April 2016 Money Report

The MoneyAhoy.com April money report is ready for your reading enjoyment.  Things were very interesting this month to say the least.  Parts of this report are pretty awful, and some are not so bad.  Anyways – give it a look!

To view any previous monthly money reports, check these monthly money reports.  Let’s start with a review of our goals for April 2016 to see how we did:

Actions Plans for April 2016

Here is a review of how we did with our goals for the month of April:

Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress

• Publish 8 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
  • COMPLETE – I had 10 posts total for the month.
• Publish 2 posts for HealthierDay.com
  • COMPLETE – My wife cranked out two posts in April.
• Create comments on  25 other blogs to build link juice to MoneyAhoy
  • COMPLETE – I made over 100 comments on other blogs 🙂
• Create comments on 25 other blogs to build link juice to HealthierDay
  • COMPLETE – I was able to hit right at 25 comments on other blogs with links back to HealthierDay.com
• Create 2 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy/HealtherDay
  • SOME PROGRESS – I got one video up on How to Make Your Own Lumbar Roll
• Exercise at least 10 minutes every day
  • COMPLETE – I find that exercising while we watch a TV show at night works best.

I completed 5 out of 6 goals for the month and got the sixth one half way done.  I’m pretty happy with that – not much else to say :-).

Here’s how we did money-wise for the month of April:

Notes on Making Money for April 2016

Our “routine” income for the month was pretty normal – nothing much to write home about there.  My wife did work a couple more hours than normal for the month, so we came in at the top end of our “normal” range” :-).  I knew it was going to be hard to top the total side income of last month ($2,725 for March), and I was right.  We came in at a total side income for the month of $1,600.  Dividends for April were $818 and side-hustle income from MoneyAhoy filled out the remaining $785.  My goal all along for 2016 is to try and earn enough through dividends and MoneyAhoy.com to pay the mortgage.  So far we’ve been hitting it with no issues!

Our total monthly income for April was just below the 6-month moving average.  The main reason for this is that April is a slow month for dividends.  The 6-month moving average is still quite a bit higher than a couple years ago, so I’m not complaining :-).

Here’s are the details of our side-hustle and dividend income for April 2016:

• Monthly Dividends – $818 (JNK, SPY)
• Sponsored Posts on MoneyAhoy – $385
• Setup an LLC with LegalZoom – $333
• Youtube – $33
• Ad in sidebar – $25
• Google Adsense – $9
• Stock Market Investing for Newbies book – $0
• HealthierDay.com Adsense/Youtube- <$1
• TOTAL = $1,603

After an amazing month for sponsored posts in March, the level dropped off quite a bit.  I expected this because the earnings in this area in March were kinda an outlier on the high side.  We are continuing to reinvest dividends and profits to make our side income stream sustainable for the long term.

Notes on Money Saving for April 2016

Here’s where things get a bit crappy for the report.  Expenses were pretty bad for the month of April for a couple main of reasons.

• Same as I reported last month – our home taxes were $375 more and will stay that way for 10 more months until our escrow catches up.  We basically didn’t pay into escrow for property taxes for a year, and now we have to pay double to catch it back up :-(.
• We pre-paid for our kid’s summer daycare and summer camps for a total of $1,120:
  • $240 – Karate daycare (actually cheaper than the YMCA) and will probably be more fun
  • $500 – Soccer camp
  • $380 – Basketball camp

Non-routine expenses were kept pretty low as well for the month.  We did not have to make any large purchases – just a bunch of odds and ends stuff as follows:

• $130 – A planned camping trip to Stone Mountain.  We are going by tent of course to save some $$$.
• $71 – Mother’s Day presents.
• $42 – Movie and popcorn for wife and kids to go see Zootopia on their Spring Break.  I swear movies are so ridiculously expensive these days!!!

Our overall savings rate was just 31% for the month.  I am not happy with that at all and hope to catch things back up in May!

Notes on Investing for April 2016

For the month of April, I kept things simple and invested in the S&P-500 index ETF again.  I bought 24 shares of SPY for a total of $4,800.  This is a passively managed index fund ETF that track the S&P-500 performance and currently pays a 2.57% annual dividend.  You cannot really go wrong with investing in SPY IMHO.  A plus is that the dividends that are paid out are ordinary versus qualified – this means you only pay 15% taxes on the dividend you receive.  So, this is great to hold in your non-tax-advantaged investment account.

If you truly want to gain financial independence, then you need to learn more about investing to build your long-term wealth!  Check out my free stock market investing Ebook to get started on your own stock market investing journey now!

Actions Plans for May 2016

Below are my goals for the upcoming month of May.  I was able to hit 5/6 for April, so I am adding a couple more to see if I can be successful with them all!

• Publish 8 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
• Publish 2 posts for HealthierDay.com
• Create comments on  30 other blogs to build link juice to MoneyAhoy
• Create comments on 30 other blogs to build link juice to HealthierDay
• Create 2 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy/HealtherDay
• Exercise at least 10 minutes every day
• Put in 5+ hours a week on the new computer game I am developing (more to come on this down the road)

Other Points of Interest

Here are all the great posts for April if you happened to miss any:

1. Can an Email Marketing Campaign For Your Business Save Money?
2. 6 Top Mistakes a Landlord Can Make
3. 7 Habits of Highly Efficient Professionals
4. March 2016 Money Report
5. Save Your Money and the Environment at the Same Time!
6. MoneyAhoy.com $250 April 2016 Free Cash Giveaway!
7. Should You Repair or Replace That Car Part?
8. How to Discuss Finances With Aging Parents
9. We Owed $4,300 on Our Taxes for 2015 and I’m Not Mad
10. MoneyAhoy.com is Three Years Old!