Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

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February was a decent month for expenses. Although it was a lot higher than January, that was to be expected since January’s expenses were so low. The main things that made this month’s expenses higher were the student loan payment of $505.95 and the travel expenses of $293.08.  The student loan expense is a necessary expense if I’m ever going to get it paid off. The travel expense was for the annual fee on two credit cards and two six-day museum passes for our Paris vacation. The credit cards are going to get me two free nights in Paris at an $800 a night hotel so I think that is a pretty good deal. One of the credit cards is also allowing me to get a hotel room for $75 a night in Boston where we will be staying the night before taking a plane from Boston to Paris. That room would have cost at least $150 if I didn’t have points from my credit card. I get a lot in return for paying the annual fees on those credit cards. Their will still be lots of miscellaneous expenses, but I’ve got all of the big spending done for our Paris vacation. If it weren’t for the student loan expense and travel expense I would have met my $1000 spending goal for the month.

March’s expenses will be pretty similar to February’s except I’ll have a bigger student loan expense.  I’ll be okay with that.

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 03/3/2017 is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $11,356
IRA – $25,909
Roth IRA – $10,988
Solo 401k – $1086
Car/Stuff – $3900

Liabilities
Student Loan – $131,908
Credit Card – $2202

Net Worth = $-80,871

My net worth improved by about $5000 last month. I’m quite pleased with that increase. The rising stock market and increased cash savings from my job proved to be a potent combination for increasing my net worth.  Although my assets had a nice increase my liabilities only decreased by about $100. I need to do more work on them. That will be the subject of an upcoming blog post. My net worth not counting my student loan would be $51,037.

This month should also be a good month for my net worth since I will be getting three paychecks from my job. I hope to keep increasing my net worth each month and hopefully one day I’ll get to $0.

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 February.

My February income was pretty good. Receiving two full paychecks contributed most of the income for the month. I was happy to make almost $600 from FBA since I barely sent any products in during the month. I cut the prices on a lot of my items that I’d had for a while to get some more sales. I’m almost completely sold out of items now. I’ll send in a few more items this month though.

This month will be an even better month for income because I will have three paydays this month. My other sources of income will probably be down this month, but the extra paycheck from my job will easily make up for any shortfall.

Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

My January income was pretty good, although it was lower than December’s income. This was due to a sharp drop in my Amazon FBA income.  The FBA income went down due to fewer sales after the holiday rush, a lot of returns, and me sending in a lot less inventory since I was busy working. Although I worked the entire month I only received one paycheck so the job income wasn’t as much as it will be this month.  Now that I’m working job income will be the primary source of income and my other sources of income will be neglected until tax season is over. This month and the next two months will be great income months. By the time the job ends I should have a nice amount saved for the rest of the year.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for January.

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January was a  ridiculously low expense month. This was partially due to having gift cards to pay for some of my food and all of my gas. This was one of those rare months where no unusual expenses popped up.  Since my income was low last year my health insurance has gone down to $56.97 a month. My required student loan payment has gone down to $0. All of the income from this blog will still be paid towards my student loans even though I’m not obligated to make any payments this year.

Although February is a shorter month than January I am sure it will be a higher expense month. It is difficult to have two very low expense months in a row. This month I expect to pay more towards travel, transportation,food, and my student loan. Even with those increased expenses I expect to keep my total expenses below $1000.

How was your month?