Below you’ll find all my finance details for March 2019.
I spent the entire month in Gran Canaria.
I’ve been tracking everything I earn and spend since January 2011, just a few weeks after quitting my day job. Every month since, I’ve published one of these finance reports.
Sharing this info publicly keeps me accountable and hopefully gives you some insight into how I earn a living online.
Patrons get to see each new report before anyone else.
Summary
Total Income | € 3,075 | $ 3,457 |
Total Expenses | € 2,833 | $ 3,185 |
Profit/Loss | € 242 | $ 272 |
Income
Consulting / Project Management 1 | € 2,263 | $ 2,544 |
Affiliate income (see below) | € 456 | $ 513 |
Freedom Business Builder 2 | € 222 | $ 249 |
Patreon 3 | € 105 | $ 118 |
Book sales (via Amazon) | € 29 | $ 32 |
Total Income | € 3,075 |
$ 3,457 |
Previous Month | € 2,261 | $ 2,573 |
I was aiming to pull in €2,500 in March. Beat that by €475 mainly thanks to affiliate income.
Affiliate income came from:
- Amazon
- Booking.com
- Earn More Writing
- George Kao’s Facebook marketing course
- Gosub
- SafetyWing
- The Authority Site System
- Udemy
Expenses
Food & Drink
Eating out | € 326 | $ 367 |
Groceries | € 214 | $ 241 |
Total | € 540 |
$ 607 |
Previous Month | € 450 | $ 512 |
Housing & Utilities
1 month coliving at The Pool in Gran Canaria | € 632 | $ 711 |
Total | € 632 |
$ 711 |
Previous Month | € 685 | $ 779 |
Health Care
SafetyWing travel insurance 4 | € 33 | $ 37 |
Nurofen | € 7 | $ 8 |
Total | € 40 |
$ 45 |
Previous Month | € 33 | $ 38 |
Travel & Transport
3 days car rental in Gran Canaria 5 | € 60 | $ 68 |
Fuel for rental car | € 23 | $ 26 |
Taxi in Gran Canaria | € 20 | $ 22 |
Parking in Gran Canaria | € 4 | $ 4 |
Bus: LPA to Las Palmas | € 3 | $ 3 |
Las Palmas city bike | € 3 | $ 3 |
Total | € 113 |
$ 127 |
Previous Month | € 196 | $ 223 |
Business Expenses
Accountant 6 | € 400 | $ 450 |
Outsourcing 7 | € 315 | $ 354 |
Dreamhost web hosting 8 | € 147 | $ 165 |
1 month coworking at CWC in Las Palmas 9 | € 120 | $ 135 |
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 10 | € 112 | $ 126 |
Ahrefs subscription 11 | € 36 | $ 40 |
Rev.com transcription 12 | € 26 | $ 30 |
Kindle case 13 | € 22 | $ 25 |
SmarterQueue 14 | € 20 | $ 22 |
Google Drive storage (1TB) 15 | € 18 | $ 20 |
MemberMouse 16 | € 18 | $ 20 |
Phone credit | € 15 | $ 17 |
Patreon fees 17 | € 14 | $ 15 |
PayPal fees | € 14 | $ 15 |
YouTube Premium 18 | € 10 | $ 12 |
Virtual Post Mail 19 | € 9 | $ 10 |
TransferWise fees | € 8 | $ 8 |
Private Internet Access (VPN) | € 6 | $ 7 |
Awin publisher registration fee | € 4 | $ 5 |
Amazon Web Services (storage) 20 | € 3 | $ 3 |
Upwork fees | € 1 | $ 1 |
Teamwork project management software 21 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 1,317 | $ 1,481 |
Previous Month | € 1,210 | $ 1,377 |
Gifts & Donations
Flowers | € 45 | $ 51 |
Effective Altruism Fund 22 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Monthly Love & Courage podcast donation 23 | € 5 | $ 6 |
SamHarris.or subscription 24 | € 4 | $ 4 |
Patreon: The Blindboy Podcast 25 | € 3 | $ 3 |
Total | € 65 |
$ 73 |
Previous Month | € 29 | $ 32 |
Books 26
Blue Ocean Strategy 27 | € 18 | $ 21 |
Total | € 18 |
$ 21 |
Previous Month | € 22 | $ 25 |
Clothing
Adidas running shoes | € 34 | $ 38 |
Wooly hat | € 8 | $ 9 |
Carnaval costume | € 6 | $ 7 |
Total | € 48 |
$ 54 |
Previous Month | € 116 | $ 132 |
Miscellaneous Expenses
Toiletries | € 13 | $ 15 |
Netflix subscription | € 11 | $ 12 |
Monthly banking fees (Hong Kong bank) 28 | € 8 | $ 9 |
Quarterly banking fee (Irish bank) | € 7 | $ 8 |
Laundry | € 6 | $ 7 |
Las Palmas science museum | € 6 | $ 7 |
Mosquito repellant | € 5 | $ 6 |
Earplugs | € 2 | $ 2 |
Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Total | € 59 |
$ 66 |
Previous Month | € 49 | $ 56 |
Expense Summary
Business Expenses | € 1,317 | $ 1,481 |
Housing & Utilities | € 632 | $ 711 |
Food & Drink | € 540 | $ 607 |
Travel & Transport | € 113 | $ 127 |
Gifts & Donations | € 65 | $ 73 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | € 59 | $ 66 |
Clothing | € 48 | $ 54 |
Health Care | € 40 | $ 45 |
Books | € 21 | $ 18 |
Total Expenses | € 2,833 |
$ 3,185 |
Previous Month | € 2,790 | $ 3,174 |
I was aiming to keep everything under €2,500 for the month. Went a little overboard, mainly due to business expenses.
Biggest Regret?
Bought the wrong case for my new Kindle, so that was a complete waste of $25.
Where That Leaves Me
I had €14,477 / $16,469 to my name at the end of February.
Taking into account all my March income and expenditure, and the most recent exchange rates – I have accounts in EUR, HKD and USD – my total bank and cash balances now work out to €15,379 / $17,291. 29
Outlook For April
Hard to predict, as I’ll be spending time in four different places in April: Gran Canaria, Ireland, Amsterdam, and Bali.
I have friends and family kindly hosting me in Ireland and Amsterdam, so that helps trim the expenses, and all my other accomadation is already paid for. Flights, too. Given that, I’m thinking I should be able to come in under €2,500 total.
As for earnings, around €3,500 should be doable. I expect my affiliate income to be around $1,000 or more, with another €2,000 or so coming from freelancing.
How I Track All This
Curious as to how I track everything I earn and spend? Check this video…
Feedback Welcome
Thoughts? Questions? Speak up in the comments below.
Archived Finance Reports
I’ve been posting these monthly finance reports since January, 2011. You can view all my old reports via this page.
So you registered your business in the US?
You are back to Asia once again and now checking out Bali! I have never been there myself despite it’s so close! Let me know when you are there, perhaps another catch-up time!
By the way, do you know Thomas Despin? He looks like a nice person with an interesting entrepreneur background. He has built his own co-working and co-living space in Bali. I would be really interested in checking out this place and connecting with him.
Hey Hazel,
Yeah, I registered my business in the US in 2016, after a disastrous year trying to be a good Irish citizen with an Irish company. I shut down the latter because it was a pain in the ass to manage and pay for without living in Ireland.
Wrote a bit about it here: https://ebizfacts.com/digital-nomad-taxes-business-registration/
I’ll be in Bali from the end of April until… not sure yet. Might just be a month, might be 3-4 months. We’ll see how we like it.
Thanks for the heads up about Thomas as well. I’ve reached out to him. His coliving space looks nice!
Right, I remember you had problems with registering a business in Ireland but I didn’t know you set up one in the US at the end. I also plan to register my business (like finally?) either in Singapore or Malaysia but I haven’t fully figured out the tax part yet. I want to pay lesser tax as much as possible, or even avoid it altogether since I am not staying in Malaysia and my clients aren’t from Singapore either. Lol. I remember you mentioned a service you use. But if you also come across a digital nomad who is Malaysian AND Singapore PR, please let me know!
Yeah I think Thomas has done a lot of cool things in Bali including owing an island I believe and now building his own cabin. He shared his story of how he had come to Bali with almost no money in the bank, then how successfully built a profitable drop shipping business but to sell it after realizing it wasn’t aligned with his purpose. Now he’s all about building a sustainable island community. Definitely wish to meet him in person.
Hey Niall,
Maybe you’d like to check the option of registering a business with the digital Estonian residency? I’m sure you know about it. It gives you the freedom to travel wherever you want at the same time having everything in control. If you’re interested don’t hesitate to let me know and I can explain how it works.
Hi Victoria,
Thanks for that but I looked into Estonian e-residency a few years ago and found that registering my business in the USA was a better move for me. Not having to worry about VAT is nice, plus as a one-person LLC in the US there’s no corporate tax.