Money and Finance
I've added a new line on my chart in "Your Money or Your Life" fashion. I'm calling it my FI for financial independence. The way I'll be calculating it is if I take my net worth less the value in my 401k and Rollover IRA since there's steep penalties to access that money and then multiplying that value by the yield on the 30 year Treasury and dividing by 12 to get the potential monthly income. The yield that I use will be the current yield on the 30 year Treasury as of the last day of the month. This will show the potential early retirement funds better than just dividends received since they are less consistent month to month and will show off the effects of debt repayment and non-invested savings. My ultimate goal is to be able to live completely off of dividend income but it's still good to see what I would be able to generate as monthly income if I liquidated everything and just invested in a "risk-free" investment.
March was a good month as far as decreasing my minimum expenses. I was able to decrease it to $1,590.72, which is $91.84 less than my average. A lot of that was from the decrease in our cable bill. It's good to see the effects of that choice. My total expenses were lower this month but could have been even lower. I was home for more time this month and Lynsy was off for Spring Break so we went out to eat more and went to the rodeo. It was great to spend more time with her, unfortunately since I'm home very rarely it included spending more money that usual.
*Minimum Expenses is only the expenses related to rent, utilities, car, food, debt service and other necessities. In other words, the required amount of replacement income I would need for financial independce.
*Total Expenses is 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.
- Income Update - December 2012
December's income was lower than what I'd averaged through the first 11 months of 2012 but was still great at almost $6,500. It wasn't a great month for expenses but considering how much I went over budget on a few areas I'm happy that...
- Income Update - November 2012
November's income was higher than my average so far for the year which is great because I'm still able tor reduce my expenses so every extra dollar of income gets to be converted into savings mainly dividend growth investing capital. Not only...
- Income Update - August 2012
August was a decent month for my spending with it being below my average so far for the year, but it was still higher than it should have been. My minimum expenses in August ended the month at $1,417.13. So far in 2012 my minimum expenses have averaged...
- Income Update - July 2012
July was a pretty good month for my spending. My income was up higher than normal again which is great because it just adds to my savings amount. My minimum expenses for July went back up due to me forgetting that I'm paying my wife for things a month...
- Income Update - May 2012
May was right in line with April as far as spending. My minimum expenses and total expenses were pretty much even over the month which is good since they didn't go up but I didn't make a lot of progress on lowering them more. My minimum expenses...
Money and Finance
Income Update - March 2012
I've added a new line on my chart in "Your Money or Your Life" fashion. I'm calling it my FI for financial independence. The way I'll be calculating it is if I take my net worth less the value in my 401k and Rollover IRA since there's steep penalties to access that money and then multiplying that value by the yield on the 30 year Treasury and dividing by 12 to get the potential monthly income. The yield that I use will be the current yield on the 30 year Treasury as of the last day of the month. This will show the potential early retirement funds better than just dividends received since they are less consistent month to month and will show off the effects of debt repayment and non-invested savings. My ultimate goal is to be able to live completely off of dividend income but it's still good to see what I would be able to generate as monthly income if I liquidated everything and just invested in a "risk-free" investment.
March was a good month as far as decreasing my minimum expenses. I was able to decrease it to $1,590.72, which is $91.84 less than my average. A lot of that was from the decrease in our cable bill. It's good to see the effects of that choice. My total expenses were lower this month but could have been even lower. I was home for more time this month and Lynsy was off for Spring Break so we went out to eat more and went to the rodeo. It was great to spend more time with her, unfortunately since I'm home very rarely it included spending more money that usual.
*Minimum Expenses is only the expenses related to rent, utilities, car, food, debt service and other necessities. In other words, the required amount of replacement income I would need for financial independce.
*Total Expenses is 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.
- Income Update - December 2012
December's income was lower than what I'd averaged through the first 11 months of 2012 but was still great at almost $6,500. It wasn't a great month for expenses but considering how much I went over budget on a few areas I'm happy that...
- Income Update - November 2012
November's income was higher than my average so far for the year which is great because I'm still able tor reduce my expenses so every extra dollar of income gets to be converted into savings mainly dividend growth investing capital. Not only...
- Income Update - August 2012
August was a decent month for my spending with it being below my average so far for the year, but it was still higher than it should have been. My minimum expenses in August ended the month at $1,417.13. So far in 2012 my minimum expenses have averaged...
- Income Update - July 2012
July was a pretty good month for my spending. My income was up higher than normal again which is great because it just adds to my savings amount. My minimum expenses for July went back up due to me forgetting that I'm paying my wife for things a month...
- Income Update - May 2012
May was right in line with April as far as spending. My minimum expenses and total expenses were pretty much even over the month which is good since they didn't go up but I didn't make a lot of progress on lowering them more. My minimum expenses...