Andy Hough

I Saved 47.4% of $37k Income in 2018

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I didn’t quite reach a 50% saving rate in 2018. I’m still quite pleased with the rate I was able to achieve. If it weren’t for over $4000 of medical and dental bills plus 2 1/2 months in Thailand where I earned almost nothing I would have easily saved over 50% of my income. I think a 47.4% saving rate is pretty decent for my level of income.

Last year was my first year of what I’m calling my semi-retirement. I worked roughly 7 months and had about 5 months off. I consider the first year of semi-retirement a success since I was able to save a big chunk of my income while having several months off and trying out living in Thailand. My semi-retirement plan is to work my tax job during the tax season and then work a couple of document review projects to boost my income when the projects fit into my travel schedule. I’ll continue the semi-retirement plan until I have enough money to completely retire or find something I like to do that makes sufficient money for me to live and travel. I might write a separate post about semi-retirement later. For now, I want to get back to the actual subject of this post.

My savings in 2018 consisted of $6500 to my IRA and $11499 to my work 401k. My income from jobs and net self-employment earnings was $37962. I also contributed $400 to my solo 401k and invested about $2700 in dividend stocks. I’m not counting the solo 401k or stocks in savings since they were offset by some credit card debt.

This year I will likely have a much lower income. My income was significantly boosted last year by working lots of overtime during the tax season. I don’t think there will be nearly as much overtime available to me this year. With the reduced income it will be quite difficult to match my 2018 saving rate this year. I do think I will be able to reduce my expenses a fair bit this year so it might not be impossible for me to save that much. If I get close to saving as much money this year as I did last year I will be happy.

January Income – $1841.89

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Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

Interest $2.64
Amazon FBA $2.55
Job $1784.05
Mystery Shops $27.84
Cashback $16.73
Dividends $8.08
Online Income $0
Total $1841.89

January’s income was decent. The bulk of it came from one partial week of document review pay and my first full paycheck from my tax job.

Online income was actually seriously negative for the month since I paid for three years of web hosting. Rather than post a negative number in my income, I am going to keep putting zeroes for online income until my online income is positive for the year.

My dividend income dipped slightly for the month. This isn’t surprising since most of my stocks pay a dividend in December while only a few paid a dividends in January. I bought a little over $1000 of dividend stocks in January which should result in higher dividend income within the next few months.  I’m going to keep investing in dividend stocks to keep increasing my dividend income. My investments will be limited the next few months due to needing to bulk up my cash savings to fund my Spring Thailand trip.

I worked full-time at my tax job for all of January. I’ll get two full paychecks this month which will be enough to make this month’s income total higher than January’s. March will be my best income month of the year since I’ll have three paydays.

I have been doing some sourcing and shipping to Amazon FBA so that income will go up this month. I plan to send in a bunch of stuff before I leave for Thailand.  That way I’ll continue to have some income while I’m in Thailand as my FBA inventory sells through.

Saving Rate

When I remember I will also be adding my saving rate to my income posts. In January I made $1841.89 and I spent $975.67 for a savings rate of 52.9%.  I put about $250 into my work 401k and the rest went into dividend stocks. In future months I plan to base my saving rate on my income and what I actually put into savings. I only count my retirement accounts and my dividend stocks as savings. Money that I accumulate in my checking/savings account isn’t considered savings until it is invested in a retirement account or dividend stock. In January I actually saved about $1500 in my retirement accounts and dividend stocks which would be an even higher saving rate.  Since some of that was accomplished my drawing down the balance in my checking/savings account I felt it was more accurate to just consider the difference between my income and expenses for the month as savings.

How was your month?

Losing Weight with Bets

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Since returning from Thailand in November I have regained almost 10 pounds of the over 18 pounds I lost while in Thailand. Since returning to the U.S. I have been indulging in fast food, junk food, and Dr Pepper a little lot too often. I have a goal of getting to an under 25 BMI this year. That isn’t going to happen if I’m gaining weight rather than losing weight. I’m sure I’ll lose weight when I return to Thailand, but to reach my goal I need to be losing weight now.

To get myself back on track, I decided I needed a little extra motivation to start losing weight again. I know from prior experience that I can lose weight when I eat better and exercise. I just need to actually do those things. Long time readers may remember that I lost 30 pounds in 6 months a few years ago. That was accomplished by betting $3000 with HealthyWage. The fear of losing $3000 was enough to make me get serious about losing weight. The reward of winning a few hundred dollars for making my goal also provided motivation.

Since betting on myself to lose weight has worked in the past I am now trying it again. HealthyWage has a policy that to make a second wager with them you must be at or below your weight at the end of the first wager. Since I’m still a few pounds away from that, I am using DietBet to help motivate me to lose weight right now. I’ll do a bet with Healthy Wage later this year.

At DietBet I am doing what they call the Kickstarter Challenge, where the goal is to lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks. DietBet has smaller bets so I’m participating in 3 different games. They are for a $25 bet, $30 bet, and a $100 bet. The combined total should provide me with enough motivation to lose the weight.

Update: It is now 3 weeks into my DietBets and I still need to lose 4 pounds to win my bets. I lost quite a bit of weight the first week and then got lazy thinking it would be easy to win the bets. After not paying attention to my eating and exercise I gained some of that initial weight loss back. This last week I need to be completely committed to eating properly and exercising regularly. It will be a challenge to lose the remaining weight. If I didn’t have $155 on the line I’d probably give up. With the extra motivation of wanting to avoid losing my money I’ll be trying hard this week. Ideally, after getting in the habit of eating better and exercising regularly this week those activities will continue after the bets are over.

Want to get in on the “dieting for dollars” craze and up your potential for weight loss success? Bet on yourself and start your HealthyWager today. Then lose the weight and get paid, simple as that!

This post contains affiliate links to Healthy Wage and I may be paid a commission for sales at no cost to you. I personally used Healthy Wage and would not recommend them if I didn’t think it’s a great service.

January Expenses – $975.67

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for January.

Household$1.02
Rent$257.23
Entertainment$83.16
Transportation$36.65
Food$97.78
Travel$69.59
Phone$28.27
Student Loan$132.58
Health$269.39
Total$975.67

My January expenses were very low. I managed to get my expenses under my target of $1000 for the month.

Rent was low because I’m paying my mom’s utility bill as rent while I’m staying with her. This will probably be about $100 higher this month since it has been much colder since the end of the last billing period.

Transportation was for one tank of gas for my car. I also received a gas gift card for Christmas that got me most of another tank. Living in a small town and working at home I don’t use much gas. In January I drove to KC and back once and to Springfield and back twice. This month I won’t be going to KC so I should use even less gas. I should only have to get gas once this month. Since I won’t have any free gas this month the total expense will remain about the same.

My food expense went down quite a bit. It isn’t as good as it seems since my mom provided me with a lot of meals at home. My food expense was mostly for fast food and junk food snacks. I’m going to eat better this month so this expense will go down significantly.

Travel was for my Thai Visa application fee plus visa photos and postage to send the application to Chicago and to get my passport returned to me. I was going to wait until this month to get the Thai Visa. Since my expenses for January were so low I decided to go ahead and get the visa done. Applying for the visa here allows me to get a 60 day visa rather than the 30 day visa they issue upon arrival.

Phone was for one month of Google Fi phone service. This is about what my phone bill will be for the next few months. If you sign up for Google Fi through my referral link we will each get $20 Fi credit after your account has been active for 30 days.

Health was for the February premium on my health insurance plus an eye exam and a dental visit. I also had a doctor visit and 90 day refills for 2 different medicines which didn’t cost me anything out of pocket. This month my only health expense should be my health insurance premium so this expense will be cut in half.

My entertainment expense should go way down this month. I may go to the movies once to use up a gift card. The gift card should almost cover my admission. If I don’t get popcorn the movie visit will be very cheap. I also pay $1 a month for Hulu which I got super cheap as a Black Friday deal. If I stick to just those expenses I should have an entertainment expense of under $10 this month.

January was a low expense month and I think February will be even cheaper.  How was your month?

2018 Review and 2019 Plans

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Before I write about my 2019 plans I want to review my 2018 plans. In 2018 I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions or specific goals for the year I just shared some things I planned to accomplish during the year. The three things I planned to accomplish during 2018 were to save/make money, finish hiking the Appalachian Trail, and lose weight.

I did not finish hiking the AT. I spent a couple of weeks hiking on the trail and didn’t complete much mileage. I wasn’t able to get in a consistent hiking groove so I decided to return home rather than keep hiking. I”d still like to finish the AT, but it isn’t a priority so I’m not making it a goal right now.

I did accomplish the goal of saving/making more money. My total earnings were actually a little lower in 2018. However, the more important goal of saving more money was accomplished. I put over $11,000 in my company 401k, $6500 in my IRA, $400 in my solo 401k, and also invested about $2k in dividend stocks. That was well over 50% of my after-tax income. I’m considering this plan/goal a win.

My third and final plan was to lose weight. The first half of the year I actually gained weight. The plan was not going well. After I moved to Thailand I made great progress losing weight. I started 2018 at 230.2 pounds, went all the way up to 234.6 pounds, before eventually getting all the way down to 206.4 pounds. I didn’t set a specific amount of weight to lose. I think losing 23.8 pounds qualifies as losing weight and consider that plan accomplished.

In summary, I accomplished 2 of my 3 goals last year. As Meat Loaf says, “2 out of 3 ain’t bad“, so I’m satisfied with those results.

This year I am going to make my goals a little bit harder. This year I intend to focus more on actions rather than end results. For example, I can’t completely control whether I lose 30 pounds. However, I can control how often I exercise and whether I drink soda. If I follow my actions I’ll probably reach my goal. Even if I don’t reach the goal I’ll make good progress and developed good habits.

I’m sharing some of my goals now and I’ll make further goals once I’m in Thailand and have ample free time to get things done.

My first goal is to be able to do 1 chin-up. I haven’t been able to do a chin-up since I was 21. That is 30 years ago so being able to do a chin-up would be a pretty big accomplishment. This is a repeat goal from a couple of years ago. I didn’t make much progress on it then. I’m bringing back the goal since my brother left behind one of those pull-up bars that hang over a doorway at my mom’s house. I’ve been using it several times a day and can tell I’m getting closer to being able to do a chin-up. I can now do 1 band-assisted chin-up and can lift myself up several inches without the band. Last year when I first tried to do a chin-up I couldn’t even lift myself off the ground so this is good progress. If I continue to use the pull-up bar several times a day and lose weight (see next goal) I’m certain I’ll accomplish my goal of doing a chin-up.

My second goal is to get down to a BMI of 24.9. That would put me in the normal range for BMI. Last year I managed to get my BMI down to 29.9 and below which put me in the overweight range rather than the obese range I had been in for several years. I have gained some weight back and now have a 30 BMI putting me back in the obese range. That means this year I need to go from obese to normal weight. To accomplish that I am going to resume my intermittent fasting. I got out of the habit once I returned to the U.S. Intermittent fasting consistently will help me lose weight. The big thing I’m going to do to lose weight is stop drinking Dr Pepper. Soda makes up a big portion of my calorie intake. Giving up Dr Pepper will be difficult, but I know it will help a lot in losing weight. The last thing I’m going to do is make sure I exercise at least a little every day. I bought a jump rope and am using it for a few minutes several times a day. It isn’t much, but I do think it will help.

I’m also going to set some goals for this blog. I will flesh those out once I’m in Thailand. The goals will involve writing more, improving SEO, and figuring out ways to make more money from the blog.

That is all my goals for now. I’ll add more goals during the year. Working at my tax job and then my trip to Thailand will take up the first half of the year. I’m unsure what I want to do for the second half of the year. Once I figure that out I can set more goals that will work with my plans for the second half of the year.