January '15 Wrap Up

Well the first month of 2015 is already over. The new year has started off pretty well. I spent last couple days of 2014 and the first couple days of 2015 with my brother and his family in Utah, it was great to spend sometime with them, we miss having them close by. Work has started off busy so I have been putting in some overtime which will be a big boost for completing my 2015 goals. I am only playing on one basketball team right now which is a bummer but I think it will work out for the better, both on my body and my schedule. And the most exciting thing: we bought tickets to New Zealand!! I already can't wait for April to be here.

OH YEAH, and the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl! GO HAWKS!

With the new year I decided that I might try changing things up with this post. I felt like my monthly round ups were a bit long so I may try to break it up into separate posts: Budget, Networth, and Goals. We will see how that goes this month and I can make adjustments for next month.

Well onto my Budget:

Expenses:
My expenses are listed to the side. On each line I have the budgeted amount per month, the actual
amount spent for the month of January.

My total expenses were just over $4,300, which is probably my worst moth ever. But there is a clear reason for it: two round trip plane tickets to New Zealand. I was a little unsure about how I wanted to handle my travel expenses within my budget; I have a goal to pay for my travel through overtime which would be a good reason to keep it separate from my regular budget. But overtime and base pay comes in on the same paychecks so then I would have to separate out the over time. So I have decided to leave it as a part of my budget and track separately that my overtime will cover my travel expenses.

Without the plane tickets my expenses would have been $2,267 which is a pretty usual month. My groceries, dinner/drinks, clothes an rent/utilities were all a little high but I am not too concerned yet but I certainly need to tighten things up.

INCOME:
Paycheck: $ 4,363. I had 10 hours of OT this month so that was a small boost. I am currently contributing 20% of my income to my 401k so I could always reduce that to give myself a small boost in cash.

% Expenses = 108%  of income. YIKES. But again this is due to purchasing the plane tickets. Without those tickets my expense rate was 52% which is much more manageable but still still higher than my 45% goal.

Dividend Income:
 This month I earned $150 without lifting a finger, not bad. The following companies paid me this month:

Well that is all I have for right now, not the best way to start the new year budget-wise but hopefully I can pick it up. In my next post I'll discuss updates to my portfolio as well as my net worth.

How about you? How was your January?

GO HAWKS!!

-Nick

Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net