Income and Expenses, Savings Rate for Q1 2016

The first quarter has already passed and it is time to look at how it went and how I managed in my saving goals and how my journey towards financial independence is progressing. Since this is the second year when I keep a stricter control of my spending, I will also make a comparison with last year's results. 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 Q1:

All revenues are reported net of taxes.

During the first quarter of the wage income was pretty normal, except in March. In March I did a lot of overtime and during the month, there were three pay day. (Payday every other week). In February, I received a winter holiday money, so that's why in a February salary is higher than in January. Expenditure in January and February was much higher than my normal, In both months, "additional" costs were approximately € 600, which consisted of additional tax payments, health care and holiday travel fees, as well as due to some of the expenses that I pay once a year.

My goal is to save about half of my wage income and invest it. After the first quarter I'm a behind on my target, my saving rate of wage income was 41.41%.  When I take into account also the dividend income, my savings rate rises to 50.74%.  

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.

  

The first quarter was worse than I had expected. The main reason for this was the high expenditure in January and February. Otherwise, I am fairly satisfied, dividend income accounted for over 32% of my expenses during the first quarter.

Comparison between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016:

 

As you can see, my dividend income grew by only about 5 per cent, even though I made several acquisitions over the past year. The reason for such a small increase is dividend cuts, which was announced late last year. (Summary of Dividend Cuts)
Wage income compared to last year were significantly higher, for the simple reason that I did more work. Due to the increase in spending, however, my savings to wage income was almost the same level as a year earlier. Of my expenses, dividend income accounted for about 23 percent less than the year before, so the journey towards financial independence seems to be rather more distant than closer.

I look forward to what the next quarter will look like, and at the same time I try to improve the saving rates of my wage income.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Photo Credit: Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net