MAY DAY, MAY DAY! It's time to get into my May monthly recap and overview. I had the highest income for 2021 this April. Although I am so grateful for it, I wish it were because of happier circumstances. I also had a very shoppy month as I’m on the hunt for the perfect high cut black bikini for summer. I’m excited to share with you a look behind the scenes of my May spending.
Context About My Situation
I know you're probably not new here, but in case you somehow landed on this article and you are, hey, what's up!? Go subscribe to my Youtube channel 🙃. Here’s a bit about me so you have a better understanding of my financial situation:
Live at home with my parents, so no rent, utilities, or groceries (I buy dinner when Mom doesn’t feel like cooking.)
Have 6 figure salary as a visual designer in tech with 8 years of experience
No debt, parents helped pay for my undergraduate education
Parents saved for their own retirement
Income
Let's dive into my May numbers.
💰 Paycheck: $6,222.69
I had an average paycheck this month.
👗 Resale: $149
I sold a few items on Poshmark this month. I don’t add new items very actively because it’s a lot of work, but it’s fun when I get a few sales to throw into my investments!
🎨 Freelance: $2164.20
I finally got paid for building a client’s Squarespace website. I love Squarspace, it’s so easy to cutomize and it is what I use for this blog.
💵 Cash back: $194.50
📈 Interest: $4.57
I keep my 6 month emergency fund in Ally high yield savings account and I also have a high yield checking account at Wealthfront. Collect all the interest!!!
🤑 Dividends: $19.54
Definitely a big drop from the $200 in dividends I got last month since it was the end of Q1.
🍯 Millennial Money Honey: $151.94
THIS was a hugeee month for MMH! After a year of running this blog, I finally got my very first Google Adsense payout! You need $100 to be able to cash out and it took over a year to reach that threshold.
I also got my first $10 from Anchor. I publish the audio from my Youtube videos there and when people listen it via podcast I earn a few cents every time it gets played.
Finally a little bit came from my Etsy shop.
🌟 Other: $5,219.20
I was supposed to go to Taylor Swift’s Lovers Fest West concert last year. However that finally got cancelled and I got a refund back. 😢 I will have to console myself with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in the meantime.
The majority of this, $5,000 came from a windfall that I received from my late grandmother, my Popo. She passed away last year at the age of 94 and gave all the grandchildren a little bit of money. I really wish I would’ve been able to see her before she passed, but unfortunately due to the travel restrictions, I wasn’t able to see her. I am so sad, but so blessed to have gotten to know her for the 29 years I did.
🤝 Affiliate: $230
I use the Dosh app to earn passive income. All you do is download the app, link your credit card and go about your merry way! They partner with places like Popeyes, Sephora, Adidas, and more stores to give you cash back. It is kind of like Rakuten in that sense BUT you don’t have to remember to click a browser extension or anything, which is why I like it better. One day you open it up and you have money you can cash out!
I promoted it on my Instagram the other day, so I received some affiliate money. Thanks to all those who used my link! If you haven’t had a chance to check it out feel free to use my link for the Dosh app and get your first $10 free! 🤑
Expenses
🏡 House: $0
⚡️ Utilities: $0
🚖 Transportation: $0
Not going anywhere!
🥦 Groceries: $0
🍽 Food: $141.35
We ate out quite a bit this month!
🍹 Drinks: $0
👩💻 Work: $174.02
I bought a Squarespace subscription for a client whose website I’m working on. However I will be reimbursed for the $115 I paid when I invoice them through the Bonsai app at the end of the project.
Bonsai is the best freelancing software. It puts together contracts, has templates for project proposals, and makes invoice for clients very easy to pay. Bonsai makes me look so professional (read: EXPENSIVE). I highly recommend checking it out if you're a freelancer or solo entrepreneur.
🍿 Entertainment: $32.10
I spent a little bit on my crafting hobbies this month! I put those expenses under entertainment. I made a rainbow catcher, fixed up an ornate gold mirror, and spruced up a Mid Century Modern desk that I got for free.
I am planning on flipping the desk, since I got it in decent
✈️ Travel: $0
🚙 Car: $0
🏥 Health: $36
I made the mistake of picking up scissors that were sitting on the bathroom counter and attempting to give myself face framing layers 💇♀️ . LOL. As a result of the predictably horrendous results, I ended up going to a hairdresser to even everything out.
I wish I would have just gone to her in the first place, because although she did what she could to fix it, the end result is much shorter than I would have liked thanks to my poor handiwork. I have only myself to blame.
🛍 Shopping: $198.66
I went with my sister to drop off her car at the shop. What was supposed to be a short wait turned into 5 hours, so we went to the mall to kill time. Of course, you know what the means…
She was going on quite the shopping spree and me being me, I couldn’t resist browsing. It’s been so long since I’ve truly shopped at a mall. Plus I’ve been on the hunt for a high cut bikini for summer and started buying up ones to try on since I couldn’t at the store.
I am going to be returning a lot of the things I bought, but in the meantime, this is the damage.
💝 Gifts: $86.45
It’s my sister’s birthday this month so we split the cordless vacuum she wanted. Hopefully she’s not reading this, but if so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH! (She knows we got it for her.)
❓Miscellaneous: $0
Savings
👵 401K: $0
I maxed all $19,500 of this out! So no more 401K contributions for 2021.
💰IRA: $0
Also maxed all $6K of this out.
🏦 Savings: $0
I basically invested everything this month and then some, so I didn’t really save.
📈 Brokerage: $11,610
I decided to put $2,000 of the money my Popo gave me into SCHD (Schwab’s Dividend ETF) since she was a huge fan of dividend stocks. Although I normally don’t invest in this fund, I decided to do it in her memory.
I bit the bullet and without much research, decided to invest $100 into cryptocurrency. I opened a Coinbase account and put $100 into BTC. I am also planning on buying a little Ethereum. This is 0.01% of my entire portfolio.
This is not financial advice, just what I’m doing. If you are in high interest debt, don’t have an emergency fund, and haven’t started investing into more traditional methods, I personally would not look at crypto as the place to start. Again, this is an extremely small FRACTION of my overall portfolio.
I also opened a brokerage account with Public. A friend recommended it to me and Graham Stephan and a lot of other financial influencers are on there as well so I wanted to see what it was all about! The verdict is still out but the UI is nice and easy to use. I will probably only put fun money in here. If you’re interested in checking it out my Public link earns you up to $50 in free stock!
💵 SEP IRA: $0
I had a chat with a CPA and applied to open a SEP IRA account with Schwab. It is still pending approval, but will hopefully be open soon so I can transfer funds here before the May 17th tax deadline.
💸 Checking: $425
Checking is my income minus the rest of my savings accounts. I don’t have a separate category for that under my savings column in my money tracking spreadsheet.
Monthly Totals
🤑 Income: $11,884.50
💸Expenses: $668.58
🏦 Savings: $11,215.91
📊 Savings Rate: 94.37%
Again this is the most income I’ve had this year thanks to my Popo and as a result of that I was able to save and invest over 5 figures into the market.
I am so, so, so grateful to her and my family for setting me up for financial success and happiness. Go watch the video up top to hear some wisdom from my grandma.
If you’re on your own journey to early retirement be sure to check out my Youtube and subscribe below!
Let’s retire early together!
p.s. I am still on the search for the perfect black bikini though so if you have any recs drop a comment below.
