January 2015 Money Report

The new year is here, and January has come and gone.  It’s time for my January 2015 Money Report!  Things were pretty good this month – read on to see how my money making, saving, and investing went for the month!

To view any previous monthly money reports, check here.

 

 

Actions Plans for January 2015

Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress

• Post at least 4 videos on MoneyAhoy Youtube Channel
  • I posted 3 videos for the month, so just short of my goal.  Here they are:
    • How to Change a Headlight in Less Than 5 Minutes
    • How to Save a Wet Cell Phone
    • How to Setup a Corporation in Less than 6 Minutes
• Read the book Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results
  • Complete – great book, I found it pretty helpful!
• Read the book Go Solo: How to Quit the Job You Hate and Start a Small Business You Love!
  • Complete – this book was so-so
• Help my wife figure out how to earn more income since her job is slowing down
  • Complete – I didn’t do much here, but my wife found another job making $3 more per hour with flexible hours! 🙂
• Brainstorm on 2015 goals to set for myself
  • Complete – The list is coming out soon!
• Write at 8 posts for MoneyAhoy
  • Nearly Complete – I had 7 posts for the month.

Pretty good on achieving my monthly goals – now let’s look at the graphs and details of money for the month:

 

Notes on Making Money for January 2015

We had a real good month for money making in January.  Because things had slowed down at my wife’s job, she went for basically a month with now work – yikes!  Everything turned out OK as she found an awesome new job making $3 more per hour than before with very steady hours.  Score!

Dividend income and side hustle income was pretty good for the month.  I didn’t set any new records this month, but steady income is a good sign – I will take it any day.

Here are the side-hustle income highlights for January:

• Sponsored Posts – $270
• Monthly Dividends – $255
• LegalZoom – $112
• Ad in sidebar – $25
• Youtube – $22
• Google Adsense – $18
• Stock Market Investing for Newbies book – $7
• Ebay – $0
• TOTAL = $708

Total side income (dividends plus side-hustles) came in around to almost $708 for the month.  It feels so great each month to see the dividend income continue to grow.  I’ve been reinvesting all dividends, so this should help to really help things go exponential after a couple of years.

Notes on Money Saving for January 2015

Drum roll please…..

Our expenses were the lowest ever on record for this month!!!  Living in a house half the size of our old one really does save money – who would have thought? 🙂

We hit our lowest expenses ever even with several extra expenses for the month:

• $186 – Spring soccer fees for both kids
• $160 – Termite treatment
• $38 – Daughter’s monthly gymnastics fee
• $24 – Father-Daughter Valentine’s Dance

Notes on Investing for January 2015

For the month of January, I funded and purchased shares for my IRA and my wife’s IRA.  I also invested in our separate investment account.  We are trying to invest all the extra cash from the sale of our previous home over a couple of months.

I purchased a total of 303 share of JNK and 68 shares of VNQ.  JNK is a high yield (junk) bond ETF that pays a ~6% annual dividend.  VNQ is a Real Estate Investment Trust ETF that pays a ~3.5% annual dividend.  The total I invested for the month was ~$17,500.

As you can see from the chart above, CASH is still a big percentage of our asset pie (23+%).  We are still in the process of investing the equity from our old house after we sold it.  The plan is to completely invest this over a six month period.  This will hopefully move our cash holdings to something more reasonable like 5%.

If you are interested in stock market investing but don’t know where to get started, check out my excellent book: Stock Market Investing for Newbies.  It will get you up to speed very quickly!

Actions Plans for February 2015

Here are my goals for the new month:

• Post at least 2 videos on MoneyAhoy Youtube Channel
• Re-read the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
• Up my investing to $25,000 per month until cash from home sale is fully invested
• Post 2015 goals for myself (saving, making, and investing)
• Write 8 posts for MoneyAhoy

Other Points of Interest

• If you’ve been following along, my wife was in the hospital for a couple of days (she is OK now), but the medical bills are now coming due.  This means we are going to have to pay thousands some day soon here 🙁  This is even after “insurance”.  Oh well – it is what it is…

1. Will Social Security Be Around When I Retire?
2. November and December 2014 Money Report
3. How Would You Like to Earn $1,500 Per Hour?
4. Expect the Unexpected – How to Deal with Unexpected Expenses (sponsored)
5. Tip for New Renters – Get Insurance! (sponsored)
6. Start and Setup a Corporation (INC) on-line in Less than 6 Minutes!
7. Understanding the Foreign Exchange Market (sponsored)

What are your money saving, money making, and investing plans for February?