January 2018 Life + Money Report

January 2018 Report

January involved a lot of staying inside trying to finish Get Your Money Together Workbook, which comes out in digital format next week! The stress of writing a book is reflected in my high coffee + “grocery treat” spending. I also worked a fair amount at my part-time fitness studio job, which has me getting up at around 4:30AM (I love it!)

Fun things that happened this month:

• I catalogued all 198 clothing items I own in a giant spreadsheet (holy procrastination!) I’ll follow up with more details on this project soon.
• I was a radio newsreader for the first time, co-hosting “News with Friends” on XRAY.FM’s morning show. I’ll now be co-hosting most Wednesdays from 7AM – 8AM.
• I had a piece published in the Portland Mercury.
• Stream PDX announced our inaugural fellowship program.
• A bunch of cool business things I can’t talk about yet.

YTD Spending: $1,145/ $20,000 maximum goal
(5.7% of total at 8.3% through the year)

Essential Expenses (in descending order): $990
Rent: $615.00
Groceries: $182.05
(Groceries – $144.60, “Treats” – $26.47, Coffee/Tea for Home – $10.98)
Electricity: $38.29
Health Insurance (after subsidy)*: $37.00
Water/Garbage: $27.50
Internet: $19.97
Household Goods: $19.76 (semi-annual TP + laundry detergent restock)

Notes: I actually had to move money from other categories into the grocery budget, that’s how over budget I went. I spent a TON this month on “treats” (snacks, kombucha) which was almost all related to book stress.

Discretionary Food & Drink (in descending order): $41.67
Restaurants: $21.51 (2 were emergency burritos during unexpected double shifts at work)
Coffee: $15.16 (mostly “work from coffee” shop purchases)
Bars: $5.00 (three soda waters at bar meetings)

Travel Hacking: $75.00
Bank of America Card fee: $75.00

Discretionary (in descending order): $58.99
Fitness Monthly Membership: $40.00
Clothing:  $12.62 (was $37.62 but got a $25.00 swagbucks gift card)
Entertainment:  $15.00 (Funhouse Lounge show)
Spending “Fun” Money:  $3.99 (Stylebook app)

 

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Health Care Subsidy Note

This was the first month where my health insurance dropped from $231 a month down to $37 a month, thanks to taking the low-income ACA health care subsidy. This subsidy is based on an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $22,000 – which I hope to exceed, if my business goes well. If I do exceed that, I will have to repay a portion of my health care subsidy.

Because of receiving the health care subsidy, I’ve switched from putting my retirement savings in my Roth IRA to a Traditional IRA, since Traditional IRA contributions are deducted from your AGI.

This means that if my income goes up by $5,500 and I manage to put that all in my Traditional IRA, I will owe nothing back for my health care subsidy because my AGI will not change (Roth contributions are not deducted from AGI because they are post-tax).

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Money Set Aside in Sinking Funds (Not Yet Spent): $250.51

CSA Farm Share $21.00 ($250 per year)
Bike Drivetrain Repair Fund: $40.00 (towards $200 in May)
Renter’s Insurance $11.50 ($140 per year)
Dental Fund $50
Half Marathon Fund $26.67
Haircut Fund $18.34 ($55 every 4 months)
Clothing Fund $33.13
Makeup $50 (I hate makeup but it occurs to me I should learn how to do it for camera)

Savings: $1,555 (32%)

Traditional IRA contribution: $196
Cash Savings: $1,359.51
(15% toward my goal of saving $10,000 this year)

Total After-Tax Income:  $4,830

My stated income comes from my December income, because I live on last month’s income. Because December was such a high earning month due to Kickstarter income and the next couple months will likely be thin for earning, I actually allocated December’s income out 3 months in the future.

Oh My Dollar!: $3,417.60 (about $3,000 was take-home from  $15,000 Kickstarter after expenses and taxes)
Part-time Fitness Studio Job: $774.74
Freelance Graphic Design: $639.00