Since 2014, I have been tracking my monthly income and expenses. You can see a breakdown of every penny I earn and spend. For perspective, this budget is for a household of two in a small US city. By documenting my journey, I aim to demonstrate the feasibility of saving a significant portion of your income and provide some ideas and inspiration for your own budget.
Below are my income and expenses for February 2018. You can see all my monthly budgets here.
Income
Wages remain my primary source of income by far. Dividend income of $302.64 is at a cyclic low.
Here is a chart of my dividend income by month for the past 13 months:
Total dividends for the trailing twelve months: $16,198.67, up 18.89% from a year ago.
Here is chart of my dividend income by month and year since inception of the blog in 2014.
Expense
Expenses were much higher this month due to several one-time expenses. Housing cost includes $500 rent plus $240 paid for a home inspection as I am buying a home as part of my relocation move. Gas expense stems from a round trip to house hunt. New 6-month car insurance policy premium of $127.32 was paid this month. Finally, $483.73 was paid for car maintenance/repair and registration/licensing fees. The other expenses were fairly typical.
Total expenses for the trailing twelve months: $9,696.44, down 5.52% from a year ago.
Dividend to expense coverage ratio = 1.67, somewhat down from all-time high last month.
The chart below shows my TTM dividend (red line) versus TTM expense (blue line) since I started tracking in 2014. One is financially independent when the the dividend (red) line exceeds the expense (blue) line, which happened around June 2015 for me. Ideally, the dividend line should stay well above the expense line and increase with time at a faster pace than the expense line. On this metric, I have been making significant progress, but would like to put some more distance between the two lines in order to afford me more freedom and room for error.
Savings
My after-tax saving rate was 93.62% for the month of February, exceeding my 90% saving rate target. I am confident I will meet or exceed my savings goal this year.
Thanks for reading!
Below are my income and expenses for February 2018. You can see all my monthly budgets here.
Income
Wages remain my primary source of income by far. Dividend income of $302.64 is at a cyclic low.
Here is a chart of my dividend income by month for the past 13 months:
Total dividends for the trailing twelve months: $16,198.67, up 18.89% from a year ago.
Here is chart of my dividend income by month and year since inception of the blog in 2014.
Expense
Expenses were much higher this month due to several one-time expenses. Housing cost includes $500 rent plus $240 paid for a home inspection as I am buying a home as part of my relocation move. Gas expense stems from a round trip to house hunt. New 6-month car insurance policy premium of $127.32 was paid this month. Finally, $483.73 was paid for car maintenance/repair and registration/licensing fees. The other expenses were fairly typical.
Total expenses for the trailing twelve months: $9,696.44, down 5.52% from a year ago.
Dividend to expense coverage ratio = 1.67, somewhat down from all-time high last month.
The chart below shows my TTM dividend (red line) versus TTM expense (blue line) since I started tracking in 2014. One is financially independent when the the dividend (red) line exceeds the expense (blue) line, which happened around June 2015 for me. Ideally, the dividend line should stay well above the expense line and increase with time at a faster pace than the expense line. On this metric, I have been making significant progress, but would like to put some more distance between the two lines in order to afford me more freedom and room for error.
Savings
My after-tax saving rate was 93.62% for the month of February, exceeding my 90% saving rate target. I am confident I will meet or exceed my savings goal this year.
Thanks for reading!
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