December 2015 Income/Expenses
It’s a new year and payday last week which means time for this month’s Income/Expenses!
I think it’s important to keep track of your income/expenses every month as it allows you to spot trends and areas for improvement. I find it really useful to track the spending changes each month, and really motivating to see the networth improvements. Sometimes it can seem like financial independence is so far away, but by watching your networth steadily increasing you’ll know you will reach that point eventually. I’ve created a new page to keep track of total networth, you can find it here.
December 2015 has been a pretty gruelling month for me. I endured a pretty horrible daily commute for awhile which took its toll combined with the dark afternoons and cold mornings. On the plus side; this really encouraged me to focus on growing my side incomes and perhaps lead towards an exit from the workplace eventually.
My two main side incomes at the moment are Matched-Betting and Kindle Publishing (under the helpful guidance of Huw). So, how did they do in December?
Matched Betting returned me an amazing £1158.06 in December! All of this was doing repeatable offers and with variable amounts of time each week. I’ve got a couple of plans to expand this next month as well so hopefully we should see continued growth. Like last month; most of the money is retained in bookie accounts so I can continue to leverage more bets.
Kindle Publishing is significantly less as I only began a couple of weeks ago however the numbers are already fairly impressive. I’ve currently got 5 separate titles published, all of which I put together myself at 0 cost and have staggered their release throughout the past 2 weeks. Sales for December were £103.81.
Google Analytics tells me we’ve had 6,500 pageviews from 1,670 users. I’ve also joined the cool kids and started a Twitter account to post updates and a few random thoughts. Please feel free to ‘add me’ or whatever the Twitter equivalent is. I’m @EarlyRetireGuy
On to the report:
Income
Salary: £1799.38
Pension Contributions: £506
Share Save: £250
Matched-Betting Withdrawals: £463.27
Total: £3,018.65 (+25.5%)
Expenses
Mortgage/Bills: £718
Groceries: £153.32
Petrol (Gas): £6.50
Maintainance/DIY: £0
Eating out: £63.78
Healthcare: £0
Entertainment: £22.03
Wedding: £400
Other: £623.63
Total: £1,987.26 (+66%)
Mega expensive month! Large chunks of it are due to Christmas presents, Wedding deposit and flights/accom for our holiday next (this) year. Actual day-to-day spending remains relatively low thankfully.
A savings difference of £1,031.39 which is 34%.
Networth
House Equity: £34,342.64
Cash in bank: £3,070.05
ISA Investments: £6,525.87
Sharesave: £250
Pension 1: £16,463.04
Pension 2: £5,094.00
Total Networth: £65,745.60 (+1.1%)
A slight networth increase which is good given the very expensive month. I hope everyone had a good 2015, and will have an even better 2016!
6 thoughts on “December 2015 Income/Expenses”
Hi Guy
It’s really impressive seeing the gains you continue to make with matched-betting and you are already seeing the fruits of your labour with Kindle publishing – well done!
A great savings rate too, despite an expensive month.
You’ve made great progress in 2015 – all the best for 2016!
Thanks Weenie. Expensive month but thankfully subsidised by the new income. All the best to you for 2016!
Great progress across the board here Guy!
December tends to be my most expensive month of the year with presents, overindulgence and socialising. I’m all for it, but I’m not too disappointed we’re through that now.
Your match betting is inspiring to others. The level of income it provides in a short space of time is outstanding. If I didn’t already have too many commitments I would be on that!!!!
Anyone out there interested in making an extra £1,000 a month (on the side!!) would be mad not to consider it and seek your advice on it. Keep us all posted!
Thanks for the mention on Kindle. You’ve done remarkably well to release your own books without my help. As I mentioned to you on Skype, they could all be improved in a few ways too (as we haven’t covered some of the areas in coaching), so that income should go in one direction.
I wanted to put this in writing for you, and everyone else to see, but I think you’ll be quitting your job – or at least have the choice to – by August! There I said it! If that comes true, you better keep to your word and drive up here to buy me that drink! :-)
Inspiring progress Guy, well done! Thanks as always for sharing your journey.
Huw
Thanks Huw,
It’s provided a pretty nice and sustainable return so far but has been a bit of work to get it to that level. Saying that however; maintaining about £500 a month should be easily doable without taking up too much time.
Your Kindle publishing results from 2015 were totally remarkable. Seriously hoping I can emulate some of that success and perhaps have at least the option of giving up the 9-5. Whether the Mrs would accept that level of risk though is another matter ;). I suspect August will come around quicker than we think.. however I shall certainly pay you a visit if (when) we reach that point.
“but I think you’ll be quitting your job – or at least have the choice to”
I’ve witnessed this statement – Good luck, Guy and kudos to Huw for helping out! :-)
Hi Guy,
I really enjoy your blog and you have inspired me to start working towards FIRE myself.
I have a question about how to account for mortgage payments in the monthly balances. I was thinking of including mortgage interest as a cost but mortgage repayment as savings. My thinking is that doing otherwise would reduce my savings rate when I am aggressively paying down my mortgage (which I am currently doing). Additionally, as I don’t want to stop working until paying off the mortgage, that cost will be zero when I start FIRE and there will therefore be no cost associated in this column. As I want to know what my monthly expenses will be during FIRE, including mortgage costs would overestimate the amount I need for FIRE.
I would be interested to know if you have any thoughts on this before I take the plunge and start recording everything myself.
Thanks,
James