Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my income for April.

April was an okay month for income. Considering all my income was alternative income or passive income I can’t complain. I doubt I’ll make as much in online income this month. The advertising offers aren’t coming in like they used to and I’m not having much luck lately making affiliate commissions. April’s mystery shop income was mostly the result of work done in March. Since I didn’t do that much work in April my May mystery shopping income will decline. I need to come up with another source of income this month or my May income will be too low. My savings have declined quite a bit this year and I need to start building them back up. I’m going to continue with my alternative and passive sources of income but I plan to take a job after I sit for the bar. I need some steady income for a while.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

My expenses in April were way too high.  Our car needed both a new starter and a new timing belt which caused the extremely high transportation expense.  There were also considerable gas costs from my wife driving from Missouri to Pennsylvania and back to pick me up from the trail.  If I had known the timing belt in the car was going to break I wouldn’t have gone on the hike but luckily we have enough money in savings to cover these expenses.  I also spent $170 on a new phone which I included in the household expenses.  For the month of May I am going to avoid any big expenses I can and hope my expenses will be closer to the $1000 level than the $2000 level.

Here is a breakdown of my income for March 2011. .

Google Adsense – $181.79

Affiliate Income – $295

Brokered Ads – $41

Direct Ads – $231.55

Ehow – $11.01

Amazon – $15.54

Ebay  – $9.54

Total – $785.43

My online income increased from the month before so I won’t complain.  I believe that if I work on my sites consistently I will make over $1000 a month by the end of the year.  I have had a dry spell for affiliate income though and need to fix that.  I’d like affiliate income to make up the lion’s share of my income because I think it has more upside potential than Adsense or ads. 

My March investment income rose to $100.13 from $97.32 the month before.  I’ve been close to hitting the $100 mark for a few months and finally made it.  The increase was all from the rise in value of the stocks and funds in my investment portfolio since I didn’t add anything to my savings.  It will probably be at least a couple months before I add any money to my investment portfolio so any further gains will depend on the stock market continuing to do well.

This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early. You can see what my actual investment income for the month was by looking at my monthly income report and adding the interest and dividend amounts.

Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

March was a great month for income.  I received all of my study pay at the end of March.  It might have been more accurate to divide the pay up between February and March since I earned it both months but since I use cash basis accounting I don’t count the income until I actually receive it.  The other big income boost was the tax refund.  We received a pretty big refund but since we lose an exemption this year and also lose the making work pay credit we won’t have nearly as big a refund next year.

April income will be much lower since I won’t have those two big sources of income.   I did a lot of mystery shopping in March which will be reflected in April’s income so there should be an increase there.  I should do about the same on the rest of my alternative income and passive income sources.