Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

My February expenses were nice and low. Not only did I make my normal goal of keeping my expenses under $1000 a month, I managed to keep my expenses under $900 for the month.  Having a short month helped some. The main thing that helped was that I didn’t have any unusual expenses or have any big bills due this month.

Getting my transportation expense down to $79 this month after spending almost $400 last month was the biggest difference in reducing my spending.  Since I only live five miles from work I drove a lot less than normal during the month.  I also had a credit card cash back amount that I used to cover some of my gas expense.  My car didn’t need any expensive repairs during the month. The only problem was a burnt out turn signal bulb which is something I can easily do myself and just had to spend five bucks on a new bulb.  I’m hoping my car maintenance stays that simple the rest of the year, although I doubt I’ll be that lucky.

My only travel expense was a $99 annual fee for my new Southwest credit card. This card came with a 50,000 mile bonus which is supposed to be worth at least two flights.  After looking at the reward miles options on Southwest, I think I will be able to get three or four flights out of the card. I thought about leaving the fee off since I’ll be getting a lot more value out of the card then the cost of the fee.  I decided it would be more accurate to count the fee as a travel expense.  The fee was reduced some by a travel redemption on my Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® – Earn 2x on All Purchases.   I do have a short vacation planned at the end of this month so this category might be a little higher unless I can get some more free travel from my credit cards.

The entertainment expense might have been a tinier bit higher than I’d prefer, but it was reasonable since there were a couple of special events during the month.  It will probably be a little high again this month since some of my vacation costs will likely be categorized as entertainment expenses.

My other expenses should remain about the same.  I’m hoping March can be another low expense month.

I made $2733.20 in January and saved $1250 for a savings rate of 45.73%. That is a pretty good start to the year. I forgot to calculate my savings rate for December so I don’t have a last month comparison for this month. My savings rate in November so this month was obviously a lot better than that.

My SWR was 49.15% in November and has now decreased to 45.73%. That is a good move in the right direction, but I’ve got a long way to go. My goal is to get down to a 4% safe withdrawal rate. 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 now have 25.91 months of living expenses saved, compared to 24.41 months in November.

I should have another good month this month. My investments have gone up a bit this month, I’ll be able to add a fair amount to my savings, and I think I’ll keep my monthly expenses under $1000. Those three things together should add up to a nice improvement in my tracking numbers.

Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

January was a decent month for income since I did work full time for the whole month. My previous job and my current job overlapped for a week, but I just took time off from one to work the other and didn’t accrue any extra hours.   No overtime was offered at my job or I would have done better.  Now that filing has started I should be able to work a few hours overtime every week which will help my income quite a bit.

My online income was once again a little higher than I expected.  I’m not making anywhere near as much as I used to online, but it is still good money considering how little time I devote to it.

My passive income such as referral income from sites like Mr. Rebates and dividends is pretty small, but it adds up over the year.

This month and the next I need to make a lot of money from my job since I plan to take some time off for at least a couple months once the tax season is over.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for January.

My January expenses were slightly higher than I prefer.  I would have made my goal of spending less than $1000 a month if I wouldn’t have needed to get my brakes fixed.  I was hoping to just get new pads, but I was told I needed new rotors which seemed plausible since my car has almost 200,000 miles.  The brake job with the new rotors and an oil change set me back $268.  I would like to reduce my transportation expense category this year and I’m not off to a good start.

I also spent $157 on airfare for a hike I’m going to be taking as soon as the tax season is over. I shouldn’t be spending anything on travel this month or next month.  My entertainment category was abnormally low since we didn’t feel like going to the movies in January. I expect that will change this month.  All of the other categories will likely remain about the same.