November 2014 Income/Expenses

November 2014 Income/Expenses

It’s payday today which means the shops have been heaving and the pubs will be merry tonight. But more exciting than all of that is this month’s Income/Expenses!

This past month has seen me start on my first semi-long term project at work. While this has meant an hour drive each way.. all of that is expensed by the company and so I’m not left out of pocket. Additionally I now have to begin picking my permanent company car which could actually contribute towards my income if I select something relatively cheap. All good news, especially as payments are made net of tax!

Google Analytics tells me we had 2250 page views last month from 500 visitors. This is about what I expected given that I hav’nt had much time to write or contribute replies on other blogs.

 

 

On to the report:

Income

Salary: £2610.94

Pension Contributions: £280.08

Total: £2891.02 (+23.2%)

 

Expenses

Mortgage/Bills: £723.45

Groceries: £215.95

Petrol (Gas):  £10.63

Maintainance/DIY: £0

Eating out: £66.88

Healthcare: £0

Entertainment: £99.73

Other: £24

Total: £1153.64 (-33.8%)

 

Wow! We absolutely nailed it this month! Income is up massively for a couple of reasons: My old employer owned me a couple of days holiday and so had to pay out for those and my new salary is slightly higher. I’m incredibly pleased with the massive drop in expenses as well. Disregarding the large one-off expenses from last month, we still had a sizable reduction in grocery, healthcare and DIY sections. Even eating out had dropped somewhat as we’ve started going to a cheaper restaurant for the weekly ‘night out’. A savings difference of £1737 which is 60%!!

 

Networth

House Equity:  £25,539.83

Cash in bank: £3729.62

ISA Investments: £3820.11

Pension: £16,568.03

Total Networth: £49,657.64 (+5.3%)

A total networth increase of £2499.46 or +5.3%. That huge savings difference this month allowed me to make a sizable mortgage overpayment which has added to house equity. A strong month for index funds has seen growth in both ISA investments and Pension fund alongside the normal monthly deposits. Overall it’s been a great month financially. I still need to improve the work/life balance to get my online financial community commitments back up to where they were a couple of months ago, but overall I’m very happy.

15 thoughts on “November 2014 Income/Expenses

    1. Hey Vawt!

      Yeah I’m very happy with a 5% increase. It worked out as almost as much as my income for the month which is pretty awesome. I’m expecting next month to be a bit lower due to last minute Christmas presents.

  1. Hi Guy,

    To echo Vawt, a 5% increase is excellent. Well done all around!

    That’s a very healthy income, even if it is a one off, and your transport section (Petrol) is very low too.

    I have a question I hope you don’t mind me asking. Where do your priorities lie when it comes to saving/investing? If you have a chunk of change (like this month), is your main priority paying off the mortgage, increasing your Index Tracker investments, cash or a equal split of all.

    You’re very close to the £50k mark which is a nice milestone to hit. Congratulations on a solid November!

    All the best
    Huw

    1. Hello Huw,

      It was a great month for income, and hopefully next month shouldnt be too much of a drop as switching some of the net pay over to pensions will give greater tax relief. The only petrol I used all month was to refill my motorbike which I now use for popping into town at the weekend (free parking and can skip traffic). All my commuting costs are expensed which is awesome.

      Currently I’m focusing on paying extra mortgage repayments. The reason for this is that we are on a 90% LTV 2-year fix at the moment which has a fairly high interest rate. By overpaying, we should be able to reach 85 or 80% LTV by the end of the 2-year fix and remortgage for a much lower rate. At that point I’ll need to run the numbers and see if it’s still worth focusing on the mortgage or should be adding more to the ISA. Also of note: I’ve just registered for the new company’s pension scheme and have also upped my % contribution there.

  2. What a monster month – congratulations!

    Over 10% pension contribution, 60% savings rate and over 5% net worth increase is brilliant work. Even if there are one-offs in there, its important to allocate these one-offs wisely (you often read about people blowing all their tax refund on new clothes, for example).

    I also like the split you have between property, investments, retirement and cash.

    We are launching our Moneystepper’s 2015 Savings Challenge on Monday 1st December (check the link tomorrow once it has gone live). I really would love you to become part of the community there to help us both on our financially journeys. Hopefully see you in the community.

    Graham.

  3. Hi Guy, great efforts on saving and keeping costs down this month and it’s great that you have identified another source of income increase, ie your company car entitlement.

    Every 3 years, the people at work who are entitled to company cars spend ages picking their cars – unsurprisingly, caught up in new car frenzy (and because it seems like “everyone is doing it”), nearly all of them go for their max entitlement, ie top of the range with all the gadgets. Many in fact go over their entitlement so their cars cost them – how is that a benefit!?

    Good luck in choosing your car – I’m sure you will be going for a sensible and economical one! :-)

    1. Hello Weenie,

      Do we work at the same company?! That’s exactly the attitude all my colleagues have! I think almost all of them trade-up to a better car at additional cost. I honestly can’t work it out, No-one even sees the car when you arrive at work and everyone there knows who you are and what you do already so why the need to try and look flashy? Crazy. I’ll certainly be getting something simple and pocketing the extra cash.

  4. I’m reading your income line with interest

    I used to share a house with an IT Consultant working for Logica in the early and mid-90s who was your age and I am pretty sure that he was earning considerably more than this (I’m assuming that you’re working for a similar type of firm)

    I’d read that pay for IT consultants had dropped on the average quite a bit over the last 20 years due to immigration and off-shoring, in your experience do you think thats actually the case?

    I have a pet theory that there has actually been income deflation in a lot of occupations in the UK over the last 20 years or so…

    1. Hello Neverland,

      I think IT salaries have dropped across the board as more people have grown up with technologies and become interested in them. Computer engineers are absoloutly flooding the market and as a result most Computer Science graduates are having to spend years just answering the phones on a helpdesk. This then has a knock-on effect up the line to consultancy.

      Saying that however, I really can’t complain. With the car added in it was a big step up from my last role, and I know I’m paid quite a bit more than the average amongst my friends.

      1. @ERG

        Ok thats an interesting answer

        Approximately how many people in your company are from outside the UK?

        (I’m not a committed UKIP supporter btw. I just quite doubting about the Economist/FT party line on the benefits of immigration)

  5. It’s interesting you add your pension back into your income! I never think to do that, although I suppose that’s exactly what it is. I think it’s because I have the mentality that I’m “buying” my savings whenever I contribute to my 401k or IRA.

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