The most wonderful part of summer is the sun.  It is very high in the sky this time of year.  I get to see this sun set behind my townhouse every summer through October.  It is absolutely glorious and I still have September to look forward to.  I do not get to see enough of these beautiful skies because I am usually busy working. Staying on my patio to witness the sunset is something that I plan to do all the time once I am partially and/or retired.  If I ever move I will always make sure to have a large living area facing the west.  To me this is like vacation everyday and it is absolutely free.  Not only do I get to view the beautiful sky but I also have an assortment of songbirds and flowers in my yard.  The birds that I often see are cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, finches, hummingbirds,  a tufted titmouse, sparrows, downy woodpeckers, gold finches, and red bellied wood peckers.  They make great neighbors.  The astonishing fact about all of this is that it takes place in a busy city.  I feel like a queen with this beauty and am thrilled that, for most part, it is free, and I don’t need to take a costly vacation to enjoy it.  I am not opposed to vacations but the need to go on vacation is not as urgent as it once was because my perspective has changed and I have learned to open my eyes to the gifted paradise in my own backyard.

And the splendor is not limited to the daytime.  At this present time I am able to see Mars and Jupiter nightly, all from my backyard.  All of this beauty is almost too much for me to bear.  I recently downloaded an app called “Star Tracker”.  It pinpoints your location and tracks the sun’s path through the sky, the location of the moon, the horizon, and all of the stars, planets, and galaxies in between, giving a glimpse of my neighbors in the heavens.  It also indicates the direction that you are facing.  From what I have observed it is accurate.

I have been recording my net worth and dividends monthly.  My dividends have increased steadily from last year.  I am elated to see that my dividends have begun averaging around $450.00 per month.  This is exciting because my bills total $570.00 per month.  The amount of my dividends almost covers my bills and I feel like a millionaire because of this.  The interesting thing is that my total dividend income for the year 2016 is $2399.54.  $2399.54 does not seem like a lot of money to me, I almost felt let down when I calculated this total.  But when I look at the earnings from the perspective of monthly income it seems to have more value.  I am still happily mulling over this paradox because it is fascinating.  I believe it has something to do with the power of passive income.  Oh… I  almost forgot to mention that my net worth rose $5327.12.  I feel very fortunate.  I realize that net worth is a tool that can be used to evaluate one’s overall financial health.  As I continue in this journey I find myself not focusing on net worth but my passive income generated through monthly dividend earnings.  These dividends are priceless.

Another striking observation that I have made is the stock market’s increase since the beginning of 2016.  Looking at the increase of my stocks monthly since January 2016, it is evident that my  brokerage account has increased $34,591.23 since January.  I have added $19,569.47 since the beginning of the year.  The stock market was down in January so the market’s gains has helped to almost double the new money I added.  I have never seen this amount of return on anything that I have invested.  Having a decent savings rate has helped so I have decided to continue to forgo adding to my 403b since most of my savings goes straight into my portfolio.  Monitoring the monthly change in my portfolio’s value and tracking monthly dividend increases has created a completely new dimension of financial tracking.  The crux of the matter is no longer just about saving up a big pile of cash.

These are some of the things I did in June.  Some of the pictures were taken on June 21.

The sailboat below was so cool.  🙂

Have a great July!