March 2017 Money Report
The MoneyAhoy March 2017 Money Report is ready for you to check out! Read on to find out how I successfully make over $250/hour blogging in my spare time. I also discuss our money making, money saving, and investment performance for the month. This report is packed with helpful tips on how you can start your own side hustle business and start bringing in cash for yourself! It was a nice month overall, so let’s dig in.
To view any previous monthly money reports, check these monthly money reports. Let’s start with a review of our goals for March 2017 to see how we did:
Actions Plans for March 2017
Here is a quick review of how we did with our goals for the month of March:
Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress
- Publish 6 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
- COMPLETE – we had a total of 9 posts for the month.
- Publish 1 post for HealthierDay.com
- NO PROGRESS – we did not get a post complete for HealthierDay.com this month 🙁
- Create 2 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy
- COMPLETE – I made a video Can I Form an LLC in Another State? and How to Get a 1800 Toll Free Number in Less Than 5 Minutes
- Exercise at least 15 minutes every day
- COMPLETE – I have settled into a routine where I am jogging 30 minutes two times a week and doing ab workouts the other days.
- Gain over 500 Pinterest followers (get to 3,500 followers)
- SOME PROGRESS – I added about 300 followers for the month, so not quite to the goal 🙂
- Make over $1,000 / month in side-income (blog + dividend income)
- COMPLETE – This one was pretty easy for the month. Total side-income was almost tripple the goal!
We did pretty well with hitting the goals we set forth for March. We hit 4 out of 6 with some progress on the 5th goal. I’m happy with how we did overall. Now let’s get onto the money discussion!
March 2017 – Money Report
Notes on Making Money for March 2017
We had a below-average month for total income in March. This is mostly because my wife did not work as many hours due to various field trips with the kids, family visits out of town, and the like. As a result, our total monthly income was lowest in the past six months. That’s OK as we fully expected this, so it was not a surprise.
On another note, I did receive a normally scheduled cost of living increase in March. So, that will pump up my gross income by a couple hundred bucks each month going forward. Every little bit helps!
Total side-income from March was very nice coming in at $2,855. This number was helped a great deal by quarterly dividends 🙂 The split between MoneyAhoy.com income and dividends was as follows:
- $1,316 – MoneyAhoy.com income
- $1,539 – dividends
For the MoneyAhoy.com income for the month, all this money was made in the month with less than 5-hours of total work spent on the blog. That means I am earning over $250/hour by running my own blog!! If that sounds awesome to you, maybe you should consider starting your own WordPress blog with Bluehost? Check out my article linked there to get started on your money making journey all for less than $4 a month!
My new income goal for 2017 is to make over $1,000 each month of side-income (MoneyAhoy.com blog income plus dividends). You can see that we are averaging more than this if we can continue our money-making momentum, but I’d like to try and make $1,000 each and every month just to prove I can do it. This was pretty easy for the month of March as monthly dividends were over the goal even if MoneyAhoy.com didn’t make a dime.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the total $2,855 in side-income for the month of March. I have included links as much as I can to hel pyou learn and see how I am incorporating affiliate programs into this blog to generate side-income:
- Monthly Investment Dividends – $1,539 (JNK, HYG, PEP, INTC, VBK, VNQ, VTI )
- Cheapest Way to Create an LLC Online – $757
- Sponsored Posts – $354
- Youtube – $80
- How to create a blog with Bluehost for cheap – $65
- SeedingUp Digital Content Marketing– $27
- Advertisements in sidebar – $25
- MyFinance end of post ads – $15
- Google Adsense – $11
- Amazon Affiliates – $4
- Stock Market Investing for Newbies
book – $2
- TOTAL = $2,855
I take all of the stock market investment dividends and reinvest them to put the power of compounding interest to good work. I also use the money made with MoneyAhoy.com and reinvest it back into the blog (see How to Pay Yourself from your LLC) or invest the profits into the stock market.
Did you notice that monthly dividend graph slowly go up higher and higher? That’s because we are continually investing each and every month! If you’d like to learn more about investing, read my free book: Stock Market Investing for Newbies.
Notes on Money Saving for March 2017
March was a pretty nice month for money saving in our family. We did not break any records, but our monthly expenses were below the 6-month running average. Routine expenses were a bit higher in groceries category. This was due to me hosting a cookout for my work team at the park and costs for Easter dinner.
Non-routine expenses were pretty reasonable for March, but we did have two big ones:
- $407 – We got a family seasons pass of four tickets to our nearby theme park and water park. It is good family fun, and we usually end up going 7 or 8 times throughout the year, so the price isn’t that unreasonable when you look at it that way 🙂
- $143 – My wife signed up for a belly dancing class at the local college. Just something fun she wanted to try.
We now have a total of $11,600 in our new van fund. We continue to put $1,000 a month away so that we will have enough to replace my wife’s van when the time comes. In just a couple more months, we should be able to have enough set aside for a pretty decent one. If we decide to continue holding out longer and continuing to save, we’ll just be able to afford one that is much nicer. Basically, it is just a question of “when to cash in the chips.”
Our overall savings rate for the month was 74%. While it is certainly not the best savings rate we have ever had, it is still really awesome! I am more than happy with keeping our savings rate at these sort of levels :-).
Notes on Investing for March 2017
For the month of March, I purchased 102 shares of VEA for about $4,100 in my normal investing account. VEA is the Vanguard Developed Markets ETF. It tracks international capital markets of Europe, Australasia, and the Far East. This ETF is currently paying an annual dividend yield of 2.62%.
My portfolio is a little over-allocated in bonds, so I am also trying to shift some money around to correct for this. You won’t find me engaging in any sexy day trading or investing in single stocks like snapchat or anything. It’s pretty boring overall, but that’s what long-term investing is supposed to be! If it is too exciting, then you are probably doing it wrong :-).
If you truly want to gain financial independence, then you need to learn more about investing to build your long-term wealth! Investing in the stock market is one way to build up your passive income stream. Check out my free stock market investing Ebook to get started on your own stock market investing journey now!
Actions Plans for April 2017
We achieved a number of our March goals, so I would like to ratchet up April’s goals to see if we can hit them. This will be offset a bit by the fact that we are going to go on vacation for a couple of days, so I want to remain realistic. Here’s what I am thinking:
April 2017 Goals
- Publish 10 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
- Publish 1 post for HealthierDay.com
- Create 2 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy
- Exercise at least 15 minutes every day
- Gain over 250 Pinterest followers (get to 3,750 followers)
- Make over $1,000 / month in side-income (blog + dividend income)
I have fallen a bit behind, but I need to double down on my plan to trade off a bit of time writing articles for MoneyAhoy to promote the blog through additional blog comments and Pinterest. I think expanding my Pinterest presence can really help to grow the traffic of this blog for the long term.
Other Points of Interest
Here are all the great MoneyAhoy.com posts for March if you happened to miss any:
- February 2017 Money Report
- How to Start a Blog and Save the Environment
- Tips to Slash Your Smartphone Costs
- How to Repair Your Credit Score
- 4 Newest Trends in Consumer Finance
- 5 Tips for Establishing Loyal E-Shoppers
- Long-Term Investment Potential of Cryptocurrency
- Understanding the Differences Between Homeowners’ and Landlords’ Insurance
- Can I Form an LLC in Another State?
You Can Make Money Online Too!
Are you interested in making over $250/hour by running a simple blog?!? I thought you might be! I truly believe that anyone can make money online if they are willing to put in the a bit of time and effort to make it a success. There are just a couple of simple things you need to do to start on your journey toward online success:
- Start your own online business – You can start your own business online in just a matter of minutes. Check out my guide on how to start and setup your own LLC online. I show you how, in less than 6 minutes, to form your own business as an LLC! This article will teach you all the benefits of owning your own LLC for your business versus just skipping ahead to step #2.
- Start your own Blog – The next step is to start your own blog. Whether you will be blogging or running some other type of online business, you will need to setup a blog for your business. I show you step by step how to start a WordPress blog on your own with Bluehost! If you have never run a blog before or don’t fancy yourself a writer, don’t worry. It is really simple, and the learning curve is very friendly.
I started MoneyAhoy.com just over three years ago without knowing the first thing about blogging. In that amount of time, I’ve made over $28K and my monthly blog income continues to grow and grow – just check out the blue portion of the income chart above! I have also saved over $55K with all the research and tips this blog has helped me to implement! Starting your own blog can truly be a life changing experience!
If you have ever thought about starting your own business or blog, then now is the time to get started! Don’t wait until you have everything figured out, or you will never start :-). You can get started with your online business or blog with just a few hours a week and build it up from there. The sky is really the limit with your business and/or blog income. With a little bit of elbow grease, you’ll be on your way to making thousands of dollars a month in no time! Click here to form your own LLC and click here to start your own blog and get started making money today!
