Lanny’s April Income and Expense Summary

As you have come to see from us Diplomats – each month we share our savings from the income and expense we have endured during the previous month.  Our goal is to achieve 60% savings rate in an ever inflationary lifestyle from advertisers, television, peers and co workers.  Though it is difficult, we know the combination of being frugal, saving and investing allows us to achieve our financial freedom goals faster, by still enjoying the benefits of life itself.  Was I able to hit 60% this month?  Let’s check out my income and expense summary from April!

september-rally

During March, I was able to cross over 60% of savings with 61.6% bolstering of savings for the month.  This was a month where I had even a bachelor wedding weekend, a suit that finished the expense of amortization.  April was an interesting month, with the wedding I attended, which meant travel costs, gifts and other festivities (restaurants, etc.) as well as no longer being in the thick of busy season – aka reduced travel and more time to do “things” that could have cost me some money.  So how did I perform this month in the savings arena?  Keep in mind – March also had an amazing month ($797) of dividend income and, as I wrote earlier this month – April’s dividends ($312.84) are not nearly as strong, given it is an off month.  Well, enough Italian jabber, lets look at the cold hard stats: 

Income Summary

Salary – 85% (increase of 2% from last month, due to less dividend income (almost $500) as I talked above)

Other – 9% (up from 1% last month, had huge moves here – sold 2 $50 gift cards for $74, sold an iPhone 5 for around $100 and then credit card rewards as well, and boy did I need it this month)

Dividends – 6% (down from 16% last month)

Expense and Outflow Summary

Household – 18.8% (Mortgage + escrow, Utilities again were lower – both on Gas and Electric front, awesome)

Transportation – 9.9% (Remained fairly stagnant here, not too shabby)

Clothing – 5.0% – I had one last month of amortization on the suit for a wedding this month and also paid for a new suit for a wedding in July, love this wedding season!  Good thing they put pockets on them, because a hole is being burned, kidding, all jokes, love these guys that are getting married. 

Health – 4.0% – up from 2% due to basketball league fees, other items related to my  health (don’t worry, nothing crazy haha), as well as normal gym membership and health insurance

Food – 4.0% (same from last month, due to travel for work, Groceries + Coffee) I’ve noticed, this month I spent $15.29 for specialty coffee either for myself or also for someone else during this month.  I have found myself quite frequently on a weekend day or once during the week I’ll go there to grab a very nice cup of coffee.  I think this month I went to 4 different local coffee shops, so I feel great about that, and is always a nice experience trying something/somewhere new and giving back locally.  Further, I’ve been exploring the new areas for a potential new place to live and is always nice when I can boot up this laptop to write articles.  

Gift – 3.0% – loving me that wedding. 

Charity – 1.0% – Two night at the races events during this month for charity, to which I also donated other money on top of entrance fees, fun events. 

Entertainment – 1.0% (Netflix, rehearsal dinner shenanigans.. )

Self Development – Minimal – haircut

= SAVINGS ~53.3% = This includes automatic savings from my pay to my online account, extra savings transfers to my account from this months income to my online savings accounts, dividend reinvestment + automatic 401K contributions

Income and Expense Conclusion/Results

income and expense

Damn… didn’t hit it.  C’mon!  It’s okay, I know that it’s just one month and that just means to stand up again, and hop back on this ride.  I knew with the expenses related to the wedding, traveling for it as well as celebrating the biggest moment of their lives should and would take a hit to this for me – and hey, I AM OKAY WITH THAT!  It was a fun event and I was dancing like crazy, so that’s all that matters… too bad there weren’t many single ladies there… What is an Italian to do?  To show positives, the month of May has already been an incredible month to say the least.  I mean c’mon, us two crazy dudes just hit the 1 year mark on our blog!  Further, because of saving at least over 50% of my income in April, I was able to buckle down and purchase Johnson & Johnson, not once but twice during the month, a great foundation stock for a portfolio, that’s for sure.

Conclusion

Definitely not where I wanted to land, but hey – I’ll take over 50% any day versus something in the 5% range, where the majority of Americans are lucky to have.  We are very lucky, I guess, bottomline and gosh damn I am fortunate.  I make a decent wage and have the ability to make choices.  I know there are a few things I can more than likely tweak and can jump back on to an even higher than 60% bandwagon.  We shall see.  May is almost in the books and I’ll have a post as well about everything this month.  I know this is later in the month, but hope everyone faired decently well and are having a great Memorial Day weekend!  Let me know your feedback and, as always, thank YOU for stopping by.

-Lanny

12 thoughts on “Lanny’s April Income and Expense Summary

  1. Anything over 50% is pretty awesome! I realize you are targeting the 60% mark, but you can’t be too upset at yourself with 53.5%. My wife and I have 7 weddings to attend this year. All of which will require 1 if not 2 over night stays. She has a bunch of friends and family from out of town so we will be traveling a lot. Our savings rate will be hurt just a little bit same as you, but they are very fun to attend!

    Keep up the great work and keep having fun!

    • ADD,

      Thank you very much and I do have to take a different approach/viewpoint and think, wow, I am so lucky that I have the ability to save this much. 7 weddings = $$ but also priceless memories, right? You’ll have a blast, fun food, fun music and fun times.

      Thanks again for coming by and appreciate the words of motivation!

      -Lanny

  2. Congratulations on the upcoming wedding Lanny, may you have more blessings to come!

    I love playing basketball prefer street ball and pick up games, I suck at league games I leave them to the pros hahah.

    Great job on another high savings rate, keep it up!

  3. Hey Lanny. Awesome Savings rate overall bud. Dont’ be too hard on yourself. Close but anything over 50 % is awesome. Good job bud. Your Focus is your Reality. It’ll get better and better for sure. Just keep hustling hard.
    Enjoy your time not being married yet bud. One day you’ll be wed so don’t be in a rush. It’ll come. In the meantime, have fun.
    Life seems great and I’m happy for you bud. Life’s precious. You take care and keep it up. Cheers Lanny.

    • Hustler,

      Thank you, I know it’s a good feat and I should relax about not being married yet, it’ll happen and life will know when it does, but man I’m getting into these late 20’s!! Joking, it’ll happen, I know.

      Thanks for the kind words my man, appreciate it DH.

      -Lanny

  4. Lanny,

    Great savings rate over there. I consider anything over 50% a “win”. I know it’s below your goal, but 50%+ is still really fantastic and, as you know, about 10x the national average. And that was during an expensive month. That’s what’s so great about setting up good habits regarding money – your baseline is so high that even a “bad” month is still relatively great. 🙂

    Cheers!

    • Mantra,

      It’s weird feeling that it’s not enough for some reason? You’re right, even a “bad” month ends up not being too shabby. If you scoop up some Sbux stock, maybe I’ll transition into stopping in there more often! I think I need to find what I really love to use my money for and gear it towards that. Aka, hard evaluation of this vehicle “thing” i.e. do I just pay the thing off if I have the capital or do I sell it or move to a better public transit city or a more “outside friendly” city. So much to figure out, but it should all be positive.

      Thanks again Mantra, talk soon and thanks again for your comment.

      -Lanny

  5. Great work anyway Lanny! I understand the deception though… I mean about the single ladies! 😉

    Life is about living it too, so congrats on that!

    Cheers,

    Mike

    • DG,

      Thank you very much! Very funny about the single ladies… tough man, tough!

      Trying to live it when I can, needs to be more of that, because I’m not giving myself justice. Keep all of the writing up DG!

      -Lanny

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *