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Happy March!!

I can’t believe February is already over. It went super fast, but I had a REALLY good month financially.

To start, I PAID OFF MY CAR!! I paid off my car 27 months early which frees up my minimum payment of $382.55.

This also means I only have my student loans left ($36,239.14).

Now, because of the current situation with student loans (forbearance and 0% interest), I have decided to save money in my M1 Spend account (which has an APY of 1%).

I’ll be saving until September (when forbearance is expected to end) and determine what needs to be done.

I want to do this because there have been discussions about student loan forgiveness and who knows what could happen. I’m not expecting and/or relying on the government to forgive anything, but I would hate to use my money if they do.

I also broke another personal record when it comes to making money online! I’m so, so excited and grateful (more on this below).

Debt

I started the month of February with $38,135.27 of debt and ended with $36,239.14. However, I technically ended with $35,621.32 if you consider the money I have saved to pay those loans down.

As I mentioned above, I paid off my car and I literally only paid $2.71 in interest!

Since I paid off my car, I’m not paying a penny of interest for the first time in my adult life.

Spending

Some main things to point out about my spending in February:

Groceries: I went over budget by $23.77 🙁 This does include an order of protein shakes though so that’s pretty good!

Gas: I got NO gas for my car in February which is nice!

Dogs: I budgeted $0 for my dogs but one of them ended up going to the vet so I split the bill with my sister and paid $60.

Spotify: A subscriber told me that Amazon sells a $99 Spotify gift card which covers a 1-year subscription. I bought that and it works! Saves me about $20 for the year AND I used my credit card to earn 3% back on that purchase!

Personal: All I bought in February was a Kindle book and face masks! I pulled from my sinking fund to cover those purchases.

Invest: In order to get the $30 referral bonus from M1 Finance I had to invest $100. That is well worth it in my opinion and I’m now just letting the money grow with any of my referrals.

Parking: I had my annual doctors appointment and I always forget about the $6 parking.

Income

Online income was even better for me in February.

Full-time job (microbiologist): $4,937
Mediavine (display ads on LivinglikeLeila): $271.52
Google AdSense (ad revenue from YouTube): $710.74
Financial Coaching: $445.35
Buy Me a Coffee: $247.21
Affiliates: $100.46
Etsy: $2.87
Chase Flex Rewards: $210.85

Business Income: $1,778.15
Extra Income: $210.85
Pre-tax total = $6,926.00

Net Worth

As of February 28th, 2021 my net worth is -$17,065.07!!!! We’re getting so close to $0!!!

Roth IRA: $5,571.36
M1 Invest: $607.82 (mostly from referrals!)

Sinking Funds:

• Taxes = $2,422.35
• Emergency Savings = $4,224.35
• Gifts = $325.92
• Medical/Dental = $301.55
• Car maintenance = $385.83
• Travel = $221.21
• Personal spending = $24.16
• FinCon = $300.33

Credit Score

My VantageScore via Credit Karma is at 786. It went up 23 points!

Overall Updates

I paid off my car

Again, I’VE PAID OFF MY CAR!! I’ll be getting my own car insurance in March and I will be increasing my car/car maintenance sinking fund from $50 a month to $100.

After I pay off my debt I’ll start saving $500+ per month for a replacement car in the far future.

I am booked for financial coaching

I am so grateful to have reached a point where I am booked! I am now working with 7 people and loving it.

Subscribe to my emails for updates!

I made over $1K online again

Last month I broke a personal record by making over $1,000 from my online businesses. In February I got even higher with $1,778.

Not to mention, I had over a dozen M1 referrals which means I had over $400 invested! I’m so grateful.

I am adding a sinking fund for a new phone

I own my phone and it’s already a couple of years old. I know I’ll need to replace it soon so I figured I should start saving each month.

Starting March 1st I’ll be saving $50 to my phone sinking fund each month.

I am increasing my Roth IRA contributions

Since I no longer have a car payment, I figured I could spare an extra $50 to invest. Starting on March 1st as well, I will be contributing $150 to my Roth IRA each month (instead of $100).

February Goals Update

• Pay off my car! CHECK
• Make over $1K from my online businesses CHECK
• Reach over 5,000 subscribers on my finance YouTube channel NO, but I still gained over 780 in February!
• Find 2 more clients before March CHECK

Money Goals for March

• Put at least $600 to student loan savings
• Get my own car insurance
• Make over $1,000 online