simple. I feel you on the not having a car - I live in a major city that is very walkable and with decent transit and can't imagine how many life would be if car was an expense phew.

[@silverian]

Nice to see monthly budget. I usually calculate monthly expenses. Idea to leave separate sinking part for video game expenses was nice one.

[@philipsidney123]

Thanks for the video! Always very brave to share details of your personal finances. Have to say (as a non-American) some of the details around certain retirement funds and taxes went over my head 😅. I always had the impression that you could not get by in the USA without a car - guess that is not true! I suppose you factor transport costs (inc. public transport, taxis) to go to the shops or visiting friends into other categories? Personally I find that tracking all my finances in detail can encourage me to obsess a little bit (my own personality flaw) and so I try to track broad movements month-to-month instead but no doubt that means I miss things (e.g. unused subscriptions).

[@orbalology]

I thankfully live in a very walk-friendly area! And if I need to go somewhere by car I have some close by family members I can rely on. Though I'm a pretty big homebody so I don't feel inclined to go further than my 5 mile radius for the most part lol. But yeah, most of the US is unwalkable unless you live in NYC or somewhere like that 😅

[@IamMavi11]

That's why i like you emily .like i said before on my comment i like how you think i like your Topic,ideas and how you think how you create a content. This is so useful 😊 not every channel creator can show this kind of effort just by showing your viewers and subscriber . 🙂im gonna used this .ty

[@orbalology]

Glad to hear you enjoyed this one! And that you're going to use these templates :)

[@sasamiadachi]

Thank you for sharing with us your budgeting strategy. I think this is a crucial aspect of any long-term collector. There are a lot of things I also don't spend my budget on, much to the surprise of many of my friends. It really is up to individuals on what they prioritize. To me, figure and video game collection is my primary hobby, so I will always put it ahead of other nonessential, but I will never do so at the expense of my necessities and commitments. Edit: changed "video" to "video games". xD

[@orbalology]

I would argue budgeting is important for everyone! But yes, necessities & financial goals should always come first, hobbies always secondary.

[@PostModernCereal]

Fellow Cali rent sufferer 😂 The detail and resources in this vid are amazing, Dr. Emily! I work in Education so I basically assume I don't have a budget for collecting and just get the rare pickup here and there. (this method is not advised, as "here and there" is sometimes too frequent)

[@TequilaBear]

Another great video. It’s interesting to see the “behind the scenes”. As someone who suffers from champagne tastes with a beer budget, I’ve been a lot more existential with my purchases and limiting myself. 😅 But, we won’t talk about the Song of Nunu Collectors edition I bought mainly for the hat or The Beaches blame my ex Vinyl.

[@f16madlion]

I think your appetite for kpop and videogames is almost as large as my sushi habbit, really insightful video and need to do something similar, its so zen.

[@Dr_Tsoni]

New subscriber here. Thanks so much for your process and prospective on finances. I work in non-profit, and its oftentimes hard to see the big picture, so your spreadsheet provides exactly what I need!

[@ALENABERKLAND]

You look amazing! ☺️I hope good days are in store for you and your hobbies are fun.

[@yordi3945]

Thank you for sharing. Incredible template for saving and overview

[@orbalology]

My pleasure, thanks for watching! :)

[@chadthomas587]

You are very brave and this is such a real type of video. You are awesome!

[@elisac6146]

I am glad to know we have a very similar way to budget our hobbies

[@LaLtheGaL]

This is awesome! It’s funny.. I literally just started using an excel budget sheet similar to this as I want to go on a Freedive trip next year so I want to be careful of where I spend my money. I’m going to watch your video again.

[@orbalology]

Oh Freedive trip is an awesome goal to work towards! Hope you find the rewatch helpful :)

[@KingCorbinCosmos]

The sound of your voice is my new fav thing

[@alexbest2999]

Thanks for being open about finances! It’s always a fun topic. I wish it wasn’t so taboo to talk about.

[@MichaelH-1]

You are always interesting and easy to listen to and follow Dr. Emily. I kind of wish you would branch out to even more topics so I could learn more stuff.

[@ryuhoshu3303]

Wow!!! Very nice of you to actually show such personal information, being organized with your income is very helpful but careful with your personal info

[@orbalology]

I was careful not to disclose any identifiable data.