December Expenses – $1017.03

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December.

Household $439.90
Entertainment $25.13
Transportation $8.87
Food $108.24
Student Loan $183.86
Travel $0
Phone $36.79
Health $214.24
Total $1017.03

 

My December expenses were pretty low and almost at my $1000 target.  This was a rare month that didn’t have any unexpected or annual/semi-annual expenses.  My transportation expenses were low since the only gas I bought was with a gas gift card that was included in November’s expenses.  My only transportation expense for the month was $8.87 for an oil change. The oil change was super cheap since I had a coupon due to being a Shop Your Way member. Food expenses were down because I didn’t eat out as often due to attending several Christmas gatherings.

The only extra expense for the month was $81.11 to pay off the remainder of my biopsy bill. Hopefully, my expenses will be low this month as well.  I plan to have both a doctor appointment and dentist appointment this month which could result in some increased expenses. My transportation expense will go up since that is the only way it can go after being so low in December. All of my other expenses should be about the same.

2015 Review and 2016 Goals

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With the new year around the corner it is time to look back on 2015. Reflecting on this past year I don’t feel like I accomplished much. I am happy that I was able to travel to a couple of new places Niagara Falls/Canada and the Portland area of Oregon/Washington. Other than that I don’t feel like I did much this year.

I did terrible on my goals for 2015. My three goals for 2015 were to run a 5k in 23:59 or faster, finish hiking the Appalachian Trail, and to keep my average monthly expenses under $1000 for the year. I also later added a secondary goal of being able to do a chin-up.

Keeping my monthly average expenses under $1000 if the only goal I achieved. When I set the goal I stated that I wouldn’t count the cost of getting dental implants or the cost of getting a car. Taking out those expenses and the unexpected biopsy medical expense I did keep my spending under $1000 a month in 2015. I usually do well with financial goals and this wasn’t much of a stretch from my normal spending so it isn’t too much of a surprise that I was able to accomplish this goal.

I didn’t even come close to meeting the goals of running a 5k in 23:59 or faster or finishing the AT. Getting hit by a car did derail my plans for hiking the AT, but I still could have finished the hike starting later in the year. Finishing the AT is no longer a priority goal though.

The 5K goal was my biggest failure. I never got into a running routine and I most likely couldn’t even finish a 5k in my current physical condition. I gained about ten pounds this year and am in worse condition then I was at the start of the year.

My track record for achieving goals that I post on this blog is pretty poor. This TED Talk from Derek Sivers states that you should keep your goals to yourself. This is because when you tell someone your goal and they acknowledge it, psychologists have found that it’s called a “social reality.” The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done. And then because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary. I’m not completely sure that is true, but I do know that sharing my goals publicly hasn’t helped me accomplish them. Therefore, I’m not going to share my 2016 goals on the blog. The exception will be my goals of running a 5k under 23:59 and doing a chin-up since I’ve previously posted that I was carrying these goals over to 2016. Once I’m making progress on my 2016 goals I will share what I have done to make that progress.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and a great 2016.

Friday Flip – Olympus Voice Recorder

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olympus I have finally gotten another Friday Flip post written and published. I’ve also changed the name from Flippy Friday to Friday Flip since I like the sound of the new name better. In this post I will share my most profitable flip in November.  In order to show both the bad and the good I will post my least profitable flip of November next Friday.

The item for this week’s flip is an Olympus WS-802 Voice Recorder that I purchased on clearance at Staples for $26.50. I was able to sell it on Amazon for $108.97. After subtracting the Amazon fees of $11.39 I was left with a profit of $71.08.

There was also an expense to ship the item to the Amazon warehouse. Since I send several items at a time it would be a pain to calculate how much the shipping expenses is for each individual item. This is a small and light item so the shipping expense wouldn’t have been too significant. I also earned 5% in Staples Rewards on this item. The item was also purchased with either a 2% cash back credit card or a discounted Staples card which would add a tiny bit more profit.

One drawback to deals like this is that they aren’t repeatable. Staples only had one of these recorders on clearance so I couldn’t go back and buy more once this one sold. In order to find more deals I have to browse the clearance area every time I visit. Although I don’t always find something worth flipping I find stuff often enough that it is well worth my time to scan the Staples clearance whenever I’m there.

 

Lifetime Earnings Compared to Net Worth

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After reading a blog post at Afford Anything that discusses several books including the book, “Your Money or Your Life“, I decided to compare my lifetime earnings to my net worth. That is one of the recommended actions in the book to help transform your relationship with money. Although I read the book when it first came out in 1993 and several times since then I never compared my lifetime earnings to my net worth.

Figuring out my lifetime earnings was easily accomplished by going to SocialSecurity.gov and looking at my earnings record.  According to their records I’ve made $328,576 in 31 years of working. Since I’ve also had some earnings from paid medical studies that weren’t subject to SS tax I’m going to bump up the total to $350,000.

Determining my net worth took a little bit more work. Personal Capital tracks  financial accounts and shows you your net worth. Unfortunately, they don’t have the correct total for my student loan and I also have some accounts that I don’t track there so I had to determine my correct net worth myself.

Assets
Cash – $4387
Traditional IRA – $21,225
Roth IRA – $9,602
Loan – $1800
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Student Loan – $125,331
Credit Cards – $10,593

Net Worth = $-93,910

Out of the $350,000 I’ve earned over my lifetime I have managed to accumulate -$93,910. I knew the total would be bad, but it is still a bummer to see the actual figure.

The credit card balance is from the 0% balance transfers I took out earlier this year to pay down my student loan. That might not have been the best strategy. Once I get the balance transfers paid off I’ll reconsider the best way to pay down my student loan.

It will probably be a while until I can improve my net worth since I have some big bills coming due in January. I also have a few thousand dollars worth of inventory at Amazon that would have made my net worth a little better. Since it is hard to determine a correct value for the inventory I left it out of the net worth calculation.

I’m probably going to start calculating my net worth on a monthly basis. If there is any interest I will share the results here.

November Income – $541.33

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Here is a breakdown of my income for November.

Online Income $0
Interest $3.57
Uber $41.50
Amazon FBA $441.21
Cash Back $44.55
Mystery Shops $10.5
Total $541.33

 

November was not a good income month. With the end of my job my income fell dramatically. Most of my spending in November came  from my last October paycheck which was paid just two days before the end of the month. Now that I’ve spent that I’ll have to make more money this month or draw down my savings. I’ve earmarked all of the money I got from my settlement for paying down my 0% credit card balances which were used to pay down my student loan. There will be no use of the settlement money for paying basic living expenses.

My FBA income should go up this month with all of the Christmas shopping. My sales increased quite a bit the last week of November and are continuing to do well this month. FBA income probably won’t be enough to cover my living expenses though. Uber is the most likely option for making more money. If I put in the hours driving for Uber I will make more money. My other income sources will likely remain the same and don’t really add a significant amount to my income.

I actually had some online income last month for the first time since July. Since I also paid for three years of hosting and for help transferring my sites to a new host I still lost money online last month. The days of making $1000 a month or more from my blogs are gone. It appears they won’t be coming back either. At least not from the same methods that made me money before. I’ve made some efforts to make money on my blogs from affiliates, but they haven’t had any results yet. I’m more interested in making money from FBA so I won’t be spending too much time trying to resurrect the blog income.

If I can’t get my income back up to a decent level this month I will have to start looking for another job. I’d much prefer to work for myself, but a job may be necessary to pay my bills.