I first went to Thailand in 1997 and immediately fell in love with the country. Thailand at that time to me was mysterious and exotic, full of potentials and pitfalls.
Fast forward to 2010 and here I am after 13 years and many trips to the LOS sharing, with the help of my 
Finances
I know the chart below doesn’t look the greatest, but it does give you all the pertinent information about our current budget. I thought about playing around with it, but really wanted to get it posted and besides it looks much better in the new theme I will be rolling out in the next week or two. So, bear with me for now and focus on the information rather than the presentation 
Some notes to better understand what we’re looking at:
- The income category ‘Golfs Contributions’ are Golf’s half of the household expenses. We do currently keep separate accounts and both of us like it that way. All of the household expenses are paid from my account and she simply transfers half of these expenses to me when necessary.
- The difference in income and expenses of $1,713.98 will be savings. Golf can also contribute at least $500 a month to that number meaning we will save about $2200.00 a month. That’s the good news. The bad news is I don’t think that’s enough to meet our 2 year goal. More discussion on that will follow in upcoming months.
- We have already cut over $400 in expenses from our current budget.
- The salary listed for me is net after taxes, insurance, child support and 401(k) deductions which is currently 13% of my salary. Hope to increase that soon.
If you see any glaring opportunities to save let me know in the comments below. I think the only way to increase our savings at this point is to increase our income. The good thing about that is that if I increase the online income categories (Google and Other Affiliate) it not only benefits us now, but also benefits us after we’ve moved.
| January 2010 | |
| Income | |
| Salary | $2,800.00 |
| Golf Contribution | $803.32 |
| $800.00 | |
| Other Affiliate Income | $630.00 |
| Expenses | |
| Rent | $625.00 |
| Cell Phone | $155.00 |
| Cable & Internet | $115.00 |
| Electric | $120.00 |
| My Auto Lease | $328.48 |
| Car Insurance | $191.65 |
| Student Loan | $93.21 |
| Gas | $50.00 |
| Groceries | $400.00 |
| Capital One CC | $700.00 |
| Circuit City CC | $25.00 |
| Cash | $100.00 |
| IRA Savings | $416.00 |
| Total Income | $5,033.32 |
| Total Expense | $3,319.34 |
| Difference | $1,713.98 |
| Current Savings | |
| 401(k) | |
| IRA | |
| Total Savings |
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Great articles they seem to be getting better all the time and current, not old stale stuff you usually get on different sites.
keep up the good work
Ok. Good. Now, at some point in 2010 you have to file income taxes for 2009. You may or may not owe Federal or State income tax, but at least take a look at that, and maybe create a category for projected taxes owed. Since I don’t know what your withholdings and action deductions may be, I can’t project it for you, but assuming you will be filing joint with estimated reportable w-2 income of $33,600.00(minus your 401k, since that comes off the top) and your other income of $17,160.00, which I further assume you will be reporting on form 1040 (Schedule C) and it may or may not show a profit, then, yeah, take a peek and see. I’m simply looking at your January 2010 (then annualizing) and making the assumption that you had similar earnings in 2009. I’m not trying to make anything technical for you, but just want you to be mindful of that, just in case.
Oops. You listed your salary as net, so when projecting, take the gross less the 401k)
That’s a pretty good monthly income from Google and Affliiates. Not many sites actually make a solid income stream.
are they in USD?
@ Dave – Thanks, glad you appreciate the frequent updating and feel my writing is improving.
@ Norman – Based on previous years I know I will owe a considerable amount of tax come April. We will be paying that from current savings which is why I haven’t created a budget category for that. I will definitely have to plan better for the tax situation, part of that will come in increased 401(k) contributions and part will come from our new dependent in 2010. I would like to avoid paying additional tax without hampering our ability to save money for the move too much. Once we are in Thailand our income will drop significantly and at that point our tax burden will be much smaller.
@ Richard – Thanks, it has taken a while to get to that level and not all of those earnings are from this site (in case you were wondering).
@ Vicky – Yes, all figures in the budget are in USD.
Quite intrigued; what is a golf contribution?
Also don’t know what is the exact date you plan to leave, but if you do it three or four months into the tax year, you should get lots of tax back; that’s always nice
Deano
Hi Deano,
The income category ‘Golfs Contributions’ are Golf’s half of the household expenses…rent, cell phone, cable, internet, electric and groceries. We keep separate budgets, she transfers money to my account for household expenses and I pay all of the household expenses from my account.
Hi Steve,
I can have a definite ‘doh’ moment there, I read the post and knew your wife was called Golf. Yet, when I read it all I could think of was you caddying at the local golf club, or looking for lost balls and selling them!
Thanks! You seriously made me laugh out loud there. And don’t think you’re the only one who’s had that thought