Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Passive Income Report: April 2018, Disaster Strikes!

Disaster finally strikes!

I've always been concerned about my rental properties having multiple, large expenses all in the same month.  But thankfully this hasn't really happened.....until now.

During the month of April I had over $960 in real estate-related repair costs.  $960.88 to be exact! Wow, almost $1k of expenses in a single month.

This huge number, as you can imagine, wiped out my cash flow.

When I first started Passive Income Dude, my first report for the month of April, which occurred last year in 2017 was the first month ever where my properties in sum produced negative cash flow. Believe it or not, I only had two active rental properties last year (in April), and my cash flow for that month was -$11.74.

Well apparently April is a bad month for me because this year's total was nearly similar!

The "good news" of this month's report, however, is that despite taking a giant $960.88 assault on my cash, I still came out positive for the month...barely.  See below for the details:

Dividends and Rental Income Received




Wow. Thankfully I was able to eek out a slightly positive total for the month; barely! 

Though it may look like several of my properties did well, and that it was just the Missouri property that was bad, that isn't actually the case.  Here is a detailed list of the expenses for this month below:



As you can see, THREE properties had repairs at $100 or more this month. When it rains, it pours!  But, another sliver of good news - these three properties all have property managers, so the work I actually had to do to complete these repairs was about less than 1 hour for the whole month.  Sometimes it is nice paying for this service, and this month is an example of that.  Very little work required by me, despite a lot of activity and attention needed.  Still, it was not fun to see $960 wiped out from your monthly cash flow.

Purchases
This month had another bit of a silver-lining because I continued to contribute to the mutual funds in my portfolio and have now maxed out my ROTH IRA for the year and am only several thousand away from maxing my wife's ROTH IRA as well.  This means I completed GOAL #5 for the year, which is great!  Diligent, steady, disciplined investing over time into low-cost mutual funds seems to be the way to true financial security and true wealth!

Thoughts on This Month
This was a terrible month for Passive Income, but I am thankful for the fact that I apparently can have such large expenses, all in one month, and still only be -$13 in cash flow for my rental properties. And then also that I can have a pretty quiet Asset month, with only two payers, and have my overall total passive income slightly positive. I know month's like this are going to happen occasionally, but it is nice to know that I have a system that is now fully able to absorb this large amount of maintenance and repair risk within my properties, without "busting the bank."

Compared to last year's April total in 2017 of $655, my YoY growth for this month was NEGATIVE 92%. That's ok.  If there were no repair costs, my YOY would have been significantly positive, which suggests I am moving in the right direction, despite this major setback.

With the addition of this month's income to my Progress Tab I now have earned $3555 in total this year in passive income.  Little behind my desired pace, but I'm motivated to keep moving forward!...No matter how small the monthly total!.

Thanks for reading as always. I greatly appreciate your comments and will do my best to always respond. Stay the course!

Dan

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Passive Income Report: March 2018

Another month down...time continues to roll as we are already now one quarter of 2018 complete!

This was a great month for passive income, as most mutual funds pay out on the 3, 6, 9, 12 month cycle and is where I have the bulk of my portfolio outside of real estate.  I have a difficult time with individual stocks now, with all of the academic research suggesting otherwise.

Anyway, I'm still diligently following the simple but difficult to maintain process of day-in and day-out, trying to control my spending, saving wisely, and then deploying that capital in a consistent, diversified manner with the ultimate goal of trying to grow my passive income.


This month I received $1508.54 in passive income. What a blessing! Here are the details:

Dividends and Rental Income Received




As you can see, I had some more expenses with my Missouri property, causing negative cash flow.  I unfortunately have to report more expenses for April's report, and am now considering selling the property.  We'll see but this property may leave my portfolio after this tenant cycle.

Purchases
Nothing fancy....just continuing to add to our ROTH IRAs when possible.  About $1-2K or so.

Thoughts on This Month
This was a great month for Passive Income, and I am thankful for this month's performance. Compared to last year's March total in 2017 of $959, my YoY growth for this month was 57%. I continue to see very large growth, which is great.  The only way to sustain it however is to buy another property, or heavily invest in asset producing income.  We'll see...may buy a 5th property sooner if a deal comes my way!

With the addition of this month's income to my Progress Tab I now have earned $3505 in total this year in passive income.  Little behind my desired pace, but the best quarter I've had.

Thanks for reading as always. I greatly appreciate your comments and will do my best to always respond. Stay the course!

Dan

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Passive Income Report: February 2018

Hello!

I'm excited to report February's passive income total, and share what I've learned with you. 

Unfortunately I'm still diligently studying for the PMP exam, and so I don't think I'll be writing much more than once a month for this blog.  But that's ok. And I'll be thankful once this exam is over...if I pass! :)  Then I can start writing more frequently.
 

General Thoughts on This Month: February was a great month, and I'd like to briefly share why; not because of a record number, or 4 digit passive income, or a major change in my portfolio, but simply because it is is reflective of the system that I have built from years of diligent saving and investing and wise decision making. A system that you too can build. Really all it takes is diligence, patience, and sacrifice.  It's incredible what you can achieve with those three ingredients.

This month I received $984 in passive income and it wasn't because of anything new that I did. All of this amount from this month was from past decisions I made in which I am now reaping the reward.  It really is true that you reap what you sow. This is a life-principle that I would not fight against!  You truly do reap what you sow.  So I would say, sow deeply!

Dividends and Rental Income Received
I have several individual stocks, but primarily mutual funds, and also four active rental properties, which if you've been following my story have varying levels of success: my Missouri Rental my Colorado Rental, and my two North Carolina rentals: North Carolina 1 and North Carolina 2.  Listed below is the cash flow that each of these assets provided this month:


In summary, with dividends and rental cash flow combined, Total Passive Income Received: $984.79.

Purchases
I always do my best to add to our Roth IRAs early in the year and this February was no different. I still have a long way to go but I'm proud of my progress. My recommendation: always try to max your ROTH IRAs!

Thoughts on This Month
This was a great month for Passive Income, and I am thankful for this month's performance. Compared to last year's February total in 2017 of $179, my YoY growth for this month was 450%. Wow. 450% growth. Not a bad way at all to continue into the second month of the year! 

I'll note that last year I only had 2 active rental properties...and now I have 4, which accounts for the major increase in YoY growth.  This should continue through June, at which point actual, "new growth" will be more accurately measured.  

With the addition of this month's income to my Progress Tab I now have earned $1,996 in total this year in passive income.  Little behind my desired pace, but I expect big months on the 3-6-9-12 cycle to hopefully make up for it.

Thanks for reading as always. I greatly appreciate your comments and will do my best to always respond. 

Dan

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Passive Income Report: January 2018

Hello!

Sorry for the delay in posting! My finger is mostly better, so my typing is basically back, which is good news.  I've been diligently studying for the PMP (project management professional) exam with all of my free time, and so that is why I really haven't written. I imagine I'll pick back up the frequency in a month or so.

General Thoughts on This Month: January started off nicely, with no issues and no surprises.  Though I feel very thankful for the system I've created, I still feel "cash poor", with everything either being reinvested or used for paying down debt.  Eventually that should change! Though it is taking much longer than I thought, or like.

Another reason for the delay in posts is that I changed my system for how I track and report my numbers, now using pivot tables in excel, making things much easier to track and analyze, but the shift to make this happen took a lot of work.

Anyway, this month I received $1,012 in passive income!  This is the first January ever to be in 4 digits! Here are the details from this month below:

Dividends and Rental Income Received
I have some individual stocks, but mostly mutual funds, and also four active rental properties, which if you've been following my story have varying levels of success: my Missouri Rental my Colorado Rental, and my two North Carolina rentals: North Carolina 1 and North Carolina 2.  Listed below is the cash flow that each of these assets provided this month:


In summary, with dividends and rental cash flow combined, Total Passive Income Received: $1,012.

Purchases
I always do my best to add to our Roth IRAs in January and this January was no different.  I basically just bought around $500 or so of mutual funds on every major down day during the correction, investing around $2k total.  My advice - STAY THE COURSE!

Thoughts on This Month
This was a great month for Passive Income, and I am thankful for this month's performance. Compared to last year's January total in 2017 of $377, my YoY growth for this month was 168%. Not a bad way at all to start the year! I'll note that last January I only had 2 active rental properties...now I have 4, which accounts for the major increase in YoY growth.  This should continue through June, at which point actual, new growth will be more accurately measured.

With the addition of this month's income to my Progress Tab I now have earned $1,012 in total this year in passive income.  Little behind my desired pace, but I expect big months on the 3-6-9-12 cycle to hopefully make up for it.

Thanks for reading as always. I greatly appreciate your comments and will do my best to always respond. 

Dan