August Savings Rate – 72.3%

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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.

August Income – $3661.68

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Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Online Income

 $467.28
Interest

$2.20

Dividends

$19.46

Cash Back

$46.18

Sell Stuff

$6.16

Job

$2745.90

Mystery Shops

$24.50

Medical Study

$350

Total

$3661.68

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.

August Expenses – $923.99

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

Household $400
Entertainment

$137.32

Transportation

 $147.52

Food

$91.37
Phone

$26.81
Health

$120.97

Total

 $923.99

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.

Patience When Purchasing Can Pay Off

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I’m generally an impatient person. If I had done the marshmallow experiment as a kid I would not have waited for the second marshmallow. The idea of that study was that those who were able to wait for the second marshmallow by using self control and being able to delay gratification one would have better life outcomes.* Being impatient and not delaying moves or quitting jobs has cost me a lot of money. One area where I usually can be patient is when making purchases.

For example, I wanted a Kindle Fire when they first came out, but the price tag of $200 was more than I wanted to pay. I decided to wait since I didn’t really need a Kindle Fire and also because I knew that the price would come down over time. Consumer electronics of this type have steadily been coming down in price so waiting was a pretty safe bet. Since the Kindle Fire first premiered they have come out with a second generation of Kindle Fires, that allowed me to pick up a refurbished first generation model for only $90. Waiting allowed me to get my Fire for less than half of what it would have cost me if I had purchased it the moment I wanted it.

Of course, I could have saved even more if I hadn’t purchased the Fire at all. This is another way that waiting to make purchases can save you money. Sometimes, when you delay making a purchase you decide you don’t need the item at all. There is nothing wrong with an occasional splurge, but waiting to make the splurge can save you money.

* I also found this followup to the marshmallow experiment interesting. This study questions some of the conclusions of the marshmallow experiment. It might become the basis for a future post.

My First 10 Jobs

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I read a forum post the other day in which the original poster shared all of his jobs and then others continued the thread with lists of their jobs. I found the thread interesting and decided I would share all of my jobs on this blog. I’ve probably had about 100 jobs and I don’t think I can remember them all. I will start with my first 10 jobs and post the rest of my jobs in later posts. I will use a broad definition of job for this series of post. I’m trying to post the jobs chronologically but there is some overlap between jobs and I can’t always remember exactly when I had a particular job.

Job 1 – Mowing lawns, yard work, etc. My brother and I would mow lawns and occasionally do other yard work around our neighborhood. I think we got $8-$10 for a lawn and we had to split that so it wasn’t much money. The lawn mower and gas was provided free by our parents so at least our expenses were low.

Job 2- Trap Machine Loader. I worked for a local trap shooting range when they would have their big annual trap and skeet shooting tournament. I sat in a little bunker in front of the shooters and loaded clay targets on the trap shooting machine. The machine shot out the targets very quickly and I was always worried about getting my hand hit by the machine. That never happened, but as I think back it is surprising that they let me work there when I was 14 years old. That probably doesn’t happen now. I can’t remember what this job paid. I think it was a flat rate per day and it seemed like a lot of money to me at the time although I’m sure it wasn’t much.

Job 3 – Dishwasher. This was my first real job. It paid minimum wage. I got this job when I was 15 years old. Not because I wanted to, but because my mom made me get a job. She didn’t think a 15 year old should be sitting around the house all summer. I disagreed. I was fired after two weeks. My mother’s attempt to instill a work ethic in me did not work.

Job 4 – Cleaner/Janitor. I worked with my best friend cleaning buildings at a church camp during the summer and the first few weekends of fall. I worked two summers at this job. This job paid minimum wage. I got to work with my best friend and we worked unsupervised so I really liked this job.

Job 5 – Picker/Packer. I worked at a warehouse picking lawn mower parts from the shelves and then packing the order to be shipped. I think this job also paid minimum wage. I was going to work both this job and the cleaning job during the summer, but got laid off from this job right before summer started. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to making sooo much money. This company went out of business the next year so I guess they really couldn’t afford to keep me over the summer.

Job 6 – Amusement Park Worker. I worked this job the summer before I started college and the first few weekends after I started college. The pay was minimum wage or slightly above it. The job did come with the fringe benefit of free amusement park admission which I did like and I managed to get some roller coaster rides in on my days off. I worked in the carnival games department. The games weren’t rigged, they were just incredibly hard to win. The main drawback of this job was that there was a 45 minute loop of songs that played continuously and it was the same songs the entire time. I was really sick of every song in that loop by the time the job ended.

Job 7 – Mcdonalds. It was probably inevitable that I would work at Mcdonalds at some point. This was my first job after dropping out of college. I hated it and quit after one night. My mom was not happy.

Job 8 – Grocery Store stocker. I got this job a few days after quitting at McDs. I liked this job a lot better. I had my own section of the store that I was responsible for stocking the shelves and pricing the products. This was a long time ago when you actually had to put the prices on the product because most stores didn’t have bar code scanners. I also helped out bagging groceries and cleaning. This wasn’t a bad job, but once again the pay wasn’t much and I didn’t see how I would ever be able to save enough money to go back to college so I made a big change.

Job 9 – U.S. Army. I didn’t really want to join the Army, but I didn’t see any other way out of where I was at. The plan was to serve in the Army for a couple of years and then have the military pay for my college when I got out. This plan was a miserable failure. I never even made it to basic training. I was not physically or mentally equipped to handle the army. After two and a half months I was kicked out for failing to meet the physical standards.

Job 10 – Movie theater Concessions. After the army I returned to the grocery store job for a few months. When my mom moved to Kansas City, I quit the grocery store job and moved too. I worked a few shifts at the amusement park I had previously worked at, but they had already hired for all their full-time positions. It was a month or so before I got this job and I was somewhat depressed from my previous failures so I was very happy to get this job. It paid minimum wage which I think was $3.35 an hour at that time. It came with the fringe benefits of free popcorn and soda while working and free movies on my days off. I’ve always loved the movies so this was like a dream job for me. The theater was located in the mall and I lived within walking distance of the mall plus two other theaters located near the mall. I spent a lot time at the movies and the mall and really enjoyed that summer. I liked this job, but once again the pay was a problem. Even living at home and not having to pay rent I didn’t make enough to save money to pay for college.

That gets me to age 19 and I don’t think I’ve missed any jobs yet. Can you remember all of your jobs?