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It’s the final month of the year! Wow, it really flew by.
November was a strong income month for me, but I also spent quite a bit of money. It all worked out and I’m excited to end the year on a strong note and start getting excited about 2023.
General $ Updates
I earned more in online/extra income than my full time job
That’s crazy!! I’ve never earned more from my business and extra income than my full time job! After taxes and such it ends up being less, but this is still really exciting for me and gives me a lot of hope.
I got a raise at my full time job
After a performance review in September/October, I got a 5% raise. This isn’t anything significantly honestly, but it still helps. I’ll be getting about $150 extra per month plus contributing a larger amount to my 401(k).
Student Loan Debt Relief Plan has been blocked
If you have student loans you probably already know this. As of right now it looks like Student Loan debt cancelation won’t be happening at all. I’m not expecting it to so I’m just continuing on as normal.
Student Loan Forbearance has been extended
And with that I will just keep on saving for my student loan debt. We don’t have to pay our student loans for another 6 months or so (at 0% interest).
I opened another checking account for a sign-up bonus
I got an email invite to open a Wells Fargo checking account for a $325 bonus. I have to have a total of $1,000 directly deposited into this account over the next 90 days so I set that up with my company. I will then receive $325!
Debt
I started the month of November with my official debt at $36,000 and ended with $36,000. However, I technically started at $13,908.25 if you consider the money I have saved to pay those loans down.
In November I saved an additional $1,022.47 for my student loans (bringing my total saved to $24,239.65) so my final debt for November would be $11,760.35.
I still have paid $0 in interest 😊 I did gain $64.65 in interest through my HYS account.
Spending
Some main things to point out about my spending in November:
Donate: My company shared that they would match donations up to $500 per employee so I decided to take full advantage of that! I donated $500 to Barkville Dog Rescue then my company gave them another $500!
Groceries and Food out: Over budget on both again. Not terribly though. Plus I bought more because of Thanksgiving.
Health/Beauty: I ended up buying more beauty items (skincare) because they were on sale for Black Friday. I was going to buy them in December anyway so it saved me money to just go ahead and buy them.
Personal: I went well over budget on personal spending. I primarily bought workout clothes 😅 I just love them so much! I also bought a planner for 2023, yay!
Spotify: I usually order the Spotify $99 gift card in December, but went ahead and bought it this month.
Income
Full-time job (analyst/consultant) – Take home: $3,816.09
ONLINE/BUSINESS INCOME
Google AdSense (ad revenue from YouTube): $849.68
Financial Coaching: $50.00
Buy Me a Coffee/Venmo: $413.51
Mediavine (display ads on LivinglikeLeila): $107.99
Affiliates/Sponsors: $2,081.17
Teachable: $115.16
Online/Business Income Total: $3,617.51
EXTRA INCOME
Discover Cashback: $14.17
CITI Custom Cashback: $17.92
Bank of America Cashback: $27.79
Chase Cashback: $194.51
Rakuten: $107.84
Fetch (Amazon Giftcard): $25.00
Google Phone Trade-In: $262.50
IBotta: $37.50
Extra Income Total: $687.23
Total Income: $8,120.83
Net Worth
As of November 30th, my net worth is $22,224.00. Up about 23% compared to last month!!
Total Assets = $58,224.00
Total Liabilities = $36,000
Net Worth = $22,224.00
Roth IRA (VTSAX): $11,166.19 (up 5% compared to last month)
401k: $5,372.54 (up 18.7% compared to last month)
M1 Invest (VTI): $5,964.05 (up 5.2% compared to last month)
Coinbase: $243.83 (down 17.5%% compared to last month)
WeBull: $104.52 (up 18.6% compared to last month)
Fidelity: $143.26 (up 0.9% compared to last month)
Sinking Funds:
- Emergency Fund = $6,089.64
- Gifts = $378.17
- Beauty = $945.40
- Car/Car maintenance = $1,634.61
- Travel = $4.10
- Car insurance = $273.68
- Project $0 to Profit = $14.23
- Phone = $0.40
- House (previously MacBook) = $0.73
Sinking Funds Total = $9,340.96
Credit Score
My VantageScore is at 783 which is a few points higher than last month.
November Goals Update
- Reach $24K saved for my student loans CHECK
- Make at least $2K in online/extra income CHECK
December Money Goals
- Reach $26K saved for my student loans
- Make at least $2K in online/extra income
- Max out my 2022 Roth IRA
Nice work on your side business earning on par with your w2 job!
I am curious if your sponsors are on your main YT channel or your Finance channel?
We’re about at the same stage of our journey (29 almost 30, with student loans, but just finally breaking into positive net worth ~$24k) , so I’ve been deep diving through your content recently. Although your side business is a key difference that I’ve been looking at. You’re going to blow your financial goals out of the water with all of the content you create and publish. 🙌
I transitioned into Tech for 2022, but earn nothing outside of my w-2 and HYS accounts.
Also heard your 2022 update on the ChooseFI podcast this week. You’re doing great =)
Thank you so much Katherine!! The sponsors were on my finance channel! I also earn quite a lot from Talentstacker referrals (also related to my finance channel).
It sounds like we do have a similar journey which is awesome!
Nice blog. I’m like you. I broke into ERP consulting with zero experience. Also came from basic sciences (biochem into molecular bio PhD program which I didn’t finish). Also had student loans for a crappy science career (“Bio is the liberal arts of STEM” I say).
Nice to see your honesty and transparency with your journey. Cheers
Thank you Mike!
Oof biochem AND molecular bio, those are tough. I never liked molecular lol. I’m excited to finally finish paying for my bio degrees, but I guess it served it’s purpose for several year.
Thanks for reading!