May 2015 Income and Expenses

The amounts below are cash amounts and are net of taxes, insurance, 401k contributions, HSA, etc. In other words, the amounts are what get deposited and withdrawn from my accounts.

Day job (take home pay) --- $12,889.45
Dividends/interest --- $1,110.96
AdSense (deposit) --- $114.25

Total net income --- $14,114.66

Expenses --- $3,991.24

Savings --- $10,123.42  Rate --- 71.72%


Sometimes you just have to expect the unexpected. As many know, Houston as well as much of Texas was inundated with rain last month. I can't honestly remember a month where I saw so much rain day after day. Here it is June 4th and I have yet to water my yard this year. For those who live in the south, you know that never happens. Usually the sprinklers fire up in late April and stay on through November.

In spite of the rain, I actually had my second best paycheck total this year and I only trailed March's total by around $20. I feel very fortunate to live in a state like Texas and more specifically a city like Houston. We may not have the great tourist attractions that many cities can boast about, but we are designed to do business and those who have dreams of making their fortunes and building empires should put Houston at the top of their list.

Anyway enough of the Houston Chamber of Commerce informercial. Despite spending a bit extra on a road trip/vacation, I am happy to report that I was able to keep the expense total under $4,000. The only real outlier expense was the $400 I spent on my tax preparation. Any of you accountants working for a large company, do yourself a favor and start your own practice ASAP!!!!  I can't believe what a gold mine tax preparation is.

I would like to keep my expenses a bit lower than they are so I can reach FI sooner, however how low can they reasonably go? Since I spent $4,000, if I had zero bills (impossible with taxes, utililites and food) the most I could drop is $4.000. On the other hand, income, in theory, has no upper limit. So between the two choices, I must focus on making more money right now. It's like a football team with an offense (income production) and a defense (expense reduction). It's nice to have a great defense and most likely the defense will keep you in the game, but ultimately it's the offense that determines the team's success. Trying to keep a team scoreless each time out is very difficult. I don't know where that analogy came from, however you get the point....hopefully.

So there you have it. A pretty solid month overall and with a few tweaks here and there, I think I can continue to improve my savings rate going forward.


Here are my savings rates for 2015.

January --- 46.72%
February --- 67.78%
March --- 80.00%
April --- 35.97%
May --- 71.72%

DEFY MEDIOCRITY