Your Health Is Our Way: Financial Update – December 2014 Passive Income

One of my goals for 2014 was to start a financial blog. I failed to start another blog and decided to combine it into ThePharmacistBlog.com. One of the things we do not learn in school is how to manage our finances. It is quite surprising this is not taught in school as a core requirement. Learning how to manage finances is key to reach retirement, becoming financially independent, and/or less stressful life worrying about money.

It is not a good feeling that I am required to depend on my job to pay for my housing and living expenses. It kills me inside that I must depend on this for my basic needs to survive. That is why one of my long term goals is to become financially independent by the age of 40. I am currently 28 years old as of today. I started working at the age of 14 years old. I started to make significant income at the age of 25 when I became licensed as a pharmacist. Let me make this clear. I do not want to quite working by the age of 40 but to be financially independent. This simply means my passive income can pay for all my expenses without depending on my regular 40 hour a week job. I will most likely work as a pharmacist until I am 65 or 70 or however long I can still work. I plan to scale back when I become financially independent to maybe 16-24 hours a week.

People may be offended by my comments, but I do love what I do and care for my patients. I believe having more time on my hands will give me more time to contribute in different ways to society by changing the practice of pharmacy. Technology and healthcare is the future and I would love to get into this area one day in my career.

Lets take a look at our passive income for December 2014.

Financial Update – December 2014 Passive Income

Income: This is a strange month for my paychecks. I got cashed out from my previous employer for vacation time and now starting my new job at the hospital full time. That being said, the paychecks for this month was an all time high. Ms. RPh paychecks are consistent each month. She is not a pharmacist and works in the retail corporate world.

Dividends for December are high compared to the rest of the year. Most of our investments pay out dividends quarterly: March, June, September, December. Dividend payments for the month totaled to $1,109.36.

Savings Interest: We have some cash on reserve for emergencies. Total interest for the month came out to be $24.30

December Total Passive Income = $1,133.66 (Goal $35,000 per year before I consider going part-time)

Expenses: The glaring issue here is our food and dining cost totaling $1,035.75. Having it be the holidays a lot of food was purchased and gifted as well. Shopping expenses were higher this month as well because of gifts.

I currently rent an apartment for $1425 a month. This will be difficult to improve as I live in Seattle, WA. I have searched the surrounding area and to get my monthly rent lower I would have to compromise safety and transportation time for Ms. RPh. I would rather have her be safe than save a couple hundred dollars a month. I can definitely try a little harder in this area though.

Bills & Transport includes our cell phone bill (family plan, I also pay for my mom and dad) and cable internet/TV. Right now we use AT&T. We might consider switching to T-Mobile to save $20-30 dollars per month. Ms. RPh car payments will be complete in Spring of 2015. This should add an additional $300 in savings each month. No reason to pay this car off as there is 0% interest on the loan.

Savings: Overall it was a superb month for net savings percentage of 78.85%. Any month above 50% savings is a win for me. Our savings rate will not be this high in subsequent months considering it is a dividend payout month and my vacation cash out. Our net worth grew about $10,000 for the month of December. I am not 100% sure on the figure because I added Ms. RPh financial accounts to Mint.com in November and December. Going forward we will have more accurate net worth growth figures. Keep in mind each month will have large fluctuations on our net worth based on how the stock market is doing, passive income, and how often I work at my second job.

I hope to inspire others with my goals and I would love to hear yours. We are here to support each other, comment below.