Below you’ll find all my finance details for February 2020.
I spent the entire month in Ubud, Bali.
I’ve been tracking everything I earn and spend since January 2011, just a few weeks after quitting my day job. Every month since, I’ve published one of these finance reports.
Sharing this info publicly keeps me accountable and hopefully gives you some insight into how I earn a living online.
Patrons get to see each new report before anyone else.
💵 Summary
| Total Income | € 6,030 | $ 6,650 |
| Total Expenses | € 4,082 | $ 4,501 |
| Profit/Loss | € 1,948 | $ 2,149 |
🤑 Income
| Affiliate income (see below) | € 5,880 | $ 6,484 |
| Patreon 1 | € 150 | $ 166 |
| Total Income | € 6,030 |
$ 6,650 |
| Previous Month | € 2,086 | $ 2,314 |
I was shooting for $7000 total income, and got close enough so no complaints.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in February came from…
Here’s a progress chart for affiliate income since starting eBiz Facts…
Note that a good chunk of my February affiliate income was overdue affiliate payments from December and January, so that skewed things a bit. If all payments had come in on schedule then the above graph would look much smoother the last few months.
💸 Expenses
🍽 Food & Drink
| Eating out | € 424 | $ 468 |
| Groceries | € 124 | $ 137 |
| Total | € 549 |
$ 605 |
| Previous Month | € 475 | $ 527 |
🏡 Housing & Utilities
| 1 month at Ubud villa | € 376 | $ 415 |
| 5 nights at Bansko hotel | € 175 | $ 193 |
| Total | € 551 |
$ 608 |
| Previous Month | € 383 | $ 425 |
💪 Health Care
| SafetyWing travel insurance 2 | € 34 | $ 37 |
| Medicine | € 27 | $ 29 |
| Doctor visit | € 18 | $ 20 |
| Medical test | € 8 | $ 8 |
| Massage | € 4 | $ 4 |
| Total | € 90 |
$ 100 |
| Previous Month | € 202 | $ 224 |
🛫 Travel & Transport
| 1 month scooter rental in Ubud, Bali | € 91 | $ 100 |
| Taxi in Bali | € 47 | $ 52 |
| Taxi in Bulgaria (advance booking) | € 31 | $ 34 |
| Scooter fuel | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Total | € 171 |
$ 188 |
| Previous Month | € 615 | $ 682 |
💻 Business Expenses
| Sam Ovens Consulting Accelerator (reviewed here) | € 1,358 | $ 1,497 |
| Outsourcing 3 | € 853 | $ 941 |
| PayPal fees | € 154 | $ 170 |
| Fiverr: Press Release | € 34 | $ 37 |
| Pigeon 4 | € 26 | $ 29 |
| Ahrefs subscription 5 | € 24 | $ 27 |
| Kinsta web hosting 6 | € 20 | $ 22 |
| Patreon fees 7 | € 20 | $ 22 |
| Phone credit | € 20 | $ 22 |
| Modafinil | € 14 | $ 16 |
| Zoom 8 | € 13 | $ 15 |
| iPhone cable | € 11 | $ 12 |
| Vivan S15 Bluetooth Headset | € 11 | $ 12 |
| YouTube Premium 9 | € 11 | $ 12 |
| Google Drive storage (1TB) 10 | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Virtual Post Mail 11 | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Vivan Q11 Headphones | € 7 | $ 8 |
| Copycall 12 | € 5 | $ 6 |
| Amazon Web Services (storage) 13 | € 4 | $ 5 |
| Upwork fees | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Dreamhost web hosting 14 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Sendy 15 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| SocialBee 16 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Teamwork project management software 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 2,606 | $ 2,874 |
| Previous Month | € 2,002 | $ 2,220 |
🎁 Gifts & Donations
| Flowers | € 16 | $ 18 |
| Effective Altruism Fund 18 | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Monthly Love & Courage podcast donation 19 | € 5 | $ 6 |
| SamHarris.org subscription 20 | € 4 | $ 4 |
| Patreon: The Blindboy Podcast 21 | € 3 | $ 3 |
| Patreon: Úna-Minh Kavanagh | € 3 | $ 3 |
| Chocolate for street kids | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Total | € 41 |
$ 45 |
| Previous Month | € 64 | $ 71 |
📚 Books
| Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
- See all my book recommendations and what I’m currently reading over at Goodreads
👕 Clothing
| Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
| Laundry | € 19 | $ 21 |
| Toiletries | € 17 | $ 19 |
| Netflix subscription | € 11 | $ 12 |
| Monthly banking fee (Hong Kong bank) 22 | € 8 | $ 9 |
| Kitchen supplies | € 7 | $ 8 |
| Earplugs | € 4 | $ 4 |
| Waterfall entry (x2) | € 3 | $ 4 |
| Mosquito repellant | € 3 | $ 3 |
| Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Total | € 74 |
$ 81 |
| Previous Month | € 80 | $ 88 |
💸 Expense Summary
| Business Expenses | € 2,606 | $ 2,874 |
| Housing & Utilities | € 551 | $ 608 |
| Food & Drink | € 549 | $ 605 |
| Travel & Transport | € 171 | $ 188 |
| Health Care | € 90 | $ 100 |
| Miscellaneous Expenses | € 74 | $ 81 |
| Gifts & Donations | € 41 | $ 45 |
| Books | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Clothing | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total Expenses | € 4,082 |
$ 4,501 |
| Previous Month | € 3,820 | $ 4,238 |
I was hoping to spend less than €3000 for the month. Way off.
😢 Biggest Regret?
Paying an assistant to produce regular interviews here on eBiz Facts.
Each interview was costing me between $100 and $150 to produce and promote. The interviews are great and I’m proud to have them on the site, but the ROI on them has been lacking.
I never expected them to earn much revenue directly, but I was hoping they’d bring new visitors to the site and help build the email list.
Unfortunately, the past four months have seen only 3% of new email subscribers signing up via interview pages.
Given that, I’ve decided to cut way back on the interviews and have my assistant create content that’s far more likely to move the needle.
📊 Where That Leaves Me
I had €9,330 / $10,349 to my name at the end of January.
Taking into account all my February income and expenditure, and the most recent exchange rates – I have accounts in EUR, HKD and USD – my total bank and cash balances now work out to €11,416 / $12,588. 23
🔮 Outlook For March
My income spiked in February due to finally receiving some overdue affiliate payments.
March should see things settle down a bit, and I expect my income will be between $3000 and $4000.
Expenses are harder to predict. I’m due to leave Bali and head back to Europe at the end of March, but coronavirus could derail those plans and prove costly.
But if all does go to plan, expenses should be less than $3000 for the month.
📲 How I Track All This
Curious as to how I track everything I earn and spend? Check this video…
💬 Feedback Welcome
Thoughts? Questions? Speak up in the comments below.
🗂 Archived Finance Reports
I’ve been posting these monthly finance reports since January, 2011. You can view all my old reports via this page.
Hi Niall,
Great report as always.
On the interviews, have you considered providing it as ‘bonus content’ for your Patreon subscribers?
Although its not converting the way you want it, it could be a way to get ‘buzz’ for the content if it becomes exclusive.
I’d be one of those email subscribers that would happily sign up to Patreon just to see that content.
Thanks for your great writing!
Thanks, Tara.
Yeah, I’ve considered doing the interviews for patrons only, but it’d be hard to convince interviewees to go for that. The main benefit for them is they get a nice feature, some exposure to a new audience, and a backlink from ebizfacts.com. If we posted the interviews to Patreon only I doubt we’d get so many people willing to share their story.