Expense/Income Tracking

Last month I calculated my net worth as part of comparing my lifetime earnings to my net worth.  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 yesterday was as follows.

Assets
Cash – $3801.76
IRA – $21,243.28
Roth IRA – $9605.37
Loan – $1350
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Credit Card – $6992.74
Student Loan – $125,777.25

Net Worth = $-91,769.58.

That is a $2,140.42 improvement from my last net worth post which was just three weeks ago. I’m pretty happy with that improvement. If I were able to increase my net worth that much each month I’d get to a $0 net worth in 44 months.

The improvement was mostly from lots of Amazon sales the last half of December.  Sales have already dropped off this month. My Amazon earnings will take a hit making it difficult to repeat last month’s net worth improvement. I also have to get four new tires and pay $410 for my annual bar enrollment fees this month so it will be an expensive month.

In the three weeks since my first net worth calculation my student loan balance went up $446. The interest on this loan is brutal.  I’m being charged over $21 a day in interest. I’d like to refinance this loan to a lower rate, but haven’t had any luck so far. Although my credit score is great lenders don’t like my debt to income ratio. Now that I’m self-employed it will likely be even harder to get the loan refinanced. I just have to keep paying it down as quick as I can.

Although I doubt I’ll match last month’s progress I am hopeful that I’ll still be able to make decent progress this month.

Here is a breakdown of my income for December.

My income recovered nicely in December. Since my income was about $1000 more than my expenses I can afford to stay self-employed for a while longer.

The big improvement in my income came from my FBA income which increased from $1000 from the previous month. The Christmas spending frenzy was great for me and I sold a record amount of stuff in December. It will be difficult to match that this month now that the Christmas frenzy is over, but I’m hoping I can keep the income to at least the $1000 level. I’ve still got quite a few products in the Amazon warehouse so another big month is possible.

The cash back income of $475.25 was mostly (I’d estimate over 90%) from buying stuff to resell on Amazon. The Chase Freedom card paying 10% on Amazon purchases provided a $150 of the cashback and the Discover 10% Apple Pay promotion and 5% back at department stores contributed over $200. There should be another big amount of cashback from Discover this month.

The class action income was a random check I received due to a settlement from a former employer. I’m not sure what the suit was about, but I’ll take the money.

I didn’t do a lot of Uber driving in December. Although I spent quite a bit of time working on my FBA business and did have some holiday obligations I could have spent a lot more time driving for Uber. I plan to work at least half-time for Uber this month.

For the first time in several months the online income category showed a profit. It would be nice to have another profitable month. That will depend mostly on luck since I’ll be concentrating more on increasing my FBA and Uber income this month and not on my online income.

Although I made about $1000 more than my expenses last month I need to make a lot more. If I’m going to be able to pay off my student loans in a reasonable amount of time I need to make at least $2000 a month more than my expenses. That level of income won’t be easy for me to obtain, but it is something to strive for.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December.

My December expenses were pretty low and almost at my $1000 target.  This was a rare month that didn’t have any unexpected or annual/semi-annual expenses.  My transportation expenses were low since the only gas I bought was with a gas gift card that was included in November’s expenses.  My only transportation expense for the month was $8.87 for an oil change. The oil change was super cheap since I had a coupon due to being a Shop Your Way member. Food expenses were down because I didn’t eat out as often due to attending several Christmas gatherings.

The only extra expense for the month was $81.11 to pay off the remainder of my biopsy bill. Hopefully, my expenses will be low this month as well.  I plan to have both a doctor appointment and dentist appointment this month which could result in some increased expenses. My transportation expense will go up since that is the only way it can go after being so low in December. All of my other expenses should be about the same.

Here is a breakdown of my income for November.

November was not a good income month. With the end of my job my income fell dramatically. Most of my spending in November came  from my last October paycheck which was paid just two days before the end of the month. Now that I’ve spent that I’ll have to make more money this month or draw down my savings. I’ve earmarked all of the money I got from my settlement for paying down my 0% credit card balances which were used to pay down my student loan. There will be no use of the settlement money for paying basic living expenses.

My FBA income should go up this month with all of the Christmas shopping. My sales increased quite a bit the last week of November and are continuing to do well this month. FBA income probably won’t be enough to cover my living expenses though. Uber is the most likely option for making more money. If I put in the hours driving for Uber I will make more money. My other income sources will likely remain the same and don’t really add a significant amount to my income.

I actually had some online income last month for the first time since July. Since I also paid for three years of hosting and for help transferring my sites to a new host I still lost money online last month. The days of making $1000 a month or more from my blogs are gone. It appears they won’t be coming back either. At least not from the same methods that made me money before. I’ve made some efforts to make money on my blogs from affiliates, but they haven’t had any results yet. I’m more interested in making money from FBA so I won’t be spending too much time trying to resurrect the blog income.

If I can’t get my income back up to a decent level this month I will have to start looking for another job. I’d much prefer to work for myself, but a job may be necessary to pay my bills.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

My November expenses were high due to paying $1500 towards my biopsy bill. If you take those payments away my expenses were almost at my $1000 target. My food expenses were a little high since I ate fast food way too much. All the other expense categories were okay.  My health expense should be back to normal this month and I expect all of my other expense categories will be about the same.