February Goals Update

Only two weeks until our big trip to New Zealand and between planning the trip and overtime at work I cannot wait to be on vacation. Although this trip we be far from relaxing...instead it will be jam packed with adventure.

GOALS

Financial

Expense rate under 45% of my net income.  D

January started out very rough with a 108% expense rate, but February was much better due to a bonus at work. In February I managed to keep my expenses down to 35% of my income. That leaves me with a 62% expense rate for the year, after a slow start to the year I think I will be able to make up some ground.
 
Establish an emergency fund and automatically deposit some money into it each month. C

Still no progress in this department yet, if I want to open a Money Market account, as I was planning to do, I need at least $10k to open that account with my bank so I am still trying to decide how much cash to save up for this goal.

Invest $2,500 per month. A+

I invested over $2,000 in BAX and $200 split evenly between Disney (DIS), Kellogg's (K), Unilever (UL), a Pepsico (PEP) this month. So I did not quite make it to my goal for the month, but I did invest $4,000 in January so I am up to $6,200 for the year, so right now track.

 

Open a Loyal3 account and start a small amount of automatic investing. B+

One on sense this goal is complete, I opened an account and starting automatic investing, however I don't want to mark this as complete yet, I would like to reevaluate in a couple of months and if all is going well, add to my automatic investing.

Pay for my vacations with overtime. A

I put in 12 hours of overtime in February, not as good as last month but should still put me right on track.

Establish one new source of income. C

No update on this front yet.

Physical

Complete the Tough Mudder. C

I am already signed up for this one, so it will be happening.

Workout my legs 2x per week. B

My basketball schedule has eased up a bit so I should be able to work this in, but for January I worked out only 6 times instead of the requisite 8.

Complete a sprint triathlon. C

No progress on this front yet, plenty of time to plan this one.

Run at a faster Pace: complete a 15K in 1 hour and 24 minutes (9 minute/mile). D

No progress here either.

Reduce my percentage of body fat to 12%. D

I am actually not sure what my current percentage is but I don’t think it is good. 

Track my calorie intake every day and review weekly. A

100% success so far.

Personal

Read 6 Books from my Reading List. C

No progress yet.

Take an online class. D

Nothing here either.

Average one blog post per week. A

4 posts in February so I barely squeezed it in.

Travel somewhere new. B

Well we purchased the tickets to New Zealand and we are VERY excited. Only two weeks to go.

Try meditation. C

I need to figure out a game plan for accomplishing this goal.

Try out one new hobby. C

Step 1: figure out what I would be interesting in trying, currently I have no ideas…

Date night with my girlfriend at least once per month. A

We went out to dinner a couple of times this month.

Conclusion

Well I think I am still doing OK. Most of these goals will just take time but I am on track to complete them.

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

February Portfolio and Net Worth Update

Man oh man has it been busy! I have a lot to do in the next three weeks between work and getting ready for our big trip to New Zealand. I wish I had more time to write and post to my blog, as it is I am barely keeping up with my monthly updates let alone have any time to write anything new. But now its time to update my portfolio and net worth.

Buys/Sells:
I had only one purchase this month, I purchased 30 shares of BAX on  @ $66.7673 a share. You can read more about this purchase here. BAX does not have a long history of dividend growth (~8 years) but has had an excellent growth rate since initiating the divided and has had an excellent history with spinoffs.

FRIP
Scottrade offers a Flexible Reinvestment Plan, where dividends from qualifying companies can be used to purchase shares in any other qualifying companies without any commission. So I take advantage of this every month and I usually use it to build up my positions in companies where my positions are lagging.
This month my dividends were used to purchase 7 shares of Kimco Realty Corporation (KIM). This feature has been on autopilot for a long time now so I need to evaluated where best to invest these small chunks of money.

Loyal3
I opened a Loyal3 account (one of my 2015 goals) this month and started some automatic monthly investing. I set up my account to purchase $50 worth of shares in 4 companies: The Walt Disney Company (DIS), Kellogg's (K), Pepsico (PEP), and Unilever (UL). As of March 1st my Loyal2 account stands:

Symbol	Shares	Total
DIS	.4909	$50.97
K	.7549	$47.16
PEP	.5138	$49.41
K	1.1674	$50.22
	Total	$198

I think I will let my Loyal3 account continue the automatic investing for a couple of months before I reevaluate.

Net Worth
Net worth will always be a secondary goal for me with generating passive income being my primary goal. But net worth is something I have started tracking. Given how much of my net worth is in stocks, my net worth will have a tendency to fluctuate frequently with the market but hopefully my net worth continue an overall upward trend over time.
Assets:

   - 401k:                   $78,570

   - Investments:        $69,324
   - Cash:                   $8,516
   - Loyal3:               $198

Liabilities

   - Student Loan 2:  $6,780

   - Car Loan:           $8,667

NETWORTH:       $138,478 up  5% from last month

Current Portfolio:

Symbol	Shares	Symbol	Shares
VHGEX	173.82	JNJ	17
VWIGX	177.917	KIM	77
VTRIX	110.62	KMI	104
AFL	57.08	KO	36
BBY	1	MAT	59
BNS	36	MRK	43
CIM	68	NOV	35
CVX	15	OHI	65
DLR	74	SNE	10
GE	86	SPY	10
HCP	56	T	103
HP	34	TGT	31
INTC	94	VZ	30
IYY	20	WFC	48

Well, this is a pretty brief post but I kind of like that is direct, short, and simple. But overall it was a good month for my portfolio (two new additions) and my net worth.

How about you? Any good purchases in February?

Photo Credit: freedigitalphotos.net

February '15 Wrap Up

Another month down and its time to review. Last month I tried to separating my monthly wrap up into three posts: budget, net worth, and goals and I think I will stick with that format for the time being.

Expenses:
My expenses are listed to the side. On each line I have the budgeted amount per month, the actual
amount spent for the month of February.

My total expenses were just over $2,620, which is a little over my planned expenses. So it was a much better month than last month. My groceries, dinner/drinks, clothes and car budgets were all over. My dinner/drinks budget was particularly worrisome, we had one rather expensive meal but also simply went out too much this month. I'll need to work harder in March to keep that budget down.

INCOME:
Paycheck: $7,433. It was a very good month for income, in addition to some overtime, this month we received our yearly bonus.

% Expenses = 35%  of income. Not bad at all. But this was really due to bonus income, otherwise my expense rate would have been pretty mediocre. This brings my expense rate for the year down to 62% which is much more manageable than the 104% expense rate I started the year out with.

Dividend Income:
 This month I earned $178 without lifting a finger, not bad. That brings my total dividends for the year to $328. The following companies paid me this month:

Date	Symbol	Shares	Dividend
2/2/2015	VZ	30	0.55	16.5
2/2/2015	T	103	0.47	48.41
2/17/2015	KMI	104	0.45	46.8
2/17/2015	OHI	65	0.53	34.45
2/24/2015	HCP	56	0.565	31.64

Overall a good month but definitely needs improvement if I really want to hit all of my goals.

How about you? How was your February?


-Nick

Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net