It is May 1, 2016 and my net worth rose $6426.77. That is good news. I recently began tracking my net worth monthly and post the updates here.  I began this blog in April 2015 after discovering dividend investing.  I find it interesting to review the weekly, monthly, and now, yearly changes. I am glad that I started the blog.  One reason for this is because I have never kept a budget so the blog’s maintenance forces me to watch the changes in my accounts more closely.  I think it also helps me to spend less because the monthly tracking allows me to see the effects of diligent investing and spurs me on to invest even more.   Seeing the progress firsthand has made me reluctant to spend.  For instance, I received a small bonus that I have not yet cashed out.  I considered purchasing a Roomba or Canon 70d camera, two items that I have wanted for a couple of months.  The amount of the bonus would cover the cost of one of the items  but after going over my net worth changes this weekend I decided to place the money into my brokerage account.

At this present time I have decided to funnel the extra money I  earn into my brokerage, the brokerage gets it all.  I am determined to finish this race and hope to do so early by receiving monthly dividend payouts that cover my expenses, forming a mini pension.  At the beginning of 2016 I assumed I would add the yearly contribution limit to my Roth and 403b but ended up being slowly pulled towards placing all of  my extra dollars into the brokerage account.  Jason from the old Dividend Mantra site mentioned this tactic several times on his blog and I have slowly grown to see the logic in that reasoning.

Another interesting occurrence that I noticed with my accounts is that I have been spending a lot on food.  I do not spend much.  Like I said, I am determined to make it so I spend very frugally, paying my monthly bills and funneling the remaining cash into my brokerage.  I made it a goal, and have succeeded for the past couple of months, to add $2000.00 per month into my taxable account.  I was happy to have achieved this goal however I was shocked to see that my last credit card balance was $500.00 with the majority of the dollars spent at the grocery store.  I rarely eat out so  I am not spending at restaurants.  I am thinking at least $200.00 of the $500.00 could have been salvaged and placed into my portfolio.  I know that this bill represents the “stress food” that I buy when returning home from work.  I am too tired to make anything substantial and end up buying bits and pieces from the grocer night after night.  This behavior adds up.  But what can I do, I am exhausted from working and making a large meal to last for several days has become too taxing.  I usually make small meals.  Because of my burnout I am attempting to lessen my hours, working maybe 3-4 days per week.  I think this would help me tremendously, it might even change my life!  I hope to have some news about this by next month.

Thanks for stopping by, peace.