April 2015 Money Report

It is time for the April 2015 Money Report!  I have been working on improving my personal finances through MoneyAhoy for two years now – let’s see if my money saving, money making, and investing is paying off!

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

Actions Plans for April 2015

Let’s start with a review of my goals for the month of April to see how I fared:

Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress

• Spring cleaning – shed websites from my portfolio that are not generating money
  • Complete!  I got rid of FrugalCalc.com and OfficeForNewbies.com as they were not generating any money and I did not have any energy left to pump into them.
• Read the book: Managing for Success: Practical Advice for Managers
  • Complete!  This was my second time through this book and I love it.  I really has helped me with my day-to-day job as a technical manager.
• Post at least 2 videos on MoneyAhoy Youtube Channel
  • Failed with no progress!  I have not made any videos for MoneyAhoy in several months.  I really am being lazy in this category 🙂
• Continue investing $25,000 per month until cash from home sale is fully invested
  • Complete!  I hit the target again for this month.  See the investing section below for details.
• Post 2015 goals for myself (saving, making, and investing, and general)
  • Complete!  You can read about my goals for the upcoming year in my two-year birthday post here.
• Write 8 posts for MoneyAhoy
  • Complete!  I had nine posts total for the month.  You can read more about them at the end of this post.
• Research potential financial blogs to purchase (plan to scout out sites on Flippa.com)
  • Complete!  I spent a good bit of time on flippa looking for a personal fianance blog so I will mark this one as complete.  I did not find one to actually purchase, so the hunt continues 🙂
• Setup and install News Pro Theme from StudioPress for MoneyAhoy.com
  • Complete!  I got the News Pro theme up and running and customized around the middle of the month.  I love the new layout, and it’s mobile friendly!  Just in time for Google’s mobile search update (otherwise known as mobilegeddon)- how lucky is that?!?!?

So I hit 7 out of 8 on my goals for the month.  That’s a home run as far as I am concerned 🙂  I’m happy with that.  I have struggled a bit over the past couple of months on hitting my goals, so it is nice to get some stuff completed.  I’m glad I still have it in me to turn out a good month here and there 🙂

Now, let’s look at some numbers on how I did financially for the month of April:

 

Notes on Making Money for April 2015

Nothing real surprising from a money making standpoint in April.  We did receive an unexpected ~$1,600 tax return – so that was a huge plus! 🙂  I counted this in income for the month.

Dividend income was also unexpectedly good for April – so that was a special treat.  Side-hustle income was down a bit as I only had one sponsored post for the month, but some of my affiliate stuff is doing nicely.  All-in-all a really nice month from an income standpoint!

Here are the side-hustle income highlights for April:

• Monthly Dividends – $421
• LegalZoom Affiliate Links – $166
• Sponsored Posts – $150
• Ad in sidebar – $25
• Youtube – $21
• Google Adsense – $14
• Stock Market Investing for Newbies book – $2
• TOTAL = $812

Total side income (dividends plus side-hustles) came in above $800 for the month.  Hard to complain about that!

Notes on Money Saving for April 2015

Let’s start with the good news first – our total monthly routine expenses are cratering!  We nearly broke under $2,000 a month!  Since I have started MoneyAhoy, we have been able to cut our average monthly expenses by more than half!

Now for the not so good news – our non-routine or “other” expenses were the highest on record 🙁  I had to actually adjust the scale on the graph to make it fit.  We had two major expenses that really put the nail in the coffin for the month of April.  Here are some of the top non-routine expenses for the month:

• $1,817 – We are going to Disney World for our family vacation this year.  This is the cost of tickets and 9 days at the Fort Wilderness campground.  This could easily have been a lot worse if we stayed in a normal hotel, but we are planning to tent camp on the same site as our in-laws with their motor-home.  I think that’s an overall win, but the price tag still gave me sticker shock!
• $1,744 – My wife decided April 2015 was the month that we needed patio furniture.  I will probably do a whole post on this later.  Her plan was to bring in our leather couch from out on the covered screen porch (after cleaning up the mold that was starting to grow on it) and then get a nice patio set that wouldn’t mold.  I have been able to hold her back from buying a patio set for the past 12 years, and I finally couldn’t hold her back anymore. She had the look in her eyes that this had become non-negotiable at this point…. oh well.
• $304 – Vet bill to neuter our dog.  The bills keep piling up here!  I think we’ve spent nearly $1,000 total on our new puppy.  Yikes!  Hopefully this is last major vet bill for a long time!
• $182 – We took a short four-day beach vacation in St. Augistine, Florida with our tent.

Overall, we had a savings rate of 75% for the month – gnarly!  I hope that we can take it easy in May with the non-routine expenses and give our wallets a rest!  Once school lets out for our kids, the normal summer daycare/camp costs will kick in.  That’s something I am not really looking forward to :-(.

Notes on Investing for April 2015

For the month of April, I purchased 325 shares of VNQ at a price of $80.06 per share.  VNQ is the Vanguard Real Estate Investment Trust ETF that pays a ~3.7% annual dividend.  The total I invested for the month was $26,020.

We are continuing to covert our cash from our Virginia home sale into stocks.  Our cash % was closer to 30% just a couple of months ago, and now I’ve worked it down to under 16%.  A couple more months and we will hit our target or < 5% cash.  I am guessing we have about two months let on that.

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 with stock market investing very quickly!

Actions Plans for May 2015

Here are my goals for the new month of May:

• Post at least 2 videos on MoneyAhoy Youtube Channel
• Continue investing $25,000 per month until cash from home sale is fully invested
• Write 8 posts for MoneyAhoy
• Research potential financial blogs to purchase (plan to scout out sites on Flippa.com)
• Post some Vera Bradley purses (I think 4) I bought from yard sales on eBay
• Post new video card (I got for free) from yard sale on eBay
• Post two old kids bikes (they’ve outgrown them) on Craigslist

Other Points of Interest

Below are the articles I posted for April 2015:

1. How to Get Rich Quick and Easy!
2. My Stock Market Investing Book is Free for the Next 5 Days!
3. How to Send Free SMS Text Through Email
4. February & March 2015 Money Report
5. How to Become an Investor (sponsored post)
6. How to Increase the Value of Your Home (guest post)
7. 7 Tips to Plan a Beach Vacation on a Budget (guest post)
8. Is It Better to Get a Tax Refund or Owe the IRS?
9. MoneyAhoy.com is Two Years Old!

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