Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

 
September was another low expense month. Without the extra student loan payment my monthly expenses would have been just over $1000. That is two months in a row of keeping my expenses right around my stretch target of $1000.

My big expense category for the month was transportation. This was due to paying for six months of car insurance. The bill wasn’t actually due until the second half of this month, but I decided to pay it early since I was having such a low expense month. I’m okay with all the other expense categories although I would like to reduce the food expense a little.

October should be another  low expense month. There are no expected large expenses this month. I did have a doctor’s appointment in September I haven’t been billed for yet and I have another appointment this month which could cost me some money. I have met my deductible for the year so these appointments shouldn’t cost me much if anything. Other than transportation October expenses should be pretty similar to September’s expenses.

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 9/1/2016 is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $3313.19 (-$1080.23)
IRA – $23,904.31 (+$64.57)
Roth IRA – $10,378.74 (+$58.49)
Solo 401k – 992.54 (NA)
Car/Stuff – $4600 (-$100)

Liabilities
Student Loan – $129,663.70 ($111.47)

Net Worth = $-86,474.92

My net worth increased by $46.84 since the last update. An increase is better than a decrease but my net worth is still less than it was in July. I need some bigger increases. I’ve put in a couple of job applications the past week. I’m hoping one of those comes through so I can increase my income.

Although I paid over $700 on my student loan last month the balance only decreased a little over $100. Since the loan charges over $600 a month interest it is really difficult to make progress on paying down the loan. I need to increase my income dramatically to be able to get ahead on this 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

Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

My income was pretty good in August considering I didn’t have any job income. I was aiming to make about as much in August as in July and I came within $40 which I consider close enough. The big contributor to my income this month was Amazon FBA.  I sold almost all of the inventory I bought in July from the hardware store that was going out of business. Unfortunately, I didn’t find another great source of inventory like the hardware store in August so next month’s FBA income will be considerably less. When you are doing Retail Arbitrage (RA) you constantly have to be finding new inventory. That is a skill I still need to improve. In the long run I think my FBA business will do better if I focus on wholesale and private label products. I don’t have any wholesale or private label products yet.

My cash back income was a lot less in August. The $1000 in cash back in July was an anomaly. I still made over $100 in cash back in August which is pretty good for extra money. If you sign up for Mr. Rebates you can help me make more cash back and earn cash back for yourself as well.  Later this month I am going to write a post with all the cash back sites I use.

Although I’ve done okay without a job the last couple of months I am looking to get another job in order to increase my income and meet some financial goals.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

My August expenses were nice and low. I’m quite happy with the total expenses for the month. If you deduct the $749.40 I paid towards my student loan then my total expenses for the month were under $1000 which is my stretch goal for every month. The extra paid towards my student loan in August came from my online income. I have committed to using all income earned from my blogs to pay down my student loan.  If you buy something or sign up for a service through one of the affiliate links on this site the money I earn in commission will go towards my student loan. It had been a few months since I had made an extra payment which resulted in the large payment in August. I need to start making the payments every month I have online income so it isn’t such a hit to my checking account when I make the extra payment.

The only expense category I wasn’t happy with in August was the food category. I spent way too much money on food in August. Some of that was due to my Vegas trip where I paid over $16 for a Shake Shack (overrated) meal. Even without the trip my food spending would have been way too high. I’m aiming to cut that expense in half this month.

Other than that I expect my expenses in September to be pretty similar to August.

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 (8/2/2016) is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $4393.42 (-$415.14)
IRA – $23,839.74 (+$373.76)
Roth IRA – $10,320.25 (+$324.94)
Car/Stuff – $4700 (-$100)

Liabilities
Student Loan – $129,775.17 ($642.75)

Net Worth = $-86,521.76

My net worth decreased by $459.19 since the last update. Although I had a nice increase in my investments they were not enough to overcome the decrease in cash and the over $600 in student loan interest. Some of the decrease in cash is due to an increase in Amazon FBA inventory. I hope to be able to turn most of that inventory back into cash this month.

As I’ve stated before this massive student loan makes it difficult for me to get ahead financially. Since it charges over $600 a month interest I start in a pretty big hole each month. I need to increase my income dramatically to be able to get ahead on this 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