January 2017 Money Report
Our January 2017 Money Report is hot off the press! Read on to find out how I make more than $250 an hour by blogging! But that’s not all – in the money report I discuss our money making, money saving, and investing performance details for the month. I also give you some helpful pointers on how you can start your own side hustle and start bringing in the cash! This was a record month, so jump on in to find out where the new records are being made!
To view any previous monthly money reports, check these monthly money reports. Let’s start with a review of our goals for January 2017 to see how we did:
Actions Plans for January 2017
Here is a quick review of how we did with our goals for the month of January:
Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress
- Publish 8 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
- COMPLETE – we knocked this one out of the park with 10 posts total for the month!
- Publish 1 post for HealthierDay.com
- COMPLETE – we had one new post here: New Year, Healthier You!
- Create 2 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy
- Some Progress – I did not post any new videos on YouTube, but I was able to get two videos about half way done.
- Exercise at least 15 minutes every day
- COMPLETE – Now that the holidays are past, I started back up jogging in the morning. I’m probably in the best shape of my life right now :-).
- Gain over 1,000 Pinterest followers
- COMPLETE – I had about 2,500 followers total on Pinterest at the end of January.
- Make over $1,000 / month in side-hustle income
- COMPLETE – We had a record high month for side-hustle income!!! Read on to learn more about it.
Basically we had a grand slam in January. We hit 5 out of 6 goals with the 6th goal half way complete. The goal was to hit the ground running in January, and we did just that.
Now, without further ado, let’s get on to the money!
January 2017 – Money Report
Notes on Making Money for January 2017
January was another continued month of great income. We hit a new high record for monthly income associated with this MoneyAhoy.com website! Our total income for January was right on the six-month moving average, but our total side- income was close to a new record. This helped to offset the reduce pay my wife receive in January since we were off ~2 weeks in December.
Total side-income for January nearly hit a new record – it came in at $2,929! This total side-income was made up of:
- $1,880 of MoneyAhoy income – A NEW RECORD!
- $1,049 in dividends
For the MoneyAhoy income for the month, all this money was made in the month with less than 7-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. 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. We will see how we do – it will be a stretch on those months where the dividends are light.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the total $2,929 in side-income for the month of January:
- Monthly Dividends – $1,049 (PEP, JNK, SPY)
- How to Start Your Business Online for Cheap – $754
- Sponsored Posts – $720
- Ad Brokering – $300 (sold my advertiser’s list to another personal finance blogger)
- Youtube – $74
- Advertisements in sidebar – $23
- Google Adsense – $8
- Amazon Affiliates – $1
- Stock Market Investing for Newbies
book – $1
- HealthierDay.com Adsense/Youtube- <$1
- TOTAL = $2,929
Our continued plan is to reinvest all the profits from MoneyAhoy.com and our recurring dividends back into the business or the stock market. This will allow compound interest work its magic month-over-month. 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 January 2017
January was a spectacular month for our money saving – we hit a new 14-month low! We did not break our all time monthly savings, but at the best savings in 14 months I am not complaining :-). Routine expenses and non-routine expenses were both below the six-month moving average. We did have higher than normal eating out and entertainment expenses because we were having our niece down to visit for a week.
Here are some of the largest non-routine expenses we had for January:
- $160 – pay for termite extermination check and insurance. As I wrote in an article a couple years back, you definitely do not want to skip termite treatments!
- $96 – Inflatable play-zone tickets for kids and niece. This was definitely a SPLURGE at about one hundred bucks for three hours of entertainment. But, I think it gave a memorable experience to our niece, so it was a good decision.
- $84 – Flouride treatment at new dentist. We changed dentists because the old one was trying to rip us off – long story for another day. Well…. it didn’t work out that well because the new dentist gave the kids a flouride treatment when the insurance had already paid for it once already in the calendar year. So much for trying to save money there! I think we’ll still come out way ahead in the long run.
- $36 – tickets for Father/Daughter dance in February. This will be our third time attending, and it’s a great bonding experience :-).
We now have a total of $9,600 in the 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. By mid-year 2017 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 much nicer. Basically, it is just a question of “when to cash in the chips”. Maybe after we get the new van we can do the same thing for a new big TV?
Our overall savings rate for the month was a record breaking 85%! This was due to our higher income and 401(k) matching that kicked back in for January (we maxed out the $18,000 in 2016, so that cut December’s saving rate short). Woohoo – we will be at the gates of financial independence in no time if we can come close to keeping that up for any length of time!!!
Notes on Investing for January 2017
For the month of January, I purchased 149 shares of JNK for about $5,500 in my Roth IRA. That’s the max amount you are allowed to stick into a Roth IRA annually. 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 ~6.00%
That’s pretty boring, 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 February 2017
We had a knock-out month overall in January. I will be busy with a ton of stuff in February, so I am going to try and set the goals a bit lighter just to be realistic and not set myself up for failure.
February 2017 Goals
- Publish 6 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 1,000 Pinterest followers (get to 3,500 followers)
- Make over $1,000 / month in side-income
I continue to plan on trading off a bit of time writing articles for MoneyAhoy to promote the blog through additional blog comments and Pinterest. It seems as though many bloggers have hit the gold mine through social interaction on Pinterest. I hope to so the same now that I’ve learned more about the ins and outs of Pinterest.
Other Points of Interest
Here are all the great MoneyAhoy.com posts for January if you happened to miss any:
- 3 Ways to Make Your Money Stretch Farther in 2017
- The Path to Becoming a Financial Analyst
- 4 Essential Questions to Answer Before Starting an Online Business
- Why You Should Consider Investing in a Restaurant
- Five Ways to Tenant-Proof Your Property
- How Accounting And Financial Consulting Will Change Your Business For The Better
- Easy Steps for Picking the Best Credit Card
- December 2016 Money Report
- 8 Steps to Get A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign Going
- Your Social Media Success Roadmap: 8 Social Media Tips You Need to Know
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 $25K 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 $50K 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!
