Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

July’s income was pretty good which was expected due to receiving two paychecks after returning to my full-time job.  I made about $500 from my non-job sources of income. That isn’t too shabby.

If I am ever going to manage to pay off my student loan though, I need to be making about as much money from my alternative sources of income as I make from my job. If I have the energy and the motivation I will put more work into making that happen this month.

In order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth a few times a year.

My net worth as of 08/2/2017 is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $2435
IRA – $26,603
Roth IRA – $1660
Solo 401k – $2115
Car/Stuff – $3400

Liabilities
Student Loan – $114,608
Credit Card – $0

Net Worth = $- 78,395

My net worth improved about $1600  last month.   This was mainly due to receiving two paychecks from my full-time job. My student loan balance increased slightly despite making a $450 payment during the month. Unfortunately, my loan accrues more than $500 interest every month so a $450 payment isn’t enough to keep the balance from increasing.  On the plus side I went ahead and paid off my 0% balance transfer credit card. It would have been a wiser financial move to wait until just before the 0% rate ends in January to pay off the credit card. I didn’t like having another debt so I went ahead and paid it off.  The student loan is once again my only liability. It is a pretty big liability so I don’t really need any others.

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

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for July.

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July was another great month for expenses. They were once again well under my $1000 target. My expenses were higher than in June, but they were still pretty darn low.  I’ve been lucky with not big, unexpected expenses popping up the last couple of months.

I did have one car repair that cost me about $150. That was my only unusual expense for the month.  I tried to do the car repair myself, but wasn’t able to finish the job. I think I still saved a little money by buying the part and installing it before taking the car in to have the repair finished.

I’ve decided to list my student loan expense separately since it will throw off my monthly numbers. In July I paid $450 towards my student loan.

This month my transportation expense should go down since I hopefully won’t have another car repair. I’m guessing my food and entertainment expense will go up a little. I might have an increased medical expense due to having a doctor’s appointment. That will depend on how much I have to pay out of pocket. I think I should have a good chance of keeping my expenses under $1000 once again.

How was your month?

In order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth a few times a year.

My net worth as of 07/1/2017 is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $7676
IRA – $26,364
Roth IRA – $1623
Solo 401k – $1097
Car/Stuff – $3500

Liabilities
Student Loan – $114,398
Credit Card – $6935

Net Worth = $-81,073 

My net worth declined a little over $1100  last month. A decrease was expected since I had very little income while on sabbatical from my full-time job.  All of my investment accounts declined slightly as well.  My student loan balance increased slightly despite making a $500 payment during the month. Unfortunately, my loan accrues more than $500 interest every month so a $500 payment isn’t enough to keep the balance from increasing. On the positive side, I did decrease my credit card balance by over $800. The credit card has a 0% interest rate so it would make more sense to delay paying down the credit card and use that money to pay my student loan instead. However, the 0% interest rate will end next year and I want to make sure I have the credit card paid off before that happens. Since I’m now back at work and will have two full paychecks this month I will be able to get my net worth going back in the right direction.

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

Here is a breakdown of my income for June.

June’s income was pretty slim, but at least it was better than May.  The cash back income is approximate. It came from my credit cards and part of it was from manufacturing spend so there was some cost to earning and redeeming the cash back. This month’s income will be much better since I will have two full paychecks.  I’d like to make at least as much from my alternative sources of income this month as well. These sources usually get neglected when I’m working full-time.  That doesn’t have to be the case since even when working full-time I have plenty of time to spend on my alternative sources of income. I just need to make that more of a priority and be less lazy.