Monday, January 28, 2013

2012 Income and Expenses

2012 was a great year in terms of income-- I hit another new high:

Salary $106,244
Bonus $18,239
Employer contributions to my 401K $8,119
Dividends $15,977
Realized Gain (from a fund change made in 401k) $11,347
Blogging income $4,402
Gifts received $100
Interest $208
Tax refunds $2,516
Total Income $167,152

Almost all the dividends and realized gains were reinvested, and sometimes I don't really even consider these "real" income. But I love seeing my money work for me-- that is over $35,000 worth of income made not from labor but from my own savings and 401K participation.

The other income I had this year was $10,000 in rent from the tenants in my apartment, but for this year, I am kind of looking at it as a defrayal of my housing expenses. I'll start breaking this out differently next year, as I'll be reclassifying some of my expenses as business expenses for an investment property rather than personal household expenses.

Now for expenses:

Bank Charge $77
Charity $1,153
Clothing $3,062
Dining / Groceries $11,296
Education $458
Entertainment $1,364
Gifts Given $2,266
Gym $2,249
Household $1,792
Housing (net) $11,974
Income taxes $34,639
Medical $1,714
Miscellaneous $3,434
Newspapers and Magazines $404
Travel $8,421
Utilities Internet Access $360
Utilities Telephone $953

A few notes:
  • Charity refers to my personal contributions. I also plan to donate all the blogging income from this site.
  • Dining-- about $8500 of this is for stuff shared with Sweetie. (I have to admit that we have been indulging in fancier wines than we used to! We buy it by the mixed case and usually 1 or 2 of the bottles is a special treat, i.e. something in the $16-35 range, compared to the $9-12 range for the rest. But at least in restaurants, we tend to stay with whatever's cheapest.) The rest is mostly for my own breakfasts and lunches.
  • Entertainment was pretty high this year, due to buying more tickets for concerts and theater, including a rather expensive one to see Madonna at Yankee Stadium
  • Gym-- this covers a membership renewal for 2 years
  • Household is mainly laundry and dry-cleaning, plus a new armchair for the apartment Sweetie and I now share
  • Housing-- as noted above, I pulled together my housing expenses such as condo charges, property tax, mortgage interest, rent I pay to Sweetie, and gas and electric charges for my condo, and then subtracted the rent I receive from tenants to arrive at a net housing cost for the year. This does not include about $10,000 in mortgage principal I've paid off, as I view that as a transfer from my cash net worth to home equity.
  • Miscellaneous included a new iPhone and a lot of art supplies, plus haircuts and all the usual little personal items
  • Travel includes daily commuting, some family visits, and a 2-week summer vacation in Europe.

Total expenses for the year came to $85,616. This is also an all-time high. I think the new iPhone, big vacation, 2-year gym expense and new chair account for a lot of that, plus trying to take better advantage of all the culture NYC has to offer.

Net savings were $81,536, of which $10,125 is the transfer to home equity for paying off mortgage principal. This is NOT an all-time high, but it's second only to the year when I received a $25,000 inheritance, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I saved about $5000 more than I did last year,
and about $9000 more than I did in 2010 if you back out the inheritance.

As always, I could easily have cut back on expenses and saved more, and I always have these thoughts about how much sooner I could retire if I did, and whether I'll wish I had saved more when there's another economic crisis... but at the end of the day, I am comfortable enough with my savings and net worth so far to allow myself some luxuries. I feel very, very lucky and thankful for the good fortune that has come my way.

13 comments:

her every cent counts said...

Your stats are definitely inspiring! It's great that you can continue to indulge in the things that make life "good" (fine wines, etc) but still save so much money. Good luck on your $800k goal this year. My goal is $250k!

Anonymous said...

What a great year, very inspiring.

I love that you tracked everything - something I'm aiming for this year.

Good luck with your goals in 2013 :)

Nd.chic said...

It's interesting to me that you include income taxes in money spent. I usually just think in terms of net and not gross. Very good year! Good work!

Crystal @ Prairie Ecothrifter said...

Wow - awesome! I think you did great! And what's the point of having extra money if you can't splurge regularly? I'm a huge fan of paying your bills, saving for your future, and having a good time in the now too. It's an important balance.

OC Budget said...

I wish I can save as much as that! Great job!

You've done everything right it seems like. I hope I can get back on track and be on a path like yours, although I doubt I can save as much as that per year.

Sam said...

The surprise there was 4K in blogging income. Is it just from people clicking ads on your blog?

Anonymous said...

Congrats on a great year! I am particularly impressed by the dividend income. Could you do a post on it? Interested in what you have invested in and what is the yield?

KS said...

what stocks/dividend funds do you hold? i want to add more dividend funds to my portfolio for the same reason...

Financial Independence said...

Thank you for keeping honest and open dialogue. It is a rare treat in financial blogging community.
Last year was a great year as well, particularly from blogging, but at work as well.

I admire your frugality - two weeks in europe only for $8K!

I actually did some calculation how would extra penny affect your retirement - saving additional $ 1 K year on small things (coffee, etc..) and investing it will not buy me an extra year in any scenario over 30 year period.

I think we need to take an opportunity and enjoy the life and what money can buy.

Pam said...

It looks like 2012 was a good year for you financially. Congrats and all the best for 2013!

Anonymous said...

Well done! So glad to see you have decided to add your blogging income to your charity account. You're fairly close to 10% of net; something I like to encourage. Also something I promote as best I can at www.p101.ca I'd be interested in your thoughts on the website. Gord

Cindy said...

Good for you -- now why not share that good fortune, and boost your charity contributions to 10% of your income? You could afford it...

P.S. I wouldn't say it, either, if we weren't doing it...and we make a lot less than you do. There are plenty of good nonprofits out there that could use your help.

Anonymous said...

So I just discovered your blog and read through the first few posts. When I got to this one, I thought, "Dang! She makes a lot of money! She must work in tech or banking or something. I'll never earn that in publishing." And I looked around more and see that you work in publishing! I must be in the wrong division of my company. Are you in Finance? Sales?