Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my income for October.

October was not a great month for income.  I knew it wouldn’t be great since I didn’t have any income from a job.  I’m hoping I can find a decent job in November to get my income back up.  Online income was higher than I expected which was a nice surprise.  It would be nice if it stayed at that level this month, but I doubt it will.  October was the first month in a long time that I didn’t make even a penny in affiliate income.  The affiliate income I was paid in October was earned in previous month.

Cash back is a nice extra source of income that mainly comes from Mr. Rebates.  The cash back income should go up a little as more people are doing their Christmas shopping.  I need to get my comics listed for sale this month.  That is my best chance at making decent money other than getting a new job.

My tax job should start back up again in January.  I can easily live off my alternative and passive income and savings until then, but I would prefer to build up my savings rather than draw them down.

September was a good month for saving.  I made $2304.71 and saved $1000 for 43.3% of my income saved.  This was below my goal of saving 50% of my income, but I am still on track for the year.  I lowered my SWR to 49.28% from 52.2% the month before.  I’ve finally gotten my SWR back below the 50% mark.  Although it is still a long way from my goal of a 4% SWR it is good to see progress.

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 24.34 months of living expenses saved now.  It is nice to have two years of living expenses in savings.  I’m now basically at the same point I was at the end of April.  I hope I’ll be able to make more progress the rest of the year.  October will probably see me go backwards again since I won’t be making much money and will be spending quite a bit for our cruise.  I’ll have to really step up my earnings and decrease my expenses in November and December to make up for October and end the year on a good note.

Here is a breakdown of my income for September.

September was a decent month for income.  Although my job ended in early September I still received two paychecks for the month, although one was only for a week.  My alternative sources of income didn’t contribute as much as usual.  Online income seems to be stuck at a low level and I’m not currently doing anything to change that so it will probably remain there.  I didn’t do any mystery shopping in August since I was busy working and had overtime available.  I will have mystery shopping income for October and I’ll probably get around to selling some stuff too.  Cash back is a nice extra source of income that mainly comes from Mr. Rebates.  October won’t be a great month for income since I don’t plan on getting a job during October and my alternative income and passive income doesn’t come close to the income I make from jobs.  I’ll look for a job in November.  My tax job starts in January, but I need to make money before that if I am to continue my 50% savings rate.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

My September expenses were just slightly higher than I’d prefer.  My expenses were over my stretch goal of $1000, but under my main goal of keeping them under $1274 a month.

I spent $125.39 to replace my automatic window motor and regulator in my car.  Without that I would have been very close to having my expenses under $1000.  I did do the repair myself which kept it from being even more expensive.  I also had to transport my brother almost 200 miles after he was stranded in KC, which increased my gas expenditure a bit.

I was gone about half the month on my hike.  It didn’t really increase my expenses since I slept for free in my car except for two hotel stays that were free with my travel rewards card.  Food was about the same because I eat out a lot whether I’m at home or traveling.  I did keep the cost of food down a little by doing some mystery shops and taking advantage of specials and the dollar menu.

My expenses for October should be about the same.  I do plan on hiking and/or biking some more.  I’ll also be attending the Financial Bloggers Conference.  Those two things will make my expenses a little higher than normal, but since I’ll be doing both on the cheap they won’t make a big difference.

I’m okay with my current level of expenses considering the traveling I’m doing.  I’m hoping I can reduce the expenses some later in the year.

August was a great month for saving.  I made $3661.68 and saved $2650 for 72.3% of my income saved.  It is very easy for me to save money when I actually make a decent amount.  This good month of savings will be a big help in reaching my goal of saving 50% of my income. My expenses were also lower in August which helped lower my average monthly expense total which helps with my safe withdrawal rate. My stocks lost money or I would have done even better.  I lowered my SWR to 52.2% from 58.13% the month before.  I have a long way to go to get to my goal of a 4% SWR, but at least I’m making progress again.

The 4% SWR translates into having 25x your annual expenses in savings or 300 months of expenses in savings. I have 22.96 months of living expenses saved now. That is a little bit higher than the month before and still below the 24 months of savings I had earlier this year.  Now that I have more months of expenses making my average monthly expenses, one good expense month doesn’t change the average that much. I expect to save a decent amount again this month so the SWR and months of living expenses saved should continue to improve.