Expense/Income Tracking

August Income – $1445.82

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Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Online Income

$1101.00

Interest

$22.50

Stock Dividends

$12.90

Mystery Shops

$192.23

Bank Bonuses

$7.76

Survey/Cashback

$9.23

Job

$100.20

Total

$1445.82

It was a good month for income.  My income was higher than my expenses which is one of my goals.  I need to get my income up to about $2000 a month or more though to make progress on building up my savings.

I was pleased that my online income was its highest ever and once again was over $1000.  It won’t likely be that high this month but it should still be pretty good if I receive the affiliate checks that are due me.

Mystery shop income will be up a little this month.  Since most of the payments lag about a month behind I already have a good idea of what I will make this month.  The mystery shop total is my the actual income I receive before expenses.  It does not include reimbursements which were about $100 in August.

Job income will be up a lot for this month.  Although  I have already quit the job I still have a couple of paychecks coming.

August Expenses – $1326.82

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

Household

$374.48

Entertainment

$211.33

Transportation

 $454.13

Food

$121.24
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$68.20
Debt $40

Total

$1326.82

My expenses for August were about the same as they were in July.  There were a couple of things that inflated my expenses for August.  I bought two new tires for my car and I registered for a marathon.  Even without the new tires my transportation expenses for August were too high.  I have been trying to cut back on that but I drive a lot to make money.  I put the marathon under entertainment expense.  My entertainment expense also needs to be seriously reduced.  Food also can be reduced a little.  Everything else will remain about the same. I’m hoping to get my expenses under $1000 this month not counting my bar exam registration fee.

July Investment Income – $90.62

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My July investment income rose slightly to $90.62 from $89.47 the month before.  This was due to a slight rise in the value of my stocks.  I did not make any additional investments in July.  Part of the reason for the decline in my investment income from its highs earlier this year is that I am now counting only $1000 cash as part of my investment portfolio.  I was counting $1500 earlier but after skipping a month of calculating my investment income I forgot how much cash I was counting as part of my investment portfolio.  I have decided to keep the figure at $1000 since my amount of cash available has seriously decreased.

Unless the market treats me badly in August I should have an increase in my investment income because I will finally resume adding to my portfolio.  This will probably end again in September though because I have a big expense that month.

Disclaimer: 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.

Online Income Report – July 2010

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Here is a breakdown of my online income for July. I am reporting the income I received in July not the income earned. Much of the income received in a month was earned in a previous month so the monthly income figure is not always indicative of the current income trend. Anyway, I received money from the following sources in July.

  • Google Adsense – $255.64
  • Kontera – $108.70
  • Text Links – $39.40
  • Direct Ad Sales – $458
  • Affiliate Sales – $285
  • Ehow – $11.86

Total                  $1158.60

It was a great month for online income.  This is the first time I have made it over four figures.  My income was helped by a large amount of direct ad sales and an accumulated affiliate payout.  My income will most likely go down in August but I already have a couple more ad sales lined up and quite a bit in affiliate sales due me giving me a shot at making the four figure mark once again.  If I can keep my income going like this I might become a five figure blogger for the first time ever.  This would be especially great considering 2009’s online income was less than 2008.

July Income – $1519.91

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Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

Online Income

$1067.96

Interest

$12.35

Stock Dividends

$22.79

Mystery Shops

$373.52

Bank Bonuses

$20

Survey/Cashback

$23.29

Total

$1519.91

It was a good month for income.  My online income was my best ever.  Making a $1000 in a month has been a goal of mine for a while but I don’t think I’ve even made it over $800 before.  One of the reasons my online income was higher in July was because I had a couple of months of affiliate income owed to me that finally arrived.  Most of the increase was from the direct sale of links.   There was a large increase in people contacting me wanting to purchase links on one of my sites.   Most of the income was from links paid for a year upfront.  There are also a couple of links that pay monthly and a couple more people I’m still negotiating with so I will still make at least a little from selling links this month.  I doubt I will make a $1000 again this month but I should make at least $600 which I am pretty happy with.

Mystery shopping income will go down because I have a regular job now and won’t have as much time for mystery shopping.  Some of the shops I did last month won’t pay me until this month though so I should make at least $200 from mystery shops this month.

My new job is working for a non-profit and it doesn’t pay much but it should still cause my total income to increase over last month. Although if I could count on making $1500 a month every month without a job I wouldn’t worry about a job and just concentrate on increasing my alternative sources of income.   It would be nice to have all my money come from alternative income and passive income but that might take a while.