Income Update - February 2013

February was a great month. I had a higher than normal income and put the difference to straight to savings. I did a pretty good job with controlling expenses for the month. Restaurants and groceries both overshot their budget, but by a combined $14 so it's nothing to worry too much about. My minimum and total expenses jumped this month thanks to my new cell phone from December waiting for a full billing cycle. I ended up getting charged for 1.5 months so it's much higher than normal. Instead of the $200+ from February it'll be closer to $90 which is still higher than I'd like but I can live with that. My minimum expenses for the month came in at $1,500.33 which is disappointing but would have been around $1,400 with a normal cell phone bill. TTM minimum expenses are averaging $1,453.94. My average for the year is $1,402.26 which is close to my goal of averaging less than $1,400 for the year. Total expenses for February ended at $1,603.48 and brought the TTM average down to $1,606.29. Dividend and interest income was decent for the month totaling $67.43, so my potential retirement income covered 4.49% of my minimum expenses. The 30 year treasury yield ended February at 3.10% which brings my FI number up to $307.71, over 2.5 times February 2012's number. This would cover 20.51% of my minimum February expenses.


*Minimum Expenses are only the expenses related to rent, utilities, car, food, minimum payment on debt and other necessities. In other words, the required amount of replacement income I would need for financial independence.
*Total Expenses are the total monthly outflow of money.
*Potential Retirement Income is income received from dividends, interest, cash back from credit card purchases and any other source of income not related to my job.
*FI is my liquid assets invested at the 30 year treasury bond yield at the end of each month divided by 12 to get monthly income.

Monthly Income
Category Amount
Paycheck $6,852.95
Expense Check $1,747.12
TOTAL $8,600.07


Monthly Expenses
Category Budgeted Amount Actual Amount Subtotal
Rent $480.00 $480.00
Utilities $210.00 $140.33
Gas $175.00 $141.78
Car Insurance $95.00 $95.00
Groceries $200.00 $206.33
Restaurants $125.00 $127.66
Entertainment $0.00 $0.00
Cell Phone $210.00 $206.81
Other $49.06 $49.06
Miscellaneous $55.00 $81.51
Gifts $0.00 $0.00
EXPENSES SUBTOTAL $1,528.48
SAVINGS
Trip $260.00 $260.00
Roth IRA $0.00 $0.00
Emergency Fund $0.00 $70.58
Gifts $50.00 $50.00
FI savings $6,616.01 $6,616.01
Car Maint/Repair $75.00 $75.00
SAVINGS SUBTOTAL $7,071.59
TOTAL $8,600.07
I've updated my Progress page to reflect February's changes.

How did you do on your budget for the month?  Is there anything you're going to focus on in March due to February's expenses?

Comments

  1. That's awesome how you saved over 80% of your income last month even with the extra phone bill charge. My monthly expenses used to be $1,600 a couple years ago but now it's over $2000 unfortunately. Have to learn to be more frugal, heh :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's been great so far in 2013 although a lot of the difference has come from increased income. That extra cell phone charge pissed me off, but there's not much I could have done about it. $2,000 is still a manageable amount although less is always better, especially if you're aiming for early FI like you are.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  2. Pursuit,

    Another fantastic month! Your high income coupled with your robust frugality will surely lead you to early financial independence. Keep up the great work!

    Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DM,

      Got to love the high income and being frugal. It's a killer combination that'll lead me to not have to work at a young age. I don't even know what I'd spend an extra $4-7k per month on if I was spending exactly what I brought in. I've been thinking of doing a post about this.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  3. I'm new, so I've probably missed you talking about it somewhere. How on Earth is your rent so low? As I understand it, I live in one of the least expensive states in the country, Texas. I pay $875 per month to live in one of the roughest neighborhood's in Austin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also live in Texas but that's just my half of the rent. Since I'm away from home its easier for us to keep our finances separate. We pay $950 for a house. We got a good deal so I'm not complaining.

      Glad to have you and thanks for stopping by!

      Delete

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