3 min read

At the end of each month, I provide a recap of every dollar I earned and spent.

Related: October 2018 Income & Expenses

I share these numbers because I have always found it insightful to see the real numbers behind a blogger’s financial journey. I love talking about how to earn more and save more, but it’s helpful to provide a behind-the-scenes look at how I’m actually managing my own money.

Income

Here’s what my income looked like in November along with the previous three months. All numbers are post-tax.

Here is my total November income based on the type of income:

Expenses

Here are my November expenses:

Total November Spending: $2,386

The Net

Here’s a visual look at my total income, expenses, and net savings in November:

November Savings Rate: 62%

Income Recap

I earned a total of $6,288 in November through four income sources:

1. My day job income as a data scientist ($4,584)

2. Blogging income from ad, affiliate links, and The Excel Genius Toolkit ($1,478)

3. Dividend income from REITs ($95)

4. Side hustle income from statistics tutoring ($120)

Since my salary doesn’t change from month to month, the income streams that I’m focused on increasing are blogging, dividends, and side hustles. Over the past few years, I’ve put some serious effort into increasing these three streams and my efforts have paid off.

Here is how much I’ve made from blogging, investment dividends, and stats tutoring for the past three Novembers:

November 2016: $0

November 2017: $338

November 2018: $1,597

I spent a total of $2,386 this month, which meant my income outside of my day job was able to cover 67% of my total expenses.

As I’ve mentioned before, my goal is to consistently cover 100% of my expenses each month through income streams outside of my day job so that I’ll no longer need a day job. Slowly but surely I’m getting closer to achieving this each month.

Spending Recap

I typically spend between $2,000 and $2,500 per month so this was a typical spending month, with the exception of a couple noteworthy expenses:

1. I switched my car insurance provider from a small hometown provider to GEICO, which dropped my monthly car insurance bill all the way from $113 to $45. I paid for the next six months with a bulk payment of $270.

2. I paid a friend of mine who is an incredible painter $200 to create a massive painting from scratch for my apartment. The painting turned out great and I was happy to compensate her for the time she spent on it:

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, I plan on continuing to save 60% or more of my income each month and continuing to increase my income through blogging, dividends, and tutoring to the point where I no longer need a day job to earn reliable income. Until then, I’ll keep providing monthly updates.

***If you missed it, I launched a new site called Collecting Wisdom where anyone can submit personal finance articles, users can vote on their favorite articles, and the most popular ones rise to the top. Head on over there, set up an account (takes ~15 seconds), and start submitting and voting on your favorite articles.

My favorite free financial tool I’ve been using since 2015 to manage my net worth is Personal Capital. Each month I use their free Investment Checkup tool and Retirement Planner to track my investments and ensure that I’m on the fast track to financial freedom.

Full Disclosure: Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice, research or an invitation to buy or sell any securities, please see my Terms & Conditions page for a full disclaimer.