January 2016 Money Report

The next year came and went and we are now already in February.  January 2016 was another pretty rough month, but we’re still here 🙂

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

Actions Plans for January 2016

Here is a review of how we fared for our goals in the month of January:

Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress

• Publish 8 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
  • COMPLETE – I had 9 posts total for the month!
• Publish 2 posts for HealthierDay.com
  • COMPLETE – My wife created two posts for HealthierDay.com: 5 Tips to Improve Posture and What’s the Best Pillow to Prevent Neck Pain?
• Create comments on  30 other blogs (average 1 a day) to build link juice
  • COMPLETE – I probably commented on more than 50 other blogs, so this should help 🙂
• Go through and create internal links for 10 old posts on MoneyAhoy.com
  • No Progress – I didn’t get to this at all as I was too busy commenting on other sites.
• Create 4 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy/HealtherDay
  • Some Progress – I was able to create 3 videos total, so I almost hit the goal.
• Exercise at least 5 minutes every day
  • COMPLETE – This one is getting easy.  It’s hard to stay in shape, but exercising just a bit each day certainly helps.

I am pretty pleased with how we did for January in terms of our goals.  We completed most of them other than going back to create a bunch of internal links.  I will probably roll this one over into February.

Now, let’s move onto the money!

 

Notes on Making Money for January 2016

We were a little below the sixth month moving average for total income in January.  Our income from our jobs was pretty standard, but side-hustle income and dividends were pretty good for the month.  As you can see in the graph above, both dividend income and side-hustle income were able the 6-month moving average.

Here’s a rundown on our side income for the month of January:

• Monthly Dividends – $881
• Sponsored Posts – $575
• Start up your own LLC – $246
• Youtube – $32
• Ad in sidebar – $25
• Stock Market Investing for Newbies book – $12
• Google Adsense – $9
• HealthierDay.com Adsense/Youtube- <$1
• TOTAL = $1,780

$1,780 of extra income for the month (above and beyond our regular job income) is awesome!  We are definitely putting this to use through reinvestment in the stock market.  Compounding interest continues to work wonders for us each and every month!

Notes on Money Saving for January 2016

Our month saving for the month was torpedoed yet again for January!!  Last month my wife had almost $2,000 of medical bills to pay.  This month, we had another $1,800 medial bill due 🙁

This time the huge medial bill was due to our son’s ear surgery.  He had a hole in his ear drum of the left ear after repeated ear infections.  He actually failed the school hearing test in that ear and we were told he would need surgery to patch the hole or a hearing aid.  We went for the surgery, so hopefully it takes!  We will find out in another month if it is going to be successful.

For routine expenses – everything was pretty standard for the month.  Our medical insurance changed this year, and as a result we are now paying about $83 extra a month :-(.  We also stocked up on protein powder this month with the Sam’s Club coupon, so that was about $150+ for 5 bags of the stuff.

Here’s some details of our non-routine expenses that clobbered us:

1. $1,760 – This was our son’s ear surgery bill I mentioned above.
2. $418 – Vet bills for both of our dogs.  We had a general inspection, and heartworm/flea medicine for both of them.  This should last for the next six months.
3. $160 – Termite inspection for our home.  We learned our lesson that you definitely do not want to skip a termite inspection.
4. $125 – A graduation present for my Sis.

I hope that February will give us a bit of a respite from all these crazy bills.  Hopefully we have seen the last of these for a while.

Overall our savings rate was 69% for the month.  This is still pretty good IMHO.

Notes on Investing for January 2016

Now that we are into 2016, the plan is to fund my IRA for January and my wife’s IRA for February.  For this month, I bought up 185 shares of JNK in my IRA for about $6,000 for the month. JNK is the SPDR Barclay’s Capital High Yield Bond Fund (otherwise known as junk bonds).  This is an ETF that is passively managed and is currently paying an annual yield of ~7.46%.

If you are interested in stock market investing but don’t know where to get started, check out my free stock market investing Ebook.

Actions Plans for February 2016

Below are my goals for the upcoming month of February – as you can see I am trying to keep them pretty basic:

• Publish 8 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
• Publish 2 posts for HealthierDay.com
• Create comments on  30 other blogs (average 1 a day) to build link juice
• Go through and create internal links for 20 old posts on MoneyAhoy.com
• Create 2 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy/HealtherDay
• Exercise at least 5 minutes every day

Other Points of Interest

I found out from my work that no one in the company is going to get a merit increase for 2016 – BUMMER :-(.  Those normally average around 3% as a cost of living adjustment.  The news also came out that our bonuses are going to be pretty small if anything.  I should find out in the next week what it is.  How’s that for a Happy New Year?

Anyway, I guess you win some and you lose some.  Thankfully I started educating myself about investing and making money with my own business a couple of years back!  As a result, I have made over $26,000 in combined side-hustle income and dividends over the past couple of years.  Getting the bad news that we weren’t getting a raise made me really appreciate the importance of having many diverse income streams and not relying on just your day job!

If you missed any of our great posts for January 2016, be sure to check them out:

1. Stock Market Investing For Newbies – My E-book Now Free Forever!
2. MoneyAhoy.com $250 January Free Cash Giveaway!
3. Understanding the Different Types of Loans
4. Is January the Best Time to Negotiate Rent?
5. December 2015 Money Report
6. 8 Ways to Tell if You Need A Raise
7. The Stock Market Is Down – Should I Panic?
8. How to Find The Best Personal Loan Rates and Save with Even Financial
9. 5 Terrible Money Habits You Need to Quit Now