Stocks to Watch – Conversion Labs

We are starting a new series here on MoneyAhoy.com about investing in some great up-and-coming stocks.  As you probably guessed, it’s called “Stocks to Watch”.  Here, we will highlight some great stocks which we feel are ready to break out based on either fundamentals, technical analysis, or both.

Today, we’ll be looking at the rapidly growing health and wellness focused e-commerce company Conversion Labs (CVLB).

First Things First

As we have discussed over and over again, investing in individual stocks is not for everyone.  Before starting to invest in individual stocks, we suggest you first setup an emergency fund, ensure you are investing money in your 401(k), and setup a healthy monthly routine where you are investing in stock market index funds to build your long-term wealth.  After you have done those things, you can begin to speculate with individual stocks using money you can afford to loose if things go south.  We all know that investing in individual stocks can be very lucrative if you pick the right ones.  There is no better way to beat the average market return than taking increased risk for the potential of improved returns!  Fortunes have been made in the stock market by taking small, calculated risks on fantastic companies!

Background on Conversion Labs – CVLB

Conversion Labs (CVLB) is an emerging leader in technology driven healthcare and telemedicine.  They apply their direct response marketing expertise to healthcare and provide a convenient, cost-effective and smarter way for consumers to access high quality OTC products and prescription medications.

Here are a couple quick facts about Conversion Labs:

• CVLB is publicly traded on the OTCQB (middle tier over the counter “OTC” market)
• Served over 850 million ad impressions over the past 2 years
• Licensed for online Rx and physician consults in all 50 states
• Ranked $164 on Deloitte’s 2018 Technology Fast 500 with 608% growth!

The reason why investing in Conversion Labs is so exciting is they present an end-to-end telehealth customer acquisition model:

Conversion Labs – End-to-End telehealth customer acquisition model

With the costs of healthcare rising due to an aging population and poor public policy, more and more customers are looking for cost effective solutions.  As folks shift more into the Health Savings Account (HSA) model through their employer offered healthcare, they are also looking for lower-cost options since they are paying out of pocket.  Today’s customers are also less willing to wait in a doctor’s office and are more trusting of technology and online services.

Did you know that in a recent survey, 77% of patients prefer a physician who offers telemedicine?  This must be the reason that the global online pharmacy market is expected to triple over the next five years (from $42B to $107B by 2025)!  Conversion Labs is poised to capture revenue from these potential new customers as we see these large global shifts in patient demographics.

Fundamental Analysis of Conversion Labs – CVLB

Exciting things are happening with Conversion Labs.  In June 2019, Conversion Labs entered the telemedicine space with a strategic join venture with GoGoMeds.com, a large online pharmacy.  They also just announced a formal launch of their first telemedicine brand, Rex MD.

Here are some fundamentals for you to review:

• Has a $14 million revenue run-rate and growing
• Showing 32% YoY revenue growth
• Reached 93% revenue CAGR (2015 – 2019 est)
• Approx 90 million shares outstanding (fully diluted)
• Current valuation of just $6.86 million
• Every round of money which Conversion Labs has raised in the last 18 months has been at $0.23/share – this is unheard!
• 52-week stock trading range: $0.10 – $0.29

You read that correctly – currently Conversion Labs is valued and less than $7 million when their annual revenue for 2019 is estimated at $12 million!  CVLB just closed recently at $0.15 per share.  These fundamentals look great, and honestly I am quite surprised we are seeing funding rounds come it at a premium to market share price.  That is a very strong message which investors are sending.  Now may be the perfect time to take a long position!

Note – Many of these facts were pulled from the following investor presentation.  Give it a look and form your own opinion.

Technical Analysis of Conversion Labs – CVLB

We’ve established that the fundamentals are strong for Conversion Labs.  I always like to take a look at technical analysis as well to see if this can provide investment clues.  Below, you will see a graph of the past 5-years of Conversion Labs.  As you can see, prices have been a bit range bound between $0.35 and $0.08.  We did see a huge pop all the way to $0.95 back in March of 2017.  Wouldn’t another one of those be great :-).

You will notice that there is some REAL support at around the $0.12 level which is helping to prop this stock up.  Currently, the stock is trading around the 50-day moving average.  Both of these facts tell us that now would likely be a good time to buy as the stock is not currently trading at a premium to historic levels.

We would say this stock is a strong buy at the $0.12 level based on technical analysis.  We have seen those prices just over the past couple of weeks, so now may be your opportunity if you have made the decision to go long.

Conversion Labs – Stock Price History

Final Thoughts

We are excited to promote Conversion Labs as one of our first “Stocks to Watch” here on MoneyAhoy.  CVLB has positioned itself in the exciting telemedicine sector with is growing at a considerable rate, has several new products and services in its pipeline, shows very strong financials, and is trading at historically low levels.  This stock is screaming a BUY in our opinion.

We here at MoneyAhoy are taking a LONG position in CVLB with limit orders around $0.12 per share.  So, you could say that this entire article is a bit biased since we are jumping in on this stock :-).  Please keep in mind we are NOT certified investment advisors, and you absolutely should do your own research before investing in this or any stock.

Disclaimers

Please note the following as you read this article:

1. The author of this post has a current long position in this security.  This may influence the author’s opinion of this stock.
2. The article is for educational purposes only, and does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any specific security.  Please do your own research and due diligence.
3. Past stock market and security performance does not have any bearing on future performance.
4. The author of this article may has been compensated a sum of $500 to produce this post.
5. Please only invest with money you can afford to lose.

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

Should You Invest in Equity on Your Own Or Opt for Mutual Funds?

Wondering what the best way to invest in stocks and equity is? Are you unsure if you want to do it on your own or use mutual funds to offset some of the risks and work needed? Then you’ve come to the right place.

For many years, investors and traders have been discussing the pros and cons of investing in equity on your own or using mutual funds, and we thought we’d provide you with our views on the matter.

To do so in the clearest way possible, below we’ve provided short descriptions of both types of investments along with pros and cons for each method.

Investing in Equity On Your Own

Investing in equity can be incredibly fruitful if you know what you’re doing, have studied the markets and securities in detail, and have a bit of luck on your side. There are countless examples of people who have bought stocks in companies for pennies and turned those investments into millions of dollars. 

Now, there are many benefits to investing on your own accord. For example, you have full control of your funds and investments, you get to analyze the instruments on your own to ensure what you’re getting yourself into, and, maybe, more importantly, all the profit you make is yours.

However, there is also a downside to investing on your own, especially if you lack knowledge and experience. You see, for every hundred people that succeed with their investment and make a profit, there are thousands of people that will never make any substantial profits from their investments and even more people who end up losing.

The odds are clearly against you.

Add to that the fact that you will have to dedicate a tremendous amount of time analyzing, planning, and executing your investments, and you have a situation that’s unfit for most people with an active lifestyle.

In fact, investing in equity on your own is a massive undertaking, and if you’re not prepared, mutual funds could be a better option. Either way, here are some of the pros and cons of investing in equity on your own.

Pros:

• You’re fully in charge of your funds and investments
• You only invest when you are confident that you’ve found a good investment
• You get to keep all of your profits to yourself

Cons:

• Equity investing is time-consuming
• The risks are very high, especially when you first get started
• It’s a big undertaking that will take a lot of preparation and dedication

Investing in Mutual Funds

A mutual fund is a professionally managed fund that uses funds from several investors to buy securities. Instead of you having to find a stockbroker, analyze the securities you’re interested in, and then place your investment, a mutual fund is operated without your input. Typically, these funds are managed by long-term investment experts whose sole job is to find great investments for clients.

Naturally, there are many benefits to this type of investment compared to buying securities on your own, but there are also some disadvantages.

Firstly, mutual funds are generally less risky than individual investments since they’re managed by professionals. That being said, investments are always risky. Moreover, since you don’t actually have to invest yourself, you can save a lot of time and effort that would otherwise be spent on learning how to invest in and analyze securities. Also, mutual funds help you diversify your portfolio very easily.

However, one of the biggest disadvantages of mutual funds is that you have to pay a fee to the manager which can add up, especially if you don’t invest a large enough amount. On the other hand, mutual funds present several great tax solutions that lower your liability.

Pros:

• Less time-consuming
• Potentially less risky
• Easier to diversify your portfolio

Cons:

• You have to pay fees
• Your investments will be handled by a third person
• You’ll lose out on the excitement associated with investing individually

Our Conclusion

It’s up to you to decide whether you feel comfortable investing in securities by yourself or if you’d rather take a shortcut and use mutual funds.

A good rule of thumb is that inexperienced investors should stick to mutual funds until they have the skills needed to do it themselves, while more experienced investors might prefer investing based on their own analytic work.

Just make sure you weigh all the pros and cons before making your decision because, as mentioned, all types of security investments are high-risk. And if you want to learn more about how to best invest in stocks, we suggest you check out the trading pros over at Bullmarketz.com.

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

Checking Out New Investment Advisors: A Step-by-Step Guide

Choosing the right investment adviser can have a huge impact on the return you get from your investment portfolio. It’s not just about moving money into the right vehicle at the right time, it’s also about understanding how to hedge against risks, what balance of short and long-term tactics will work best, and which types of investment vehicles will work for each client. That means there’s a lot more to it than just making sure someone’s credentials are up to date, although that is important. Let’s talk about each stage of considering an adviser:

1. Checking Credentials

When you are looking at any adviser or firm, you need to be sure they are in good standing in their industry. It doesn’t matter if you are going for investment advice or water heater repair, certification and oversight show you someone is committed to doing their best within the safety and quality norms of the industry. For financial advisers, there could be a few places to look.

• The SEC’s database of registered independent advisers
• The collected database of advisers registered at the state level
• FINRA’s records and certifications

To make this easier, the Securities and Exchange Commission has a single search database for their own records and FINRA, and it links to the state records.

2. Complaints and Censures

The records discussed above will also contain any official complaints, as well as any disciplinary actions taken professionally because of them. That lets you see whether any of the complaints had enough merit to warrant action.

3. Reviews of the Adviser or Firm

Just checking the regulatory databases for credentials and complaints will not tell you a lot about the performance of an adviser or what the process of working with that person is like. The best way to get that information is by reading reviews to see what others think of investment advisers. This lets you feel out the less quantifiable aspects of the relationship, too. You can see who is known as a great communicator, who will offer you new opportunities and educate you about new approaches or investment vehicles, and who advocates for caution versus high returns. All of these considerations help investors understand which advisers will share their outlook and enthusiasm.

4. Information From the Firm or Adviser

No review process is complete unless you also look at what your financial professionals say about themselves and their approach. Most firms and sole practitioners today have websites with extensive information about their investment philosophies, professional histories, and focus areas. You can learn about whether they specialize in large accounts, corporate investors, or smaller individual investors saving for retirement. This can also help you choose someone with experience working with investors like you.

Conclusions

You’ll need to decide whether you’re looking for an RIA or an investor who works under a broker. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and independent advisers can be expensive for small advisers sometimes. In the end, the right choice for you will have to be the one that allows you to rest assured you are getting the right help for your investment goals. That requires a certain level of personal consideration and even chemistry when it comes to communications. That means your final steps will be to reach out and discuss your goals with individual advisers, to find out what they have to say about their ability to help you. This last step before choosing is basically a job interview for your adviser, so make sure you treat it like one. Be skeptical, but also be ready to learn new things about how they invest. Looking for ideas for questions to ask in the reviews you read is a great way to learn more about what intrigued you while researching an adviser.

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

How to Trade Forex News and More

It’s true that Forex news impacts market movements. However, the most seasoned traders out there will actually tell you that you just cannot really go on to gauge the kind of impact that the news will have. The forex market is impacted not only by US news but news from around the world. Once again, if you are taking the advice of experienced traders – they are most likely to ask you to steer clear of trading during high-impact news quite simply because of the erratic nature of these types of news announcements.

The key to protect your principle is to sit on the sidelines or trade in your demo account if you don’t have the due experience of dealing with such high-impact announcements. Stops can help to protect your account, but these can easily be “run” during a high-impact news event.  Here below are a few tips with to help you trade market news if you decide to dip your feed in the water! Is it that difficult to trade news announcements? We will go through this particular post in a bid to discover.

As always, just be sure you are trading with money you can afford to lose!

Slingshot strategy: How can it help you trade news?

One of the most common routes taken during high-impact announcements is the Slingshot strategy. This particular strategy is designed to help you during cases of a strong print in the tape either higher or lower. With this particular method backing your trading strategies, you can actually go into the Non-farm payrolls report (NFP) with your full positions so that if any volatility whatsoever is created post the announcement you can move your trade to be profitable. There are several entry strategies that you can try out here. Scaling into a trade remains one of the best ways to play the forex market.  With the use of this strategy, traders can secure better control of their trades. This particular technique allows you to observe and analyze the market so that you can remove the parts of the market as it moves in your favor and scale out of the losing portion of the trade.

The Currencies that One Should Focus On

It is important to find out which currencies you should focus on while you are trading news. Here is a look of some of the most popular traded currencies:

1. US Dollar (USD)
2. Canadian Dollar (CAD)
3. Euro (EUR)
4. Australian Dollar (AUD)
5. Japanese Yen (JPY)
6. British Pound (GBP)
7. Swiss Franc (CHF)
8. New Zealand Dollar (NZD)

How to Treat the Releases

Notably, it’s the US dollar which ends up being a part of the currency pair that most folks will decide to trade. So, there is no doubt about the fact that U.S. economic releases actually end up having the most pronounced impact on the forex market. However, a trader needs to take whisper numbers into account as well. While the reported figures are definitely important, you cannot really rule out unpublished forecasts as well. Additionally, you should remember that some releases are always going to be more important than others. You can gauge a lot about the significance of each release by estimating the importance of the country releasing the data and – of course- the importance of the data being released. Business sentiment surveys, interest rate decisions, retail sales, industrial production, unemployment, trade balance, inflation and industrial production are just a few common releases that traders need to consider.  

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

Funding Your Retirement: Financial Vehicles to Get You There

For the vast majority, investments into a 401K, IRA, and high-yield savings account is a way to hedge their bets as they move toward retirement. These provide (somewhat) safe financial vehicles ready for when they reach their mid-60s — options nearly everyone can explore.

But what if you’re bullish with financial independence? What if you’re adamant about another tech bubble or housing collapse? 

Time in the market outperforms timing the market. But, what if you could inject more capital now to show even better returns through compounding? This article explores financial vehicles that may be the items to get when you’ve set a clear financial path to retirement.

Playing Earnings & Gossip

Swings in the markets create opportunity whether it’s going up or down.

Playing Earnings

Earnings create high volatility in the markets with many opportunities for investment plays:

• Earnings run-up and sell before ER
• Short-term options call/ put pre or post ER
• Bearish buy-ins post ER dips

Tools like Stock Earnings present an easy-to-understand feed of which companies are posting earnings. This allows a savvy investor to play into these opportunities with added data. Tools like this also provide screeners and backtesting to discover and experiment with earnings plays, too.

Playing Gossip

There’s also the idea of “Buy the rumor, sell the news” noting the wild ups and downs caused by reporting and “shakeups” at a business. Notable examples are an influence from the POTUS tweets, moments after a CEO leaves, or whistleblower details from higher-ups.

These disruptive moments create wild swings providing new entry-points for bullish investors during dips. Or, incredible options trades for bearish traders. 

Following industry reports and keeping up with the news is the fuel for this financial vehicle.

Income Property & Sharing Economy

One could explore income property as their retirement vehicle:

• Flipping
• Owning & renting
• Owning & vacation rentals

Great capital, credit scores, and knowledge of the housing market creates this opportunity. Though, one could explore it by holding property when downsizing in preparation for retirement — renting the old home to cover new expenses.

One may also invest indirectly through REITs, or real estate investment trusts. This provides market coverage without the headaches and hassle of owning property. It also provides exposure to several sections including commercial property, housing, senior housing, and vacation properties. 

REITs rise with housing expansion while paying hefty dividends. All investing platforms provide access to publicly traded REITs. Or, one could explore similar options through services like Fundrise, Realty Mogul, or Realty Shares.

Your Education

The retirement window is set to grow — it’s already extended 4-months in 2018 alone. This is placing many individuals into a tough situation where they’ll need to work a few more years before retirement.

The job market is already tough, and competition from the college educated will make even entry-level jobs difficult to secure for aging individuals looking to “ride out” until retirement. 

Continuing education is a key component and investment for your retirement.

Consider:

• Workshops
• Online certifications
• Returning to college

This provides a hedge allowing you to explore part-time options pairing with the extra years your investment portfolio grows. And, it can provide the needed education to expand your skills and experience into lush gigs or entrepreneurial ventures you’ve always had on the backburner.

Time is On Your Side

Time provides the greatest returns whether you’re 40-years from retirement or looking in the pre-planning stages. What you do today creates substantial opportunities for your retirement goals by way of compounding earnings and golden opportunities.

Which financial vehicles will you choose to get yourself there?

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

Fundrise Takes The High Ground On Real Estate Pricing

There are quite a few businesses that have leveraged the Internet in order to create real estate investment opportunities that are worthwhile for their clients. One of the most popular sites for those who are trying to save for retirement is Fundrise. A crowd-funding site that offers private real estate investment opportunities, Fundrise was recently attacked competitively by Wealthfront, a publicly traded REIT regarding prices.

What Wealthfront decided to say was that it didn’t matter what the prices were because the cost of locking your money up in a private investment that isn’t that liquid is going to make a publicly traded REIT a better opportunity. The notion that you could remove your money any day of the year made investing in companies like Wealthfront a much better opportunity than choosing to get locked in and stuck with a firm that did private offerings like Fundrise.  What do you think??

Fundrise, for their part, pointed out that if a share price of 6 is compared with a share price of 20, there are certainly going to be advantages to investing in the more expensive share, even if it isn’t as liquid as the share that is valued at less.

Here are some examples that support Fundrise’s arguments:

Liquidity is not that important:

If you are a day trader or you are working through an Internet stock brokerage, you may appreciate the ability to trade whenever you perceive that the market will peak. The idea that your investment is flexible enough to allow you to cash out is part of the reason that you make the investment. Real estate funds can be different. Have you ever seen a housing market go up by 15 percent in one week? Actually, it would be really rare to see a market go up by 15 percent in one quarter, which is how often you can pull your investments from real estate funds like Fundrise.

Most of the people that do Fundrise reviews can relate to this particular market not being as volatile as stocks that are traded daily. They merely plan ahead when they make their investments and don’t adjust them as often.  Sometimes, not being able to withdraw your money at a whim can be a good thing because it can prevent you from acting on emotion.

Private investment gives you a greater sense of ownership:

Although there are advantages to using publicly traded companies to purchase real estate for a group of investors, private offerings provide people with the ability to create boutique investments that allow investors to maximize profits or emphasize safe investing, depending upon their outlook. In companies like Fundrise, there is therefore room for both types of investor- as well as several other kinds of investor.

That flexibility is different from public REITs that require that investors buy into a certain type of investment strategy, just like a mutual fund. If you don’t like your REIT investment, you’ll need to find another fund that does follow a strategy that you are interested in. When you invest in a company that is a private investment with many types of options in one fund, you can move your investment internally without having to make a large change in order to clear your investment.

Crowd-funding allows for greater participation:

There are a few efforts out there that create a lock-in opportunity where your investment will be available after a certain amount of time. Normally, the trade-off is that there will be some type of advantage provided. When you are in a crowdfunding marketplace, the advantages are more vehicles for investment and greater exposure to direct participation than you would find in a public REIT investment.

The bottom line is that companies like Fundrise need to be analyzed slightly differently than some firms that would like to be their competitor because they are operating on a different dynamic that brings in a different market segment interested in investing. And although the occasional pirate shot across the bows is an expected thing in the marketplace, you can expect that they will continue to bring the best selection of real estate goods to the marketplace online.

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

4 Important Tips on Saving for Retirement

Saving for retirement is something people under 40 rarely think about. However, it is something very important to start early. In fact, finance professionals recommend people begin to start thinking about it in their twenties. Retirement savings are your sole tool for future financial security. Retirement accounts, like individual retirement arrangements (IRAs), are specialized to compound on your savings on the long term, as in decades. It’s very difficult to predict what the markets will be like in a decade or two from now. Meaning, saving money is crucial for survival. Here are several important tips you should know about saving for retirement:

Start as Early as Possible

Investments become valuable as they mature. If you start saving for retirement in your late forties, you won’t have that much by the time you retire in your sixties. However, if you start saving in your twenties or thirties, your retirement funds would have had more than a decade to mature. The compounding effect is quite powerful, even if your savings have an extremely conservative rate of return like six percent. So, don’t wait around to start your retirement savings account.

Contribute Pre-Tax Money to a Traditional 401(k)

Get a traditional 401(k) from your employer. The money you contribute will not be subject to income tax. That means you will only have to pay taxes out of your take home pay, which will leave you more for investing. Roth 401(k)s are appealing to some because having one will mean your retirement years will be tax-free. But keep in mind that Roth 401(k)s are subject to many conditions, and you have to be in a certain high tax bracket to enjoy all the benefits. On the other hand, when you have more to invest with a traditional IRA, you will have more to spend in your retirement years.

Plan for a Self-Directed IRA

After you have opened an IRA account, you will have the option to convert it into a self-directed IRA. The advantage here is that you will be able to diversify your investments into stocks, real estate, and importantly, precious metals. If you want to add gold to your IRA, you will need a self-directed IRA. Precious metals like gold can hedge your cash assets against future financial uncertainty. It’s recommended that the overall risk of your retirement savings are lowered with a precious metal. You will first need to appoint a trustee to your self-directed IRA, and then contact a reputable gold dealer like Lear Capital to acquire the metal.

Make More by Matching Employer Contribution

Matching your employer’s contribution will practically earn you free money for retirement investing. Say your employer matches 50 percent of your contribution up to 5 percent of your monthly salary. For an employee earning $50,000 annually, that gets about $1,250 from the employers’ side, if the employee contributed $2,500. This is really an impressive amount. So do your best to match your employer’s contributions.

And don’t forget to automate your savings as well. Instead of spending and saving each month, save first and spend later. Otherwise, you will be tempted to squander away the money you should be saving to ensure your future financial security.  

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

April 2017 Money Report

The April 2017 MoneyAhoy Money Report is ready for your reading enjoyment!  Read on to learn more about how I successfully make over $250/hour blogging in my spare time.  I also discuss out money making, money saving, and investing performance for the month.  The money report is chock full of helpful tips on how you can start your own business and start making extra money!  Let’s jump right in, but first if you’d like to view any previous monthly money reports go here: monthly money reports.  Let’s start with a review of our goals for April 2017 to see how we did:

  Actions Plans for April 2017

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

Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress

• Publish 10 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
  • COMPLETE – I had 13 total posts for the month.  That has to be some kind of record
• Publish 1 post for HealthierDay.com
  • No Progress –
• Create 2 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy
  • COMPLETE – I made two videos for the month:  What is a Stock? and What is a Bond?
• Exercise at least 15 minutes every day
  • COMPLETE – there were a couple of days where we were on vacation and I slept in, but I’m not counting those!
• Gain over 250 Pinterest followers (get to 3,750 followers)
  • No Progress – I didn’t make time to harvest more followers much this month.
• Make over $1,000 / month in side-income (blog + dividend income)
  • COMPLETE – I did very will with this one and made $2,600+ in side income for the month.

I did OK in terms of goals for the month.  Getting Pinterest traffic is a lot harder than many folks make it out to be – at least for me!  I am happy with how we did for the month, but I am feeling a little guilty we haven’t had much material over at HealthierDay.com for a long while now…

Now let’s get onto the money discussion!

Notes on Making Money for April 2017

We had a pretty average month for total income in April.  This is mainly because my wife did not work many hours due to Spring Break with the kids and vacations.  Monthly income was boosted a bit by my monthly salary going up and some nice results with side income.

Total side-income for April was a very respectable $2,648.  This did not set any new records, but it is still really nice to have all that extra money for the month!  As you can see in the graph above, this was the second highest month ever for MoneyAhoy.com earnings!  It shows that hard work really does begin to pay off if you stick with something :-).  The split between MoneyAhoy.com income and dividends was:

• $1,735 – MoneyAhoy.com income
• $913 – dividends

For the MoneyAhoy.com income for the month, all this money was made in the month with less than 6-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 start a WordPress blog with Bluehost yourself?  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 of side-income (MoneyAhoy.com blog income plus dividends).  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 just to prove I can do it.  Hitting this monthly goal was pretty easy for the month of April as monthly dividends were just at the goal even if MoneyAhoy.com were to just make a little bit.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the total $2,648 in side-income for the month of April.  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:

• Sponsored Posts – $925
• Monthly Investment Dividends – $913 (JNK, HYG, SPY)
• Create an LLC with LegalZoom – $622
• Youtube – $63
• MyFinance end of post ads – $54
• SeedingUp Digital Content Marketing– $47
• Advertisements in sidebar – $25
• Amazon Affiliates – $17
• Google Adsense – $6
• Stock Market Investing for Newbies book – $0
• Start a WordPress Blog – $0
• TOTAL = $2,648

I 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.

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 April 2017

We did not save quite as much for the month of April as I would have hoped.  There were a couple of routine and non-routine expenses that kicked in that dragged our savings rate down quite a bit.  We also hard a LARGE tax bill to pay for our 2016 taxes :-(.

The routine expenses that dragged us down included spending more on going out to eat during our spring break vacation to Universal Studios and pre-paying to register for the kid’s summer daycare.

Non-routine expenses were also quite a bit higher for the month.  This was mostly due again to our trip to Universal Studios and prepaying for several summer related things.  Some of the top expenses for the month were:

1. $597 – purchased airplane tickets to visit my sister in Pennsylvania.
2. $255 – registered the kids for basketball camp over the Summer.
3. $155 – we renewed our AAA membership.  We thought this made sense since our cars are kinda older now.
4. $106 – this is how much two Harry Potter wands cost at Universal Studios.  Kids had fun with them, but I doubt they really got $50 of fun out of them…
5. $98 – I got my wife a FitBit Charge 2.  I spent a bit less because we cashed in a couple of Amazon gift cards.
6. $80 – This was the fee to get the kids passports through the post office.

We now have a total of $12,600 in our 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.  We have been saving for a year now, so we are getting close.  In just a couple more months, 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 is much nicer.  Basically, it is just a question of “when to cash in the chips.”  

Our overall savings rate for the month was just 30%.  This was because we had to pay over $4,000 in taxes to the IRS :-(!  I’m glad that is behind us now.

Notes on Investing for April 2017

For the month of April, I did a large reallocation of all of our investments to get back to our target asset allocation.  As a result, I sold off a lot of junk bonds and moved more money to other funds such as emerging markets (EEM), developed international markets (EFA), real estate investment trusts (VNQ), and small cap growth (VBK).

You won’t find me engaging in any sexy day trading or investing in single stocks like Snapchat or anything.  It’s 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 2017

I know that I am going to be super busy with my job for the month of May, so I will try to keep the goals a little light for the month so that they are something I have a realistic chance of achieving.  Here’s what I am thinking:

May 2017 Goals

• Publish 8 posts for MoneyAhoy.com
• Publish 1 post for HealthierDay.com
• Create 2 YouTube videos for MoneyAhoy
• Exercise at least 15 minutes every day
• Get to 3,500 Pinterest followers
• Make over $1,200 / month in side-income (blog + dividend income)

Other Points of Interest

MoneyAhoy.com turned four years old in April!  I cannot believe it’s been so long  Anyhow, you can read a bit more about the past four years for progress here: MoneyAhoy.com is Four Years Old!

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

1. The Best PPI Claim Company Can Get Your Money Back
2. How to Get a 1800 Toll Free Phone Number in Less Than 5 Minutes
3. Everything You Need To Know About Filing For Bankruptcy
4. Bitcoin’s Utility Is Expanding
5. Spring Cleaning: The Real Value of Decluttering
6. How to Choose a Life Insurance Plan
7. Smart Rent Collection Options
8. 6 Tips From Accounting Professionals to Make Tax Time Less of a Headache
9. How to Create A Solid Digital Marketing Strategy for Your Business
10. March 2017 Money Report
11. How to Save Big on Your Car Insurance
12. MoneyAhoy.com is Four Years Old!
13. Ready to Start Those Summer Projects?

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:

1. 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.
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 $28K 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 $55K 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!

The post April 2017 Money Report appeared first on MoneyAhoy.

For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

Common Sense Tips to Building a Solid Investment Portfolio

A solid investment portfolio takes its cue from one of the oldest proverbs known. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Diversification of assets means that the overall portfolio is at a lower risk for losing a large chunk of value. Traditional investments have always included stocks and bonds, but with recent fluctuations in the market, many are looking outside and into the realm of alternative investments.

In alternative investments, there are core strategies, such as real estate, or commodity trading in precious metals. Then there are investments that are considered fringe, but yield exceptional results, such as bitcoins.

Bitcoin

Bitcoins are a relatively new investment opportunity, but not one that should be overlooked. A form of digital currency, their scarcity and growing acceptance have driven their prices up enormously. For example, in 2009, an investor in Oslo, Norway, purchased $26.60 worth of bitcoins. He forgot about them and was reminded of his purchase in 2013. Their value had shot up to $886,000. In 2017, the current value for that amount is $6.7M!

An alternate method of purchasing bitcoins is to invest in their creation, or “mining.” Mining companies, such as Genesis Mining, allow investors to get into the lucrative bitcoin currency without a huge outlay of capital. As a currency investment, bitcoins are a volatile commodity, but their potential for staggering growth is one that investors are wise to pay attention to.

Precious Metals

Precious metals have always been recognized for their value, and almost every wise investor will include some gold, silver, or platinum in their portfolio. Although the market for precious metals remains volatile on a micro-scale, as a long-term investment, they still offer amazing returns.

Gold prices operate less off of supply vs. demand and more on what the world sentiment is. When people feel that the economy is unstable, there is significant political upheaval, or the threat of conflict, investors flock to gold as a means of safeguarding their wealth. A person can carry their entire fortune on them in the form of gold; because of its inherent value, it can be exchanged readily for goods or even safe passage out of the conflict.

Silver and platinum also have short-term volatility. This is because they both are heavily affected by industrial demand for limited supply. Both platinum and silver are used in numerous commercial applications, including catalytic converters, bearings, and electrical connections. Still, in the long run, both metals offer a solid investment for a portfolio.

Real Estate

When it comes to core alternative investments for a solid investment portfolio, real estate is one of the most solid items a person can have. There are three primary methods that an investor has at their fingertips to add real estate to their portfolio. The first is direct investment. This is where an investor selects individual properties to purchase. The advantage to this is that the investor exercises complete control over their properties. The primary drawback to this method is that it takes a lot of capital to diversify real estate holdings enough to minimize local fluctuations.

The second method of investing in real estate is a real estate mutual fund. The mutual fund handles investing in REIT stocks. This allows an investor to add the nearly guaranteed long-term growth of real estate to their portfolio without a large investment of initial capital.

The last method is to invest in a real estate investment trust (REIT). This is perhaps the best way for an individual investor to add real estate to their portfolio.  This is essentially a publicly traded company that offers stock. However, the REIT is a company that operates in real estate, such as strip malls, larger malls, and hotels. The stock price for an REIT is much more volatile than the value of a direct investment. Also, the price of REIT stock is significant, making it a barrier to most individual investors. However, the trade-off is that management issues over individual properties are handled by the REIT.

Final Thoughts

There are many alternative investments that a savvy investor can and should add to their portfolio. All of them however, entail their own risks, but with proper research, a small investment at the correct time can lead to huge windfalls over the years. 

The post Common Sense Tips to Building a Solid Investment Portfolio appeared first on MoneyAhoy.

For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

MoneyAhoy.com is Four Years Old!

MoneyAhoy.com is now four years old!  It has been an awesome ride over the past four years, and I am happy to still be blogging!

I had two main goals when starting this blog which were:

1. Help other people improve their personal finances
2. Help educate myself so that I could improve my own personal finances

Over the past four years, this blog has really helped me to achieve both of these goals.  With my post and video How to Start Your Own LLC, I have helped hundreds of people start their own business.  With my free Ebook Stock Market Investing for Newbies, I have helped hundreds of would-be investors learn how to invest in the stock market smartly.  I estimate that my other articles and videos have helped folks save tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

MoneyAhoy.com continues to grow and grow as it has helped me and others.  The rest of this post will reflect back on the past year and look to the future.  But first, if you’d like to check out the other old birthday posts, you can find them here:

• Happy Birthday MoneyAhoy!
• MoneyAhoy.com is Two Years Old!
• MoneyAhoy.com is Three Years Old!

Top-5 Posts for MoneyAhoy.com – Year 4:

Here’s a listing of the top most popular posts that were written in the past year in terms of traffic:

1. Start and Setup an LLC on-line in Less than 6 Minutes! – This was an older post, but I continue to work on updating it to keep the information relevant.  So far, it has helped hundreds of folks to start their own business and save hundreds at the same time!
2. How to Start a WordPress Blog with Bluehost – I created this mega-post to help folks understand how easy it is to start their own blog to explore their passion.
3. How to Save Money on Heartworm Medicine for Your Dog – Here we explain how you save save thousands of dollars over a lifetime by taking a DIY approach to your dog’s heartworm medicine.
4. How to Make Money with a Blog – This popular article gives a deeper insight how you can use a blog to generate quite a bit of additional income.  It is pretty detailed and has really helped many folks pull back the curtain on how to make money blogging.
5. Monthly Money Reports – These Monthly Money Reports bring readers back month over month to see how I am making, saving, and investing my money each month.  They are a fun way to learn about my opportunities and mistakes as I work to improve my personal finances.

Money Results Over the Past 4 Years

This is my favorite part of the birthday recap – we can get down and dirty with some numbers!  We’ll look at how blogging on MoneyAhoy.com has helped me to make, save, and invest more money over the past year.  It is pretty tough to calculate the exact amount of impacts, but I will do my best.

• Saving – MoneyAhoy has helped us to save a considerable amount each year by having us focus on things we could easily eliminate from our routine and non-routine spending.  Here’s a quick summary by year:
  • Year 1 Savings – $4,500
  • Year 2 Savings – $13,000 ($17,400 total)
  • Year 3 Savings – $15,500 ($33,000 total)
  • Year 4 Savings – $17,800+ ($54,000+ total)

It is pretty incredible, but MoneyAhoy.com has helped our family to save over $54,000 in total over the past four years!!!  Fantastic!!

• Making – I have made quite a bit of spare pocket money to invest through side hustles over the years.  MoneyAhoy has helped to fuel the passion to drive forward and push myself to make more side-hustle money.  Again, here’s a summary by year for side-hustle income:
  • Year 1 side-hustle income: $2,005
  • Year 2 side-hustle income: $7,050
  • Year 3 side-hustle income: $9,900
  • Year 4 side-hustle income: $12,400

MoneyAhoy.com has seen some nice growth over the years as you can see.  I am not getting rich or anything, but it has pushed me to go out and earn a total of $31,000+ in side-income.  Monthly income from the blog is at the point now where it can pay the mortgage each month which is kinda cool :-).

• Investing – After losing gobs of money trying to “trade” the market in the 2008 downturn, I was really gun-shy about continuing to invest our hard earned money.  My wife and I were continuing to invest into our 401(k) retirement accounts, but I was gun shy about any other type of investing.  MoneyAhoy.com helped me to get over the fear of investing by forcing me to learn more about investing and the ins and outs of the stock market.  It also forced me to develop an investment routine and get “timing the stock market” out of my system.  Here’s a breakdown of the amount we worked to invest each year and the amount of dividends we collected (this is just in our private investment account):
  • Year 1 – $38,500 invested with $850 in dividends
  • Year 2 – $139,000 invested with $2,900 in dividends
  • Year 3 – $113,500 invested with $8,800 in dividends
  • Year 4 – $104,000 invested with $12,200 in dividends

We continue to reinvest all dividends into the stock market, and nearly all of my take-home pay is invested in the stock market (my wife’s paycheck covers our bills completely).  I continue to remain the most proud of how MoneyAhoy.com has pushed us to continually invest for our long-term financial success.  Over the past four years, we have invested a total of $415,000 in the stock market and received ~$25,000 in dividends!  This is through a combination of our IRAs, 401(k)s, and private investment accounts.  The coolest part is that our annual dividends will continue to grow and grow as long as we continually reinvest them to take advantage of compound interest!

As you can see, MoneyAhoy.com has drastically change our financial lives for the better.  It has helped us work to increase our net worth by an EXTRA ~$110,000 over the past four years ($54K savings + $31K side-hustle + $25K dividends) higher just because of this blog and the personal finance discipline it has helped us to bring into our lives.

Some days running a blog feels easy, and other days it feels like a great deal of work.  Sometimes it is hard to believe I have been at it for four years.  Other times, it can be a bit stressful wondering if I will hit the goals I have set for myself each and every month.  If I could go back and do it all over again, I don’t think I would change a thing.  To me, that’s the best measure of if something has been worthwhile :-).

What’s Next for MoneyAhoy in Year Five?

So far we have been hitting the goal of having our average monthly side-income (dividends + MoneyAhoy.com) hit at least $1,000.  This is enough to cover the house payment with a little left over.  After reviewing the goals I set forth for year four of MoneyAhoy, we did so-so.  Here are the year four goals:

• Continue to look for ways to save more money on our routine finances.
  • COMPLETE – our property taxes have naturally worked themselves lower, we got into a cheaper cell phone plan, and we figure out how to save a bunch of money on our dog’s heartworm medicine.  Nothing ground-breaking, but we have made some progress.
• Continue to work to increase the presence of this blog and make more side-hustle advertising income.
  • COMPLETE – it looks like revenue from MoneyAhoy has grown about 40% vs. the previous year.
• Continue to invest ~100% of my income each month (my wife’s income is devoted to paying 100% of the bills).
  • COMPLETE – we have been doing this other than saving a bit for my wife’s new van fund.
• Continue to promote and expand our new HealthierDay.com health website.
  • POOR PROGRESS – our health and fitness website did not take off very much.  We also did not put a whole lot of time into it.  So, it is just floundering at this point.
• Work on another side-hustle project.  Currently I am focusing on learning and making a computer/cell-phone game using Game Maker Studio.  This really seems to fit well with my skills, interests, and previous background/jobs.  We’ll see how it pans out
  • POOR PROGRESS – as if I didn’t already know this, making a computer game takes a TON of time and effort.  It is fun, but can also be very frustrating at times.  I came to the conclusion that I could see a much better return on the investment of my time through blogging.  So, I basically canceled this goal.

I think that’s a pretty decent track record for the past year.  It wasn’t a 100% home run, but we did see some great progress.

Now let’s talk about goals and plans for year five of MoneyAhoy.com:

• Convert my wife’s old 457b into her IRA.
• Achieve annual investment dividend income > $15,000.
• Achieve 1,500+ subscribers on my MoneyAhoy YouTube channel.
• Achieve monthly average MoneyAhoy.com revenue of >$1,500.
• Really focus on putting out more quality YouTube videos with a goal of 4+ per month.
• Get our routine monthly expenses down below $2,500 a month.

Final Birthday Thoughts

I really hope that you will continue reading MoneyAhoy.com for year five to see what sorts of progress we can make toward the above goals.  As you can see, this blog has helped us increase our net worth by an extra $110,000 over the past four years!  I hope that in this process it has helped you to make more money, save more money, and invest your money better than before.  I look forward to many more years of blogging fun, learning, and adventure!

If you have any suggestions on how I can make MoneyAhoy.com even better, please leave a comment below or send me an email.

The post MoneyAhoy.com is Four Years Old! appeared first on MoneyAhoy.

For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com