Below you’ll find all my finance details for May 2018.
I was in Moscow until May 6th, then based myself in Herceg Novi in Montenegro for the rest of the month, with a day trip to Dubrovnik in Croatia thrown in for the laugh.
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 | € 7,588 | $ 8,859 |
| Total Expenses | € 8,673 | $ 10,125 |
| Profit/Loss | € 1,085 | $ 1,266 |
Income
| Consulting / Project Management 1 | € 6,826 | $ 7,969 |
| Coaching | € 528 | $ 616 |
| Authority Hacker Pro affiliate payment 2 | € 169 | $ 197 |
| Patreon 3 | € 30 | $ 35 |
| Book sales (via Amazon) 4 | € 22 | $ 26 |
| Cheap Flight Checklist 5 | € 13 | $ 16 |
| Total Income | € 7,588 |
$ 8,859 |
| Last Month | € 7,456 | $ 8,999 |
Expenses
Food & Drink
| Groceries | € 301 | $ 351 |
| Eating out | € 265 | $ 309 |
| Total | € 566 |
$ 661 |
| Last Month | € 474 | $ 572 |
Housing & Utilities
| 3 Weeks at Kotor (Montenegro) Airbnb 6 | € 737 | $ 860 |
| 4 Weeks at Herceg Novi (Montenegro) Airbnb 7 | € 730 | $ 852 |
| 4 Nights at Scottish Highliands Airbnb 8 | € 483 | $ 564 |
| 3 Nights at Edinburgh Airbnb 9 | € 268 | $ 313 |
| 2 Nights at Lake District (UK) Airbnb 10 | € 134 | $ 156 |
| 2 Nights at York (UK) Airbnb 11 | € 105 | $ 123 |
| Cleaner for apartment in Herceg Novi (two times) | € 29 | $ 34 |
| Total | € 2,486 | $ 2,902 |
| Last Month | € 1,214 | $ 1,465 |
Health Care
| IMG Global Health Insurance 12 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Last Month | € 75 | $ 91 |
Travel & Transport
| Flights: Dublin to Gran Canaria (x2) 13 | € 243 | $ 283 |
| Rental car: 7 days in Ireland 14 | € 169 | $ 197 |
| Flight: Gran Canaria to Dublin 15 | € 121 | $ 141 |
| Rental car: 3 days in Montenegro 16 | € 101 | $ 118 |
| Fuel for rental car in Montenegro | € 42 | $ 49 |
| Montenegro/Croatia border charge 17 | € 30 | $ 35 |
| Taxi to airport in Moscow | € 18 | $ 21 |
| Ferry in Montenegro | € 5 | $ 5 |
| Taxi in Herceg Novi | € 3 | $ 3 |
| Uber in Moscow 18 | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Parking in Montenegro | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Total | € 735 | $ 858 |
| Last Month | € 300 | $ 362 |
Business Expenses
| Coaching 19 | € 4,283 | $ 5,000 |
| Annual US LLC renewal 20 | € 214 | $ 250 |
| TransferWise fees 21 | € 33 | $ 39 |
| Iubenda 22 | € 23 | $ 27 |
| Dreamhost domain registrations and renewals | € 23 | $ 27 |
| SmarterQueue 23 | € 20 | $ 23 |
| Telepromter iPhone app 24 | € 13 | $ 14 |
| Phone credit | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Headphones | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Skype credit | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Virtual Post Mail 25 | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Patreon fees 26 | € 3 | $ 4 |
| Gumroad fees | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Amazon Web Services (storage) 27 | € 1 | $ 1 |
| ActiveCampaign mailing list software 28 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Elegant Themes 29 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Teamwork project management software 30 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| MemberMouse 31 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Dreamhost web hosting 32 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Google Drive storage (1TB) 33 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 4,652 |
$ 5,431 |
| Last Month | € 1,467 | $ 1,771 |
Gifts & Donations
| Flowers | € 38 | $ 44 |
| Monthly Love & Courage podcast donation 34 | € 5 | $ 6 |
| Waking Up podcast donation 35 | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Total | € 45 | $ 52 |
| Last Month | € 51 | $ 62 |
Books 36
| Discipline Equals Freedom *** | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Selfhood 37 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Last Month | € 20 | $ 24 |
Clothing
| Flip flops | € 20 | $ 23 |
| 3 t-shirts | € 13 | $ 15 |
| Total | € 33 | $ 39 |
| Last Month | € 143 | $ 173 |
Miscellaneous Expenses
| Toiletries | € 32 | $ 37 |
| Kitchen equipment | € 21 | $ 25 |
| Ticket to visit the old city walls of Dubrovnik | € 20 | $ 23 |
| Laundry | € 18 | $ 21 |
| Flask | € 13 | $ 15 |
| Netflix subscription | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Kitchen scale | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Monthly banking fees (Hong Kong bank) 38 | € 7 | $ 9 |
| 2 beach towels | € 4 | $ 5 |
| Kitchen cleaning supplies | € 3 | $ 4 |
| Amazon Movie Rental: Amelie **** | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Hangers | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 1 | $ 2 |
| Public toilet | € 1 | $ 1 |
| Birthday card | € 1 | $ 1 |
| Total | € 147 | $ 171 |
| Last Month | € 118 | $ 142 |
Expense Summary
| Business Expenses | € 4,652 | $ 5,431 |
| Housing & Utilities | € 2,486 | $ 2,902 |
| Travel & Transport | € 735 | $ 858 |
| Food & Drink | € 566 | $ 661 |
| Miscellaneous Expenses | € 147 | $ 171 |
| Gifts & Donations | € 45 | $ 52 |
| Clothing | € 33 | $ 39 |
| Books | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Health Care | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total Expenses | € 8,673 | $ 10,125 |
| Last Month | € 3,862 | $ 3,862 |
I was aiming to keep everything down around $8000 for the month.
Failed miserably.
Biggest Regret?
My biggest expenses in May were coaching and accommodation.
No regrets about the coaching. That’s been going great.
The accommodation is a bit much and I’ve vowed to travel less next year (or at least travel to less expensive places), but the upside there is that, with the exception of 6 nights in London, I now have all my accommodation paid for until the end of August.
Our day trip to Dubrovnik worked out quite expensive – about €200 total for the rental car, border fee, fuel, and food – but that town was definitely worth seeing, and I don’t think we could have done it any cheaper without accepting quite a bit of inconvenience.
2018 So Far
Here’s how I’m doing this year in terms of profit and loss:
| January | € 2,466 | $ 3,070 |
| February | € 4,384 | $ 5,346 |
| March | € 908 | $ 1,107 |
| April | € 3,594 | $ 4,337 |
| May | € 1,085 | $ 1,266 |
| Total | € 1,499 | $ 1,902 |
Where That Leaves Me
I had €15,533 / $18,747 to my name at the end of April.
Taking into account all my March 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 €14,854 / $17,340. 39
Outlook For June
I’ll earn less from consulting work as I’ll be taking some holidays at the end of the month. I should pull in about $6,000 there still though.
I plan to relaunch my Freedom Business Builder course (formerly 3M1K) at the end of the month, and people have been emailing me asking when they can join that, so there should be a few signups right away. Not sure what to expect in terms of income, but $1000 before July hits would be a good start.
Expenses should be way down from May.
I have to pay freelancers about $1,500, I’ll likely be investing a few hundred dollars in Facebook ads, and I’ve already spent about €750 for accommodation in London. But nothing major beyond that.
If I keep everything under €4,000 I’ll be happy, though I expect it will be more like €5,000.
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.
Your flip flops costs $23? Hahaha. Sorry, that really caught my attention. Perhaps it’s because mine costs less than $5/ pair and I wear it for years. But I do understand this is easily worn out product during travel. Should be a good investment for you!
I have been asking my friend to join your course because I feel she can get a lot of values out of it. A friend’s friend also asked about where to start learning about freelancing and I pointed him straight to your course. 🙂
Haha, yeah. That was quite a lot for flip flops but I needed a pair in a hurry and that was the best offer I could find for a decent pair 🙂
And thanks for recommending my course. I’ll have it reopened in a couple of weeks!