Happy First Day Of March! It’s time for a review of my monthly income and expenses.
February Highlights:
- Started getting paid for tutoring. I have 3-4 students that I’m currently tutoring on an ongoing basis so I’m making some decent side money from that;
- I filed my tax returns and got both my Federal and State tax refunds during February;
- This was the worst month of spending for me. I spent so much on eating out and fitness. I’m hoping to curb this down as much as possible in March. Possibly going from one extreme to the other, at least in terms of no eating out.
Now let’s take a look at my Income Statement for February 2019.
Income Statement
I’ve always considered my income statement more of a Cash Flow statement than anything else. It shows the amount of cash outflow and cash inflows.
My main cash outflows where my contributions to my Roth 401(K) and paying off my monthly credit card balance. Remember, my expenses are treated on an accrual basis meaning that this month’s credit card balance reflects expenses from last month. Therefore, any expenses I have this month will be paid off on my credit card balance next month.
The majority of my side income came from my tax refunds this year. Mostly one time items that I won’t see in the future. That’s why it’s so high this month.
Dividend Income – $154.50
My Dividend Income for February 2019 is as follows:
| Date | Company | Symbol | Payment |
| 2/1/2019 | Verizon Communications | VZ | $60.25 |
| 2/14/2019 | Apple, Inc. | AAPL | $29.20 |
| 2/14/2019 | Synchrony Financial | SYF | $6.30 |
| 2/15/2019 | Realty Income Corp | O | $22.55 |
| 2/15/2019 | Ally Financial | ALLY | $17.00 |
| 2/22/2019 | Starbucks | SBUX | $19.00 |
Total Dividend Income for February 2019: $154.30
Total Dividend Income for 2019: $701.43.
Options Income – $562.00
I only sold 10 put contracts on GE back in January for $47 per contract. These were at the $9.00 strike price. I believed GE will eventually rebound and did not mind picking up shares of GE at $9.00 per share if it were to dip below that again. GE continued to rally on earnings and news of them selling off parts of their businesses. GE never dipped below $9.00 again and my options expired worthless in February, netting me the full amount of $470 into my account.
Additionally, I sold 4 covered calls on my SPY shares. One of them was at the strike price of $273.00 which ended up expiring worthless. I sold the other three after that at a strike price of $279.00. The market continued to rally and I ended up getting assigned on my 300 shares of SPY for $279 per share. Overall, my total options income for February was $562.00.
| Date | Option Trade | Expiration | Credit Received |
| 1/18/2019 | Sold 10 GE 9.0 Put | 2/22/2019 | $470.00 |
| 2/5/2019 | Sold 1 SPY 273.0 Call | 2/6/2019 | $47.00 |
| 2/21/2019 | Sold 3 SPY 279.0 Call | 2/22/2019 | $45.00 |
Total Options Income for February 2019: $562.00
Total Options Income for 2019: $617.00
Side Income – $6,200.75
My side income for February 2019 came from a few of sources:
- Tutoring – $843.75
- Taxes – $4,807
- Sold Laptop – $550
Tutoring
I started tutoring last month since I love teaching Finance. They send me my payment the week following my tutoring session. Since I didn’t start tutoring until the end of January, my first payment came in February.
I’ve been tutoring on an ongoing basis a few times per week. I’m making pretty decent income to supplement my full time job. This income I’m going to put towards paying off debt and using a portion of it towards health and fitness.
Tax Refund
They say getting a large tax refund is a bad thing. This is correct to an extent. Financially you’re giving the Government an interest free loan and at the end of the year, they write you a check for the amount they borrowed from you in the form of a “tax refund.”
My actual Federal tax refund for the year from my salary was only $119 while my State tax refund was mere dollars. This is the best scenario as you neither owe the Government money nor does the Government owe you a lot of money.
As Thanos would say:
However, since I had purchased an Electric Car a couple of years ago, I still had EV credit that I continue to roll forward. I claimed a portion of it last year and continue to claim more of it this year. This pushed my total tax refund up from $119 to $4,500ish total across my Federal and State taxes.
Selling My Laptop
I sold my old gaming laptop this month for $550. I realized I hardly use it as I hardly game much anymore. Also it was a huge laptop and carrying it around was kind of a pain. I decided to use that money I made from selling it to purchase a cheaper, more portable laptop to use for coffee shops and tutoring.
I bought an Acer this month for $250 which pales in comparison to my gaming laptop. But it’s strong enough to get all my work done and I’m pretty content with it.
Expenses For February
My two main sources of cash outflows were my Roth 401(K) contribution and paying off my credit card balance. I contributed $2,489.88 to my Roth 401(K) and paid off my credit card balance of $1343.09.
Like I mentioned before, my other expenses are calculated on an accrual basis. Here are the expenses I put on my credit card this month which will be paid off in full next month.
| Expenses Due Next Statement | |
| Entertainment | 50.10 |
| Geico Insurance | 1,412.09 |
| Eating Out | 703.96 |
| Personal Grooming | 263.60 |
| Groceries | 324.47 |
| Amazon | 353.44 |
| Transportation | 360.43 |
| Fitness | 733.84 |
| Misc | 567.21 |
My largest expenses this month came from eating out, fitness, and my Geico Insurance. I admit I do have a pretty expensive car and living in a Metropolitan area makes the insurance higher. This is to balance out the fact that I pay nothing for fuel, emissions, oil changes, and maintenance.
I purchased workout clothes this month to use at the gym and yoga. I purchased a 10-class package from OrangeTheory on my birthday and have been going routinely. Additionally, I purchased a heart monitor to use for both inside and outside of OrangeTheory. I didn’t realize how fast these expenses added up.
I also spent quite bit of money during my birthday spluging and eating out at all my favorite spots.
Many of these expenses are one-time items that I plan to eliminate in March and reduce the amount of my expenses.
Fortunately my tax refunds will be able to prepare me for the large credit card bill that’s due next month.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have a positive net income for February, however my expense are on an accrual basis and my March credit card statement is going to be a giant bomb. Fortunately I’ve already started saving up for that using income from my salary and tutoring. Additionally, I stashed away my tax refund in preparation to use on my large credit card bill.
Many of these one-time items won’t appear in March. And I’m going to discipline myself to make it so. I’ve started purchasing small cups of coffee as I’m tutoring. But I feel like my tutoring income will partially cover that. And the rest of the income will be earmarked towards paying debt and saving.
Additionally, March marks my work anniversary so I’m hoping to get a partial pay raise which will help in saving more money. Although one should never lean back on the hopes of a future pay raise. One should budget with the mindset based on present conditions. The pay raise is a bonus.