I'm starting this journal to track my progress towards early retirement. I'm 45 years old so it won't be extreme early retirement. My plan is to retire in 5 years. If I keep going like I have though I won't be able to retire until 67 when I could get Social Security, assuming it is still be around.
I have done pretty well at keeping my expenses low. I'll post my November expenses next week. I've been tracking my income and expenses for years on my blog TightFistedMiser.com if you want to see what they are.
I haven't done well at making money or saving money. Those are the two things I'm going to change.
Right now I have about $14,000 in savings which is a little over one year of expenses. If I'm going to retire in 5 years I need to increase my income, decrease my expenses, and start saving like crazy.
I will post November's income and expenses here so you can see how I'm doing now. I'll then update my income, expenses, and savings monthly so we can see how I'm progressing.
If there is any information you would like me to share let me know.
TightFistedMiser's Journal
November Numbers
November Income
Online Income $467.96
Interest $0.81
Dividends $20.31
Cash Back $64.36
Mystery Shopping $61
Jobs $2106.65
Credit Card Bonus $150
Total $2871.09
November Expenses
Household $179.36
Entertainment $88.71
Transportation $595.33
Food $101.36
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $117.25
Total $1113.82
I had a surplus of $1757.27 for the month. None of that surplus was saved since I used it to buy a new car. A whopping $571 of my transportation expense was for gasoline. My van only gets about 16-18mpg, that would be ok if I were still living in it and I wasn't driving so much. Since I'm not living in it and driving 2-3,000 miles a month I needed a car with better gas mileage. I ended up getting a Focus which has been getting about 30mpg so far. I'm trying to sell my van and once it is sold that money will go in my savings.
My housing expense will go up since I was staying at my mom's house and just paying her utilities for rent. My apartment is cheap though and I will be driving much less so my housing will still be less than what my transportation expense was.
The big change for December is that I quit my job. I had a job as an attorney making $12 an hour. The idea was to gain some experience as an attorney. I did learn some things at that job and my boss was incredibly nice, but I decided the commute between Kansas City and SW MO combined with the relatively low pay made the job not worth it.
Since moving to KC this month I've managed to get two new jobs. One paying $15 an hour and the other paying $20 an hour. That probably doesn't sound like much to most of you, but it is a lot more than I'm used to making. Both of the jobs won't start until next month and I may not be allowed to work both of them. I will still be keeping my part-time job so I'll have at least two jobs. I get paid to sleep at the part-time job so I want to keep that job.
I've calculated my SWR as 86.22%. I arrived at that figure by taking my 12 month trailing expenses divided by the amount of my investments. If that is not the correct way to determine SWR, please let me know.
November Income
Online Income $467.96
Interest $0.81
Dividends $20.31
Cash Back $64.36
Mystery Shopping $61
Jobs $2106.65
Credit Card Bonus $150
Total $2871.09
November Expenses
Household $179.36
Entertainment $88.71
Transportation $595.33
Food $101.36
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $117.25
Total $1113.82
I had a surplus of $1757.27 for the month. None of that surplus was saved since I used it to buy a new car. A whopping $571 of my transportation expense was for gasoline. My van only gets about 16-18mpg, that would be ok if I were still living in it and I wasn't driving so much. Since I'm not living in it and driving 2-3,000 miles a month I needed a car with better gas mileage. I ended up getting a Focus which has been getting about 30mpg so far. I'm trying to sell my van and once it is sold that money will go in my savings.
My housing expense will go up since I was staying at my mom's house and just paying her utilities for rent. My apartment is cheap though and I will be driving much less so my housing will still be less than what my transportation expense was.
The big change for December is that I quit my job. I had a job as an attorney making $12 an hour. The idea was to gain some experience as an attorney. I did learn some things at that job and my boss was incredibly nice, but I decided the commute between Kansas City and SW MO combined with the relatively low pay made the job not worth it.
Since moving to KC this month I've managed to get two new jobs. One paying $15 an hour and the other paying $20 an hour. That probably doesn't sound like much to most of you, but it is a lot more than I'm used to making. Both of the jobs won't start until next month and I may not be allowed to work both of them. I will still be keeping my part-time job so I'll have at least two jobs. I get paid to sleep at the part-time job so I want to keep that job.
I've calculated my SWR as 86.22%. I arrived at that figure by taking my 12 month trailing expenses divided by the amount of my investments. If that is not the correct way to determine SWR, please let me know.
Since January is halfway over it is past time to get my December numbers up.
Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December.
Household $332.35
Entertainment $104
Transportation $826.79
Food $168.79
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $117.25
Total $1580.99
Here is a breakdown of my income for December.
Online Income $707.96
Interest $0.09
Dividends $55.89
Cash Back $97.57
Mystery Shopping $37.50
Jobs $769.64
Total $1668.65
It wasn't a good month. My expenses were high due to having to pay licensing and sales tax on my new car and having to pay 6 months liability insurance on two vehicles.
I didn't make much money because I was only working part-time at a low paying job for most of the month.
I only managed to put $65 in savings in December. My SWR actually went up to 104.5%.
Things will be much better in January. My expenses should be much lower(they are much lower so far this month). My goal is to keep my expenses under $1000 per month.
My income will be much higher since I have started a new full-time job that pays over twice as much per hour as my part-time job. I expect to save at least 50% of my income in January. If I manage to sell my van then that savings rate will be much higher.
December kinda sucked but I knew it would. January will be a much better month.
Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December.
Household $332.35
Entertainment $104
Transportation $826.79
Food $168.79
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $117.25
Total $1580.99
Here is a breakdown of my income for December.
Online Income $707.96
Interest $0.09
Dividends $55.89
Cash Back $97.57
Mystery Shopping $37.50
Jobs $769.64
Total $1668.65
It wasn't a good month. My expenses were high due to having to pay licensing and sales tax on my new car and having to pay 6 months liability insurance on two vehicles.
I didn't make much money because I was only working part-time at a low paying job for most of the month.
I only managed to put $65 in savings in December. My SWR actually went up to 104.5%.
Things will be much better in January. My expenses should be much lower(they are much lower so far this month). My goal is to keep my expenses under $1000 per month.
My income will be much higher since I have started a new full-time job that pays over twice as much per hour as my part-time job. I expect to save at least 50% of my income in January. If I manage to sell my van then that savings rate will be much higher.
December kinda sucked but I knew it would. January will be a much better month.
January was a good month. My income was $2694.84 and my expenses were $822.34. I managed to save $1500 for a savings rate of 55.67% and reduced my SWR to 80.47%.
Although it was a good month it isn't nearly good enough to allow me to retire in 5 years. When putting my numbers into the early retirement calculator at networthify.com the result was 15 years to retirement. I'd be 60 then, which would hardly count as early retirement at all. February will be a better month but I will need to make some changes if I want to retire at 50.
Semi-retirement is an option. Just working my tax job each year and taking the rest of the year off wouldn't be too bad. The thread on Guatemala reminded me of the time I spent living there and how cheap it was. I'm thinking of living there again later this year. I should be able to keep my expenses down low enough that I could live on just my blogging income.
January Expenses
Household $407.92
Entertainment $25.80
Transportation $73.02
Food $149.13
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $119.92
Electric $14.74
Total $822.34
January Income
Online Income $350.51
Interest $0.40
Dividends $6.57
Cash Back $60.34
Mystery Shopping $25
Jobs $2252.02
Total $2694.84
Although it was a good month it isn't nearly good enough to allow me to retire in 5 years. When putting my numbers into the early retirement calculator at networthify.com the result was 15 years to retirement. I'd be 60 then, which would hardly count as early retirement at all. February will be a better month but I will need to make some changes if I want to retire at 50.
Semi-retirement is an option. Just working my tax job each year and taking the rest of the year off wouldn't be too bad. The thread on Guatemala reminded me of the time I spent living there and how cheap it was. I'm thinking of living there again later this year. I should be able to keep my expenses down low enough that I could live on just my blogging income.
January Expenses
Household $407.92
Entertainment $25.80
Transportation $73.02
Food $149.13
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $119.92
Electric $14.74
Total $822.34
January Income
Online Income $350.51
Interest $0.40
Dividends $6.57
Cash Back $60.34
Mystery Shopping $25
Jobs $2252.02
Total $2694.84
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wastelandwaltz
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:08 pm
- Contact:
I do like to have a variety of income streams so I'm not too dependent on one. Although my job is by far the biggest source of income right now.
Some of the cash back is from credit cards. Most of it is from cash back shopping sites. The cash back I get is mostly from my referrals' purchases since I don't do much shopping myself.
Some of the cash back is from credit cards. Most of it is from cash back shopping sites. The cash back I get is mostly from my referrals' purchases since I don't do much shopping myself.
I'm finally getting around to posting February's numbers. It was a very good month. I managed to save 75.5% of my income and bring my SWR down to 62.5%. After years of not making much money, my current income seems like a lot and I'm finding it easy to save money. My job ends when tax season ends though. It will be a lot harder to save money after that.
March isn't going to be too good though. I didn't pay any estimated taxes for my online business last year and ended up owing $1500 when I did my tax return.
Here is a breakdown of my income for February.
Online Income $889.67
Interest $0.71
Dividends $18.56
Cash Back $106.13
Mystery Shopping $7.50
Medical Study $350
Jobs $3127.34
Total $4499.91
Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.
Household $372.00
Entertainment $70.81
Transportation $149.43
Food $94.22
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $88.56
Electric $14.96
Internet $64.12
Total $885.91
March isn't going to be too good though. I didn't pay any estimated taxes for my online business last year and ended up owing $1500 when I did my tax return.
Here is a breakdown of my income for February.
Online Income $889.67
Interest $0.71
Dividends $18.56
Cash Back $106.13
Mystery Shopping $7.50
Medical Study $350
Jobs $3127.34
Total $4499.91
Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.
Household $372.00
Entertainment $70.81
Transportation $149.43
Food $94.22
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $88.56
Electric $14.96
Internet $64.12
Total $885.91
I'm finally posting March's numbers. Since I've procrastinated on these numbers so long I might have April's number up in just a few more days.
March was my last full month of working the tax job. My last day was April 16. When the tax job ended I picked up another shift at my part-time job so I'm still working 35 hours a week. Since I get to sleep at my part-time job I have lots of free time. I thought I would start getting a lot done when my tax job ended but I've been very lazy so far. I need to be more productive in May or I might as well get another job.
My apartment lease ends June 30 and I'm thinking about going on a long hike on the Appalachian Trail at that time. I've done about half the trail so far in section hikes. I like hiking but usually get bored with it after a couple weeks. I'd most likely have to quit my part-time job to go hiking. I'm not sure if I want to do that since it is a pretty good situation. Not many jobs pay you to sleep. It doesn't pay much but it does cover my basic bills. I need to take better advantage of the free time my part-time job allows me to have. I need to use the free time to write a book and get in shape rather than mindlessly surf the web and eat junk food.
Anyway, here are the numbers for March.
Online Income $335.76
Interest $0.12
Dividends $23.31
Cash Back $28.07
Mystery Shopping $42.00
Jobs $3505.93
Total Income $3935.19
Household $378.73
Entertainment $56.68
Transportation $181.06
Food $169.15
Debt $15.33
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Electric $16.10
Internet $15.96
Total $980.89
It was a pretty good month for income and expenses. I sold my van and paid off the credit card I used to purchase my current car so I no longer have any consumer debt. I managed to save $2350 for a 59.71% savings rate. My SWR is now 54.50% and I have 22 months of living expenses saved.
April will also be a decent month for saving but it is going to be much harder in May. The tax job was providing the majority of my income and I'm not getting another job to replace it so it will be difficult to save much money.
March was my last full month of working the tax job. My last day was April 16. When the tax job ended I picked up another shift at my part-time job so I'm still working 35 hours a week. Since I get to sleep at my part-time job I have lots of free time. I thought I would start getting a lot done when my tax job ended but I've been very lazy so far. I need to be more productive in May or I might as well get another job.
My apartment lease ends June 30 and I'm thinking about going on a long hike on the Appalachian Trail at that time. I've done about half the trail so far in section hikes. I like hiking but usually get bored with it after a couple weeks. I'd most likely have to quit my part-time job to go hiking. I'm not sure if I want to do that since it is a pretty good situation. Not many jobs pay you to sleep. It doesn't pay much but it does cover my basic bills. I need to take better advantage of the free time my part-time job allows me to have. I need to use the free time to write a book and get in shape rather than mindlessly surf the web and eat junk food.
Anyway, here are the numbers for March.
Online Income $335.76
Interest $0.12
Dividends $23.31
Cash Back $28.07
Mystery Shopping $42.00
Jobs $3505.93
Total Income $3935.19
Household $378.73
Entertainment $56.68
Transportation $181.06
Food $169.15
Debt $15.33
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Electric $16.10
Internet $15.96
Total $980.89
It was a pretty good month for income and expenses. I sold my van and paid off the credit card I used to purchase my current car so I no longer have any consumer debt. I managed to save $2350 for a 59.71% savings rate. My SWR is now 54.50% and I have 22 months of living expenses saved.
April will also be a decent month for saving but it is going to be much harder in May. The tax job was providing the majority of my income and I'm not getting another job to replace it so it will be difficult to save much money.
I'm getting April's numbers up much earlier than I did last month. I'll consider that progress.
I'm 95% decided that I'm going to go for a long hike on the AT so this will probably be my last month with good numbers for a while. My numbers for May should still at least be ok but after that I likely won't be saving any money at all for a couple of months and might even have a negative savings rate. I'm hoping I will have enough online income to cover my expenses while I'm hiking the Appalachian Trail but based on my current numbers that seems unlikely. I'll update my hiking plans next month.
Here are my numbers for April.
Expenses
Household $495.64
Entertainment $76.97
Transportation $179.76
Food $138.57
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Electric $16.10
Internet $15.96
Total $1075.78
Income
Online Income $392.75
Interest $1.15
Dividends $35.16
Cash Back $112.66
Class Action $49.10
Jobs $3224.98
Total $3815.80
It was a pretty good month. I managed to put $2000 in savings for a savings rate of 52.41%. My SWR went down to 49.50% from 54.50% and I now have 24.24 months of living expenses in savings.
It has been nice seeing these numbers improve so quickly and I don't like the idea of my progress stalling or even going backwards while I'm hiking. On the other hand, my current job will be cutting my hours next month which would mean I'd have to find a new job. My tax job will still be available in January. If I'm able to hike relatively cheaply I can at least not go backwards on my savings. If I got really good at lowering my expenses I could just work my tax job each year and take the rest of the year off as a form of semi-retirement. That would mean it would take me a lot longer to actually be financially independent though. For now, I'm just going to go on my hike and see how it goes. I usually get tired of hiking after three or four weeks so this hike might not have much impact on my financial situation after all.
I'm 95% decided that I'm going to go for a long hike on the AT so this will probably be my last month with good numbers for a while. My numbers for May should still at least be ok but after that I likely won't be saving any money at all for a couple of months and might even have a negative savings rate. I'm hoping I will have enough online income to cover my expenses while I'm hiking the Appalachian Trail but based on my current numbers that seems unlikely. I'll update my hiking plans next month.
Here are my numbers for April.
Expenses
Household $495.64
Entertainment $76.97
Transportation $179.76
Food $138.57
Debt $5.00
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Electric $16.10
Internet $15.96
Total $1075.78
Income
Online Income $392.75
Interest $1.15
Dividends $35.16
Cash Back $112.66
Class Action $49.10
Jobs $3224.98
Total $3815.80
It was a pretty good month. I managed to put $2000 in savings for a savings rate of 52.41%. My SWR went down to 49.50% from 54.50% and I now have 24.24 months of living expenses in savings.
It has been nice seeing these numbers improve so quickly and I don't like the idea of my progress stalling or even going backwards while I'm hiking. On the other hand, my current job will be cutting my hours next month which would mean I'd have to find a new job. My tax job will still be available in January. If I'm able to hike relatively cheaply I can at least not go backwards on my savings. If I got really good at lowering my expenses I could just work my tax job each year and take the rest of the year off as a form of semi-retirement. That would mean it would take me a lot longer to actually be financially independent though. For now, I'm just going to go on my hike and see how it goes. I usually get tired of hiking after three or four weeks so this hike might not have much impact on my financial situation after all.
Re: TightFistedMiser's Journal
I've neglected this journal the past few months since I didn't have much good to report. I'm going to catch up by posting May, June, and July's numbers. Since I'm posting three months' numbers, I'm only going to post a summary of May and June rather than the more detailed breakdown i normally post.
May Income - $1462.34
May Expenses - $1658.21
May Savings Rate - 13.67%
I had some expensive car repairs this month which resulted in high expenses. Despite my expenses being higher than my income I was able to save some money by moving some of my unallocated cash cushion into savings.
June Income - $1902.65
June Expenses - $1644.13
June Savings Rate - 5.25%
My expenses were high again due to another expensive car repair. I'm considering going car-free next year which should drastically reduce my transportation expense. Or I might buy a van to live in so that my transportation expense would be rolled into my housing expense. My transportation spending is way too high. I only managed to save a little money in June. Since I was unsure of my future income I needed to rebuild my cash cushion. I still made a minimum contribution to my IRA so I wouldn't completely lose my savings momentum.
July Income
Online Income $467.09
Interest $1.77
Dividends $19.06
Cash Back $19.92
Class Action $35
Job $377.02
Mystery Shops $35.50
Total $955.36
My income was low because I was traveling the first half of the month. I started a new job in the second half of the month but my first paycheck for the new job wasn't received until August.
July Expenses
Household $245.89
Entertainment $53.10
Transportation $376.17
Food $176.01
Travel $113.85
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Electric $26.51
Total $1139.31
My expenses weren't too bad considering I was traveling the first half of the month. A lot of the travel expense is reflected in the transportation and food categories. I still spent more than I made though.
July Savings Rate - 10.46%
This was another poor month for savings. My SWR is now 58.13% and I have 20.4 months of expenses saved. I've backslid the last three months since my SWR was 49.5% and I had 24.24 months of savings at the end of April. The small amount of saving hurt me some but the big expense months in May and June were responsible for the major damage since they raised my average monthly expense level quite a bit. Once I have a full 12 months of data for my expense levels one bad month shouldn't throw the average off so much.
August will finally bring some good news. I've worked the whole month and received two paychecks. It is looking like I'll finally have my monthly expenses back under the $1000 level as well. I've already put quite a bit in savings and I'm hoping that I'll be able to finally improve my SWR and months of savings past what they were in April.
May Income - $1462.34
May Expenses - $1658.21
May Savings Rate - 13.67%
I had some expensive car repairs this month which resulted in high expenses. Despite my expenses being higher than my income I was able to save some money by moving some of my unallocated cash cushion into savings.
June Income - $1902.65
June Expenses - $1644.13
June Savings Rate - 5.25%
My expenses were high again due to another expensive car repair. I'm considering going car-free next year which should drastically reduce my transportation expense. Or I might buy a van to live in so that my transportation expense would be rolled into my housing expense. My transportation spending is way too high. I only managed to save a little money in June. Since I was unsure of my future income I needed to rebuild my cash cushion. I still made a minimum contribution to my IRA so I wouldn't completely lose my savings momentum.
July Income
Online Income $467.09
Interest $1.77
Dividends $19.06
Cash Back $19.92
Class Action $35
Job $377.02
Mystery Shops $35.50
Total $955.36
My income was low because I was traveling the first half of the month. I started a new job in the second half of the month but my first paycheck for the new job wasn't received until August.
July Expenses
Household $245.89
Entertainment $53.10
Transportation $376.17
Food $176.01
Travel $113.85
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Electric $26.51
Total $1139.31
My expenses weren't too bad considering I was traveling the first half of the month. A lot of the travel expense is reflected in the transportation and food categories. I still spent more than I made though.
July Savings Rate - 10.46%
This was another poor month for savings. My SWR is now 58.13% and I have 20.4 months of expenses saved. I've backslid the last three months since my SWR was 49.5% and I had 24.24 months of savings at the end of April. The small amount of saving hurt me some but the big expense months in May and June were responsible for the major damage since they raised my average monthly expense level quite a bit. Once I have a full 12 months of data for my expense levels one bad month shouldn't throw the average off so much.
August will finally bring some good news. I've worked the whole month and received two paychecks. It is looking like I'll finally have my monthly expenses back under the $1000 level as well. I've already put quite a bit in savings and I'm hoping that I'll be able to finally improve my SWR and months of savings past what they were in April.
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George the original one
- Posts: 5406
- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
- Location: Wettest corner of Orygun
Re: TightFistedMiser's Journal
> I've neglected this journal the past few months since I didn't have much good to report.
Hey, we all learn from the bad as well as the good. You've probably learned a lesson about contingency planning for your future budget.
Hey, we all learn from the bad as well as the good. You've probably learned a lesson about contingency planning for your future budget.
Re: TightFistedMiser's Journal
Thanks, I'm going to make more of an effort to keep the journal updated on a timely basis from now on. Regardless of whether my results are good or bad.
Re: TightFistedMiser's Journal
Here are my numbers for August. It was a good month. September should be pretty good too since I'll still have a couple of checks from the job I just completed.
I'm going on a hike starting tomorrow. The hike could last a few days or a month. I'm just going to go for as long as I feel like hiking. The hike should be pretty cheap. Ii have a job starting in January of next year and I'm not sure if I'll work another job before then. I have plenty of savings so I might experiment with being semi-retired for the rest of the year.
August Income
Online Income $467.28
Interest $2.20
Dividends $19.46
Cash Back $46.18
Sell Stuff $6.16
Job $2745.90
Mystery Shops $24.50
Medical Study $350
Total $3661.68
August Expenses
Household $400
Entertainment $137.32
Transportation $147.52
Food $91.37
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Total $923.99
I was finally able to get my expenses back under $1000. It will be difficult to get my expenses much lower unless I get rid of my car, which I'm considering doing later this year. For now, I'll be content with this level of expense.
I managed to save 72.3% of my income in August. I need to be saving that much every month, but that won't happen until I have a more stable income. I lowered my SWR to 52.2% from 58.13% the month before. I have 22.96 months of living expenses saved now. Both my SWR and months of living expenses saved were better earlier this year but a couple months of high expenses and low savings sent them backwards. I'm back on the right track now and hope to significantly improve these numbers by the end of the year.
I'm going on a hike starting tomorrow. The hike could last a few days or a month. I'm just going to go for as long as I feel like hiking. The hike should be pretty cheap. Ii have a job starting in January of next year and I'm not sure if I'll work another job before then. I have plenty of savings so I might experiment with being semi-retired for the rest of the year.
August Income
Online Income $467.28
Interest $2.20
Dividends $19.46
Cash Back $46.18
Sell Stuff $6.16
Job $2745.90
Mystery Shops $24.50
Medical Study $350
Total $3661.68
August Expenses
Household $400
Entertainment $137.32
Transportation $147.52
Food $91.37
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Total $923.99
I was finally able to get my expenses back under $1000. It will be difficult to get my expenses much lower unless I get rid of my car, which I'm considering doing later this year. For now, I'll be content with this level of expense.
I managed to save 72.3% of my income in August. I need to be saving that much every month, but that won't happen until I have a more stable income. I lowered my SWR to 52.2% from 58.13% the month before. I have 22.96 months of living expenses saved now. Both my SWR and months of living expenses saved were better earlier this year but a couple months of high expenses and low savings sent them backwards. I'm back on the right track now and hope to significantly improve these numbers by the end of the year.
Re: TightFistedMiser's Journal
Here are my numbers for September. It was a decent month for saving. I made $2304.71 and saved $1000 for 43.3% of my income saved. I lowered my SWR to 49.28% from 52.2% the month before. I have 24.34 months of living expenses saved now.
Unfortunately, October's numbers are not going to be good since my temporary job finished in September. A lack of consistent income is keeping me from making the progress I would like. I need to start making a lot more money if I'm going to be able to retire in 5 years.
September Income
Online Income $293.84
Interest $2.10
Dividends $54.96
Cash Back $24.89
Job $1928.92
Total $2304.71
September Expenses
Household $436.08
Entertainment $141.71
Transportation $292.38
Food $109.64
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Total $1127.59
The expenses were a little higher than I prefer, but within reason. Starting next year my gym membership will expire and my health insurance cost should go way down which will help with my expenses. Once I'm working my transportation expense should also go down since I'll just be driving back and forth to work and not taking long trips in my car. I'd really like to get my expenses consistently under the $1000 level. I think it is doable.
Unfortunately, October's numbers are not going to be good since my temporary job finished in September. A lack of consistent income is keeping me from making the progress I would like. I need to start making a lot more money if I'm going to be able to retire in 5 years.
September Income
Online Income $293.84
Interest $2.10
Dividends $54.96
Cash Back $24.89
Job $1928.92
Total $2304.71
September Expenses
Household $436.08
Entertainment $141.71
Transportation $292.38
Food $109.64
Phone $26.81
Health $120.97
Total $1127.59
The expenses were a little higher than I prefer, but within reason. Starting next year my gym membership will expire and my health insurance cost should go way down which will help with my expenses. Once I'm working my transportation expense should also go down since I'll just be driving back and forth to work and not taking long trips in my car. I'd really like to get my expenses consistently under the $1000 level. I think it is doable.
Re: TightFistedMiser's Journal
It has been a while since I updated this journal. I will just add my year end numbers for now and try to get back in the habit of monthly posting this year.
I ended up saving 47.31% of my income in 2013. I think that is pretty good considering I only made $29711 in 2013. Unfortunately, when I plug these numbers into the networthify early retirement calculator it would take me over 15 years to retire. If I'm going to retire early I need to drastically increase my income.
Another option I'm considering is semi-retirement. It would be possible for me to work my seasonal tax job for 3 and a half months each year and take the rest off. I might try that this year and see how it works.
I ended up saving 47.31% of my income in 2013. I think that is pretty good considering I only made $29711 in 2013. Unfortunately, when I plug these numbers into the networthify early retirement calculator it would take me over 15 years to retire. If I'm going to retire early I need to drastically increase my income.
Another option I'm considering is semi-retirement. It would be possible for me to work my seasonal tax job for 3 and a half months each year and take the rest off. I might try that this year and see how it works.