Wednesday 12 October 2016

July 2016: Income & Expenses

    Well, July is certainly long gone at this point since I am writing this post in October! Been rather busy the last few months and to be honest I have not been overly motivated or inspired to write. I have kept up with tracking my monthly income, expenses and dividends though. And I do intend to get back into the swing of things on my blog here, and on Twitter as well.


    On that note, here is my first of a few catch up posts on my Income and Expenses. Work hours have been picking up since July, although not so much during it.

Income
$
Work
1187.3
Bonus
167.83
Dividends
240.61
Total
1595.74

    Dividends were awesome and were 15% of my overall income for the month! That is a significant chunk of money for sitting on my assets! The first month of each quarter is always my strongest, and I can't wait till every month starts looking like July's for dividend income.

    My 'Bonus' income so to speak was also good, with the sum of it coming from a monthly Provincial payout, and a quarterly Federal tax credit. It definitely pays to do your taxes correctly!

Expenses
$
Rent
750
Phone
22.60
Travel/Commute
58
Groceries
198.09
Restaurants
54.21
Entertainment
187.88
Other
308
Total
1578.78

    Expenses have been a bit higher throughout the summer; enjoying the nice weather and seeing friends. So entertainment costs were a higher, and I also bought a computer game as well. Groceries have seemingly leveled off around the $200 mark, which is a bit higher than I would like, but is generally higher due to buying more produce and fresh meat instead of frozen.

    And in other news in the 'Other' category my spending their will be a fair chunk higher for the remainder of the year as I amortize out the cost of an engagement ring :)

    So, for the rest of the year you will see that section of my spending being higher than usual, although do not worry, it is fully paid off with, so not debt/interest to pay. And we should start seeing some recent buys again soon as my cash flow from saving up, and working closer to full time hours will start contributing to new stock buys. I am expecting a sizeable amount of dividends next week and am hoping to see a good opportunity sometime around then. Will do my best to make a Stock Watchlist!

    For everyone else in Canada, hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend, and to American readers, your turkey day is coming soon!

8 comments:

  1. Nice Month Dividend Wisp. Having 15% of your income coming from dividends is awesome. As for the lack of motivation or inspiration to write, I totally understand. I took a 6 week hiatus back in June for the same reasons. Sometimes, whether its blogging or work, it nice to take a step back and reflect. Not saying the motivation will get back to their ultimate highs but it generally does help.

    Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing how you finish up the year! AFFJ

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    1. Thank you for the kind words. Part of it is the motivation/time/will to write, other part is inspiration of what to write beyond the standard income/expenses, dividends etc. I need some idea's for more in-depth articles/advice pieces. Those are always a work in progress.

      I do like that dividends are so able to so easily make up a large part of my income, and they are always 100% put directly back into savings and making more dividends :)

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  2. 15 percent of total income is awesome. Watch it grow and grow and soon it will surpass your income

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    1. I am definitely excited to see it grow year over year. Although if its % of income decreases due to increased earnings, I'll be ok with that :)

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  3. Look forward to your future updates which means I hope you get back to writing more regularly. Still, nice total for your dividend income. With or without a blog that passive income keeps rolling in.

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    1. Thanks DH. My passive income is certainly based on dividends and gov. payouts. So far blogging has only netted me $106 in received income. Hoping for another $100 payout from Google by the end of the year though.

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  4. Well done Wisp. Excited for the engagement ring! I know how expensive that can be (trust me!) but totally worth it in the end. Keep it up,

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! It is pretty exciting, at least we don't plan on having the wedding for around two years, so plenty of time to plan/save for it. And the ring was bought with no debt involved, so it is purely amortization for the cost, I would put it as a one-time cost like I did a previous trip a year ago, but I want to mask the full cost of it so I am lumping it in with my Other costs that fluctuate month to month.

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