You may have already viewed this month’s balance sheet. What follows is my income and expense report, in which I look at where my money came from and where it went. After all expenses were paid, I ended up with $2,250 of my November income remaining. That’s lower than the last several months, but I can’t complain. Only a few years ago, this number would have been negative. Continue reading for the details.
The green column is November’s monthly total for each category, and the yellow column tracks the year-to-date amounts. I include the last two months for comparison as well as the November year-to-date amounts from the last several years.
The first thing you’ll notice is my day job base salary is lower. Even though I received a promotion up two salary grades earlier this year and a net 8% raise over last year, there is no opportunity for overtime in my current position. In 2004, my salary number included amounts that are now broken out to additional categories, so the number is a little misleading for comparison purposes.
Last year’s realized gain was in my 401(k) account, which was redistributed to a new allocation strategy, so I’m not even sure it should be listed.
Under expenses, I was hit hard in a few spots in November. I had a $500 deductible to pay for car repairs. I purchased a new suit with some accessories which has served a few purposes all ready. My AAA membership was up for renewal (which I accounted for in the Auto Insurance category). Additionally, I purchased one half of a round trip ticket to California for vacation.
I’m happy to see my “business income” category increasing. I’m hoping this trend will continue in 2007.
Added observation: My business income is higher than my net income (bottom line). I’m not quite happy with this; it means that I would have come out negative this month if it weren’t for the work I do online. In a perfect world, all the business income would be “extra.”
Updated February 6, 2012 and originally published December 4, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
Rank: Platinum
Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, you’ve got a great list here. Very impressive. Keep up the great work!!
Amazing results on the business income, congrats! I need to put more focus on increasing mine.
I assume the tax category includes fed, state, SS, and medicare? How are your tracking business taxes – are you just estimating/recognizing them quarterly?
Yeah, you definitely wouldn’t want to start spending too much of the business income and become accustomed to it. You never know how long the ride will last. That being said, you’ve been doing such a good job with all the sites you have running that you may be one of the few that quits the day job because the business income is so lucrative! Maybe you can sell Consumerism Commentary and PFBlogs for $10 Billion and make those guys at Youtube jealous!! :)
2million: Honestly, I haven’t considered business taxes other than to step up my withholding from my day job. One of my goals for 2007 is to understand tax liabilities for earning this extra income…
Seems sweet man. Is this your only site or you have others too? Getting above 2000 bucks a month from ads is impressive.
But, yea, don’t translate it into permanent income . It is always risky.
I like your breakdown for dining… I think I will steal that for my Quicken categories!
Good work.