Microeconomics: incomes, expenses, free resources

To not decrease income it is worth to now how big it is. Today it is easy to calculate. My mainly source of income is my full time job:

INCOME = 1184 $ monthly

It is very close to average salaries in Poland (gross). It was my requirement when I was looking for a job: have clear income at country average level.

I have some additional incomes: benefits in my company and income from financial market.
I treat financial markets rather like a school, so I am a bit over zero. 

This additional sources are so low that I will omit it in further analyze.

There are basically two ways to increase amount of 'free' resources. First is to increase income, second, to reduce expenses. Simple, isn't it?

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My monthly expenses:  

apartment:	114 $
life costs (food etc.):	200 $
entertainment (books, tickets etc.):	100 $
latte factor:	50 $
PhD studies:	20 $
other (gifts for Christmas etc.):	50 $
_____________________________	_____
EXPENSES TOTAL:	534 $

I do not put into practice any of my dreams expect PhD studies, so the rest is assigned as savings.

SAVINGS = INCOME – EXPENSES = 650 $

Let check if something could be reduced.

• First of all, latte factor (money spend on small pleasures). I could resign from "latte" once a week, but is it really the point?
  I started this blog because I would like to work less, live and enjoy my life. I assume reduction of expenses only if I have to invest some money in new, alternative, less time consuming source of income.  

• Life costs: here I have a big field to act. If I will spend less time in the office it will be possible not to eat in restaurants or bars and prepare food by myself. It does not look fantastic, but believe me it is really a lot. It is healthier, cheaper and this pleasure. Yes, I love cooking! 

Now it is time for second possibility: bigger income. This target could be reached in many ways:

• The simples - changing the job. I have 8 months of experience in elite embedded systems project, probably I will earn much more in my second job, but…
  New job == more time spent on enabling, more time to show new boss "Hey! I am worth money you pay me!"  This is not my goal.

• Start own company. It gives the comfort of being own boss, no limitation of work hours, but...
  It is really hard to find the gap in the market and beat the competitors. Practically I will spend much more time leading my own company than just working as a corpo-slave. Second thing – money: at the begging the income will be, most likely, negative. In case of success path and long time horizon income would be much bigger than normal salaries in corporation, even when we take at account possibility of promotion. Maybe good solution, but it is risky. I could loose the best years of my life to creating something I couldn't enjoy. I am scared thinking about time when I could consume earned money. 

• Last possibility: remote job, as contractor or freelancer. It is very demanding, without enormous self-control success is probably impossible, but…
  At he moment I think it is only way. How I imagine my remote job, what I am planning and much more in next posts.

That is all for today. About savings there, for sure, will be independent post.