INCOME & SPENDING...DECEMBER 2023

Now that we are living on an annuity, 401K$ withdrawals, personal savings and social security payments, I am still going to keep track of our monthly spending and income, and hopefully we'll still be able to live BELOW our means and I'll have some leftover monies each month to tuck aside.
We went into retirement in June of 2017 with no debt, no mortgage, nor a car payment.

I am trying to be as transparent as I can with how much is coming in and how much is going out.  8-)

On to the December report--

I had 2 goals for December....

The 1st is to actually finish the month in the black and not the red.

The 2nd is to try to have a little cash leftover at the end of the previous month to tuck back into a slush fund.  This slush fund may be applied toward unforeseen bills that are coming due in subsequent months, to spend on "extras/wants" during the year or to just sit there and grow until the end of 2023. 

*  I do not include/report on our retirement accounts here, just the non-retirement ones

 

I'm happy to report that we finished up December in the black.

The amount extra we ended the month of December with?....$1,847.63

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in December---

*  Monthly annuity payment of $2,608.66(after tax withholding)

*  SS income of $3,672.00

*  Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $985.66

*  Stock Dividend of $19.95

Total "Income" for December....$7,328.270

Expenses in December---

*  Irregular bills in December were $1,608.86

*  Variable Expenses in December came to $4,057.97

Total Expenses....$5,480.64

$7,328.27-$5,480.64=$1,847.64

 Slush Fund coming into December of $45,848.23 and the addition of $1,847.63 in December, our end of December 2023 Slush fund comes to $47, 695.86. (This isn't counting the $35K I siphoned off to invest into a high rate CD in October.)

The Slush Fund on it's own page(tab at the top of the blog)shows an addition of $1,847.64

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this December here are the good and the bad side of things.....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The WAM, the water bill, Health Insurance premium, vision care, Hubs supplement plan and internet were the same as last month.

*  Hubs Amazon c/c was $172.10 lower than in November.

*  The Aviator c/c was $1,247.61 lower than last month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The electric bill went up by $119.00(it's Winter, duh!)in December

*  My Amazon c/c was $465.36 higher than last month.

*  The Mastercard c/c was $228.17 higher than in November.

*  We had 4 irregular bills in December--

*  The bill of $784.55 for quarterly LTC premiums.

*  We had an irregular bill for $160.22 for property taxes.

*  We paid $170.00 to have the dishwasher installed.

*  We took $480.00 in cash for our December trip.

The Food Budget costs for December are in another post HERE.   Food costs are included in the credit card payments(mainly but sometimes our WAM cash too).

FINAL THOUGHTS for DECEMBER 2023---December was a moderatly heavy expense month(Daughter's birthday, CHRISTMAS, irregular bills, etc.)but we knew we'd take a hit in the financial realm and were prepared for it.  Also most of the trip spending for December won't hit until the January(as it was put on credit cards that we pay off each month in full)so we've got that to look forward to. rah.  January may be a worse financial month than December turned out to be.

I am just happy to see we didn't go into the red in December. 8-))

THOUGHTS going forward into JANUARY 2024---Well the healthcare premiums get turned on it's ear in January as I go onto Medicare like Hubs.  Yay.  No more $1K+ a month for private insurance for me(only Hubs vision benefit of $15.91-which he keeps for life)but now we have 2 x Medicare Part B premiums, 2 x Part D drug supplement premiums and 2 x Medigap supplement premiums.  All that still ends up costing a bit less than what we paid before I hit Medicare age. go us. 

There will be higher than normal credit card bills(trip-gas, hotels, food), Christmas bills(some paid in December thankfully), I bought new clothes and supplements on the trip, heating bill will be higher(it's Winter, duh!) and I have a big payment due in January for the cruise for this April.  We will have a quarterly 401K withdrawal hitting our account in January which will pay for the cruise balance(I used about $500 worth of c/c points to put toward that which helped lower that bill).  In the end, January bills may end up putting us in the red for the month but we can handle it.

In 2023 the "Perfect Storm" of bills put us in the red for only two months-February and June(for a total of -$10,005.79, while we came out ahead the other 10 months for a total of $33,146.26 for 2023.  Subtracting those 2 months when we went negative we had a yearly gain of $23,140.47 overall.*

* While we had a gain of $23,140.47 some of those funds aren't "liquid", as in CD interest and Bond interest.  We'll realize those funds once these investing instruments mature.

Here's hoping 2024 treats us all even better financially! 8-))

So how was your December financially?

Did you spend less than the income you had in December?

Did you stay within your budget or not?

What did you do with any money leftover at the end of the month?

Did you pay down/off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings, in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

Or did you blow all your excess monies after bills were paid on a "want"?

If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check out your progress too and celebrate or commiserate with you!

Sluggy