May 2015 Money Report
Check out my May 2015 Money Report! We have been working on improving our personal finances through MoneyAhoy for more than two years now – let’s see if our money saving, money making, and investing is paying off!
To view any previous monthly money reports, check these monthly money reports.
Actions Plans for May 2015
Let’s start with a review of goals for the month of May to see how well I did at clearing the bar:
Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress
- Post at least 2 videos on MoneyAhoy Youtube Channel
- Complete – I posted 4 videos total – all of these are in relation to the PC space-sim game Elite Dangerous
- Continue investing $25,000 per month until cash from home sale is fully invested
- Complete – this was an easy one – just a few button clicks 🙂
- Write 8 posts for MoneyAhoy
- Complete – I had 8 posts total for May. You can get links to all of them below.
- Research potential financial blogs to purchase (plan to scout out sites on Flippa.com)
- Complete – I will call this one complete. I could not really find exactly what I was looking for, so I made the decision to start another blog from scratch. More on that below in the “Other Points of Interest” section.
- Post some Vera Bradley purses (I think 4) I bought from yard sales on eBay
- No Progress – I am going to punt on this one and give the purses to my Mother-In-Law to sell in her thriftshop. I’m going to work on higher return activities with my time like starting the new blog 🙂
- Post new video card (I got for free) from yard sale on eBay
- Complete – I priced it pretty high, so I may need to lower it a bit so it will move in a timely manner.
- Post two old kids bikes (they’ve outgrown them) on Craigslist
- Some Progress – I was able (I think) to negotiate with my wife that we will host a yard sale some time within the next couple of weeks. This will be a good opportunity to get rid of a bunch of junk including the kids old bikes 🙂
I hit 5 out of 7 on my goals for the month. That’s pretty good I think. I set the bar pretty low for the month, and it feels good to hit a good completion percentage.
Now, let’s look at some numbers on how we did financially for the month of May:
Notes on Making Money for May 2015
Nothing real surprising from a money making standpoint in May 2015. My wife worked a couple of extra hours for the month, so that helped with income a bit.
Dividend income is steadily increasing, and I love to watch that little graph continue to tick up month after month. I continue to reinvest all dividends into my monthly stock purchases to put the power of compounding interest to full use.
Side-hustle income held its own for May and seems to be hovering around an average of $500 for the past nine months. All-in-all a decent month from a total income standpoint.
Here are the side-hustle income highlights for May:
- Sponsored Posts – $300
- Monthly Dividends – $127
- Start You Own LLC Affiliate Links – $112
- Youtube – $29
- Ad in sidebar – $25
- Google Adsense – $13
- Stock Market Investing for Newbies
book – $1
- TOTAL = $610
Total side income (dividends plus side-hustles) came in above $600 for the month. You will see below in the “Other Points of Interest” section that I’m in the planning stages of starting another blog to help boost my monthly side income even higher and help even more people!
Notes on Money Saving for May 2015
We set a new low record for total monthly expenses in May 2015! We are finally able to get our monthly expenses under $3,000 a month! As you can see from the “Total Monthly Expenses” trend, this is less than half of what we used to spend each month a year or two ago before I got started with MoneyAhoy! It’s been a long journey to get expenses this low, and it feels great to hit this major milestone! Next stop is $2,500 a month 🙂
After spending a ton of money last month for our 2015 vacation to Disney World and purchasing new patio furniture after putting it off for 10 years, our “other non-routine expenses” were also the lowest on record for May 2015! We really only spent a bit of money on Mother’s Day presents for the month…
One challenge going forward for June and July is that our childcare/summer-camp costs are going to average around ~$900 a month now that the kids are out of school 🙁 You have to spend money to make money I guess…
Overall, we had a savings rate of just 30% for the month. Why so low? The credit card bills came due for our Disney World trip and the new patio furniture we bought. We should bounce back to the ~50+% range going forward now that we have taken care of those major expenses.
Notes on Investing for May 2015
For the month of May, I purchased:
- 500 shares of VEA at a price of $40.56 per share. VEA is the Vanguard Developed Markets ETF that pays a ~2.8% annual dividend.
- 120 shares of VBK at a price of $134.70 per share. VBK is the Vanguard Small-Cap Growth ETF that pays a ~1% annual dividend.
We are almost finished converting our cash from the sale of our Virginia home into stocks. We were around 16% cash a month ago and now we’re down to less than 9%. My target is to hit < 5% cash so that we are invested for the long term.
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
Actions Plans for June 2015
Here are my goals for the upcoming month of June:
- Continue investing ~$25,000 per month until cash from home sale is fully invested.
- Write 8 posts for MoneyAhoy.
- Finalize naming decision and register new money/health blog domain name.
- Read the book: The New Meaning of Rich: Four Principles of Wealth That Will Change Your Life
.
- Read the book: The Connection Algorithm: Take Risks, Defy the Status Quo, and Live Your Passions
.
Other Points of Interest
I am in the stages of planning/brainstorming the concept for a new WordPress blog. This blog will focus on money and health. It will be similar to MoneyAhoy from a money and personal finance standpoint, but it will also include more tips around healthy eating, living, and exercising. I plan to use the blog to help motivate me to get in better shape and learn more about fitness and health.
I was in the process of looking to purchase another blog, but I could not really find anything that fit well with my interests that was available for sale. So, I decided to just fire up my own 🙂 It’s going to be A LOT of extra work to start a new blog from scratch and get it to the point where MoneyAhoy is currently (over 200 posts!), but I am committed to making it happen!
I haven’t finalized on a name yet, but I will be sure to share it here once I have everything registered and the new blog up and running!
If you missed any of the below posts for May 2015, be sure to check them out:
- Steak ‘N Shake Coupons – Save Yourself a Bundle!
- 5 Best Credit Card Hacks You Need to Know (guest post)
- April 2015 Money Report
- Your Complete Washer And Dryer Buying And Maintenance Guide (guest post)
- Now for the Low, Low Price of…
- Why Should I Invest In The Stock Market? (sponsored post)
- Teaching Kids About Money and Investing
- Looking to Startup a Business – Try Something Different! (sponsored post)
What are your money saving, money making, and investing plans for June?
