February 2014 – Making Money Report, Money Saving Report, and Investing Report
Welcome to the February 2014 Making Money Report, Money Saving Report, and Investing Report!
February 2014 came with its own set of successes and failures as you’ll see below 🙂 Overall it was a good month.
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Actions Plans for February 2014
Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress
- Get halfway through the book: The Four Pillars of Investing
- I made it about 43% of the way through, so I didn’t quite hit my goal here. I had an unexpected book I had to read for class that took precedence.
- Sell at least
2010 things on Ebay ( revising this goal – 20 was too much without dumping stuff at too low of a price)- I sold 9 things for ~$144, almost made it! 🙁
- Finish the rough draft of a new eBook on investing for beginners through chapter #3
- Complete – I was able hack my way to finish chapter #3
- Post at least 5 additional monetized YouTube videos
- Complete – I had 7 posted videos for February, so I hit the goal here.
- Get all of my MBA assignments done on time – I’m in the home stretch as I finish up in April!
- Complete – Everything good on this front. I’m still doing well with all of my classwork.
I hit 3 out of 5 goals again for this month, so I’m feeling just OK about my progress. Side hustle income dropped vs. last month, but I kinda expected that because January was such a home run. I actually got a little further ahead writing my stock market investing book for beginners than I had planned, so I’m happy with that. Now, let’s check out the specifics…
Notes on Making Money for February 2014
February was the best ever month for income! I received my yearly bonus and my wife received a bonus as well. Google Adsense revenue dropped to $18, Amazon Affiliate income was ~$2, YouTube income was ~$3, and income from articles was $235. Ebay sales were a little weaker at $145 for the month (sold more household clutter)! Total side hustle income was $403 for the month – pretty nice!
Notes on Money Saving for February 2014
Monthly expenses for February were nicely under control compared to previous months.
The biggest non-routine expense we had was the purchase of Wicked tickets (~$150). My wife has wanted to see this play for like the past 7 or 8 years, and I finally caved in and agreed to go 🙂
Because of the bonuses, our overall savings rate was 72% for the month! February also saw the most saved as a dollar amount so far – awesome!
Notes on Investing for February 2014
For February, I picked up 21 shares of SPY at a price of $187.70 for a total of $3,942. SPY is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF which pays a quarterly dividend (1.8% annually). The is my favorite market index fund to hold.
Actions Plans for March 2014
- Finish the book: The Four Pillars of Investing
- Sell at 5 things on Ebay (I have sold most of the low hanging fruit)
- Finish chapter #5 of the Investing for Beginners book that I’m writing
- Post at 5 additional monetized YouTube videos
- Get all of my MBA assignments done on time – I’m almost done – only one more month!!
Other Points of Interest
- Here is a list of the posts I wrote for the month of February:
- Should I Downsize My House?
- When a Landlord Calls — Finding and Saving Money on Rental Accommodation in Egypt (guest post)
- Investment Tips – Remember Enron – Reduce Your Company Stock
- Free Christmas Present
- Selling on Ebay – Diamonds in the Rough
- Book Review – The Millionaire Next Door
- Top Personal Finance Book Reviews (new review page)
- Playing the Lottery is Stupid
- Share Plates at Restaurants
Also, I was able to break 150,000 on my Alexa ranking, so I’m very happy with that!!
What are your money saving, money making, and investing plans for March?
I didn’t know you had a youtube channel! Checking it out and subscribing now!
Brock @cleverdude recently posted…When The Story is Better Than The Experience
Brock,
Cool, thanks! I just got a new microphone yesterday, so I plan to do a lot more money saving, money making, and investment idea videos. I created a new channel for my gaming videos that is just getting started. I will eventually move all the gaming content over there…
Nice job. I hope you manage to reach most, if not all, your goals at the end of the year.
Mark,
Thanks for the kind wishes 🙂
Derek,
I’m a new reader to your blog and have really enjoyed these monthly reports, especially your investment, book reviews and side hustle info and feel I can get some really good ideas.
I’d really love to see(maybe at a high level) what type of things your selling on ebay every month. I did read your other articles on the pokemon cards and zeldo game.
KT,
Thanks for your kind words. I can start to include my ebay sales going forward. It’s mostly games, DVDs, etc. but it would be no trouble to include!
I love reading income report as I learn a great deal from them, and am going to check out your investments and see if i can implement the same.
You are doing absolutely well.
frank joseph recently posted…Health Tips for Bloggers: Stay Healthy While you Blog
Frank,
Thanks for your kind words! I’m glad to be of some help. Let me know if you have any questions. I’m also knee deep in writing a stock market investment book for beginners that will hopefully be right up your alley.
Nice job on the income and savings rate. 11K in income is pretty good. With such a high savings rate, when will you be financially free? Do you post your networth anywhere or is it private? Good luck with all your goals.
EL @ Moneywatch101 recently posted…The Last Hundred Dollars
EL,
I haven’t really posted my net worth yet. I would be fine with it, but my wife has some reservations. I’ll convert her eventually 🙂 If we can continue our current savings rate, we’re about 4 years away from being millionaires.
Great job!! I’m loving all of the charts and graphs, but then again, I’m an Excel nerd. Just ask my wife about all of the ones I have for our net worth/expenses/etc. It’s cool you have a bunch of YouTube videos up. I’ve been meaning to get around to doing this but it always gets put off. Hopefully I’ll get some up sooner rather than later.
Jon @ Money Smart Guides recently posted…Is iForex Trading Safe? A Brief Guide to iForex Practices
Jon,
Thanks for your kind words. Once you get a production flow down, you can crank out the videos pretty darn quickly. It took me hours to get up-to-speed with video editing software though. I’d recommend it as if you include links back to your site it can help your SEO rankings tremendously.