Since 2014, I have been tracking my monthly income and expenses. You can see a breakdown of every penny I earn and spend.
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 July 2020. I semi-retired in July 2020, after ten years of full-time work. You can see all my monthly budgets since 2014 here and here.
Income
Here is a chart of my dividend income by month for the past 13 months:
Total dividends for the trailing twelve months: $13,934.60, down 17.09% from a year ago. This is a positive development, as I continue to switch from high dividend paying stocks to lower or non paying ones to reduce my taxes.
Here is a summary of my dividend income by month and year since inception of the blog in 2014:
No student loan repayment this month, as the Care Act put student loans on forbearance status and no payments will be made till October 2020. Nice! Yet another reason to love the coronavirus.
Semi-annual car insurance bill was due this month: $107.32, lowest ever, thanks for premium reduction due to COVID-19 related stay-home orders and fewer cars (hence accidents) on the road.
Total after tax expenses for the trailing twelve months: $3,116.49, up 2.43% from a year ago. This ttm figure has been hovering around $3000. My current expense ratio, the ratio of my ttm expenses to my net worth, is down to just 0.15%, an all-time low. Importantly, it remains far less than the 4% SWR. This should allow my net worth to continue to compound near market return.
Expense
No taxes withheld this month, because of no wages.
No housing cost this month.
No student loan repayment this month, as the Care Act put student loans on forbearance status and no payments will be made till October 2020. Nice! Yet another reason to love the coronavirus.
Food expense was $75.88 this month, lower than last month but higher than average. I continued stocking up for COVID-19 to minimize exposure. Cheap pinto beans (good source of protein), oatmeal (good source of carb), and peanut butter (good source of fat) make a good healthy and balanced meal. My splurges are on fresh and frozen vegetables like cabbage, collard greens, broccoli, turnip greens, mustard greens, when I can buy them for under $1 per pound.
The utility bills are typical.
After-tax expenses came in at $225.04, not bad considering that it includes the non-recurring semi-annual car insurance payment.
Total after tax expenses for the trailing twelve months: $3,116.49, up 2.43% from a year ago. This ttm figure has been hovering around $3000. My current expense ratio, the ratio of my ttm expenses to my net worth, is down to just 0.15%, an all-time low. Importantly, it remains far less than the 4% SWR. This should allow my net worth to continue to compound near market return.
Here is a summary of expenses (not including tax) incurred since 2014:
Big drops in housing expense accounted for the big drops in annual expenses from 2014 to 2015 and again from 2017 to 2018. My housing expense is now near rock bottom so I don't expect any more big drops in annual expenses in the future.
Dividend to expense coverage ratio = 4.47, quite high.
Here is a summary of my passive income (dividends) to expense coverage since 2014:
The chart below shows my TTM dividend (red line) versus TTM expense (blue line) since I started tracking in 2014. The dividend (red) line overtook the expense (blue) line around June 2015.
My overall expenses are bottoming out at approximately $3,000 annually, which means $4,500 annual dividends would be plenty. My currently projected annual dividends is around $10,000, so I still have a long way to go.
I will continue to exchange more high dividend paying stocks for low or no dividend paying ones as the bear market continues, to minimize my capital gains taxes.
Interpretation:
Below 1: Not financially independent; keep working!
Between 1 and 1.24: Financially independent, but not much margin for error.
Between 1.25 and 1.75: Sweet spot for financial independence: passive income adequately covers expenses, with room for error, but not too as to cause tax drag.
Above 1.75: Too much passive income, which becomes a tax liability: try to convert some passive income generating assets to zero dividend growth stocks to maximize return without excessive tax drag.
The chart below shows my TTM dividend (red line) versus TTM expense (blue line) since I started tracking in 2014. The dividend (red) line overtook the expense (blue) line around June 2015.
Given that my expenses have gone down significantly, dividends have become too much of a good thing. Any excess dividends above the amount needed for expenses incurs excess taxes and becomes a drag on my returns. I think an ideal dividend to expense coverage ratio is around 1.5, which allows room for error without incurring too much tax liabilities.
My overall expenses are bottoming out at approximately $3,000 annually, which means $4,500 annual dividends would be plenty. My currently projected annual dividends is around $10,000, so I still have a long way to go.
I will continue to exchange more high dividend paying stocks for low or no dividend paying ones as the bear market continues, to minimize my capital gains taxes.
I have now tracked my monthly net worth for over 3 years and have accumulated a lot of data to display my expense ratio in a chart. My annual expenses is far below 4% SWR and has been steadily trending downward, a good sign.
Savings
Savings
My after-tax saving rate (calculated as after-tax expenses divided by after-tax income) was 77.85% this month, below my 95% savings goal, but not bad in a month with no active income. I am confident I will meet or exceed my savings goal this year.
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