For the record I am 54, single, I own my house outright, and have been technically retired since my late 40s. My source of income is from real estate (rentals). I keep my personal spending and business spending completely separate. For anyone interested in the business side of things I'll be posting my monthly business numbers update and full personal financial update on the appropriate forums later in the day, so if you check my post history they will be showing up sometime today.
I pay my property taxes in the month they are due. This year my property tax was about $300, and that expense will be averaged over the next 3 months. The other expense that was averaged this month was for car repairs, this month I averaged $200 of that forward.
So here is my full breakdown by category. Total budget $800
Everything is rounded up to the nearest $5, so in reality I was about $25 under budget in total.
Averaged Expenses $300
Fixed Expenses
Car Insurance $45
Cable (internet) $70
Cell Phone $35
Trash/sewer $45
Utilities
Water $15
Gas $45
Electric $0 ($60 - Used cash back to cover this, so net cost to me was $0)
Food and Entertainment
Food $75
Entertainment $75
Other
Pet $15
Household/Toiletries/etc $10
Gasoline $40
Total Minus Averaged Expenses $470
NOTES
Anyone interested in what I spend for the business can check out the post about the business numbers here https://www.reddit.com/r/RentalInvesting/comments/exefp1/january_rental_business_numbers/
The grocery spending was lower this month than normal, mainly because I spent more than average last month. (I average about $100 a month for they year) I also spent way more on entertainment than average because of taking my property manager out to eat and treating a couple of times because he finished a project early and below budget. (maybe that should be a business expense, but I count eating out here in this budget) Electric was also higher than average this month because of the cold weather. Even though my central heating system is gas, I keep my thermostat on 50 F, and just spot heat the area I spend my of my time with an electric heater and an electric blanket. That is it for the January spending update, feel free to ask any questions!
February 01, 2020 at 07:05PM
