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 inspirations for your own budget.
Below is my income and expenses for June 2016. You can see all my monthly budgets here.
| Jun 2016 | |
| Income | |
| Wages | $9,784.77 |
| Dividends | $2,075.56 |
| Other Income | $1,315.87 |
| Total Income | $13,176.20 |
| Expense | |
| Federal Tax | $604.17 |
| Federal Tax Pmt/(Refund) | |
| FICA-SS | $408.97 |
| FICA-Medicare | $95.65 |
| Rent | $450.00 |
| Student loan repayment | $159.53 |
| Grocery | $73.12 |
| Cell phone | $12.88 |
| Electric | $32.45 |
| Clothing/laundry | $7.75 |
| Other Expense | $20.00 |
| Total Expense | $1,864.52 |
| Ex-Tax Total Expense | $755.73 |
| Surplus/(Deficit) | $11,311.68 |
| Before Tax Saving Rate | 85.85% |
| After Tax Saving Rate | 93.74% |
Income
Wages remain my primary source of income by far.
Wages remain my primary source of income by far.
Dividend income hit an all-time high of $2,075.56 in June. My dividend trend is high dividend income in Mar, Jun, Sep, and Dec, with lower dividend income for the months in between.
Here is a chart of my dividend income by month for the past 13 months:
Total dividends for the trailing twelve months: $13,093.90, up 24% from $10,555.73 in May last year. Dividends are a mixed blessing: only financially sound companies can pay consistently higher dividends every year, which is good, but dividends are a form of forced distribution subject to income tax at 15%, which is bad. On my 3% yield portfolio, 15% tax is equivalent to a 0.45% expense ratio. Not good. I will try to focus more on low or no yield stocks from now on.
Expense
I spent $20 on incidental donation. All other expenses are typical.
I spent $20 on incidental donation. All other expenses are typical.
Total expenses for the trailing twelve months: $9,499.88.
Dividend to expense coverage ratio = 1.38. The upward trend continues.
Savings
My after tax saving rate was 93.74% for the month of June, which is comfortably above 90%. I expect to meet or exceed my 90% savings goal this year.
Savings
My after tax saving rate was 93.74% for the month of June, which is comfortably above 90%. I expect to meet or exceed my 90% savings goal this year.
How's your budget? Did you save as much as you wanted to? On track to meet your savings goals for the year? Thanks for reading.
