April Expenses – $2839.95

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

Household

$876.76

Entertainment

$61.85

Transportation

 $1073.13

Food

$111.29
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$43.85

Phone

$61.85

Travel

$527.78
Debt $26

Total

$2839.95

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.

I’m a Spendthrift: Just Bought a New LG Optimus V

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I’m back from my trip which ending up costing me more than I planned. While on the trip my Sprint phone died on me. I had been looking at the LG Optimus V Prepaid Android Phone for Virgin Mobile for a while now and I decided to go ahead and get it. I don’t usually have any desire for electronic gadgets but I had been wanting this phone did appeal to me. I can somewhat rationalize the purchase since my plan with Virgin Mobile will only be about $27 a month with tax for unlimited text, data, nights and weekends and 300 anytime minutes and my plan with Sprint is just over $35 a month. With the slightly over $8 a month savings I’ll break even on my purchase in 21 months. It will actually be a little less than that since I did make my purchase through Mr. Rebates which will give me 1% cash back and I should get another 1% cash back from my Discover credit card. I’m also hoping I can sell my old phone for a little cash.

I haven’t done much with the phone yet so I am hoping that it works as well as I think it will. The setup process was a little messed up and I see three pending charges in my debit card account for the setup when there should only be one. I’m guessing the other two will go away and only one will be completed but I’m keeping my eye on the account in the meantime. If you have a more expensive phone plan than making this switch would be easier to justify.

I included a link to the Amazon page selling this phone but I bought mine through Best Buy which I think offers a better price right now. Make sure you shop around because the prices for this phone vary quite a bit.

Book Review: Debt Free for Life

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David Bach has written another personal finance book, Debt Free For Life: The Finish Rich Plan for Financial Freedom.   In this book Bach gives general advice about getting out of debt.  I can’t say that there is anything wrong with the advice but if you have read or listened to Dave Ramsey or any other anti-debt gurus this advice will be pretty familiar.  His advice against getting in debt is somewhat contrary to the advice he gave in The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate.

He also uses the book to promote the company Debt Wise which is a partnership between the author and the credit bureau Equifax.  The company  automatically calculates the order and how much you should pay toward each account in your plan every month using Bach’s debt stacking strategy.  This is something you could do a close approximation of yourself pretty easily so I don’t think it is really worth $14.95 a month but I suppose some people would find it worthwhile.  There is another company  DebtGoal that offers a similar plan and they also charge $14.95 a month so I guess that is the going rate.

If you haven’t read other books on getting out of debt than I would recommend this book as a good resource on what you need to do to get out of debt.  If you have already read books on getting out of debt such as The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness than this book will probably not provide you with any new information.

Online Income Report – March 2011

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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. 

 

March Investment Income – $100.13

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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.