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I can’t believe the first quarter of 2022 is over!! It’s April?!! What!

March wasn’t a very strong financial month for me. I had a couple of larger and/or unexpected expenses and I didn’t reach any of my financial goals.

But that doesn’t bother me! I’m still making progress on my goals and my numbers are still looking pretty strong!

General $ Updates

I reached over $15,500 saved for my student loans

Slowly getting there!

I filed my taxes and owe money

I owed $814 for Federal taxes because I didn’t realize I had to pay taxes on all of those M1 finance referrals (which was almost $5K worth).

I used my tax savings sinking fund to pay for it.

I renewed my apartment lease

This is the 3rd time I’ve renewed my lease and this is the largest jump in price so far. They wanted to increase my rent payment from $1,389 to $1,537. However, I kept negotiating and they lowered it to $1,499.

My rent, trash, and pest fee will be $1,537 total starting in May.

My CNBC Millennial Money video went live

On the final day of the month my CNBC feature aired! I applied for this back in 2020 so I was very surprised when I received an email in February. It was a great opportunity and both of my channels have grown quite a bit.

However, the numbers they shared in my budget breakdown are not correct. I’m a bit upset about this because people are quite mean in the comments, but oh well!

You can watch the video here.

Debt

I started the month of March with my official debt at $36,000 and ended with $36,000. However, I technically started at $21,322.62 if you consider the money I have saved to pay those loans down. 

In March I saved an additional $822.62 for my student loans (bringing my total saved to $15,508.94) so my final debt for March would be $20,491.06.

I still have paid $0 in interest 😊 I did gain $8.94 in interest through my HYS account.

Spending

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

Health/Beauty: This includes quite a lot of protein/fitness supplements. I also went to a Sports Chiropractor which was over $120.

2021 Taxes Owed: As I mentioned above, I owed money for Federal taxes. I went ahead and paid that.

Income

Full-time job (analyst/consultant) – Take home: $3,522.01

ONLINE/BUSINESS INCOME

Google AdSense (ad revenue from YouTube): $629.59
Financial Coaching: $195.17
Buy Me a Coffee/Venmo: $386.00
Mediavine (display ads on LivinglikeLeila): $140.25
Affiliates: $30.18
Etsy: $4.72
Teachable: $4.31

Online/Business Income Total: $1,390.22

EXTRA INCOME

Chase Cashback: $2.45
Discover Cashback: $123.63 (1 referral)
BOA Cash Rewards: $29.71
CITI Custom Cashback + Bonus: $207.59
BeFrugal: $3.65
Ebay: $64.14
FB Marketplace: $80
Chase Checking Bonus: $225
Upgrade Visa Bonus: $400

Extra Income Total: $1,136.17

Total Income: $6,048.40

Net Worth

As of March 31st, my net worth is $8,443.97. Up 53.3% compared to last month!

Total Assets = $44,443.97
Total Liabilities = $36,000
Net Worth = $8,443.97

Roth IRA (VTSAX): $9,753.83 (up 6.6% compared to last month)
401k: $606.25
M1 Invest (VTI): $6,564.92 (up 14.1% compared to last month)
Coinbase: $621.40 (up 6.0% compared to last month)
WeBull: $91.72 (down 0.8% compared to last month)
Fidelity: $148.25 (up 1.2% compared to last month)

Sinking Funds:

• Emergency Fund = $4,813.25
• Gifts = $112.99
• Beauty = $256.29
• Car maintenance = $1,459.70
• Travel = $200.93
• Car insurance = $90.19
• Project $0 to Profit = $14.05
• Phone = $381.53
• MacBook = $1,104.02

Sinking Funds Total = $8,432.95

Credit Score

My VantageScore is at 784. A 1 point increase from last month.

March Goals Update

• Put at least $1,000 to my student loan savings (over $15,500 saved) NO, but I did reach over $15.5K!
• Make over $1,500 online NO
• Reach a $10K net worth NO

March Money Goals

• Reach $17K saved for my student loans
• Make at least $1,800 in online/extra income