How I'm Able to AFFORD Collecting | Video Game, Figure & Hobby Budgeting with My REAL Numbers
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 жов 2023
- I get asked this question a lot, so now I have the perfect thing to link whenever I'm asked this question again lol.
But really, I hope at least some of you find this helpful! As you can maybe tell I'm a bit of a personal finance nerd & love talking about this stuff. I sort of glossed over a few details so please let me know if you have any additional questions or would like me to follow up with something related to personal finance involving hobbies.
You can obtain a copy of the budget template I shared in the video here:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
I also realized that I edited over the part where I mentioned what I do with my UA-cam income from Google, Amazon affiliate links, and ko-fi. Right now it's all going into my UA-cam fund that I plan to draw from in the near future. the plan is to use it for equipment upgrades, such as a professional camera/mix setup and maybe a PC & streaming equipment. I haven't made much from Amazon affiliate links so far but right now I've been storing them as gift cards for purchasing games that I plan to feature on the channel & potentially other equipment type things.
The Fire Emblem Marth figure I mentioned in the sinking fund part (currently low stock for discounted price option): amzn.to/3RUnnwp
Shelves featured in the background:
8-Tier Shelf With Circular Displays: amzn.to/41Q5lgp
5-Tier Corner Shelf: amzn.to/3BKU8TF
12-Tier Open Shelf: amzn.to/3MroS0X
DISCLAIMER: I've listed US Amazon affiliate links in this description. This means that if you purchase a product using these links I may receive a small commission. No pressure to use these links but they are one way to help support the channel.
If you would like to support the channel please check out:
My Ko-fi page for single donations/tips
ko-fi.com/orbalology
____________________________________________________________
For those who may be curious about what my channel name means, it's a play on the magical energy technology system used in one of my favorite series: The Legend of Heroes/Trails/Kiseki games. Pronounced: or·bal·ol·o·gy :)
If you are a viewer of this channel please do NOT contact me with trade, sale, or gift inquiries. I have no plans to open a public P.O. Box for fans to send things to me.
The following are the only social media accounts I'm active on
Twitter: / orbalology
Instagram: / orbalology
Threads: @ orbalology
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!
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.
Yeah I really loved this. Thank you for sharing Orbalology!
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.
I thonk she said these were fake numbers she was plugging in just to have an example of her budgeting. Unless I missed something.
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.
We just had a baby. Reckon I'm on the sidelines for about 22 years...
@@rhythmandblues9302adulting is tough
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.
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 :)
Very interesting topic! I knew you were highly educated! Congratulations on your PhD.
@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?
@@jokerjosh3 *cringe*
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 :)
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
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 :)
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!
This is definitely a topic more should be transparent about! That way we can all learn from each other :)
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
I proclaim this the UA-cam 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 👍👍
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!!
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!
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.
Aww, thank you so much. I really appreciate the kind words :)
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).
So happy you released this video! This will definitely help with how I budget for games in the future, along with my other hobbies!
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!
Many thanks go to you for helping out your viewers and fans. You've done many of us a great service! Awesome video!
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!
Wow this is incredible! Thank you very much for sharing and helping your fellow video game/figure collectors
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.
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!
Yup, perspective really does matter!
As someone from Spain, is so informative to see the prices there, there's a lot of difference with the salaries/expenses!
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.
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 😊
Thanks for watching! Glad to hear you enjoyed this topic :)
Wow this is the most transparent video I've seen on UA-cam probably ever. Respect the honesty and found this video useful whilst being entertaining keep up the good work. 👍🏾
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!🤣🤣
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 : )
Thank you so much for this video! I've been trying to budget better and this is great information to help me with that! Love your collecting videos too!
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!
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!
Loved the insight into your process, and the transparency with your numbers does provide great perspective. Thank you for sharing :)
My pleasure, thanks for watching :)
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.
This is fantastic, thank you for sharing and we all really enjoy your content :) keep it up please! ❤
This was a really great video! Not just for budgeting for games but just overall being a bit more financially savvy.
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 😊
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!!
Fantastic video Emily! This is genuinely helpful and extremely informative and insightful. You certainly have a good grasp and understanding here and I'll most likely be using this template moving forward.
I hope the budget template works well for you!
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.
Aww thank you! Living vicariously is one way to help manage the budget 😂
This was really insightful, Emily! Thanks for sharing the strategies you use to manage collecting, this is really important stuff 😄
Thanks Mandy! I totally agree, personal finance is super important, and I hope we see more candid discussions about it in the collecting communities :)
Thank you and I'm really glad to be able to use this budget for myself.
How brave, informative and altruistic. I knew I liked you for a reason 🥺
Very unique video. Thanks so much for the transparency.
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).
The gaming Dr is in!
Can’t say not more but thank you and excellent presentation and showcase 👏👏👏👏
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.
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 UA-cam for more food for thought :)
Great job! Amazing way to explain this to everyone.
It was really nice to hear about your financial aspirations and also interesting to see that our financial profiles aren't that much different 😊
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! :)
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 UA-cam is that there are a lot of resources that discuss those topics in depth, and can be a 'fun' rabbit hole to fall down :)
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!
wow thanks for sharing! loved the approach using a spreadsheet! thank you for the transparency
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.
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.
Same here ahah.
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.
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!
Amazing upload , love your collection, you are a massive inspiration to us smaller gaming creators
You are very brave and this is such a real type of video. You are awesome!
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
I actually appreciate this video. I wish financial planning was a standard in all grades of schooling. Definitely inspiring.
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!
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
This is a very high quality video. Thank you!
Thanks for another great video. You are always very interesting. ❤
terrific content! i really need to start using spreadsheets, but its so daunting
Thank you for sharing. Incredible template for saving and overview
My pleasure, thanks for watching! :)
Great video, Emily! I really appreciate this breakdown. I love to collect, but have to balance my collecting with other priorities in life. Thank you
Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how he's turning out so far too.
Great video this is something that should be talked about since if you dont have some some type of budget it can go crazy
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.
Holy cow that postdoc income is outstanding 🤯 very transparent and helpful video! Keep up the good work
You look amazing! ☺️I hope good days are in store for you and your hobbies are fun.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Very cool to see how you do your budget. Very brave as well!
Nice to see monthly budget. I usually calculate monthly expenses. Idea to leave separate sinking part for video game expenses was nice one.
I need to start doing this. Thank you. Good job,youre doing well for yourself early in life. Rent over there is criminal.
I am glad to know we have a very similar way to budget our hobbies
I really enjoyed this!
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.
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!😁👍
It can be so difficult to balance everything! And I'm glad to hear the template & explanations were helpful :)
Amazing!!! Thank you for this video
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.
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.
Oh Freedive trip is an awesome goal to work towards! Hope you find the rewatch helpful :)
I'm glad to see Tio and Estelle are going to be in your budget!
Thanks for being open about finances! It’s always a fun topic. I wish it wasn’t so taboo to talk about.
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
I would argue budgeting is important for everyone! But yes, necessities & financial goals should always come first, hobbies always secondary.
Love the transparancy will subscribe just for that
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.
This is really helpful, thanks 🙏
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
Glad to hear you enjoyed this one! And that you're going to use these templates :)
Wow, maximum respect, and very helpful advice as well
Never saw another channel do that pretty awesome Emily keep collecting
Thanks for watching! :)
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)
Wow, this was great, Emily! Was very nice seeing all of the details, from the income, to the expenses, on how you juggle all of it to be able to get the things you want! Especially as a non-American, it's fascinating to see on how things are quite different compared to here in my country. Might be in the minority in saying this, but I love the spreadsheets, wouldn't mind seeing more videos similar to this lol.
As a personal thing to share, when it comes to buying games, idol stuff, or the things that I'm interested in, when there is something that I really want, I tend to pay the full balance of the item, either right away, or shortly after I place the order. Personally, I don't really like seeing that I have balance on anything, so I would rather take the financial hit right then, and there. At least, I've gotten it out of the way, and all I have to do now is wait, rather than putting myself in a situation that will cause problems for me and the seller of the item. I don't want any trouble XD
Also, I saw that you were feeling under the weather a couple of days back, so glad to see you are feeling better hehe :D
I'm thankfully feeling much better, thanks! I was curious while putting this together how this video would translate to those who live outside of the US, glad to hear you found it interesting! And yes, us spreadsheet nerds unite! lol
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.
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 😂
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).
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.
Hey Emily, thanks for this! I may try out the budget template. Also contrats on your Post doc seemingly coming to a close soonish. Im planning on going back for my masters soon and then my phd later. Awesome video as always!
Best of luck with your future school endeavors!
@@orbalology thank you Emily
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!
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 😆