Financial Update | June 2018 Income and Expenses

So I've been experimenting with lots of different spreadsheets in the last week or so.  I used my June 2018 income and expenses to tryout a few more. It turns out Microsoft Excel has loads of templates to try. It's been really neat to see it visualized in so many ways.

Without further ado, here's a recap of my income and expenses for Jan to Jun 2018.  I don't currently intend to publish these monthly namely because my income and expenses don't fluctuate with any significance month-to-month, but I had so much fun with Excel that I had to share! Plus this marks six-months of my being more intentional with my finances.

Income.
Bonus monthly charts! It took me awhile to figure out how to make the graph I wanted. During those trials, I ended up creating different charts of my income sources this year (Jan to Jun 2018).

 

Click to enlarge.

Notes on income.
For the spring semester, I had a side hustle as an adjunct professor. I dove head first  into FIRE. I don't know that I'd do it again in fall. Am mildly interested in maybe some other way to earn part-time money online.

Refunds are mostly from saving receipts and making a point to return things I don't use (including food).  The lowest month was Jun ($8) and highest was Apr ($100).

Expenses.
I still haven't decided on a good spreadsheet. This data was extracted from a Google Sheets doc that lists all my expenses over way too many categories for Jan to Jun 2018, but I like it enough for now.

 

Notes on expenses.
The first sheet includes the amount I put towards savings each month, most of which is automated so I just count it as an expense. The jump in June was not due to an increase in income, but rather aggregated savings that I had no immediate plans for which was transferred to my investment accounts.

The second sheet is monthly expenses over the first half of the year. To best trend any particular data point, start from the bottom and move up.  Of note, May was a high expenditure month due to helping out a sick family member.  June was unusually low due to a break I got on my rent. Stay tuned for a future post on that! My intention is to trend around $2,500/mon or less.

Savings Rate.
A firm tenet in FIRE is recognizing and increasing your savings rate.  Tracking income minus expenses, here is what the data reveals.

Closing thoughts.
I am pretty pleased with my financial progress thus far. This is my first year of My Early Retirement Journey and the financial focus is simply creating awareness and having some sort of framework or plan for what to do with my money. So far, I believe I'm on the right track! Additionally, it really helps to visualize it all! Thanks to Four Pillar Freedom for the great visualization ideas.  Thanks for stopping by!

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