Expense/Income Tracking

In order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month. This month’s is a little delayed since I was hiking at the beginning of the month.

My net worth as of today (5/13/2016) is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $4029
IRA – $22,677.65
Roth IRA – $9865.33
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Student Loan – $128,165.88

Net Worth = $-86,593.90

***Update*** After I posted this I discovered the net worth total was incorrect. The post has been updated to reflect the correct amount.

My net worth improved about $350 in April. That isn’t much, but at least it was an improvement. (actually after correcting my math my net worth did decrease a little in April) Since I was hiking and didn’t make much I thought I might have a net worth decrease for the month.

Although I didn’t have much income for the month my cash position increased quite a bit. A lot of that was due to selling quite a few low or no profit items on Amazon FBA. Those items didn’t result in much income, but since they were purchased in previous months they increased April’s cash flow.

The big negative continues to be my student loan. The loan accrued another $791.58 in interest since last month’s post. It appears that I’m being charged interest on my entire balance although it is my understanding that I should only be charged interest on the original principal amount. I will have to contact them and see if I can clarify this.

As I’ve stated before this massive student loan makes it difficult for me to get ahead financially. I’d like to get this refinanced, but that will be difficult to do until I have steady employment and consistent income.  I need to do something soon since I’m basically throwing away $700 a month.

I’ve been using Personal Capital (aff 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.

Personal Capital

Here is a breakdown of my income for April.

April was a decent income month considering  that I was hiking three weeks of the month. My online income was a nice surprise. After months of little or no income I actually made a little bit of money from my blogs. I will be getting a payment from Adsense and Commission Junction this month giving me two months in a row of online income. It would be nice if I could get my online income back up to what it was a few years ago.

I’m struggling to get my FBA business making the kind of money I’d like to make. I read online about people who are able to make $1000s in just a few months with FBA and I think I should be able to do that to. I’ve had a couple of months with over $1000 profit and I want to get to where every month is over $1000 profit. I’m struggling to find enough stuff to sell right now. I will need to spend more time sourcing this month to get more products in inventory which should lead to more sales.

I should have an increase in income this month since I’m not hiking. So far I’m on pace to make less than last month though. I notified my document review job that I’m available for work, but they haven’t added me to a project yet. I’m hoping that they will do so soon. In the meantime I will focus on making more money from my other sources of income.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

My April expenses were higher than normal. This was mainly due to the cost of my colonoscopy and medicine. The travel expense of $286.91 also inflated my monthly total. I’m okay with the colonoscopy and travel expense increasing my expenses. My colonoscopy revealed a couple of large polyps that were benign, but may not have still been benign had I waited until I was 50 to get a colonoscopy. Knowing that I don’t have any major problems with my digestive tract was well worth the money spent.

The travel expense was for my three-week hiking trip. It includes my airfare to NJ, train to town near trail, taxi to trail, and four nights in a hotel.  I think I got a lot of value for the money spent. Since the trip went into the first few days of May there will be a little bit of travel expense this month as well.

I spent way too much on food. A lot of that was due to eating at restaurants while hiking. Most of the restaurants near the trail were a little pricier than I would have preferred, but I chose to eat at them rather than not have a restaurant meal at all. I need to cut my food expense way down this month.

One bright spot in my expenses was the transportation category.  I didn’t spend any money on transportation. Since I wasn’t home I didn’t drive my car and didn’t have to buy gas or otherwise spend money on my car. This expense will obviously go up this month. It still shouldn’t be too much though.

My expenses should go down this month although they will still be higher than usual.

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 (4/4/2016) is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $3145.39
IRA – $22,447.78
Roth IRA – $9832.84
Loan – $0
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Credit Card – $0
Student Loan – $127,374.30

Net Worth = $-86,948.29

My net worth improved a little over $1000 in March.  The improvement was all due to an increase in assets. My liabilities stayed pretty much the same.  Although I paid off the remaining $522 of my credit card balance transfer the monthly interest on my student loan was almost $600 resulting in very little progress in reducing my overall debt total.

This month is also the final month I’ll be receiving payment for the personal loan I made last year. That will be a reduction of $450 a month in cash flow which will make it slightly more difficult to continue to improve my net worth.

Since I will hopefully be hiking the next couple of months I will have a serious reduction in income so I don’t expect to make any progress on paying down my student loan and improving my net worth during that time. Once I’m back from the hike I plan to focus on increasing my income and putting all of my extra money towards my student loan debt.

Last month I wondered whether I should invest in my IRA or use that money to pay down my student loan. I think I’ll likely max out my IRA again. I have until April 15th next year to contribute the money so I don’t have to make up my mind yet.

Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

March was a decent income month. The job income was a big help since it did make up half of my total income. My monthly income would have been a little less than my monthly expenses without the job income. It doesn’t look like there will be any job income this month. My project finished about halfway through the month and the next project I got assigned to was delayed. Since I have my medical procedures next week and I plan to leave on my hike the week after that it won’t be possible to work at the document review job this month.

My FBA income took a big hit in March. There were a lot of returns and a lot of items that sold for very little profit or for a loss. Since I’ll be gone most of this month my FBA income will suffer. I hope I can make at least as much as last month though.

Cash back income continues to be strong due to all the shopping I do for FBA. The $200 bank bonus was a nice boost to my income as well.

Since I’ll be hiking most of the month my income this month will go down.  My goal for the month is to make at least as much as I spend.