March and April 2019 Money Report
Way late, but not completely missed is the MoneyAhoy.com March and April 2019 Monthly Blogging Income and Money Report! Yes I know it’s June… I’ve been working on these for six years now, so there’s plenty of nice charts for you and me to see how my finances have been trending over the years. The idea of this is to inspire you to save, make, and invest more, and also to help keep me motivated to do the same.
I also want to convince you that it’s a great idea to start your own business and start making some extra side-income money today! This report will detail how I make over $250 per hour blogging in just a couple of free hours per months. You can get started with blogging just like I did with no previous business experience and start making money for yourself! Let’s jump in!
This report is chock full of tips and tricks to start your own business and start making extra side-income for yourself. If you would like to check out any previous monthly money reports, go here: monthly money reports. Let’s start with a review of our goals for March and April 2019 to see how we did:
Actions Plans for March and April 2019
Here is a quick review of how we did with our goals for the months:
Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress
- Publish 3 regular posts per month for MoneyAhoy.com
- COMPLETE – I had 7 posts total for the two months (3 in March and 4 in April.
- Exercise at least 15 minutes every day
- COMPLETE – I’ve still been using my desk/couch exercise bike to good effect. It helps me get ~45 mins of exercise a day while I watch Netflix at the same time :-).
- Make over $2,500/ month in side-income (blog + dividend income)
- COMPLETE – We knocked this goal of out the park with a total two-month side-income of $9,526 ($3,784 for March and $5,742 for April).
- Post one video on my Youtube channel
- COMPLETE – I posted one video, Best Dog Training Collar – Review. Check it out if you have a dog that needs training!
We did great with our goals for this period, so perhaps I need to raise the bar for the next two months just to challenge myself a bit more. Now let’s dive the money details for these months!
Notes on Making Money for March and April 2019
March and April were average months for overall total household income. February set an all-time high goal, and these two months paled in comparison. As you can see, the total income was a bit below the 6-month running average, but pretty standard based on the past two years.
I have not been putting in as much time blogging since I’ve been working more, so that’s stalled MoneyAhoy.com income a bit, but I plan to get a little more energized here to bring home some more bacon!
My new goal for 2019 is to make $3,000 a month in side-income. We hit the goal for both March and April with a combined total two-month side income of $9,526.
This $9,526 was comprised of:
- $4,503 – Dividends
- $5,023 – MoneyAhoy.com income
As you can see, MoneyAhoy.com income was great and dividends were also great for the period!
For the MoneyAhoy.com income for the two months, all this money was made in both months with just a couple of hours of total work spent on the blog. That means I am earning well over $250/hour on the average by running my own blog!! If that sounds awesome to you, maybe you should look into starting your own WordPress blog with Bluehost ? Check out my article linked there to get started on your money making journey all for a cost to you of less than $4 a month!
As mentioned, our 2019 monthly money making goal is to make over $3,000 each and every month of side-income money. So, it’s a hit for March and April! All combined for 2019 we have $15,683 in side-income through April, so we’re a good ways ahead of goal.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the total $9,526 in side-income. I have included links as much as I can to help you learn and see how I am incorporating affiliate programs into this blog to generate side-income:
- Investment Dividends – $4,503 (Symbols: SPY, PEP, INTC, VTI, VNQ, VBK, JNK, BND)
- How to form an LLC today– $1,491 (this post and video shows you how to start your own business online)
- Sponsored Posts – $320 (see how to get a sponsored posts on your blogfor more info)
- ShareASale Affiliate Marketing– $800 – an affiliate network that helps you earn commission when you refer products/services.
- Youtube– $277
- Advertisements in sidebar – $75
- Amazon Affiliates– $58
- SeedingUp Digital Content Marketing– $16
- Google Adsense– $12
- Stock Market Investing for Newbies book – $1
- How to Start a Website– $0
- TOTAL = $9,526
All combined, these were two very good months for MoneyAhoy.com side-income and dividend income. These are good examples to help illustrate the variety of ways you can earn income with your own blog, business, or through disciplined investing.
My plan has continued to be to reinvest all the dividends and MoneyAhoy earnings (after expenses) we make now so we’ll have more money down the road. That’s right – we take all of the stock market investment dividends and reinvest them to put the power of compounding interest to good work. I also use the money made here with the MoneyAhoy.com blog and reinvest it back into the blog (see How to Pay Yourself from your LLC) or invest the profits into the stock market. The power of compound interest is an awesome thing!!
Do you notice the monthly dividend graph increasing over time? We went from making less than $400 a year of dividends to nearly $30,000 of estimated dividends in 2019 just through continued disciplined investing! We are investing each and every month, and it’s compounding with great success! We are at the point now where we are averaging around $2,200 a month just in dividends! If you’d like to learn more about investing, read my FREE book: Stock Market Investing for Newbies. I spent over 6 months writing that book, and it’s FREE for you to use it and learn how to invest. That’s right, I put hundreds of hours into making a stock market investing book that is easy to understand for you, and I give it away for free just to help you guys improve your long-term finances!
Notes on Money Saving for March and April 2019
Money saving for March and April was decent – we were right at the 6-month moving average if you combine the two months. One thing that stinks is that Comcast raised our internet price from $40 a month to $67!! It’s time to call and negotiate for lower cable rates.
The other really painful thing that happened in April was we owed nearly $10K on our 2018 taxes!! That was not fun in the least, but I’d rather owe that get a refund :-). Our overall saving rate for the two month span was just 23% due to the tax payments. I’m not happy with that, but what can you do!
Here are some of the larger non-routine expenses that we had for the past two months:
- $9,900 – Federal and state taxes for 2018
- $218 – mirrors for setting up an exercise area and some speaker wire stuff at Home Depot
- $200 – registering the kids for spring soccer
- $99 – escape room that we went to for our daughters birthday
- $87 – we also took our daughter to Chuck E Cheese after the escape room
- $80 – various Easter presents from Amazon
- $49 – we bought the board game Catan. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a ton of family fun!
Notes on Investing for March and April 2019
For the months of March and April, I invested in VBK. This is the Vanguard Small-Cap Growth Fund ETF. This is basically a collection of smaller sized companies that we are investing in. It only pays an annual dividend of ~0.7%, but it is primarilly designed to increase in value instead paying out dividends. These small caps are higher risk and higher reward. In a good market, they will tend to increase more quickly than the broader S&P-500. In a declining market, they would be expected to fall more quickly than the broader market.
I really believe in long-term investing over time to increase wealth. You won’t find me engaging in any crazy day trading or investing in the latest new-fangled startup like LYFT (down maybe 30% since its IPO). Investing for the long-term is pretty boring overall, 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 May and June 2019
As you read above, we did very well with our goals for March and April. So, I plan to make the goals for May and June a little bit more difficult to push myself.
May and June 2019 Goals
- Publish 4 regular posts per month for MoneyAhoy.com
- Exercise at least 15 minutes every day
- Make over $3,000/ month in side-income (blog + dividend income)
- Post three videos on my Youtube channel
Other Points of Interest
My wife’s part-time job (really as needed) has been going well for her. She is considering going to part time (~32 hours a week). So, we are working through that decision and what that means for the kids. We’ll see what happens there!
We had 7 articles for the two months – if you missed them then here’s your chance to check ’em out:
- December 2018 – Blogging Income and Money Report
- 5 Ideas for Marketing Your Business With Little to No Money
- Is a Sole Proprietorship the Right Legal Structure for Your Small Business?
- How to Retain Your Car’s Value
- How To Start A Wholesale Real Estate Business
- January and February 2019 – Blogging Income and Money Report
- Why Does It Make Sense to Have a Personal Line of Credit Along with an Education Loan?
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 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 you business now. 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 launch your WordPress blog! 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 six years ago without knowing the first thing about blogging. In that amount of time, I’ve made over $80K 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 $105K 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!
