Expense/Income Tracking

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.

Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

August was a great month for income.  I made over three times as much money as in July. Having two full paychecks from job helped a lot.  I also made almost $1000 from alternative income and passive income.  I wish all the months could be this good.  My income has varied a lot this year.  Until I get a permanent full-time job the swings in income will likely continue.

This month will still be pretty good.  I’ll get two paychecks from job again.  One of the checks will only be for one week and there is no overtime on the other check so the job income will be down a bit.  It will be enough to make a good income month even if my other sources of income don’t contribute much.  I’m not sure how the rest of the year will be for income.  That is something I’ll worry about more next month.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

In August I was finally able to get my expenses back down under $1000.  I didn’t have any car repairs or semi-annual bills in August so I was able to keep my expenses down about as low as I can get them.

My only transportation expense was gas.  That would have been under $100,  but I had to make a trip to SW Missouri.  Also, my gas mileage has gone way down since I got my A/C fixed.  That may be something I need to look into.  If my gas mileage is still down once I’m not using the A/C anymore then I’ll now something else is the problem.

The food expense was low because I have moved in with my girlfriend and I ate a lot of her groceries.  Most of the food expense was from having fast food almost every day I worked.  I should be buying more of the food I eat this month.

The entertainment expense included buying a Kindle Fire.  I got a really good deal on a refurbished first generation model and I had some Amazon credit so this only added about $60 to my entertainment total.  This expense should go down some this month.

My other expenses should stay about the same.  I will have an added travel expense this month.  I plan to do some hiking, but it will be in state.  That should keep the travel costs reasonable.  I’m hoping I can keep my expenses under $1000 again this month.

July was not a great month for savings. My SWR slightly decreased to 58.13% from 59.41% the month before. It was an improvement, but I’m not seeing the big changes that I had earlier this year.  My expenses should be a little lower again this month which will help.  The biggest help will be the fact that I’m working a job that pays decent money which will allow me to save aggressively again.

My goal is to save 50% of my income each month and I didn’t come close to meeting that goal in July. I made $955.36 and managed to save $100. That amounted to a 10.46% savings rate. The main reason for the low savings rate was the low income.  I need to save a lot more than 50% of my income this month to keep my overall savings rate at over 50% for the year since there will likely be at least a couple more low earning months this year.

The 4% SWR translates into having 25x your annual expenses in savings or 300 months of expenses in savings. I have 20.40 months of living expenses saved now. That is just a tiny bit higher than the month before and still below the 24 months of savings I had earlier this year.  I expect to save a lot of money this month so the SWR and months of living expenses saved should improve quite a bit.

Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

My July income was a bit low, but it was about what I expected.  Unfortunately, my income was a little lower than my expenses.  It wasn’t too bad considering I only worked the last half of the month and I haven’t gotten paid by that job yet. Having several sources of income does help. I got another random class action suit check.  This one was from Sprint for an early termination fee suit.  I’m pretty sure I never paid them an early termination fee and I don’t recall joining the suit, but I’ll take the money.  My online income was down a bit.  Since I haven’t really been putting too much effort into my online endeavors lately, I can’t complain about what I am making.

My August income will be good since I will have two paychecks from my current job.  The other sources of income will probably not be dramatically different.