Привет! 1
Here be all my finances for June.
I spent the first 10 days out of the month living in Tallinn in Estonia, then flew to Moscow and stayed there.
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 | € 4,204 |
$ 4,804 |
Total Expenses | € 2,449 |
$ 2,798 |
Profit/Loss | € 1,755 |
$ 2,006 |
Income
3M1K 2 | € 3,702 | $ 4,230 |
Freelance web development 3 | € 396 | $ 453 |
Book sales (via Amazon) 4 | € 74 | $ 85 |
Cheap Flight Checklist 5 | € 32 | $ 37 |
Total Income | € 4204 |
$ 4,804 |
Last Month | € 3,501 | $ 3,934 |
I predicted $3,300 income for the month so I’m very happy with how it all shook out.
Expenses
Food & Drink
Eating out | € 167 | $ 191 |
Groceries | € 202 | $ 231 |
6 Total |
€ 369 |
$ 422 |
Last Month | € 441 | $ 496 |
Housing & Utilities
12 nights at 1905 Goda apartment, Moscow 7 | € 553 | $ 632 |
4 nights at Studencheskaya apartment, Moscow 8 | € 177 | $ 202 |
5 nights at Istanbul apartment 9 | € 163 | $ 186 |
10 nights at Fili apartment, Moscow 10 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 893 |
$ 1,020 |
Last Month | € 666 | $ 748 |
Health Care
IMG Global Health Insurance 11 |
€ 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Last Month | € 1,167 | $ 1,311 |
Travel & Transport
Flight: Moscow (ZIA) to Istanbul (IST) 12 | € 79 | $ 90 |
E-visa for Turkey 13 | € 35 | $ 40 |
Taxis in Moscow | € 12 | $ 14 |
Ubers in Moscow 14 | € 11 | $ 13 |
Bicycle rental 15 | € 11 | $ 13 |
Train: Moscow airport (SVO) to Moscow city center | € 8 | $ 9 |
Metro in Moscow 16 | € 7 | $ 8 |
Flights: Istanbul (IST) to Chiang Mai (CNX) via Bahrain (BAH) and Bangkok (BKK) 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Flight: Tallinn (TLL) to Moscow (SVO) 18 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 163 |
$ 186 |
Last Month | € 487 | $ 547 |
Business Expenses
Outsourcing 19 | € 583 | $ 666 |
Dreamhost web hosting 20 | € 101 | $ 115 |
3M1K refund 21 | € 64 | $ 73 |
Phone credit 22 | € 27 | $ 31 |
Quuu Promote 23 | € 26 | $ 30 |
PayPal fees 24 | € 24 | $ 27 |
BuzzStream 25 | € 21 | $ 24 |
Skype credit 26 | € 18 | $ 20 |
Currency exchange fees 27 | € 10 | $ 11 |
Virtual Post Mail 28 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Buffer 29 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Gumroad fees | € 4 | $ 5 |
Amazon Web Services (storage) | € 1 | $ 1 |
Google Drive storage (1TB) 30 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 897 |
$ 1,024 |
Last Month | € 508 | $ 571 |
Gifts & Donations
Flowers 31 | € 19 | $ 22 |
Deep Work 32 | € 14 | $ 16 |
Waking Up podcast donation 33 | € 4 | $ 5 |
Total | € 37 |
$ 42 |
Last Month | € 39 | $ 44 |
Books 34
Never Split The Difference 35 | € 14 | $ 16 |
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival 36 ***** | € 13 | $ 15 |
Ogilvy On Advertising 37 | € 12 | $ 14 |
The Copywriter’s Handbook 38 **** | € 9 | $ 10 |
Letters From A Self-Made Merchant To His Son 39 **** | € 1 | $ 1 |
Civil War Stories 40 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 49 |
$ 56 |
Last Month | € 42 | $ 47 |
Clothing
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Last Month | € 82 | $ 92 |
Miscellaneous Expenses
Toiletries | € 14 | $ 16 |
Netflix subscription 41 | € 10 | $ 11 |
Cinema: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 **** | € 9 | $ 10 |
Amazon movie rental: The Theory Of Everything (imdb) **** | € 3 | $ 3 |
Azimo transfer fee 42 | € 3 | $ 3 |
Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Total | € 41 |
$ 47 |
Last Month | € 79 | $ 89 |
Expense Summary
Business Expenses | € 897 | $ 1,024 |
Housing & Utilities | € 893 | $ 1,020 |
Food & Drink | € 369 | $ 422 |
Travel & Transport | € 163 | $ 186 |
Books | € 49 | $ 56 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | € 41 | $ 47 |
Gifts & Donations | € 37 | $ 42 |
Clothing | € 0 | $ 0 |
Health Care | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total Expenses | € 2,449 |
$ 2,798 |
Last Month | € 3,511 | $ 3,945 |
I predicted $3,025 for June expenses so quite pleased with myself here.
Biggest Regret?
It was a good month so minimal regrets. The only place I reckon I wasted money was on phone credit. I had a lot of apps set to use cellular data so they just ate through my credit while in Estonia. Wasn’t big money though.
Year To Date
Here’s how I’m doing so far in 2017 in terms of profit and loss:
January | € 668 | $ 720 |
February | € 724 | $ 763 |
March | € 2,704 | $ 2,881 |
April | € 1,023 | $ 1,114 |
May | € 10 | $ 11 |
June | € 1,755 | $ 2,006 |
Total | € 120 | $ 271 |
Where That Leaves Me
I had €8,314/$9,342 to my name at the end of May.
Taking into account all my June 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 €9,388/$10,728. 43
Outlook For July
I’ll be spending about two weeks of July in Chiang Mai in Thailand, where the cost of living is quite low, so that should help a bit with expenditure. However, I’ll also be spending time in Istanbul and Japan, which probably won’t be so cheap. I’ll aim to keep everything under $2,500 and see how it goes.
As for income, I have a few affiliate payments due, and if nobody requests a refund for 3M1K I should pull in $2,000 there, plus however much I make from new signups. Doubtful I’ll get many new signups though as pretty much everyone on my list who was going to buy probably did so last month before the price increase.
Freelance income will be close to zero since I haven’t done any freelance work for weeks, busy as I’ve been with personal projects. I’m okay with that for now though. I can pick up freelance gigs pretty easily if needs be in a month or two, but for right now it makes more sense to keep working on 3M1K and some other things.
All that considered, I should pull in $3,000 in July.
As I figured out last month though, by looking through fifteen of my previous finance reports, I usually underestimate income by 10% and expenses by 21%.
So my final predictions for July should be $3,300 for income and $3,025 for expenses.
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.
Hey Niall,
I just came across your video about the cost of living in Amsterdam … and as I keep poking around on your web site .. I see more and more cool ass stuff .. I think you are GREAT!!
I am a 53 year guy that has been SAVING SAVING SAVING my money .. now I am doing my homework on places i would like to live for a year or so … your insight and observations are very helpful .. just a quick question about the taxes thing in Amsterdam .. if I do not earn any income while i am there .. do I have to still pay some min tax? and when is a person considered a “resident” ..
Thanks,
Christopher
P.S. I am glad to be one of your new followers …
Hey Christopher, thanks for the kind words 🙂
I don’t believe you would need to pay any tax if you’re not earning any income, since they can only tax you on income earned.
And I believe you have to live there for 6 months before being considered a resident, though that’s assuming you register as a resident as soon as you arrive.
Hi Niall,
Thanks for sharing this. I think I will start doing the same. The question is why do you do it? My motivation is too see how much I really do need to live a comfortable life here in Tenerife. I have noticed I am spending too much of my time working (8h hours a day) and earning a lot but not have enough time for surfing. I will be trying to reduce my working hours to the level I need. I have no idea how much I spend each month at the moment.
Magda!
Thanks for the comment.
Yeah, the main benefit of tracking for me is just keeping me conscious of where my money’s going. I can tell pretty quick from the reports if I’ve gone off the rails somewhere. There’s no way to turn a blind eye.
But of course I could get that benefit without sharing these reports online. I do that part because it holds me even more accountable, and it makes me think twice about what I’m spending my money on. I always have to ask myself, “Am I willing to admit online that I spent money on this thing I’m about to spend money on?”
You really do an amazing job of tracking and sharing this data and delivering quality content consistently. So thank you for that!
Hey Niall, hope your doing well. Thankyou for putting this out there, it really helps visualize this as a possibility for income. Do you try to keep to 10k as a float or does it just work out like that? Any thoughts on pensions or is it just not part of the overall plan for now? All the best.
Hey Mikey. Thanks for the comment.
I don’t try to keep to 10k. I’d like to have a lot more! 😛
Though I definitely do get more conservative with my spending when the bank balances get below that.
As for pensions, I don’t pay tax anywhere and so am not entitled to any social security. With that in mind, I’ve started taking saving and investing a lot more seriously in the 12 months or so. I now aim to put at least 20% of my earnings each month into savings and investments. I’d like to increase that as my income increases.
Thanks Niall, yes same here on the 10k! Am tracking everything i spend on the same app so thanks for the heads up on it, shame i seem to spend more than i earn every month – need to work on that! Good luck in Thailand.