March 2014 Goal Update 1

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This is my first update on my progress – or lack of progress – on the goals I set for myself this month. I set a goal to exercise at least twice a week. That was a pretty easy goal and I did manage to exercise two times this past week. I didn’t exercise more than that though. Since I did at least meet the goal I’m fine with my progress on this goal.

My writing goal for this month was to write 300 words a day and also write a post for Bank Bonuses every day. I did manage to at least get a post done for Bank Bonuses every day. I didn’t manage to write 300 words each day though. I only hit my writing goal three days in the past week. That means I’m 1200 words behind where I should be at this point. This isn’t good, but I think I can make up the missed days and get back on track. This goal was halfway achieved for the last week.

My final goal was to get rid of stuff by selling it, donating it, or throwing it away. I didn’t do any of that this week. This goal was a complete failure. It is still possible to get this goal back on track since it is early in the month. I have dug myself a little bit of a hole though.

This week I am off Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. I plan to have a marathon writing session on Thursday to get myself caught up and hopefully get ahead a little bit. I also plan to put some stuff up for sale and go through my stuff to see if there is anything to donate or trash. If I don’t get caught up this week, my odds of making my goals are pretty long. I still think I can do it. None of my goals are overly difficult. They just require a little time and self discipline to achieve.

February Income – $4138.30

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Here is a breakdown of my income for February.

Online Income

 $444.90
Interest

$3.77

Dividends

$19.77

Cash Back

$37.18

Job

 $2408.49

Tax Return

 $1152.01

Mystery Shop

 $12
Stock Sale $60.18

Total

$4138.30

February was a good month for income since I did receive two paychecks for full-time hours.  It could have been even better since I could have worked about 40 hours of overtime during the month.  Even though the overtime pay would be nice I’m just not motivated to work overtime right now.

My online income continues to do better than I expect. I’m not making anywhere near as much as I used to online, but it is still good money considering how little time I devote to it.

My passive income such as referral income from sites like Mr. Rebates and dividends is pretty small, but it adds up over the year.

The tax return was a nice bonus.  Last year I owed about $1000, including a penalty, when I filed my 2012 return so I upped my withholding in 2013. That combined with my online income being much lower resulted in a big refund this year.  I know you’re not supposed to want a big refund, but I like it better than having to pay.  I’m going to keep my withholding the same this year.  Maybe my online income will increase again and I’ll end up having just enough tax withheld for the year.

I also had a stock sale for a small profit.  I usually don’t count these as income or losses since I just add or subtract them to my savings amount.  This stock purchase was never counted as part of my savings and I purchased the stock with the intention of trying to turn a quick profit from it so I’m counting it as income. I participated in an IPO with LOYAL3  and managed to make a small profit. Not having to pay any trading fees helped.  I also managed to make about $20 in credit card rewards by using my Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® to make the stock purchase.  I’m not counting that as part of my profit.

*Post contains affiliate links for two products I use and recommend.

February Expenses – $892.17

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

Household $427.88
Entertainment

$101.77

Transportation

 $79.21

Food

$121.39
Phone

$26.81
Health

$61.11
Travel

$74.00

Total

 $892.17

My February expenses were nice and low. Not only did I make my normal goal of keeping my expenses under $1000 a month, I managed to keep my expenses under $900 for the month.  Having a short month helped some. The main thing that helped was that I didn’t have any unusual expenses or have any big bills due this month.

Getting my transportation expense down to $79 this month after spending almost $400 last month was the biggest difference in reducing my spending.  Since I only live five miles from work I drove a lot less than normal during the month.  I also had a credit card cash back amount that I used to cover some of my gas expense.  My car didn’t need any expensive repairs during the month. The only problem was a burnt out turn signal bulb which is something I can easily do myself and just had to spend five bucks on a new bulb.  I’m hoping my car maintenance stays that simple the rest of the year, although I doubt I’ll be that lucky.

My only travel expense was a $99 annual fee for my new Southwest credit card. This card came with a 50,000 mile bonus which is supposed to be worth at least two flights.  After looking at the reward miles options on Southwest, I think I will be able to get three or four flights out of the card. I thought about leaving the fee off since I’ll be getting a lot more value out of the card then the cost of the fee.  I decided it would be more accurate to count the fee as a travel expense.  The fee was reduced some by a travel redemption on my Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® – Earn 2x on All Purchases.   I do have a short vacation planned at the end of this month so this category might be a little higher unless I can get some more free travel from my credit cards.

The entertainment expense might have been a tinier bit higher than I’d prefer, but it was reasonable since there were a couple of special events during the month.  It will probably be a little high again this month since some of my vacation costs will likely be categorized as entertainment expenses.

My other expenses should remain about the same.  I’m hoping March can be another low expense month.

Making March Goals After Lazy February

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February was a pretty lazy month for me.  I never did get around to making any goals for the month or maybe I made some goals and just forgot about them.  Either way I didn’t get much done.  I did work my 40 hour a week job, although I didn’t work any overtime. My job is not at all physically demanding and not very mentally demanding, but when I’m done with my eight hours I am tired and just want to go home and relax in front of the TV.  I’m not sure how other bloggers manage to do so much in addition to working a full time job

In an effort to be a little more productive in March I am setting some goals for this month.  My goals are in the areas of writing, exercise, and getting rid of stuff.

My writing goal is to write at least 300 words a day plus write a post for Bank Bonuses. My daily writing won’t necessarily always be Tight Fisted Miser blog posts.  I might write some more on my long neglected non-fiction book.  I got the idea for the book over three years ago and I have only written a couple pages for it so far.  It is way past time to get that book done.  I plan to also do some writing for my other neglected blogs and maybe even write a little fiction for fun. I do have a short vacation at the end of the month so some writing will have to be done ahead of time.

My exercise goal is to exercise at least twice a week.  That isn’t much of a goal, but it is two times more than I usually exercise now.  I will be going hiking next month and it would be good to have at least a little bit of conditioning before I go.  My exercise will be hikes when I have time and the weather is decent.  Otherwise, my exercise will be walk/runs on the treadmill and maybe a seven minute workout as well.

My final goal is to get rid of stuff.  I want to throw away, donate, or sell at least 31 items this month.  This will mostly consist of putting my comic books up for sale on Craigslist and/or Ebay.  I did put one lot of comics up for sale last month, but didn’t get any buyers. I’m going to put up some more listings this month and hopefully find some buyers.  Since we have a big snowstorm coming this weekend I won’t be putting anything on Craigslist until next weekend.  I don’t think anyone is going to want to go through the snow to buy comics.

Those are my goals for this month for now.  I plan to have at least one update on my progress this month to keep me on track for my goals.  These goals are easily attainable so I won’t have a good excuse for not making them.

January Savings Rate – 45.73%

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I made $2733.20 in January and saved $1250 for a savings rate of 45.73%. That is a pretty good start to the year. I forgot to calculate my savings rate for December so I don’t have a last month comparison for this month. My savings rate in November so this month was obviously a lot better than that.

My SWR was 49.15% in November and has now decreased to 45.73%. That is a good move in the right direction, but I’ve got a long way to go. My goal is to get down to a 4% safe withdrawal rate. The 4% SWR translates into having 25x your annual expenses in savings or 300 months of expenses in savings. Once I reach that point I will consider myself financially independent. I now have 25.91 months of living expenses saved, compared to 24.41 months in November.

I should have another good month this month. My investments have gone up a bit this month, I’ll be able to add a fair amount to my savings, and I think I’ll keep my monthly expenses under $1000. Those three things together should add up to a nice improvement in my tracking numbers.