Expense/Income Tracking

My July investment income rose to $29.44 from $27.69 the month before.  This is pretty good since I was only able to contribute $100 to my Roth IRA.  Most of the gain from the mutual fund in my Roth IRA rebounding a little and receiving the employer match on my small 401k.  Since I’m quitting my job I won’t have a 401k much longer.  I plan to do a rollover to my Roth IRA.  The nice thing about my 401k is that my contributions and the employer match are immediately 100% vested.

Disclaimer:This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement accounts, 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.

Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

My income was decent considering I only received one paycheck in July.  Online income continues to be good and I hope to increase it.  My bonuses were way down this month.  This was mostly due to not receiving any OptionsXpress bonuses but their $100 bonus offer is back this month and my bonus income should go back up.  A large part of my interest income is due to my Wachovia account paying 16% which is ending this month I think.  The amount of interest will go down but it isn’t a significant part of my overall income. Although I quit my job I’ll receive two paychecks so that income shouldn’t be down too much. Next month will be the real test of whether I can make sufficient income without a job.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for July.

Household	$401.23
Transportation	$340.47
Utilities	$87.34
Food	$73.50
Entertainment	$96.77
Student Loan Debt/Books	$100.31
Total	$1099.62

My expenses were pretty good for the month. The only thing that was too high was my transportation expenses. This was due to my taking a road trip and my car running inefficiently because it needs a tune-up. Since I won’t be taking a road trip this month and I’m quitting my job the transportation costs should be way down. My food costs should also go down since I’m eating many meals at my GF’s now. I count our restaurant meals as entertainment. The entertainment category isn’t too expensive because I find lots of free or low-cost entertainment for us. All the other categories should remain roughly the same.

Here is a breakdown of my income for June:

My income was decent for June considering I didn’t work at my regular job very much. I had a great month for bonuses. Online income was also very good. I paid for one year of hosting and renewed my domain for two years or it would have been even higher than last month. I was also helped by having three paychecks in June. This month my income should be about the same. I probably won’t make nearly as much on bonuses but I’ll be working more which should offset that.