Expense/Income Tracking

Online Income Report – November 2010

by

This was supposed to go up last night but my hosting was down again last night. If anyone knows of a good online tutorial on transferring a WordPress blog to a new host please tell me. Anyway, here is a breakdown of my online income for November 2010.

Google Adsense – $325.91

Affiliate Income – $260

Text Link Ads – $44.53

Direct Ads – $33.23

Total – $663.67

My streak of $1000 online income months came to an end in November.  Making $600 wasn’t bad though since I haven’t been putting a lot of work into my blogs.  I already know my income will be back over $1000 for December since much of my affiliate income is paid the month after I make it.  The affiliate offer that was making most of my money is no longer producing but I have some smaller affiliate offers that are working.  I just need to post more often and experiment with different affiliate offers to keep my affiliate income up.  I also have been a lot pickier about accepting ads.  I’m establishing a set ad policy and ad rates and will be responding to the multiple advertising inquiries I have waiting in my inbox.  I should just break five figures in online income for the year.  Next year I want to be solidly in the five figures for profit.  I’ll establish more specific goals during the year.  This will be my best year for online income and I’m pleased with it but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

November Income – $703.85

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for November.

Online Income

$505.23

Interest

$38.81

Stock Dividends

$12.93

Mystery Shops

$129.89

Bank Bonuses

$10

Survey/Cashback

$6.99

Total

$703.8

It was not a good month for income.  My online income streak of making over $1000 came to an end as I only made $505.23 online for the month.  This isn’t too bad since I paid for three years of hosting.  I already know my online income for December will be over $1000.  This will be by far my best year for online income.  I’m hoping I can make next year even better.

Since I didn’t have any job income or medical study income my overall income was down quite a bit.  I’m starting a new job this month which should get my income total back up.  I don’t think having a job will result in any reduction in my alternative sources of income which will allow me to start putting some money in savings and investments again.

November Expenses – $1000.41

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

Household

$404.25

Entertainment

$190.60

Transportation

 $187.56

Food

$49.39
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$91.17
Debt $20

Total

$1000.41

My expenses for November were at a reasonable level.  I set a goal of keeping them under $1000 a month and I only went 41 cents over so I’m not going to feel bad about that.  Food and transportation were both down significantly this month.  This is because I ate out less often and didn’t drive as much.  Food costs only include when I eat out by myself and the few groceries that I buy for the household.

My transportation expense should be even lower this month unless I buy a couple more tires which I do need to do before too long.  The entertainment total included a couple nights hotel in Kansas City for a quick getaway my wife and I took after Thanksgiving.  There shouldn’t be any getaways this month so that expense should go down.

My household expense might go up a little since I will be including Christmas gifts in that but I have earned a few gift cards from SwagBucks and elsewhere that should keep that cost down. We still didn’t have to turn on our heat in November so utilities should be about the same. Other costs should be about the same as well.

Online Income Report – October 2010

by

Here is a breakdown of my online income for October 2010.

Google Adsense – $338.23

Affiliate Income – $750

Text Link Ads – $48.45

Direct Ads – $33.23

Ehow – $11.89

Total – $1181.80

My online income was over $1000 for the fourth month in a row.  This is great income, especially considering I haven’t done a lot of work on my sites the last couple of months.  My Adsense seems to have recovered from the summer doldrums.  It should remain strong through the winter.  The main source of my income in October was from affiliate income.  I prefer this to the direct ad sales since I think it is more sustainable.  However, the vast majority of this affiliate income was from one limited-time offer.  Whenever the affiliate ends the offer my income will likely nosedive.  This hasn’t happened yet so my November income should still be over $1000.   I’ve been turning down a lot of direct ad offers since I don’t think the money they are offering is worth the risk to my page rank.  My goal for the rest of the year is to diversify my affiliate income and develop my own product.

October Investment Income – $96.04

by

My October investment income rose to $96.04 from $93.78.  This was pretty nice since I didn’t add any money to my investment.  It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to add any money to my investments until at least next year so any increase will have to be from market gains.  I did take some of my accumulated dividends out and invest them in my Roth IRA.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to fully fund my Roth IRA by tax time next year.  Doing so should result in a nice tax credit.

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.