November Nomad Income: Life Update (Where the Money Went)
This was a month of routine work and play, visits from family, and a profitable month of trading. We wish all of our months could be this wonderful!
Every day, we got up and at ’em and hopped on the motorcycle to drop Spencer off at his guarderia (daycare). He cried predictably every Monday, but otherwise had a great time with the wonderful ladies and children there, and didn’t seem to have any problem with Spanish being the only spoken language. (He actually surprised us the other day by counting to five in Spanish. !?) Sarah and I then took the bike to our coffee shop Ah Cacao and worked from around 9 am – 3 or 3:30 p.m. After picking Spencer up at four, we spent the afternoons together either at the beach, a playground, or at home horsing around. Dinner was either tacos or takeout ribs or Thai. The bad thing about an international lifestyle is the constant food cravings for cuisines from other parts of the world!
In mid-November, Sarah’s mother and grandmother arrived for a visit. We were so excited to have both of them, and they were excited to escape the dreary weather at home and eat some excellent food. The ladies saw the sights, including Chichen Itza, incredible Mayan ruins that are one of the new seven wonders of the world. I managed to join them on a trip to Tulum. Overall, this was a really fun month for us.
November Nomad Income: Trading
$4,560 in realized gains for November. Having the same capital at work in the S&P 500 would have resulted in around $1,300 gain, so I’m still beating the index.
I had a rough week in October, which wiped out the first three weeks of October’s earnings. The loss was due to being over leveraged and not in tune with the market or the volatility that comes with high leverage positions. It was an expensive lesson, but one that was understood and applied the very next week.
November was a great month. I managed to earn just over $1000 per week trading and returns were consistent. This wasn’t a result of one great trade, but of following a process that works and slowly taking profit on those trades. This wasn’t my best month for profits, but it was a month that I’m proud of in terms of trading technique and discipline. I hope to have many more of these months ahead, whether they’re $1,500 or $10,000 earnings.
November Nomad Income: Miscellaneous Income
Blogging: $1 – Clicking the “Shop on Amazon” link at the bottom of any of our pages before you shop on Amazon will give us a small commission. *long, obvious wink*
BigStock: $1 – Those seven stock images are still going strong. Haha 🙂
Writing: $0 – Sarah continued to submit work, but also took time off to visit with her mother and grandmother.
November Nomad Income: $4,562
November Nomad Expenditures
Accommodations: $662 (This covers a full month in our modern 2br apartment in central Playa del Carmen, Mexico.)
Transportation: $61 (petrol for the motorbike, traffic fine bribe, tire repair, bus tickets to Tulum)
Cigarettes: $109 (Yup, still a nasty habit and seems to have grown a this month.)
Child Care: $128 (We love Spencer’s guarderia! The ladies who work there are wonderful and friendly, and tell us about his day every day. This covers 5 days a week from 7:30-3:30pm)
Charity: $20 (Donation to Planned Parenthood)
Clothing: $22 (Spencer had pictures taken at his guarderia, so we bought him a new outfit for the pictures. Also, I bought a pack of t-shirts.)
College Debt Repayment: $100 (Sarah has one small college loan left to repay in installments.)
Entertainment: $32 ( Beach chair rentals, movie downloads, play place for Spencer)
Groceries: $223 (This is a cheap location for groceries and fresh produce, but we tend to eat out more here. Unfortunately, only 29% of our purchases this month were from local vendors. Mega and Walmart are one-stop shops, whereas we may have to visit three local grocery stores to find what we need. Path of least resistance…we’re working on it.)
Health & Beauty: $186 (This covers one massage and a couple of doctor’s appointments.)
Restaurants: $712 (An 11 dollar difference from the previous month, which is surprising given that we shook up our routine with Sarah’s family visiting. This includes working from a cafe 5 days a week and eating out once or twice a day.)
Supplies: $99 (This covers extra bedding and a couple toys for Spencer)
Utilities: $69 (We pay electricity and water at our apartment, also purchase airtime for our mobile phones.)
Vacation: $51 (Sarah took a trip with her mother and grandmother to Chichen Itza and went snorkeling around Puerto Morelos. We also took a trip near the end of the month to see the ruins in Tulum. Most of these expenses were covered by Sarah’s mother (THANKS MOM!) and the restaurants, transport, etc. are included in the above costs.)
Nomad Expenses: $2,474
Net Savings: $2,088
In our November Nomad Income, our obvious improvement areas are eating out and shopping at chain stores. It’s been interesting to see how our consumption patterns change with our location. Because of our great kitchen in Zagreb and the small business economy, we ate out less and spent more on family-owned businesses. In Playa, our apartment has no oven and the kitchen is too hot/small to cook in–we also don’t know where to go other than megastores for things like clothing, bedding, etc. In our next location (Guanajuato in January after a trip home for the holidays), we plan to prioritize a good kitchen and really get to know the local stores.
—
If our November Nomad Income report was your first layover with us, you may want to check out our other Income Reports.
Leave a Reply