Andy Hough

How to Live Well Without a Car

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I picked up the book,How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breathe Easier, and Get More Mileage Out of Life at the library last week and found it to be an interesting read.   I didn’t really think there was enough information about living without a car to fill up a book but I was surprised.  The book had a lot of good information and none of it seemed like filler.   I suppose you could consider the insets where people share their stories of living without a car as filler but I found them entertaining. The author shares his story of going car-free and gives some information about how much having a car is likely costing you.  The average cost of car ownership is about $8000 a year.  Mine is much less than that but it is still a significant number.  The author also provides information about alternative methods of transportation such as scooters, motorcycles, public transportation, bicycles, and walking.  If you are considering giving up your car this book has lots of helpful information.

I have lived without a car myself several times in my life and I didn’t find it to be much of a hardship.  In fact it made life simpler.  And it also allowed me to save a lot of money.   If I had owned a car all of last year I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford my trip through Central America.   Not having a car allows you to live better on less money.

It would be difficult for me to go without a car now though.  My wife and I do have just one car between us which I suppose might qualify us as car-lite.   My wife is going to be working at home soon and I mostly work at home.  If I was sure of my future job status I probably could give up the car.   I doubt my wife and stepdaughter would be crazy about the idea.  If I ever do try to get rid of the car that will be another post.

Online Income Report – August 2010

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It was another great month for online income.  I made over $1000 for the second month in a row.  There is a good chance I will make over $1000 this month as well.  It just depends on whether one of my affiliate companies pays me on time.  I’m reporting the money I actually received rather than the money I earned.  Since I generally don’t receive money until the month after I earn it my online income reports are more reflective of my earnings for the prior month.

Here are my income sources for August.

Google Adsense – $265.99

Text Links – $43.12

Affiliate Sales – $91

Direct Ad Sales – $727.97

Total   $1128.08

I’m not sure how long I can continue selling the ads without killing my page rank but I’m probably going to find out.  I’ve already made almost as much in direct ad sales this month as last month.  My Google Adsense revenue will be way up this month because I had an article featured on Yahoo Finance that brought a lot of very clicky traffic to one of my other sites.  I’m trying to build up my affiliate income so my revenue streams will be more diversified.  I have made some progress but I am still in the process of trying to improve it further.  My goal of making a full-time living from my web sites no longer seems too far-fetched.

August Investment Income – $91.96

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My August investment income rose slightly to $91.96 from 90.62 the month before.  I did add $150 to my IRA which accounted for most of the gain.  My stocks have not gone up much this year but the S&P 500 is down for the year so I guess I should be happy that I have a gain at all.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early.  You can see what my actual investment income for the month was by looking at my monthly income report and adding the interest and dividend amounts.

August Income – $1445.82

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Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Online Income

$1101.00

Interest

$22.50

Stock Dividends

$12.90

Mystery Shops

$192.23

Bank Bonuses

$7.76

Survey/Cashback

$9.23

Job

$100.20

Total

$1445.82

It was a good month for income.  My income was higher than my expenses which is one of my goals.  I need to get my income up to about $2000 a month or more though to make progress on building up my savings.

I was pleased that my online income was its highest ever and once again was over $1000.  It won’t likely be that high this month but it should still be pretty good if I receive the affiliate checks that are due me.

Mystery shop income will be up a little this month.  Since most of the payments lag about a month behind I already have a good idea of what I will make this month.  The mystery shop total is my the actual income I receive before expenses.  It does not include reimbursements which were about $100 in August.

Job income will be up a lot for this month.  Although  I have already quit the job I still have a couple of paychecks coming.

August Expenses – $1326.82

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

Household

$374.48

Entertainment

$211.33

Transportation

 $454.13

Food

$121.24
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$68.20
Debt $40

Total

$1326.82

My expenses for August were about the same as they were in July.  There were a couple of things that inflated my expenses for August.  I bought two new tires for my car and I registered for a marathon.  Even without the new tires my transportation expenses for August were too high.  I have been trying to cut back on that but I drive a lot to make money.  I put the marathon under entertainment expense.  My entertainment expense also needs to be seriously reduced.  Food also can be reduced a little.  Everything else will remain about the same. I’m hoping to get my expenses under $1000 this month not counting my bar exam registration fee.