Friday, December 29, 2017

Passive Income Report: December 2017 ($4,004!!)

What an amazing way to end the year! I literally cannot believe how it ended.  For the last few months I had been saying that I thought it would be a "photo finish" as to whether or not I would reach my passive income goal for the year (of $13,000).  Going in to December, my total was only $9,189 and so I knew I would need a monstrous December monthly total if I was going to make it.

Well, I am very happy to report that I achieved my goal with a grand total of $13,194.24!

Side note - my finger is still in cast and so I will keep this post short, but I do plan to do a 2017 Annual Review in a few weeks where I will highlight more details.

General Thoughts on This Month: This was my best month since the creation of Passive Income Dude with a grand total of $4,004.76 earned in completely passive income.

What an incredible blessing! The system is working and I am patiently watching the snowball pick up momentum! It is incredible to see what the power of patience and compounding can do to your returns. Here are the details from this month below:

Dividends Received



*All dividends are always reinvested.

There are a few very cool things that happened in this month's total in regards to dividends that I would like to highlight quickly:

1) This is the first time ever where a single holding had a payout in the 4 digits! Vanguard Wellington was a huge payer for me at $1,078 by itself!

2) This is the first time I've ever had a monthly total in the $3000s.  This is awesome and definitely did not happen over night.


Rental Income Received
I have 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 properties provided this month:



As you can see from above, this month had over several hundred dollars in real estate expenses, which I always hate because they come right out of my bottom line cash flow total.  Thankfully 3 of the 4 properties still were positive.

In summary, with dividends and rental cash flow combined, Total Passive Income Received: $4,004.76


Purchases
I added a little more to my wife's ROTH IRA (~$750), but it was in a few small chunks and I'm still paying down debt and de-levering currently.  Nothing exciting.

Thoughts on This Month
This was an incredible month for Passive Income, and I am so thankful for this month's performance.

Compared to last year's December's total in 2016 of $2,658, my YoY growth for this month was 50.7%. This puts my annual YoY growth average at 60.7% per month. 

With the addition of this month's income to my Progress Tab I now have earned $13,194 in total this year in passive income.  

Thanks for reading as always. I greatly appreciate your comments and will do my best to always respond.  It's been an incredible year and I will save a lot of my concluding thoughts and analysis for my annual review post in a few weeks.  And once my finger heals I will try to write a little more.  Additionally, I've made some improvements to how I track and analyze the data, which I will start in 2018 as well. Take care!

Passive Income Dude 

Monday, December 18, 2017

Passive Income Report: November 2017

My apologies again for the delay.  Finger is still in a cast....just got x-rays again today and will be wearing this thing for the next 3 weeks.  Looking forward to this injury being in the past!

But, I have been working hard on a new method to track and capture my progress, so I'll be releasing that for the start of 2018.  Getting pretty solid with databases and pivot tables!

Anyway, I didn't want to miss November's relatively decent passive income report, so without further adieu...

General Thoughts on This Month: With one month of 2017 left, it is literally going to be a photo finish for whether I hit my primary passive income goal or not.  This month had around ~$100 in real estate maintenance expenses, which come completely from my bottom line and reduce passive income by the expensed amount. Agh.

All of that said, below are the details from the $997.26 this month I received in passive income. DECEMBER is my multi-thousand passive income month, so I'm greatly looking forward to seeing where the year ends in a few weeks.

Dividends Received



*All dividends are always reinvested.

Rental Income Received
As mentioned last month, I now have four active rental properties, 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 properties provided this month:



In summary, with dividends and rental cash flow combined, Total Passive Income Received: $997.26

Purchases
I've added a little more to my wife's ROTH IRA (~$1000), but it was in a few small chunks and I'm still paying down debt and de-levering currently.  Nothing exciting.  But that is also part of the beauty of the process!

Thoughts on This Month
This was a solid month for Passive Income.  Compared to last year's November's total in 2016 of $581, my YoY growth for this month was 71.6%.  This puts my annual YoY average through the first 11 months of this year at 61.8% per month. 

With the addition of this month's income to my Progress Tab I now have earned $9,189 in total this year in passive income.  One exciting note is that I now have surpassed my 2016 yearly total! ...With one month to spare!

Unfortunately this month actually represents a small 'loss' in the ground I need to make up in order to reach my passive income goal. I still think it is going to be a photo finish actually as to whether or not I achieve my primary Passive Income Goal.  But in summary I'm counting on a MASSIVE DECEMBER if I'm going to make it!

Thanks for reading, and I always appreciate any comments,

Passive Income Dude 

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Income/Expenses: October 2017

I recently broke my finger pretty badly, and am now in a cast and am unable to type very well for the near future. Frustrating!

But things could be much worse and I apologize for getting this report accomplished so late. Unfortunately I will have to keep it short.  But I will follow with my November passive income total in several days.

General thoughts on this month: This was a good month for us.  Each month we stick to a relatively general, but very closely monitored plan and we continue to de-lever with everything left over.  November's and December's expenses are always extremely high, so thankfully this was a good month.  Until my finger heals and I can type again...


Thanks for reading!

Dan

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Goals for 2018: Big Things Ahead!

In this post, I'd like to share a draft  plan of what I think my 2018 Financial Goals will be.  It's only November of 2017 still, so I've got a few weeks left to adjust any of these goals if necessary, but as it stands right now I think these will be what I strive for in 2018, from a financial perspective.

My primary purpose with these goals is simple: to give me a benchmark of success, to know where I should be heading when things are unclear, and to evaluate how well I am doing over the long 365 days we have in 2018.

For this year I decided on 10 financial goals (in 2017 I had 10 as well), but this year I am adding what I will call a "stretch goal" as well - a goal that is far out of reach, one that I may strive for (or may not), so if it does end up actually happening, awesome. But if it does not, no big deal. Spoiler - this year's stretch goal is real estate related.

I tend to put a lot of thought into picking these goals and narrowing them down to only my top 10. But on the other hand, I also tend to think that one's financial success is more about the discipline of sticking to a plan over time than it is about coming up with the right, very complicated, or detailed, plan.  In my opinion, financial success is rather straightforward: save more than you earn, diversify, and invest wisely over many, many years. That is pretty simple. But it is definitely not easy. It is actually very hard sticking to your plan, day in and day out, when others are doing many other more exciting things, or taking exciting vacations, while you are diligently sacrificing and not derailing your plan with poor investment choices or reckless spending.

Let's take a look now at my goals for 2018. I'll be turning 32 years old this year, and will be entering the 3rd year of Passive Income Dude. With all of that said as an introduction, I'm anticipating BIG THINGS AHEAD!  Here we go:

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Passive Income Report: October 2017

Sorry for the delay! - It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review, and again I am happy to report a very large YoY growth of 108% from last October. Despite the large number, it was a rather boring month, of zero action or excitement or purchases or anything new...just letting the system work. Still, I'm happy to receive the amount my portfolio generated!

In each progress review I will list a summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers October 2017.  I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together!

General Thoughts on This Month: A rather boring month as I said of simply letting the system execute what it's been set up to do.  This month was carried almost exclusively by the real estate portion of my portfolio, which I am fine with because that is where my focus has been the last few years. It may be time to start focusing back on the equities side soon.  The market just seems pricey and the bull-market is now the second oldest in history.  When will we see a 20% drop?

All of that said, Read More to see how I earned $980.25 this month in passive income,

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Income/Expenses: September 2017

Another month has passed and it is time again for my monthly Income/Expenses report. 

In these reports I highlight what income I made during the month, what sources all of the income came from, and where it all went on the 'expenses'-side; showing all purchases by category...every dollar! Ideally, when it all is calculated I achieve a high savings rate, and then I post that to my Savings Rate tab for month-by-month tracking of progress.

General thoughts on this month: This was another 'standard' month for us. Nothing exciting, nothing extraordinary, but simply discipline and sticking to the budget we've created. Unfortunately we are MASSIVELY in debt at the moment thanks to the purchase of our 4th rental property, so I CANNOT WAIT to have all of that paid off.  Here are the numbers:

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Passive Income Report: September 2017 (348% YoY Growth!)

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review, and I'm excited because this is my FOURTH record month in a row...and one where I achieved a 348.6% Year-over-year growth rate from last September 2016. Things are really clicking into place for my portfolio - praise God!

In each progress review I will list a summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers September 2017.  
I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 


General Thoughts on This Month: In September 2016 I received $369.  WHAT A BLOWOUT this year's September was, comparatively. This was my 4th record month in row, and it was also the first month where all 4 of my rental properties paid out with no expenses or issues.  Completely, 100%, passive income.  This was also only the second month ever where I have achieved 4 digits of passive income in a month that isn't December (my big paying month, due to mutual funds.)

Read More to see how I earned $1,655.24 this month in passive income,

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Income/Expenses: August 2017

Another month has passed and it is time again for my monthly Income/Expenses report. 

In these reports I highlight what income I made during the month, what sources all of the income came from, and where it all went, on the 'expenses'-side; showing all purchases by category...every dollar! Ideally, when it all is calculated I achieve a high savings rate, and then I post that to my Savings Rate tab for month-by-month tracking of progress.

General thoughts on this month: This was another very good month for us, and I think we are now in a good routine after our move up to NY.  We're making quality spending decisions (for the most part!), trying to maintain a high level of frugality, while still providing for our two kids and our hobbies, etc.  Unfortunately, we're still in debt by over $15,000 thanks to our last real estate purchase, so unfortunately all surplus is not "felt" yet and actually goes towards paying down debt.  Soon though!  Without further adieu, here is what happened this month:

Friday, September 8, 2017

My Year-over-Year (YoY) Growth in 2017

I thought I would do a quick post about my favorite metric (or at least what I consider to be the most important one), and that is Year-Over-Year growth, or oftentimes shortened to YoY.

I believe YoY growth is extremely critical in measuring one's progress and in making real strides towards financial independence for a few reasons. First, it helps you clearly see the direction you are moving, which is always nice and good to know (which may be obvious to us bloggers, but MANY people do not have a clear understanding of which way they are moving). But more importantly: it helps you clearly see the pace at which you are moving! 

Knowing your "pace" is extremely important in your journey toward FI, and oftentimes we overlook measuring our pace for more exciting metrics like "total dividends earned" or "number of companies that payed out" or "total passive income."  But consider the following example: if your YoY growth turns out to be only 3%, then in reality your "growth" is probably nothing more than inflation!  Who cares about the dividends or number of payers or income! In 'real' dollars, your growth is actually probably zero! Or consider a growth of 5% with all equities (or all dividend paying stocks).  Is that good?? Well, I would say no - you're taking on significantly too much risk to only achieve the 5% growth that you did.  You should be getting much more than that!

With all of that said as an introduction, I have been very thankful and excited for the growth that we've achieved this year.  In September, I anticipate we may have YoY growth for the month at approximately ~275% from last year!  We will see, but I'm excited for the final numbers to come in over the next few weeks, as I'm hoping for monstrous growth. If it is close to my estimate, we'll just assume a conservative 225% here, below is what my YoY growth for 2017 would be:   



Overall, I'm very excited to achieve that level of growth.  A little too sporadic for my particular tastes (but real estate will do that sometimes!), and February and May were clearly disappointing - thanks to some larger real estate expenses and a few portfolio moves, but this year I've written a lot about how it would be the second half of the year where things really kicked in to the next gear for my plan. And that is actually what we're seeing in the above chart.  Take a look again: from June onwards my growth has been a monstrous 113% average per month!  

With 9 months of the year completed, seeing a 41.6% per month average growth is great!  We will see how the rest of the year actually turns out - it only takes one tenant to move out to COMPLETELY reverse these numbers :), but I'm hopeful I can finish the year strong with very good numbers.

What do you think? How has your growth been? Do you calculate YoY growth as an important metric of your progress?  What level of growth do you consider acceptable?

Thanks for reading!

Passive Income Dude

Friday, September 1, 2017

Passive Income Report: August 2017 (Record x3!)

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review, and I'm excited because this is my third record month in a row..thanks mostly to rental properties.

In each progress review I will list a summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers August 2017.  
I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 




General Thoughts on This Month: August was another record month for me, and the snowball is finally rolling, albeit still not fast enough yet (unfortunately) to reach my passive income goal for the year (agh!). But hey, that is ok. I had real estate expenses of over $230, but I still was able to increase my YoY growth for this month by 28.2%. That is very encouraging!

Read More to see how I earned $843.45 this month in passive income,

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Rental Property (North Carolina #2): All details!


Home purchase #4

This is another property that I believe has great long-term potential.  This deal closed mid-year in 2017, and so it is clearly my latest real estate purchase, with only a few recent months under ownership. As a result, I don't have a ton of data at this point, but what I do have is very encouraging.  

That said, another interesting thing about this property is that this is my first real "real estate investment" as a rental property from day 1; the purchase.  You'll notice with my three other properties that those were homes that my family and I lived in first, for up to at least several years most times, in which we then decided to rent each of them out once the Army moved us to a new location.  With this particular home, however, I took a much different perspective knowing that I would never live in it personally.  Critical change in perspective.

In addition to that, my financing on this property was absolutely INCREDIBLE. What a blessing it was, and I will share more about that below.  The financing alone should make my total returns north of 20% per year.  20% per year! 

And like my other properties, in this page of PassiveIncomeDude, I would like to share as many details as possible of this investment. My goal is to be as transparent as possible and I hope it helps you on your real estate journey as well!  Here we go:

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Income/Expenses: July 2017

I'm getting rather sloppy with my income/expenses reports, but hey, that's life sometimes and I want to ensure the data is at least "logged" so I can reflect back on it and keep a record of what's been occurring throughout the year.  Again, I'll cut right to the chase:

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Mid-Year Financial Goals Update!

Hello all! I wanted to take a few minutes to review my 2017 Passive Income Goals, since we are now just over half-way complete with the year. 

And what a year it has been thus far! It looks like I have completed 5 of my 10 goals, which I’m thrilled about, and will detail each one below:





Friday, August 4, 2017

Passive Income Report: July 2017 (Another Record!)

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review, and I'm excited because I finally had some massive passive income...thanks to rental properties!

In each progress review I will list a summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers July 2017.  
I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 




General Thoughts on This Month: July was another record month, thanks to rental income of $859. I saw total growth YoY of 58%; my second month in a row of over 50% YoY growth.  Wow.  As some of you who follow my site know, I had hoped (and predicted!) that the second half of this year was going to see some massive progress, and thus far it is thankfully coming true.  Meeting my goal of $13K in passive income is still going to be a stretch, but the fight is on!  Very blessed and excited!

Read More to see how I earned $928.34 this month in passive income!

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Income/Expenses: June 2017

This post is a little late, and I have to keep it short unfortunately.  But I wanted to post it before I fell too far behind and missed it!

I'll cut right to the chase:

General Thoughts on INCOME:
1) Income was thankfully very high this month due to somewhat of a 'bonus' at work.

General Thoughts on EXPENSES:
1) Expenses were also high thanks to 'travel', which was mostly just two flights from NY to Seattle, hotel/car, etc. to go on our family cruise to Alaska that I mentioned in an earlier article.  It was a blast, but definitely pricey. 

2) And I know shopping appears very high, as well.  Some of you may be thinking - "this guy spends money like crazy. What are you thinking!" But literally it was only 3 purchases, and none of them were "fun": 1) new military uniforms for work ($775, and was a mandatory purchase),  2) a race registration for the Army 10miler ($70 I think), and 3) printer ink. lol. See? Nothing really fun or exciting, but $876 spent nonetheless! Ouch. The uniforms were the significant bulk of the costs, and all were required for my job.

Well, unfortunately I have to go. I'm happy with our overall savings rate this month of about 40%, and I've updated my Savings tab, above.  We knew the uniforms and cruise were going to be expensive, so we tried to not spend really anywhere else.  Of course, all of the surplus went towards debt repayment.  Yep, still doing that. Ugh!

Thanks for reading!

Dan

Friday, July 7, 2017

1 Year of Passive Income Dude! The Highlights!

Several days ago my second son turned one year old. What a cool event in my life! Also several days ago, this blog turned one year old! Also very cool!

Passive Income Dude was launched on 01 July 2016, and it is great to have one year now fully completed in the books!  Since the start of this blog, a lot has happened in my own life and in my passive income journey, and since I sometimes share details about my own life in addition to my investments, etc., I thought it would be interesting to share a relatively comprehensive list of highlights that have happened since this blog was first created one year ago.  I'll stick to only the most important things from three categories: my Passive Income, my Investments, and my Personal Life.  Here we go!

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Passive Income Report: June 2017 (Record!)

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review, and I'm excited because I always love reporting June's #s.

To start however, the verse "he who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted", has been on my mind a lot lately.  As such, I hope these reports show my excitement and thankfulness for clear signs of progress, hard work, and blessings coming to fruition, but that they also do not appear as me trying to exalt myself.  That's not the point of these posts. The point is to track progress.

In each progress review I will list a summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers June 2017.  
I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 

General Thoughts on This Month: June was a great month, as many of my mutual funds saw large payouts. And additionally, the rental property segment of my portfolio also picked up into a new gear, which should continue to accelerate through the second half of this year.  This was also the first month of 2017 where I had 4-digit passive income; a great accomplishment from many years of hard work, sacrifice, and persistence.

Read More to see how I thankfully earned $1,058.48 this month in passive income!

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Purchased Costco! (COST)

I don't have much to say in this post other than to announce that I recently purchased a small (very small) amount of Costco.  To be specific, right at about $1000 worth.  I think Costco is a great company, and business in general, and EVERY time I go to Costco, no matter what particular state I am in (I recently visited Costcos in Arizona, Washington, and North Carolina, while traveling) and they are always PACKED with customers.  I couldn't sit on the sidelines anymore.

I was also excited to see the recent drop in share price thanks to the Amazon-Whole Foods bid, and so I picked up some shares of Costco believing the drop to be significantly overblown.

Finally, I believe in Charlie Munger to identify great businesses and I know Mr. Munger is a big believer in Costco as well.  I imagine Costco will do well for quite awhile, but unfortunately all of my available capital is still going towards paying down debt and real estate (minus this $1K), so this was all I could contribute.

My other idea was to short Tesla.  I cannot justify Tesla's share price in my head, at all.  It was either short Tesla or buy Costco.  From the date of my Costco purchase, Tesla shares have dropped around 20pts and Costco hasn't really moved. Blah.  Time will tell.

Well I suppose that's it. What are your thoughts on Costco?  Or on Tesla?  Thanks!

Passive Income Dude

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Passive Income Report: May 2017

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review, and I almost missed it! My family and I (my mom, brother, sister, and my wife....without the kids!) were on an Alaskan cruise for the last week or so.  I highly recommend one if you ever have the opportunity! What a blast.

In each progress review I will list a summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers May 2017.  


I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 

General Thoughts on This Month: May was a relatively quiet month for passive income and, again, I hardly have anything to say but that I am thankful for what we received and that some income is always better than no income! Just sticking to the process with months like these.

Anyway, Read More to see how I thankfully still earned $417 this month in passive income...

Saturday, June 3, 2017

My 4th Rental Property Is Under Contract!

Hello all!

I'm sorry it has been awhile since I've last written.  Things have been extremely busy, but I am very happy to report that despite my 'projected plans' for investments, etc., a unique opportunity came my way and I now am under contract on another investment property! This property puts my total real estate investments now at 4 single family homes!

This was quite the blessing and (completely out of the blue, to be honest). I think there are a few famous sayings that really apply to what happened with this situation: first, opportunity favors the boldsecond, help others get what they want, and you'll get what you want;and third, you really can buy properties with no money down (albeit, this was a unique opportunity).  You'll see more how these apply in the rest of the post below.  They came to mind very quickly as I was reflecting on this experience.

Nonetheless, I'm excited about this investment deal, and I'd love to share the details with you now:

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Income/Expenses: April 2017

Sorry this post is a little late.  It's been a little crazy lately with my Graduation from Duke. 

So I'll get right to it:

General Thoughts on this Month: Overall this month had a lot of larger expenses, making it very hard to achieve a high savings rate. I've said it before and I will say it again, it doesn't really matter how much money you make if you're spending it all! 

The road to wealth is in consistently having a large difference between what you earn and what you spend.  The 'extra' that you have at the end of each month, wisely invested, is what makes you wealthy.  See my Must Read Books and read The Richest Man In Babylon, where this point is really hit home.

Additionally, I've updated my all-time Savings Rate page here.

Without further adieu, listed below is a detailed display of all income and expenses specifically for the month of April 2017.  Every penny in and out, recorded!

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Passive Income Report: April 2017

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review, the fourth of the year, and what a boring one it was.

In each progress review I will list a summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers April 2017.  


I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 



General Thoughts on This Month: April was very slow for passive income. I hardly have anything to say but that I am thankful for the little we received and that some income is always better than no income!  This month was also the first month since PassiveIncomeDude was launched last July where my rental properties had negative cash flow.  Thankfully I received an escrow refund, otherwise this could have been a pretty low month (less than $50, which is why I said my comment above).

Anyway, Read More to see how I thankfully still earned $655 this month in passive income...

Monday, April 24, 2017

Our 3rd Rental Property Has A Tenant!

For those of you who have followed this blog over this past year, you'll know that my wife and I are moving again this summer, and as a result, our North Carolina property is quickly going to turn not into our home anymore, but into our 3rd rental property.

Well, I am happy to report that we just had a very nice couple sign a two year lease, at our asking price, with them moving in only 5 days after we move out! What an absolute blessing!

I've written about this before, but I was as concerned that this property would not be able to get our asking rental price, and I was also concerned that it would sit vacant for awhile.  With a very large mortgage, even one month of vacancy can seriously hurt your cash flow. And when you have several other properties, multiple vacancies for multiple months can put you in hot water in a hurry! I've said it before, but just because you've got a good investment doesn't mean that you can survive the short term liquidity problems. This very thing happens to many businesses and forces them into bankruptcy!  And so to have a tenant locked in now, at our asking price, for not one but TWO years, with only 5 total days of vacancy at the start, is about as good as I could have hoped.

As such, I wanted to provide a few of the financial details behind this investment, now that things are going from "projected numbers," to actual numbers starting on 01 June.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Income/Expenses: March 2017

Happy Easter! He is risen!

One of my favorite posts of the month! It's very personal and helps keep me extremely accountable!

I think it takes a little bit of guts to share your income and expenses openly with the world. But that said, I think there is value for both of us in reading this post. I will do a similar post every month.

General Thoughts on this Month: Overall a pretty standard month for our family. Unfortunately I fell short of my Savings Goal this month, but part of the reason for that was due to some flight expenses for my wife and I that I've spread across two months, and also because of lower than usual 'job' income.  

I have money being automatically deducted from my paycheck in order to pay back my TSP loan (another one of my goals, goal #10), and so once that debt has been repaid it should be easier to hit my monthly savings target.  That said, I've updated my all-time Savings Rate page here.

Listed below is a detailed display of all income and expenses specifically for the month of March 2017.  Every penny in and out, recorded!

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Passive Income Report: March 2017

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review, the third of the year, and what a great one it was.  

In each progress review I will list a summary of all dividends I received, the rental income I received, and any purchases I made from that particular month.

This monthly report covers March 2017.  


I hope you enjoy these posts and that we can learn how to grow our passive income streams and build real long-term wealth together! 



General Thoughts on This Month: March was awesome for passive income, as it usually is since it falls on the 3,6,9,12 months, which offer my largest payouts of the year.  The better news is that even despite having some real estate maintenance costs, I was able to achieve a growth rate of 13.2%.  

Awesome. BUT one thing we have to remember about growth rates is that they do not take into account magnitude. They only focus on 'relative' gains instead of 'absolute' gains. Do not miss this point! Growth rates do not take into account magnitude.  I'll clarify this with a quick made-up example: If last year your passive income was $100 and this year it is $200, your growth was 100%! Incredible.  But we need to remember the absolute gain was $100. Whereas if last year your passive income was $1,000 and this year now it is $1,200, your growth was only 20%.  What happened!? Did you have a rough year? Did you stop investing? NO.  Your absolute gain was in fact double what it was from the first example but your growth rate ended up being much smaller. This is a simple example that we often forget when we only obsess about year-over-year growth.  It is much easier to grow a small pie than a large pie.  Even expert economists forget this fact!

Anyway, I'm happy with how this month turned out.  Read More to see how I earned $960 this month in passive income...