Checking In With My Savings Plan: September 2018 Edition

By Nicole Dieker October 2, 2018

In September I received $4,133.95 in freelance income and $121.98 in book royalties, or $4,255.93 total.

Here’s how I divided up the cash:

$212.80 went to my HSA
$212.80 went to my traditional IRA
$469.28 went to federal taxes
$117.32 went to state taxes
$255.36 went to my individual brokerage account
$255.36 went to savings
That left $2,733.03 for overhead, business, and personal expenses

I ended the month about $500 short of my $3K checking account buffer, but that was because a few checks that I thought would arrive last month are actually going to hit my bank account this month (one of them already arrived). I currently have $4,012 in outstanding freelance invoices, all of which should pay out before October 15.

But yeah, I was anticipating that September would be a high cash-flow month and now it looks like October will be the high cash-flow month, which means that at the end of the month I’ll have to re-ask myself whether I should put any checking account money above $3K into savings, just to keep it a little out of reach.

My net worth dropped by $2,008 between the end of August and the end of September, which makes sense because I paid both my own estimated taxes and The Billfold LLC’s estimated taxes in September — and the $1,278 I transferred from The Billfold LLC’s bank account to pay back Iowa’s estimated taxes didn’t hit my bank account until October 1.

I’m predicting a net worth jump of around $3K this month, given the estimated tax repayment, my current outstanding checks, and my anticipated freelance work. This should put me really close to $90,000 by the end of October, which gives me two months to increase my net worth by another $10K and hit my six-figure net worth goal by the end of the year, which… probably isn’t going to happen. (Especially because December is generally a really low earning month.)

But hey, the year isn’t over yet — so I’m not going to completely give up on this goal. On the other hand, even aggressive budgeting and saving won’t get me there. I’m guessing I’ll receive $6K in freelance checks in October, $4K in November, and $3K in December. That’s $13,000 total, but taxes will get about $2K and the cost of living will eat up another $6K, so my net worth will really only increase by $5K between now and the end of the year in a best-case, no-major-discretionary-or-unexpected-expenses scenario.

We’ll have to see what happens.

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