Andy Hough

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

My February expenses were about the same as my January expenses. My goal is to keep my monthly expenses under $1000.  Although I usually miss that goal I usually come close. The last time I made my expense goal was February of last year. That is a long streak of not meeting my expense goal that I need to break. If this month doesn’t have any unexpected expenses and I don’t go on my hiking I should be able to break the streak. Of course, most months do have unexpected expenses.

My medical expense was a little higher than normal due to a dentist appointment. I actually had a dentist appointment and a periodontist appointment. There was no charge for the periodontist appointment since it was a continuation of the dental implant process that I paid for last year.

My food expense was way too high due to eating fast food way too often. This month I’m aiming to cut the food expense in half.

The travel expense was the $95 annual fee for my Chase Ink credit card. I’ll be receiving a bonus worth about $725 towards travel from this card making it well worth paying the annual fee.

I’m hoping to take a week-long hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail this month. If I’m able to do that then my expenses will likely go up a bit. I worked at a document review all seven days of last week. The job is scheduled to restart on Thursday and continue through the 11th or possibly the 18th. Since I will probably also have follow-up dentist and doctor appointments later this month I might not have time to take the hiking trip.  I’m willing to delay the hike a little bit to bolster my financial situation, but I definitely want to hike in April. If the trip gets put off too long it might not happen.

Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

My income went down quite a bit in January. This wasn’t totally unexpected since I knew my Amazon FBA income would be down after the Christmas rush. On the plus side I did at least make more than my expenses. In order to get ahead financially I will need to make quite a bit more than this though.

One way I hope to increase my income this month is by driving more for Uber. I’ve already made more this month than I did last month. I won’t be going on my hiking trip since it appears  Shenandoah is going to get a lot of snow. Not going on the hike will give me more time to make money this month. Hopefully, I can get my February income at least to the $2000 mark.

In 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 today (2/2/2016) is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $2012.63
IRA – $20,651.40
Roth IRA – $9299.93
Loan – $900
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Credit Card – $4400.00
Student Loan – $126,334.94

Net Worth = $-92,870.92

My net worth decreased $1101.34 in January. A big part of the decrease was due to the stock market reducing the value of my IRAs. The almost $600 monthly interest on my student loan didn’t help either.

On the bright side I was able to reduce my credit card balance by almost $2600. Once I have this credit card paid off I plan to take advantage of another 0% credit card balance transfer offer to pay down my student loan.

It will be difficult to make much progress this month.  The stock market will have to help me out in order for me to be able to increase my net worth since I don’t think I’ll increase my income this month.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for January.

My January expenses were pretty low. I would have easily kept my expenses under my target of $1000 if it weren’t for having to get four new tires at an expense of $350. Other than that there were not surprise expenditures during the month. I’m hoping for no surprise expenditures this month. This month’s expenses should be about the same. I’m considering on going on a one-week hike. If I do that then my travel and gas expenses will be higher than normal. Even if I do go on the trip I should be able to keep my expenses pretty low. There are only 29 days this month to spend money which should help a little bit.