March Income – $5554.56

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Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

Interest $6.51
Amazon FBA ($58.48)
Job $5719.42
Bank Bonus $125
Cashback $111.30
Dividends $19.21
Online ($368.40)
Total $5554.56

March was another great month for income. Although there were no tax refunds in March, I did have three paydays which gave a significant boost to my income. I also worked a little more overtime and upped my 401k contribution percentage to boost my pay a little.

There were two negative sources of income for the month. I didn’t have any Amazon FBA sales and I had one FBA return resulting in a loss for the month. I’m not doing too well with FBA so far this year. I’m only up about $9. That is not a very good return on my time invested. I should make at least a little from FBA this month. Amazon damaged one of my items and they should reimburse me for the item before the end of the month. I’m also going to send in a small shipment of items to sell.

My big negative income was my online income. I haven’t made any online income this year, but I have had expenses. I paid Bluehost (aff link)for three years of hosting. I considered transferring my hosting back to (aff link) Hostgator (my hosting provider before Bluehost) to get their introductory pricing, but ultimately decided I didn’t want to go through the ordeal of switching hosting providers.

I also transferred a domain name from GoDaddy to Namecheap and renewed the name for a year. Namecheap (aff link) is a little cheaper than GoDaddy and doesn’t charge extra to keep Whois information private so I plan to eventually transfer all my domain names to them.

I will make some online income this month. I will get paid by Adsense and I might get an affiliate commission as well.  Maybe if some people sign up through the hosting or domain name affiliate links in this post I might make it to positive income territory in the next couple of months.

My dividend income increased slightly for the month.  I only added $100 to my dividend portfolio in March since I’m saving for my Thailand trip. I did reinvest some dividends in more stock as well.  Before the year is out I should have enough monthly dividend income to pay my phone bill.

I made $125 from a bank  bonus. There won’t be any more bank bonuses for the next few months since they are difficult for me to manage when I’m out of the country and don’t have a check to direct deposit to qualify for the bonus. Some people make thousands each year from bank bonuses. That might be difficult for me to do since I don’t have the cash flow that they do, but making $1000 might be possible. I’ll pursue more bank bonuses once I return from Thailand.

I did great on cash back for the month. I had $57 of cashback from my Fidelity card automatically deposited into my IRA that I wasn’t even expecting so that was a nice surprise. I also had cash back from another credit card and two shopping portals. All the little sources of cash back add up to a helpful  bit of income.

April’s income will be quite a bit less since I’ll only have two paychecks and the second one won’t be for a full pay period. Income should still be quite a bit more than expenses so I can’t complain.

How was your month?

March Expenses – $1176.05

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for March.

Household$15.40
Rent$320.08
Entertainment$34.69
Transportation$258.54
Food$93.16
Travel$97.46
Phone$28.50
Student Loan$132.58
Health$195.64
Total$1176.05

My March expenses were up a bit from the previous months, but still pretty low. I didn’t quite manage to get my expenses under my target of $1000 for the month. For the year, I’m still averaging under $1000 a month. If I were able to keep my monthly average for the entire year under $1000 a month that would be great. That won’t be easy to do since I plan on getting over a $1000 of dental work done this year and there are always unplanned expenses sometime during the year. It will be a good goal to work towards.

Rent was low again because I’m paying my mom’s utility bill as rent while I’m staying with her. This month’s bill was almost the same as the previous month. This amount also includes the water and sewer. They all come on one bill from the city. This month I will be paying half a month rent for here and paying rent in Thailand which will probably result in a higher rent bill.

Transportation was for one tank of gas for my car and for six more months of car insurance. That is why this expense category is quite a bit higher for March. For April, this expense should go down quite a bit. I shouldn’t have to buy gas at all in the U.S. When traveling I will have to pay for some taxis or Grab to get me from airports to hotel and vice versa.

My food expense up a bit. I didn’t worry about trying to keep my food expense low at all. It is artificially low currently since my mom provides me with many meals and keeps the pantry stocked with snacks. This bill will go up a bit this month since I’ll be traveling and probably be buying a few meals for my girlfriend as well.

Travel expense was for one night hotel in Thailand, an airplane ticket from Bangkok to Phitsanulok, Thailand and travel insurance for the 2 1/2 months I will be out of the country. Last year, I didn’t have travel medical insurance when I went to Thailand. If I’d had a serious illness or injury that could have cost me a lot of money. Paying $57 for travel insurance that will cover a serious illness or injury seems like a great bargain. I hope I don’t have to use it.

Phone was for one month of Google Fi phone service and about $4 towards a new phone. I splurged and bought a new phone. My old phone had a dime size spot on the screen and the battery wasn’t lasting nearly as long as it used to last. Google had a Moto G6 on sale for just $99 with 24 months no interest financing. That made it just a little over $4 a month for the new phone. Making it even better they gave me a $50 trade-in for my old phone. After applying the trade-in I will just be paying a little over $2 a month for the new phone. So far the new phone has been working great and the battery lasts much longer. I’m very satisfied with this purchase from Google. If you sign up for Google Fi through my referral link we will each get $20 Fi credit after your account has been active for 30 days.

Health was for my March premium on my health insurance and for a dental visit. I managed to get some popcorn wedged way up under my gums and couldn’t get it back out. This was quite uncomfortable and paying $72 for the dentist to get it out was money well spent.

My entertainment expense was for two trip to the movies and popcorn. I also spent 99 cents for my monthly Hulu subscription. In Thailand I will be spending for me and my girlfriend so this expense will likely go up a bit.

The household expense was mostly for the taxes on my new phone purchase and a new phone case. If I have to buy supplies for a new apartment in Thailand this expense will go up this month.

March was a higher expense month for me and I did go over my monthly target of $1000 in expenses. Nevertheless, I’m satisfied with that level of expense considering what I received for my money. It was still a pretty low expense month by most people’s standards.   How was your month?

February Income – $6196.95

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Here is a breakdown of my income for February.

Interest $1.78
Amazon FBA $67.26
Job $2850.96
Bank/Investment Bonus $202.67
Cashback $56.54
Dividends $14.07
Dietbet $35.67
Tax Refunds $2968.00
Total $6196.95

February’s income was great. I doubt I will have a better earning month this year.

My income was almost doubled by the almost $3000 of state and federal tax refunds I received. When you only work part of the year, they withhold way too much from your paycheck.  I suppose I should change my withholding, but I probably won’t bother.

My dividend income increased slightly for the month.  I’m going to keep investing in dividend stocks to keep increasing my dividend income. My investments will be limited the next few months due to needing to bulk up my cash savings to fund my Spring Thailand trip.

I worked full-time at my tax job for all of February. I received two full paychecks which was good. This month will be even better since I’ll have three paydays. Also, I have been authorized to work some overtime hours which will help increase the paydays.

I made a little bit from Amazon. I haven’t felt like sourcing on my days off so I don’t have much for sale right now. This total would have been a lot better if I wouldn’t have had a $200 item returned. You got to take the good with the bad on Amazon.  I also made a little bit from eBay which I forgot to add to this income total.

I made over $200 from a bank account and investment account bonus. I think bank bonuses give me the highest return for my time invested. I should really do more of them.

I won $35.67 from Dietbet by participating in three diet bets. I bet a total of $155 and the bet only lasted a month so that is a really good return on my money. I won’t be doing more of these for a while though because I found it quite difficult to lose the needed weight.  I’d rather be able to eat whatever I want for right now. I’ll worry about losing weight when I am in Thailand. It is much easier for me to lose weight there.

Even with the three paydays this month’s income will be quite a bit lower than February’s income. It will still be a good income month and I should have a good shot at making at least $5000.

How was your month?

February Expenses – $723.24

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

Household$0
Rent$321.68
Entertainment$17.38
Transportation$29.51
Food$74.81
Travel$0
Phone$23.89
Student Loan$132.58
Health$123.39
Total$723.24

My February expenses were extremely low. I easily managed to get my expenses under my target of $1000 for the month. This month I tried to be extra frugal and had very little unnecessary spending. Having a shorter month helped too.

Rent was low because I’m paying my mom’s utility bill as rent while I’m staying with her. Since January was pretty cold electric was about $100 higher than the previous month. This amount also includes the water and sewer. They all come on one bill from the city. I expect this month’s bill to be about the same.

Transportation was for one tank of gas for my car. I went to Springfield (which is about an hour away) twice during the month. Without those two drives I wouldn’t have needed to put any gas in my car. Since I’m working at home I don’t drive at all most days. Living in a small town, when I do drive everything is close. I might not need to buy gas at all this month. I’m probably going to pay for six more months of car insurance this month so that will make this expense category quite a bit higher this month.

My food expense went down a lot. I cut way back on my meals out. I also had three free meals due to gift cards. I actually spent more on groceries than on meals out. I think that is the first time I’ve done that since starting this blog. There are no free meals this month so this expense will likely increase a bit.

This was the rare month where I didn’t have any travel expense. I’m probably going to buy some travel medical insurance this month which will cost about $260. I’ll also buy a plane ticket from Bangkok to Chiang Mai or elsewhere in Thailand. The plane ticket should cost less than $30. Those two expenses will result in a significant increase in this expense category for the month. Last year, I didn’t have travel medical insurance when I went to Thailand. If I’d had a serious illness or injury that could have cost me a lot of money. I’m playing it safe this year and purchasing the travel insurance. I hope I don’t need it.

Phone was for one month of Google Fi phone service. This is about as cheap as it gets. If you sign up for Google Fi through my referral link we will each get $20 Fi credit after your account has been active for 30 days.

Health was for my March premium on my health insurance. This month I might have a dentist visit which would boost this expense quite a bit. If I’m unable to see a dentist, then this expense will remain exactly the same.

My entertainment expense was for one trip to the movies. Since it was the end of the month and I hadn’t yet spent anything on entertainment I splurged on a large popcorn to go with my matinee ticket.

February was a super low expense month. March will be a higher expense month and I will likely go over my monthly target of $1000 in expenses. It will probably still be a pretty low expense month by most people’s standards though.   How was your month?

I Saved 47.4% of $37k Income in 2018

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I didn’t quite reach a 50% saving rate in 2018. I’m still quite pleased with the rate I was able to achieve. If it weren’t for over $4000 of medical and dental bills plus 2 1/2 months in Thailand where I earned almost nothing I would have easily saved over 50% of my income. I think a 47.4% saving rate is pretty decent for my level of income.

Last year was my first year of what I’m calling my semi-retirement. I worked roughly 7 months and had about 5 months off. I consider the first year of semi-retirement a success since I was able to save a big chunk of my income while having several months off and trying out living in Thailand. My semi-retirement plan is to work my tax job during the tax season and then work a couple of document review projects to boost my income when the projects fit into my travel schedule. I’ll continue the semi-retirement plan until I have enough money to completely retire or find something I like to do that makes sufficient money for me to live and travel. I might write a separate post about semi-retirement later. For now, I want to get back to the actual subject of this post.

My savings in 2018 consisted of $6500 to my IRA and $11499 to my work 401k. My income from jobs and net self-employment earnings was $37962. I also contributed $400 to my solo 401k and invested about $2700 in dividend stocks. I’m not counting the solo 401k or stocks in savings since they were offset by some credit card debt.

This year I will likely have a much lower income. My income was significantly boosted last year by working lots of overtime during the tax season. I don’t think there will be nearly as much overtime available to me this year. With the reduced income it will be quite difficult to match my 2018 saving rate this year. I do think I will be able to reduce my expenses a fair bit this year so it might not be impossible for me to save that much. If I get close to saving as much money this year as I did last year I will be happy.