Income/Expenses For September 2013

Each month I will post my income/expenses for the previous month. I track every dollar in and out, so what you see is exactly what I earned and spent (rounded to the nearest dollar).

Income from September 2013:

$3,781–Regular Paycheck
$950–Online Income/Bonus
$641–Dividend Income

Total Income: $5,370

Expenses from September 2013:

$541–Rent & Utilities
$189–Student Loans
$143–Health
$267–Groceries
$100–Restaurants
$100–Fast Food/Pizza/Takeout
$33–Public Transportation
$19–Internet
$28–Pharmacy
$40–Mobile Phone
$30–Gym
$10–Entertainment
$7–Fuel
$75–Everything Else*
$500–Car Prepayment Fund**

Total Expenses: $2,078

*The Everything Else category includes expenses I don’t have a regular budget for. I had to purchase household supplies including an A/C filter ($30) and I also had to replace some clothing this month ($45).

**The Car Prepayment Fund is money I’m setting aside to purchase a car with. My car-free days are unfortunately coming to a close as I discussed recently. Although I didn’t actually “spend” this money during the month of September, I’m including it as an expenditure in the budget so that I can amortize the eventual car purchase transaction and not overwhelm one month’s budget.

Income was fantastic yet again. The income from my day job was rather average, but I more than made up for that in the other categories. My dividend income broke records for me, and it was an otherwise superb month for passive income. This blog produced $795 of my bonus income, with the rest coming from some bonus/spiff programs that were running this month at work. All in all, a really great month on the income side with all categories really humming. Thank you readers for all of your support! This blog would be producing exactly $0 in income if you guys weren’t reading. Thanks so much.

Expenses were mostly held in check. Take away the car prepayment “expense” and I actually spent $1,578 this month, which is not bad at all. I spent more on food than I would have liked to. This was due to a grocery bill that ran much more than my average this month. I changed up my diet recently and I’ve been working out more and also ingesting more protein (which costs more money). I ended up buying about three months worth of protein supplements (mostly in bar form) in mid-September. I’m really hoping to get in some of the best shape of my life by the end of the year.

I managed to save 61.3% of my net income this month. I’m quite happy still claiming a savings rate over 60% even after factoring in a pretty high car-related expense. Once the car purchase is finalized and I’m done including what amounts to car payments, I’m hoping my savings rate will climb even higher.

My goal is to average a 60% savings rate of my net income, monthly. So far, I’ve hit rates of:

75.7% – January
48.3% – February
57% – March
71.4% – April
64.2% – May
64.6% – June
71.4% – July
73.1% – August
61.3% – September

I’m now at an average of 65.2% for the year so far. I’m on pace to easily exceed my goal, barring any large unforeseen expenses. Looking forward, the holiday season means my expenses will go up as I’ll have to purchase a plane ticket to fly home for Christmas and I’ll also be buying gifts for family. I have a four-year anniversary celebration coming up with my girlfriend, and I have a little local getaway planned for that. Also, I was in Michigan this past weekend for a birthday celebration and I took my whole family out to dinner to celebrate, so my food expenses for September will also be high.

How about you? Did you have a great September budget-wise? 

Thanks for reading.

Photo Credit: RambergMediaImages

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25 Comments

  1. Man, your income from the blog is awesome. You got over $1400 between the blog and dividends. Now that’s amazing. Looks like you should stay above your 60% goal for the year. Keep up the good work!

  2. Is that wage income before or after income taxes?
    It might help to show that so people know that your are not taking deductions like 401k, health insurance, etc.

  3. Hi Jason,

    I just want to thank you for an awesome and inspiring blog. You are one of my absolute favorites in the blogosphere. If you find time to visit my blog and maybe even leave a comment it would be really cool for me. As you can see you are at my bloglist to the right.

    Best Regards and take care!

  4. Great month Jason, nice to see that passive income from the blog really starting to mount up. I know you will invest it wisely to replace it partially/fully in the future if it is a short term bonus income stream. The wife and I had a great month too, still suffering from some one off expenses but those should be coming under control and really decreasing over the next six months. 67% savings for us which was great as we had our annual vehicle service and some accommodation for a wedding we attended.

    Keep living the dream!!!

  5. This was a great month for you. And I think it was the first time you did not need your normal job to pay your bills. Online income + dividends = 1591 $, expenses without the car fund = 1578 $. Very nice.

    Greetings from Germany
    Thomas

  6. I like that you list your car prepayment fund as an expense rather than savings. And you still surpassed your goal to save 60%. Anonymous also has a good point about about not needing your normal job to pay your bills (with the assumption that you wouldn’t need to be saving for a car if you didn’t have a job).

  7. Hi Jason!

    I just want to congratulate you on your success. Every month seems like a good month these days;)

    Keep it up!

  8. Pursuit,

    Thanks! It was a great month. The dividend income combined with the blog income just about paid for all of my expenses (factoring out the car prepayment).

    I appreciate the ongoing support. Every month just seems to get better and better. 🙂

    Keep up the great work on your end too!

    Best wishes.

  9. Jason Wiegert,

    My wage income is net of taxes. I’m pretty clear about that in the post, as I use the term “net income”. The problem is that dividend and online income is gross, however I reconcile that at tax time. That’s why you see a dip in the savings rate early in the year. My average shows a true net savings rate.

    I do actually have health insurance, although it’s listed as an expense rather than a reduction in gross income (as it probably should be).

    I hope that helps.

    Best regards.

  10. Frihetsfonden,

    Congratulations on starting your own blog and journey. I hope the both of them treat you very well!

    Thanks for the very kind words. I really appreciate it. I’m glad you enjoy what I write and find inspiration in my words. That means a lot to me!

    I’ll make sure to stop by sometime. 🙂

    Cheers!

  11. $950 in bonus/online income is amazing. You’ve got a second business going on.

    Hey, Coca Cola is at about $37 per share. Looking good, what do you think?

  12. KM,

    Glad to hear you guys had a great month! 67% is fantastic. Keep it up!

    I’m so glad to be in the position I’m in right now. Hard work pays off. It may take time, but eventually the ship comes in. 🙂

    Take care.

  13. Thomas,

    Thanks for stopping by from Germany!

    Well, not all of the $950 listed in the ‘Online Income/Bonus’ category was as a direct result of the blog. This blog actually produced $795 in income for September, which while phenomenal, did not completely cover my expenses when combined with dividends. However, it’s a really, really great month and I’m very excited to be in the position I’m in right now. It’s all thanks to readers like yourself!

    Thanks for supporting the blog and supporting my journey as well. I hope your journey is going as well as mine.

    Best regards.

  14. Debbie M,

    Thanks! Yeah, I wouldn’t consider the savings one puts aside for a big purchase as anything other than an expense. I chose to amortize it here, but it’s still the same principle. It’s money leaving my hands in exchange for an item.

    I just about covered normal expenses via blog and dividend income. I think this was about as close as I’ve ever come to doing that. It was really phenomenal. Again, it’s thanks to readers like you. 🙂

    Best wishes!

  15. Symphony Investor,

    Thanks so much. I really appreciate it! It’s been an amazing journey so far, and I’ve come farther than I ever thought I would so far. I’m driven to go even further and higher from here.

    Congrats to you as well on your success so far. Keep it up!

    Take care.

  16. Anonymous,

    You know, I never thought this blog would produce anywhere near this type of income. It’s really crazy. It has definitely turned into a second business. I now know what it means to “do what you love and the money will follow”. 🙂

    I’ve softened my view on KO. It’s crossed over the 3% yield mark, which is historically a good time to buy. I wasn’t a big fan at the $40 mark, but this level isn’t too bad considering the quality of the company. It’s now below the 20 P/E ratio, which I’d consider a fair buy. I may buy some myself as that is one company I’d really like to have a larger position in. I don’t consider it a steal by any means, but it’s probably a fair price to pay right now. One could do worse than paying close to fair value for shares in Coca-Cola. 🙂

    Best wishes!

  17. I think you are firing on all cylinders. The dividend income is at an all time high and the blog income was pretty good. Is it safe to say that this type of blog income is here to stay? I hope so, it will help accelerate your path to FI and perhaps enable you to pull the trigger earlier than you planned.

    I think you are doing great with your expenses. You’ve managed to hold your recurring expenses steady, that’s the important thing.

    Btw, has the rollout of the Affordable Care Act affected your HDHP premiums or complicated things in any way?

  18. Trader,

    I looked at that firm once before. If memory serves me correct there were a number of catches on that commission. I’ll have to take a look again.

    Thanks for the idea!

    Best regards.

  19. Spoonman,

    Thanks so much. I’m definitely firing on all cylinders right now. Life can change quickly, so I’m just enjoying while it all lasts. 🙂

    I’m not sure about the blog income. I’m ecstatic that it’s producing an income worthy of a part-time job, but I don’t know about the longevity or reliability. It’s all based on advertiser relationships, which, of course, can change at any time. At any rate, I’m just going to focus on the writing and hopefully I’m rewarded in some way going forward.

    Great question on the ACA! Very timely, as I actually just got a letter from Aetna yesterday regarding a premium increase. It looks like it’s going to go up by about $6/mo during 2014, but after that the plan won’t exist in its current form and, as of now, is taking the form of a new plan with a slightly lower deductible but much higher premium. I put the letter away, but I think the new plan’s premium is about $250/mo. Obviously I’ll be looking elsewhere if that’s the case. I have to act by mid-November to move over to the “new” plan with the slightly higher premium, or else they’ll automatically enroll me in the much more expensive plan. It seems like HDHP plans in their current form will cease to exist and be replaced by lower deductible/higher premium plans. At least that seems to be the case for the really high deductible plans like mine.

    How about you? What have you noticed?

    Cheers!

  20. Thanks for the thorough response. It’s sad to hear that HDHPs are set to go the way of the dodo. If that’s that case, we’ll have no choice but to turn to the health care exchanges.

    I have yet to do a thorough before/after comparison of my company’s HDHP plans. I know that they will still be offered in 2014, but I’m not sure what the premium change will be. I’ll let you know what I find.

  21. I’ll try to pay more attention to the ads. Maybe you can quit that day job a little sooner 😉

    In the past few months you’ve added health insurance and a car to your expenses, and you are still saving over 60% of your income. Well played, sir. Well played

  22. Jeremy,

    Haha! I appreciate the support. 🙂

    I’ve added some expenses that are unfortunate, but impossible for me to ignore. I wish so badly I didn’t need to carry health insurance, but it’s simply a risk I can’t afford to take. As far as the car goes, it’s the same thing. I was a happy camper with the bus and scooter combo, but my employer building a new facility definitely caught me by surprise. Maybe the car will just be temporary and I’ll figure something else out later. Who knows, right?

    I’m lucky to still have a respectable savings rate here. Hopefully after I’ve accounted for all of the car-related expenses the rate will jump back up again.

    Hope you’re enjoying your time back in the States! 🙂

    Take care.

  23. It will be interesting to see how you feel about the car after you’ve had it for a few months. The past 2 months we had use of a car and now I’m glad to be rid of it. I much prefer a bicycle and my own 2 feet.

    We just got back to Mexico a week ago and are glad to be back

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