Expense/Income Tracking

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.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

My June expenses were slightly higher than normal, but I’m not worried about them. The main budget killer this month was my transportation expense. The main reason for it being high was that it included six months of insurance plus two years of auto registration. If I hadn’t occurred these expenses in June than my total expenses would have been below my goal of $1000.  My transportation expense should be a lot lower this month. I do have to commute a bit for my current job which will run up my gas expenses a little. Even with that my total transportation expense should be a lot lower unless I have some unforeseen repairs.

The only other unusual expense for the month was my travel expense of $80. Since that was all I spent for five days in Vegas I think I did pretty good there. If my job ends before the end of the month I might have some travel expenses this month. Otherwise this category will be at $0 for this month.

I’m guessing all of the other categories will remain about the same. If that ends up being true then I should not have any trouble keeping my expenses under the $1000 level.

Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Yikes! My income for May was terrible.  A check I was supposed to receive from an advertiser didn’t arrive so I my online income was actually negative in May. To keep things simple I’m just going to subtract the loss from June’s income.  The check has been promised to arrive in June so I should have at least a little bit of positive online income this month.

Since I sold most of my dividend stocks and invested them in an index fund in my IRA my dividend income is way down.  None of the individual stocks I own paid a dividend in May resulting in $0 dividend income for the month.  I do have at least one stock paying a dividend this month. It won’t be much, but it is better than $0.

My income from Mr. Rebates was one of my largest sources of income this month. That income would have to be a lot bigger for that to be a good thing.  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 started a new experiment trying to make money with Amazon FBA.  As you can see, I didn’t do too well. If I hadn’t made the mistake of paying $40 for a professional seller account I would have done ok for the month.  I’m going to continue to try to make money with Amazon FBA, but I will keep the expenses down. I’ll try to make a little more from Ebay and Craigslist too.

My June income should be much better.  Of course, it won’t be hard to improve on May’s meager income. I worked 43.5 hours at a job in May and that paycheck will be received this month. I did some mystery shopping in May that I’ll get paid for this month. Also, I had an MRI for a medical study that I will get paid for this month.  If I make the study I should make about $1000 from it this month. Even if I don’t make the study I’ll still get paid for the MRI I took in May.  Although I didn’t make much money in May I did participate in endeavors in May that will pay me this month.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

My May expenses were pretty low, but I didn’t quite make my goal of keeping my expenses under $1000 a month.  The main budget killer this month was my entertainment expense.  The main reason for it being high was that I included the purchase of my bike and bike accessories as entertainment.  My bike only cost $15.  Buying a helmet, car carrier, bike tools, and a spare tube added quite a bit more to the total cost though.  If I follow through and ride my bike regularly this will be money well spent.

The health cost was a little higher than usual because I had a dentist appointment. I might have another dentist appointment this month which would keep this expense category high.  I plan on having a lot of dental work done so this will be an expensive category in the coming months.

My transportation cost was unusually low. My only transportation expense for the month was gasoline. The gas expense was kept down by using cash back from my credit card. This month I have to buy six months of insurance and renew my car registration so this category will go way up.

My expenses this month will probably be up slightly since I have an over $200 car insurance bill to pay. I’m also taking a three day vacation in Las Vegas. Most of that vacation has already been paid.  If I don’t do well at the poker tables though, the vacation could get a lot more expensive.