Hello and welcome to my first monthly update! As this is a new blog, I wanted to write this update as soon as possible, as I really enjoy tracking my financial progress throughout months.

A small note: the amount was converted to euros (from croatian kunas), using a 7.5 exchange rate (1 EUR – 7.5 HRK)

Ok, let’s dive in!

INCOME

This month was usual regarding my income. I will show my income split into 3 different types: salary, freelancing and bonus/passive income.

Salary

• Salary from my job, the usual amount – 1173 EUR
• This might seem low for a month’s pay, but it is cca 30% above the average pay in Croatia 

Side business

• I help clients with digital advertising on the side. Right now, I have 2 clients on retainer.
• Which in total gets me 373 EUR per month

Passive income

• In this category I will include income that isn’t directly tied to me working actively. Right now, that includes small dividends from a few stocks I invested in.
• This month’s passive income was 0.36 EUR (a small dividend from AGNC Investment stocks I own)

---

EXPENSES

My total expenses in August were 1,020.60 EUR, which is higher than the average this year. I have been eating out a lot with my girlfriend and a friend that just moved to my city. I think the eating out segment could be (and will be) lower in the next few months.

August expenses were slightly lower than the previous months, but it’s still pretty high. I have to reduce my expenses. Colder weather is coming, so I think it won’t be much of a problem. 🙂

Expense categories

As you can see above, my biggest expense is the mortgage for my apartment (in which I live). Followed by my credit card expense. Important thing to know is this is not credit card debt – these are purchases that I pay for in installments (with 0% interest). Since this pandemic has resulted in much more working from home this year, I invested in my home office. I bought a new laptop (Macbook Air 2019), new work chair (IKEA Markus), new wireless keyboard and mouse (Logitech K380 & Logitech MX Master 2S). In total, my new home office has cost me 1500 EUR. Since I’m paying for it in installments, it wasn’t much of a financial burden at once. By the end of the year, I will have paid off everything on the credit card. Since my credit card gives me the possibility to buy in installments (without any interests, APR or extra fees!), I usually use that option when I’m buying more expensive things (that I actually need, and would have bought anyways). That way I distribute that one big expense across several months (I can choose from 2-36 months, I usually choose 6).

Regarding the other expenses, the biggest categories are Food (groceries), Eating out, Utilities and Miscellaneous (which include random little expenses, cash payments etc.). I definitely need to cut back on eating out, but since we were in lockdown it was really nice to go out for meals once the lockdown was over and things started to open up slowly.

---

SAVINGS

• August Savings rate: 6.27%
• This month’s savings rate is way below average for the whole year, but an improvement to the month before.
• This is something i definitely need to improve on – up until August I was doing really well, but August has brought in some bigger expenses (as will September)
• I need to improve on this as well, I would like to have at least a 50% savings rate at the end of the year

---

That’s it! My first ever time sharing my finances publicly on this blog!

Next update is coming in a few days, and will include my portfolio and net worth standing as of August.

I hope you’ve found this post useful and that you will be back for more. 🙂

Thank you for reading, catch you in the next one. 😉

MoneyOK.