After adding up all my sources of income in 2009 I came up with a total income of $15,277.99 for the year. This might not seem like much but I’m happy with it. Especially considering I was in school for the first few months of the year and never had a full-time job during the year. My only employment income was from working part-time during the month of December.
My expenses for 2009 were only $12,090.99* giving me a surplus of $3187 for the year. I felt like I was mostly living off my savings in 2009. It was a nice surprise to see I actually made more than I spent. Since I didn’t include the purchase price of my car or the cost of buying My Retirement Blog in my expenses I actually had a small deficit for the year but I’m ok with that.
My income goal for 2010 was originally going to be to make more than in 2009. I plan to spend several months doing a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail which will make achieving that goal difficult. Therefore, I am setting a backup goal of making more than I spend in 2010.
I hope this blog shows that you can live pretty well on a small income. I managed to travel to 6 foreign countries, spend a week hiking on the AT, went to the movies about 50 times, and did lots more last year. Being frugal and living on a relatively small income doesn’t mean you have to stay home and watch TV all the time.
*I found it a strange coincidence that both my total income and total expenses ended in 99 cents.