February & March 2015 Money Report

It is time for another monthly Money Report!  This time it is a two for one special as I failed to put out a report for February.  Things have been moving right along in the past two month, and I have seen some pretty good results – read on to see how my money making, saving, and investing went for the month!

To view any previous monthly money reports, check these monthly money reports.

 

 

Actions Plans for February & March 2015

Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress

• Post at least 2 videos on MoneyAhoy Youtube Channel
  • Failure!  I have not produced a single video in the past two months 🙁  Shame on me!
• Re-read the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
  • Complete!  I have read this book four times now, and still enjoy it each and every time.  I was also able to convince a good friend to purchase and read, and I think they are on their way to improved finances 🙂
• Up my investing to $25,000 per month until cash from home sale is fully invested
  • Complete!  I have invested ~$25,000 each month for the past two months.
• Post 2015 goals for myself (saving, making, and investing)
  • Some Progress – I have brainstormed most of my goals, but I haven’t posted them yet.  I will count this as half done.
• Write 8 posts for MoneyAhoy
  • Some Progress – I almost made it here.  I had 6 posts for February and 7 posts for March.  Close but no cigar!

Not so hot on my monthly goals for the past two months.  Hopefully I can get some motivation and super-charge to complete all of my goals for April – now let’s look at the graphs and details of money for the month:

 

Notes on Making Money for February & March 2015

February and March were good money making months.  I received my annual bonus in February, so that helped out a bunch 🙂  My wife has also been working ~20 hours a week, so our income has pretty much stabilized for the time being.

Dividend income was good for March, but I was expecting to see another all time high payout since I’ve been continuing to invest.  Oh well…  Side hustle income has also been pretty nice for the past two months, and it looks like a nice upward trend is in place.  We will see if I can keep it going up 🙂

Here are the side-hustle income highlights for February and March:

• Sponsored Posts – $750 ($325 for Feb. and $425 for Mar.)
• Monthly Dividends – $456 ($68 for Feb. and $388 for Mar.)
• LegalZoom – $224 ($112 for Feb. and $112 for Mar.)
• Ebay – $83 ($0 for Feb. and $84 for Mar.)
• Ad in sidebar – $50 ($25 for Feb. and $25 for Mar.)
• Youtube – $45 ($22 for Feb. and $23 for Mar.)
• Google Adsense – $37 ($21 for Feb. and $16 for Mar.)
• Stock Market Investing for Newbies book – $9 ($5 for Feb. and $4 for Mar.)
• TOTAL = $1,653 ($577 for Feb. and $1,076 for Mar.)

Total side income (dividends plus side-hustles) came in around to almost $1,653 for both months total.  That is pretty fricken sweet!  Let’s hope I can keep up the momentum!!

Notes on Money Saving for February & March 2015

Drum roll please…..

Our expenses were the lowest ever on record again for February!!!  We set a new record in January that I thought would be pretty difficult to beat.  Well, we came in $250 lower than that in February!  March was not all that great from an expense standpoint due to a series of special causes.  Here are all of our special expenses for the past two months (most of these hit in March):

• $529 – New tires for wife’s van.  Not sure how the hell the tires were this expensive, but it is over and done with now and I’m trying not to think about it!  I think for the next time we will do a little pre-shopping first to ensure we find a good deal.
• $281 – Spinning exercise bike – with my wife’s new job, she is far away from the YMCA and it made more sense to purchase our own spinning bike than have her drive an extra 40 minutes every day to the gym.
• $225 – Did I mention that we got a new puppy?  Well, two trips to the vet later and our wallets are $200+ lighter.
• $200 – Disney World reservations – This will be our big vacation this year.  We plan to stay at the Fort Wilderness to save a bunch of money on accomodations as well as share the campsite site with the in-laws.  Hint – we will be the ones in the tent 🙂
• $199 – Dentist to fill my daughter’s cavity 🙁  He said this was a cavity that formed through normal growth and no amount of teeth brushing could have prevented it?  Anyways…
• $103 – Portrait Innovations – We paid to get our kids school pictures through Portrait Innovations vs. buying the normal school pictures.  Sometimes our kids take REALLY bad pictures.  We couldn’t bear the thought of shelling out $75 up front and having dozens of bad pictures.  So, we decided to pay just a little bit more and have 25+ pictures to choose from so we’d be guaranteed that it would be money well spent.
• $94 – Michaels – my wife bought a bunch of stuff to make our own Disney World T-Shirts and some other birthday present for nieces.
• $26 – I bought a rotary sander (also used a gift card) to refinish a chair that had a bunch of mold growth on it from being left outside.  I plan to do a future post on it once complete.

As you can see, the special expenses for the past two months really piled up!  Overall, our average savings rate for the past two months was 62% – that’s darned good!

Notes on Investing for February & March 2015

For the month of February, I purchased 122 shares of SPY.  SPY is the SPDR S&P-500 ETF that tracks the S&P-500 index.  It pays an annual dividend of ~1.9%.  The total invested for February was $25,407.

For the month of March, I purchased 500 shares of JNK and 425 shares of VWO.  JNK is a high yield (junk) bond ETF that pays a ~5.8% annual dividend.  VWO is a Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF that pays a ~2.6% annual dividend.  The total I invested for the month was ~$37,471.  As you can see, I am still working through investing all of the equity we received when we sold our home back in December 2014.

As you can see from the chart above, CASH is still a big percentage of our asset pie.  I’ve been steadily working this down from 30%+ to ~20% now.  We are still in the process of investing the equity from our old house after we sold it.  My plan is to completely invest this over a six month period and bring our cash holdings to something more reasonable like 5%.

If you are interested in stock market investing but don’t know where to get started, check out my excellent book: Stock Market Investing for Newbies.  It will get you up to speed very quickly!

Actions Plans for April 2015

Here are my goals for the new month:

• Spring cleaning – shed websites from my portfolio that are not generating money
• Read the book: Managing for Success: Practical Advice for Managers
• Post at least 2 videos on MoneyAhoy Youtube Channel
• Continue investing $25,000 per month until cash from home sale is fully invested
• Post 2015 goals for myself (saving, making, and investing, and general)
• Write 8 posts for MoneyAhoy
• Research potential financial blogs to purchase (plan to scout out sites on Flippa.com)
• Setup and install News Pro Theme from StudioPress for MoneyAhoy.com

Other Points of Interest

• These are the articles I posted for February:

1. How to Change Your Headlights
2. 5 Key Investment Styles From Top Investors (sponsored)
3. 7 Plumbing Jobs Most Homeowners Can Do Themselves (guest)
4. Saving Money on Home Entertainment (sponsored)
5. We Paid Off All Our Student Loans!
6. January 2015 Money Report

• These are the articles I posted for March:

1. How Much Does a Dog Cost per Month?
2. Simple Ways to Update Kitchen Cabinets on a Budget (guest)
3. Methods for Funding a Small Business (sponsored)
4. The Pros and Cons of Selling Your Annuity (sponsored)
5. How to Get Better Gas Mileage (guest)
6. How to Use Networking to Find a New Job
7. Which Pet Is The Cheapest? (sponsored)

What are your money saving, money making, and investing plans for April?