Expense/Income Tracking

My SWR rate for July was 37.58% compared to 34.39% in June. That is a step in the wrong direction, but it isn’t too surprising since I didn’t add to my savings during the month and the value of my stock investments declined. My goal is to get the SWR down to 4% so the lower my SWR is the better. That goal is probably many years from being met. The 4% SWR translates into having 25x your annual expenses in savings or 300 months of expenses in savings. Once I reach that point I will consider myself financially independent.

I have 31.92 months of living expenses saved down from 34.89 in June. This amount went down due to my stocks declining in value and my average monthly expense increasing due to my high expenses in July. I calculate my months of living expenses saved by dividing the average of my trailing twelve months of expenses by my total money saved. When I don’t add any money to my savings the only changes to my SWR and months of living expenses saved are from my investment performance and the average of my trailing twelve month’s of expenses going up or down.

Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

My income was pretty good in July.  I did work the entire month so I expected it to be a good month.  I did have a couple of smaller paychecks to start the month due to being on vacation the last week of June and having the 4th of July off.  I made $600 from the medical study as well which helped a bit.

My cashback income stayed about the same.  If you haven’t joined Mr. Rebates yet you can get a $5 bonus for signing up through my referral link and I’ll make a little money for referring you as well.

I didn’t keep very good records of my product purchases for Amazon FBA in July, but I believe my profit was about $50 since I sold some items that I got for basically free. So far Amazon FBA has been more of a way to generate Southwest miles than a money-maker, but if I can make a little money while accumulating miles I think it is a fair deal.

My current job has now ended so the job income will be quite a bit less this month. I only have one study visit this months so that will be less as well. My other sources of income will probably remain about the same which will result in less income for August. Since I will still receive two paychecks from my job it will not be too bad though.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for July.

My July expenses were much higher than I like. The budget buster in July was an $875 car repair.  I hit a curb and busted one of the springs in my car and had to replace the entire front suspension. That should teach me to be more careful and to slow down when parking.  My food bill was a little high since I ate fast food way too often. I plan to cut back on that expense this month. My health expense was larger than normal since I had a couple of dental visits, but considering I did have two dental visits it is actually pretty low. I’ll probably have at least one more dental visit this month.  Everything else was about normal and will probably be about the same this month. If I can manage to avoid any large car repairs this month I should be able to get my expenses back down to the $1000 level.

I didn’t put any money into savings in April and I did not take any money out of savings in April leaving me with a 0% savings rate for April. I could have made a token contribution to savings in April, but since my future income is uncertain I decided not to add to my long-term savings. It makes more sense to keep the money in my checking account now and I can transfer it over once I have a steady source of income again. I don’t want to transfer money to savings and then have to take it right back out again.

My SWR rate for June was 34.39% compared to 39.23% in April. I never got around to calculating my safe withdrawal rate in May. My goal is to get the SWR down to 4% so the lower my SWR is the better. That goal is probably many years from being met. The 4% SWR translates into having 25x your annual expenses in savings or 300 months of expenses in savings. Once I reach that point I will consider myself financially independent.

I have 34.89 months of living expenses saved which is a nice improvement from April. I calculate my safe withdrawal rate by dividing the average of my trailing twelve months of expenses by my total money saved. When I don’t add any money to my savings the only changes to my SWR and months of living expenses saved are from my investment performance and the average of my trailing twelve month’s of expenses going up or down. My expenses for May and June this year were a fair bit lower than last year which helped reduce the average of my trailing twelve months and contributed quite a bit to the improvement in months of living expenses saved and my SWR. Stock market returns helped my figures as well.

The improvement isn’t quite as good as it looks though. I am counting about $1700 in savings as part of my permanent savings although I have them earmarked towards getting dental implants later this year. When I do get the implants and take the money out my SWR will get a little bit worse. I decided to just count the money as part of my permanent savings for now to make things simpler though. I’m hoping that this month I can add some money to my savings in addition to the money that is earmarked for my implants. It has been a pretty good year for saving money so far and I’m hoping it continues.

Here is a breakdown of my income for June.

My income rebounded nicely in June. A lot of income that I earned in May wasn’t paid until June which made my May income terrible and makes my June income seem better than it really is.

The job I had for the last two weeks of May paid me in June. I also started another job in June and received one small paycheck from it.  In online income I received a check for a past due amount from May plus what I was owed in June which made for a better than average month there.

I also had a couple of new sources of income. I made $1300 from a medical study. I’ll make a bit more from it this month and the next couple of months. I also received $81.26 from Motif. They offer a $100 bonus but you have to make a couple of trades so I netted $81.26. If you would like to sign up for the Motif bonus you can leave me a comment and I’ll send you a referral email. Or you can try this referral link.    You need to fund the account with at least $1000 and I will receive a $100 bonus for referring you as well.

My cashback income went down a little. I guess people don’t shop as much in the summer.  If you haven’t joined Mr. Rebates yet you can get a $5 bonus for signing up through my referral link and I’ll make a little money for referring you as well.

My Amazon FBA experiment hasn’t been a big money maker so far.  I didn’t put too much time into it last month so it isn’t too surprising that I haven’t made much money. Making money is at least better than losing money.  If you add in my credit card rewards I’m making a little more from FBA than what I’m reporting. I like selling on FBA so I’m going to continue to do so as long as it is easy and at least modestly profitable.

Since I am working full-time July should be a good month for income, although it probably still won’t be as good as June.