Income and Expenses, Savings Rate for Q1 2017

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 third year when I keep a stricter control of my spending, I continued to make a small comparison with last year's results also. 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 high, except in January. In February and March I did a lot of overtime and in February, I received a winter holiday money, so that's why in a February salary is much higher than in January. Expenditure in February and March was higher than my normal, in both months, "additional" costs were approximately € 500, 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 46.12%.  When I take into account also the dividend income, my savings rate rises to 54.93%. 

 

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 February and March. Otherwise, I am fairly satisfied, dividend income accounted for over 36% of my expenses during the first quarter.


Comparison between Q1 2016 and Q1 2017:

As you can see, my dividend income grew by about 8 per cent during the first quarter. The main reason for the increase is new purchases, which I made during the last few months, as well as latest dividend increases of a some companies. Wage income compared to last year were a little bit higher, for the simple reason that I did more work. I thought that my expenses were high during the first quarter, but in fact, they fell by 3% compared to 2016. As a result of lower spending and higher wages, my savings to wage income increases about 11% compared to the year before. Of my expenses, dividend income accounted for about 12 percent more than the year before, so the journey towards financial independence seems to be going in the right direction, even though the journey to achieve it is still quite long.

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

 

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