Andy Hough

November 2016 Net Worth Update

by

penniesIn order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month.

My net worth as of 11/1/2016 is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $3263 (-$447)
IRA – $23,212 (-$665)
Roth IRA – $10,281(-$169)
Solo 401k – 969 (-$19)
Car/Stuff – $4400 (-$100)

Liabilities
Student Loan – $130,775 ($594)

Net Worth = $-88,651

My net worth decreased by $1997 since the last update. That was the worst decline since I’ve started tracking my net worth. The decline was mostly due to a downturn in the stock market. My student loan interest continued to accumulate as well. I am making a large payment towards my student loan this month which will almost cover the monthly interest. If the market recovers a bit I should be able to reverse the net worth decline this month. If the market declines or stays flat then my net worth will likely decline since I’m not making enough money right now to add to my investments or pay much extra on my student loan.

I’ve been using Personal Capital (affiliate link) to help track my net worth. It keeps track of all of my financial accounts and my student loan making it pretty easy to calculate my net worth each month. It is free to sign up. If you would like to sign up I’d appreciate you using my link. All blog income, including affiliate income, goes to paying down my student loan.

Personal Capital

October Income – $1245.60

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for October.

Mystery Shop $6.50
Interest $1.51
Health Survey $75
User Testing $23
Online Income $78.68
Amazon FBA $792.07
Decluttr $20
Cash Back $90.05
Bank Bonus $150
Delivery $8.79
Total $1245.60

My October income was an improvement over September which wasn’t much of an accomplishment given how low my income was in September.  On the plus side my income was greater than my expenses. Although I’d prefer to make more I’m okay with this level of income for now since I know I’ll be making a lot more once my tax job starts.

Most of the improvement in income in October came from increased Amazon FBA earnings.  Since there should be a lot more Christmas shoppers online this month I should be able to make more money this month. My week vacation might hamper that a little bit, but I’m going to try to work extra when I get back to get my earnings higher than last month.

I did have a couple of sources of income carry over from September. I made $20 referring people to Decluttr. If you would like to sign up for Decluttr you can get a $10 bonus by clicking through my referral link and using my referral code DXR9HCGXYL. You need to sell Decluttr at least $10 of stuff to qualify for the $10 bonus. I’ll receive a $10 bonus for the first ten qualified referrals as well. I made $75 referring people to an online health study. If you buy your own insurance then you might qualify for the health study. If you use my health insurance study referral link we can both make $25 when you successfully complete the study.

Overall, my earnings weren’t too bad considering I didn’t work a job at all and I spent less than 40 hours a week working on the various things that did make me money.

October Expenses – $834.53

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for October.

Household $400
Entertainment $44.49
Transportation $32.52
Food $141.11
Student Loan $90
Travel $0
Phone $36.79
Health $89.62
Total $834.53

October was a super low expense month. Since my income was also low it is good that I was able to keep my expenses low. I’ve been lucky the last few months to not have any big expenses come up. That lucky streak will end this month. I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card and will be paying a $450 annual fee. That is a pretty big fee. It is especially big compared to the size of my expenses. I think the fee will be worth it since I’ll receive a sign-up bonus worth over $1000 and will also receive a $300 travel credit this year and next. I think I’ll be able to travel quite a bit next year using the points from this card.

Other than the increase in travel expenses I don’t think any of my other expenses will change much this month. I would like to decrease my food spending just a little. Since we have a week-long trip to Las Vegas and South Carolina coming up next week it might be difficult to keep the food spending down.  I’m okay with that as long as I feel like I get good value for the money spent.

How was your October?

Free Fast Food For a Year For the Third Time

by

wendysLast Saturday I won free fast food for a year for the third time. If you’ve been reading the blog a long time you might remember that I also won free fast food for a year from McDonald’s way back in 2007 and 2008. As if that wasn’t enough free fast food, a friend who also won free fast food with me moved away and gave me his free fast food pass. I was eating two free fast food meals a week back in 2008.

Before I stumbled upon this latest deal it had been a long time since I had discovered an opportunity for free fast food for a year. Last week I visited a Wendy’s that had recently opened after a complete remodel and they had a flyer advertising free fast food for a year to the first 100 customers the following day. I showed up the next day and after waiting in line for about an hour and a half I received my pass for free fast food for a year. This deal wasn’t quite as good as the McDonald’s deals. This deal from Wendy’s was only for a premium sandwich or salad while the Mcd’s deals were for an extra value meal.  Considering I like Wendy’s burgers a lot better than Mcd’s the Wendy’s deal is almost as good as the Mcd’s deal.

I know I shouldn’t be eating fast food since it isn’t healthy, but I still eat it frequently.  Since I’m going to be eating it anyway I might as well get it for free. If I get a $5 sandwich each week I will have saved $260 over the course of the year. I think it is worth standing in line for an hour and a half to receive $260 worth of food.

Have you ever received any similar free food types of deals?

October 2016 Net Worth Update

by

penniesIn order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month.

My net worth as of 10/1/2016 is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $3710.82 (+$397.63)
IRA – $23,877.79 (-$26.52)
Roth IRA – $10,450.23 (+$71.49)
Solo 401k – 988.09 (-$4.45)
Car/Stuff – $4500 (-$100)

Liabilities
Student Loan – $130,181.70 ($518)

Net Worth = $-86,654.77

My net worth decreased by $179.85 since the last update. Since I didn’t  have any luck finding a job last month I wasn’t able to contribute any money to my investments or pay extra on my student loan. Although I did have a small increase in my assets it wasn’t enough to overcome the $600 of monthly interest incurred on my student loan.

I do have a job starting in January so I’ll be able to improve my net worth at that time. I’m hoping I’ll be able to find something in the meantime to increase my income and reverse this net worth slide.

I’ve been using Personal Capital (affiliate link) to help track my net worth. It keeps track of all of my financial accounts and my student loan making it pretty easy to calculate my net worth each month. It is free to sign up. If you would like to sign up I’d appreciate you using my link. All blog income, including affiliate income, goes to paying down my student loan.

Personal Capital