Income and Expenses, Savings Rate for Q4 and for the year 2015

A year has once again changed, and January is already almost halfway. Year 2015 was very lucrative for me, including a few nice surprises in the form of additional dividends as well as a few disappointments in the form of dividend cuts. So now is the time to look at how I managed during the fourth quarter, and how my journey towards financial independence is progressing. As I mentioned in my first income / expenditure report, I will make a summary on a quarterly basis, because my months in the case of income are very different. This will give me a better view of the overall situation and hopefully will inspire some of my blog readers.

Here are my numbers for Q4:

All revenues are reported net of taxes. 

During the fourth quarter of the wage income was pretty good. In October and December I worked one extra weekend, for that reason income are slightly higher. Expenditure in November was a lot higher than my average, the reason for this are the new winter tires, a new computer monitor and a holiday trip airline tickets, a total of € 747.82 . December spending includes a payment of an extra tax of € 238.81.

My goal is to save about half of my wage income and invest those wisely. In the fourth quarter I clearly missed my target, due to high expenses in November and December, my saving rate of wage income was only 33.10%. When I take into account also the dividend income, my savings rate rises to 47.07%.

One thing that I will follow with great interest is the dividend income and expenditure ratio, because it is the most important thing on my way towards to the financial independence. 

Due to the huge additional expenditure, November looks pretty bad compared to the other months. All in all, The fourth quarter was the worst of 2015, dividends covered only 39% of the expenses.

Let's see what the result was for the whole year:

My expenses were an average of 1440 Euros and my salary was an average 2660 Euros per month. As you can see, during the year I managed to save 45.90% of my wage income, so I missed my goal, which is 50%. Of the total income my savings rate in 2015 was 59.87%.

Last year, my dividend income covered 64.36 per cent of my expenses.

Despite my expenses increased towards the end of the year, I am very satisfied with my achievement. I look forward to the next year, as I mentioned in my Review of the Year, dividend income hopefully will be at same level as in 2015. Wage income will increase only by doing overtime and expenditure hopefully will be less than in year 2015. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Photo Credit: Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net