Well hello there o’ legendary email subscriber. This is my June finance report, prepared and delivered to you from the fine city of Berlin.
As usual, I’ll share with you all the details of my finances below, along with a few notes that I think you’ll find interesting.
Diving in…
June Income
3M1K 1 | € 2,123 | $ 2,365 |
Freelance web development | € 762 | $ 849 |
Loose change 2 | € 109 | $ 121 |
Book sales (via Amazon) | € 36 | $ 40 |
Total Income | € 3,030 |
$ 3,375 |
Last Month | € 6,487 | $ 7,243 |
I was aiming to pull in at least €3k in June, so happy enough overall. I was hoping to collect a bit more from freelance work but got a bit scattered and didn’t put in the hours. Thankfully, 3M1K picked up the slack.
June Expenses
Food & Drink
Eating out | € 184 | $ 205 |
Groceries | € 167 | $ 186 |
Total | € 351 |
$ 391 |
Last Month | € 390 | $ 435 |
Housing & Utilities
10 nights in Berlin AirBnb 3 | € 382 | $ 426 |
Cleaning fee for Amsterdam apartment | € 30 | $ 33 |
Rent for Amsterdam apartment 4 | € 10 | $ 11 |
Total | € 422 |
$ 470 |
Last Month | € 1,160 | $ 1,295 |
Taxes
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Last Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
Health Care
Health insurance (monthly payment) | € 101 | $ 113 |
Total | € 101 |
$ 113 |
Last Month | € 101 | $ 113 |
Travel & Transport
Lyfts in New Orleans 5 | € 30 | $ 33 |
Bus: Amsterdam to Berlin | € 29 | $ 32 |
Streetcar trips in New Orleans | € 4 | $ 4 |
Total | € 63 |
$ 70 |
Last Month | € 192 | $ 214 |
Business Expenses
Outsourcing 6 | € 634 | $ 706 |
Taxes | € 371 | $ 413 |
Accountant: AGC Associates 7 | € 328 | $ 365 |
Wyoming LLC Setup 8 | € 263 | $ 293 |
Stripe fees (for 3M1K payments) | € 104 | $ 116 |
3M1K refund 9 | € 95 | $ 106 |
Notary 10 | € 58 | $ 65 |
Phone credit 11 | € 56 | $ 62 |
PayPal fees (mostly for 3M1K payments) | € 42 | $ 47 |
ActiveCampaign 12 | € 41 | $ 46 |
Teamwork project management software 13 | € 26 | $ 29 |
TransferWise fees 14 | € 25 | $ 28 |
UpdraftPlus Migrator 15 | € 23 | $ 26 |
MemberMouse 16 | € 18 | $ 20 |
iPhone charger | € 14 | $ 16 |
T-Mobile SIM card 17 | € 14 | $ 16 |
Printing/scanning/photocopying | € 6 | $ 7 |
Virtual Post Mail 18 | € 4 | $ 4 |
Google Drive storage (100GB) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Amazon Web Services (more storage) | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 2,125 |
$ 2,367 |
Last Month | € 1,828 | $ 2,041 |
Gifts & Donations
Gifts for friends | € 53 | $ 58 |
Camp fire party donation 19 | € 5 | $ 6 |
Newark airport charity box 20 | € 3 | $ 3 |
Total | € 60 |
$ 67 |
Last Month | € 127 | $ 142 |
Books 21
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Last Month | € 6 | $ 7 |
Clothing
Tuxedo rental 22 | € 168 | $ 187 |
Espirit blue jeans | € 40 | $ 45 |
Guess blue shorts | € 31 | $ 35 |
Guess black v-neck t-shirt | € 13 | $ 14 |
Espirit green v-neck t-shirt | € 13 | $ 14 |
Total | € 265 |
$ 295 |
Last Month | € 8 | $ 9 |
Miscellaneous Expenses
Big black suitcase 23 | € 75 | $ 84 |
Electric shaver 24 | € 11 | $ 12 |
Toiletries | € 8 | $ 9 |
Netflix subscription | € 8 | $ 9 |
Amazon movie rental: Deadpool **** | € 4 | $ 4 |
Kitchen cleaning stuff | € 1 | $ 1 |
Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 108 |
$ 120 |
Last Month | € 142 | $ 159 |
Expense Summary
Business Expenses | € 2,125 | $ 2,367 |
Housing & Utilities | € 422 | $ 470 |
Food & Drink | € 351 | $ 391 |
Clothing | € 265 | $ 295 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | € 108 | $ 120 |
Health Care | € 101 | $ 113 |
Travel & Transport | € 63 | $ 70 |
Gifts & Donations | € 60 | $ 67 |
Books | € 0 | $ 0 |
Taxes | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total Expenses | € 3,495 |
$ 3,893 |
Last Month | € 3,954 | $ 4,415 |
My goal was to keep expenses under €3,000, so didn’t quite make it. Business expenses were what did me in; I failed to anticipate several there.
Biggest Regret?
I outsourced some client work during the month and the contractor didn’t do a great job so I had to hustle and get it done myself, spending more than a dozen hours at it. Those are hours I could have used to work on other freelance projects and earn another several hundred yoyos, so that stung a bit.
Lesson learned: check in with a contractor after their first 2 hours of work to make sure they’re on track, rather than leaving them alone for a week and assuming it’s all going according to plan.
Where That Leaves Me
I had €9,579/$10,695 to my name at the end of May. After applying the most recent exchange rates (I have accounts in EUR, HKD and USD), those totals shifted a little to €9,582/$10,673.
Taking into account all my June income and expenditure, my total bank and cash balances now work out to €9,798/$10,914. 25
Outlook For July
Expenses should be down a good bit. Business expenses won’t be nearly as high and my accommodation is mostly paid for already. I’ll aim to keep everything under €2k, which might be a bit of a stretch but I think it’s doable.
Income is tougher to predict. I plan to get back to regular freelance work but I’m unlikely to see the fruits of that until August. 3M1K always has the potential to generate a lot of revenue, but unless I get a bunch of new leads into the sales funnel, I doubt I’ll even earn €1k there. If I manage to pull in €2k the entire month, I’ll be doing pretty well.
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,
I live in Ireland since 2015 and I’m about to set up my online business. I’m wondering if I can register my business in the US as you did, even though, I live more than 6 months per year in Ireland…
Also thank you for the great post/s, very informative and helpful! Congratulations for your success!
Hi Erika,
Yes, you can set up your business in the US. Anyone can in a handful of states.
More info here: https://ebizfacts.com/digital-nomad-taxes-business-registration/
The only tricky bit is the bank accounts but contact the guys at Flag Theory and they’ll point you in the right direction.
Doesn’t matter that you live 6+ months of the year in Ireland. You can set up a 1-person LLC in the US, which means no corporate tax – the tax burden is passed to the individual. Pay yourself a salary out of your business, and you’ll be taxed on that salary in Ireland, like a normal employee would. You won’t pay any taxes in the US.
Hi Niall,
thank you so much for the reply! I’m glad I left this page open, just in case, because your email’s ended up in my spam box…
What do you mean by tricky the bank account, it is because you have to set up one in the US, or it can be in Europe?
Do you need to have a secretary for the LLC business in the US just like in Ireland? I mean, in Ireland you can’t have LLC, I know, you can have an LTD with only one director, if the company is a one person company but “An LTD company still needs to have a secretary and the secretary cannot be same person as the director, if the company has only one director.”
So I just try to figure it out what is the best and more simple to handle.
Thank you so much for your precious reply and I really like your site! Thank you for that!
Hey Erika,
Yes, the bank account would need to be in the USA as well. It’s doable, but it just costs a bit more to set up. The Flag Theory guys can advise you on that as well.
And no, you don’t need a secretary. You can have a one-person LLC, like I do. I just pay an accountant once per year to file a tax return for the company and that’s it. Very low hassle once it’s set up, and you don’t have to worry about VAT stuff either.
But I’m definitely not an expert on this. Contact Flag Theory and they’ll do a free consultation call with you and recommend some options.
Thanks a million, I’m very much appreciate your reply! Great help! Thanks!
Erika
Thanks for sharing this Niall, great as usual. I hope to learn more about your travel and your business.
¿What do you think about being a digital nomad? I know it’s possible but the profits usually are low.
Regards from Santiago, Chile.
Hey Erick. Thanks for the comment. I’m not sure how to answer your question. You could say the same thing about being an athlete, or a writer, or a filmmaker, or any number of things. Plus, being a digital nomad isn’t necessarily related to business. There are plenty of poor digital nomads out there but there are also plenty of people who earn a good living while traveling frequently.
What software do you use to track all this spending?
I use an app called MoneyWiz on my iPhone. Tracks income, expenses, and you can use multiple currencies.
Why did you do a Wyoming LLC? What else did you look at?
Low tax, easy admin, can set up remotely.
I also looked at keeping my business in Ireland, or moving it to the Netherlands/Estonia/Hong Kong/Delaware/Panama. Wyoming seemed to be the best option, all things considered.
I think in Berline you will do much better,now that you had left Amsterdam which is expensive .
Why don’t you torrent and save $4.00?!!
Because I like to pay for the things I value 🙂 Plus, I’d rather pay $4 and get a quality version of the movie right away than mess around for 10 minutes trying to find a good torrent.
Fair enough. Netflix is too much of a hassle for me.
How so?