Well hello there o’ legendary email subscriber. This is my May finance report, prepared and delivered to you from the fine city of Amsterdam.
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…
May Expenses
Food & Drink
Groceries | € 217 | $ 242 |
Eating out 1 | € 173 | $ 193 |
Total | € 390 |
$ 435 |
Last Month | € 321 | $ 368 |
Housing & Utilities
1 month’s rent for Amsterdam apartment 2 | € 1,160 | $ 1,295 |
Total | € 1,160 |
$ 1,295 |
Last Month | € 1,160 | $ 1,328 |
Taxes
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Last Month | € 159 | $ 182 |
Health Care
Health insurance (monthly payment) | € 101 | $ 113 |
Total | € 101 |
$ 113 |
Last Month | € 101 | $ 116 |
Travel & Transport
Flights: AMS-ORK return trip in July 3 | € 142 | $ 159 |
Ov-chipkaart 4 | € 50 | $ 56 |
Total | € 192 |
$ 214 |
Last Month | € 648 | $ 742 |
Business Expenses
Taxes | € 735 | $ 821 |
Accountant: AGC Associates 5 | € 410 | $ 458 |
Outsourcing | € 280 | $ 313 |
Stripe fees (for 3M1K payments) | € 88 | $ 98 |
PayPal fees (mostly for 3M1K payments) | € 69 | $ 77 |
Thrive Leads 6 | € 59 | $ 66 |
3M1K affiliate payment 7 | € 49 | $ 55 |
ActiveCampaign 8 | € 40 | $ 45 |
Thrive Architect upgrade | € 26 | $ 29 |
Teamwork project management software 9 | € 26 | $ 29 |
MemberMouse (for 3M1K) | € 18 | $ 20 |
Phone credit | € 15 | $ 17 |
PDT Mastermind Talks 10 | € 6 | $ 7 |
TransferWise fees 11 | € 2 | $ 2 |
Google Drive storage (100GB) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Amazon Web Services (more storage) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Gumroad fees | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 1,828 |
$ 2,041 |
Last Month | € 1,038 | $ 1,189 |
Gifts & Donations
Wedding gift 12 | € 52 | $ 58 |
Book: Flavors of Life (x2) 13 | € 40 | $ 45 |
Donation to Colombia house building project 14 | € 26 | $ 29 |
Beer for bike shop 15 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Total | € 127 |
$ 142 |
Last Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
Books 16
Ryanair: How a Small Irish Airline Conquered Europe **** | € 6 | $ 7 |
Total | € 6 |
$ 7 |
Last Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
Clothing
Tailor 17 | € 8 | $ 9 |
Total | € 8 |
$ 9 |
Last Month | € 71 | $ 81 |
Miscellaneous Expenses
Strong Viking 2016 18 | € 67 | $ 75 |
Keukenhof ticket (bus + entry) 19 | € 24 | $ 27 |
Sunscreen | € 10 | $ 11 |
Netflix subscription | € 9 | $ 10 |
Toiletries | € 9 | $ 10 |
Mastermind meetup | € 5 | $ 6 |
Laundry | € 5 | $ 6 |
Cover charge for random bar | € 5 | $ 6 |
Kitchen cleaning stuff | € 2 | $ 2 |
Language meetup | € 2 | $ 2 |
Toilet entry at festival | € 1 | $ 1 |
Coat check at random bar | € 1 | $ 1 |
Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 1 | $ 1 |
Bin bags | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 142 |
$ 159 |
Last Month | € 63 | $ 72 |
Expense Summary
Business Expenses | € 1,828 | $ 2,041 |
Housing & Utilities | € 1,160 | $ 1,295 |
Food & Drink | € 390 | $ 435 |
Travel & Transport | € 192 | $ 214 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | € 142 | $ 159 |
Gifts & Donations | € 127 | $ 142 |
Health Care | € 101 | $ 113 |
Clothing | € 8 | $ 9 |
Books | € 6 | $ 7 |
Taxes | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total Expenses | € 3,954 |
$ 4,415 |
Last Month | € 3,561 | $ 4,078 |
My goal was to keep expenses under €3,000, so obviously I went a bit overboard there. Business taxes were the main expense I failed to anticipate.
May Income
Freelance web development | € 3,293 | $ 3,677 |
3M1K 20 | € 2,689 | $ 3,002 |
Affiliate payment: Secrets of a Six-Figure Upworker 21 | € 308 | $ 344 |
VAT refund | € 149 | $ 166 |
Book sales (via Amazon) | € 37 | $ 41 |
Sales of The Cargo Ship Diaries (via ebizfacts.com) | € 11 | $ 12 |
Total Income | € 6,487 |
$ 7,243 |
Last Month | € 3,624 | $ 4,150 |
I was aiming to pull in at least €4k in May, with €5k as a stretch goal, so I did much better than expected. I didn’t foresee 3M1K doing quite so well, and more freelance payments came through than expected.
Biggest Regret?
No regrets this month. It was a good one 🙂
Where That Leaves Me
I had €6,383/$7,309 to my name at the end of April. After applying the most recent exchange rates (I have accounts in EUR, HKD and USD), those totals shifted a little to €6,405/$7,151.
Taking into account all my May income and expenditure, my total bank and cash balances now work out to €9,579/$10,695. 22
Outlook For June
Expenses should be down as I’ll have no business taxes and I’ll no longer be paying rent in Amsterdam. I’ll try keep everything under €3k, with €2.5k as a stretch goal.
Income will come way down as I only have a couple of small freelancing projects lined up and it’s unlikely that I’ll get enough new people signed up to 3M1K to match May. If I hit €3k overall I’ll be happy.
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,
You are fortunate to be leaving behind that con artist of an accountant when you go to Berlin :-))
I’m looking forward to hearing about your experience in Berlin, I wish you all the best.
I’m also surprised at that steep rent in Amsterdam !!
BEAST, dude. Those are incredible numbers!
You have been doing fine in my opinion ,but you didn’t mentioned the “salsa class” and the “gym”!Did you stopped?
I stopped the salsa classes, yeah. I paid one year up front for the gym so no monthly payment.
Hey Niall, is that rent for a one-bed in Amsterdam? Presume it is but just wondering 🙂
Yup.
Are you breaking your Amsterdam lease?
Yeah, but not an issue. The landlord didn’t even mention it when I told him I was moving out. Rental contracts here are more for protecting renters than landlords.
Your accountant is ripping you off!!
My wife asks, how is your laundry only $5? 🙂
Haha. I have a washing machine. I just buy detergent and softener once every couple of months.