I’m playing catch up with my monthly reports, I just also released my June, 2016 Income Report. It’s been a little crazy these last 2 months with moving apartments, work (yes I still have a full-time job) and social life. Here are some photos of my new studio apartment, wahoo!

The social life part is definitely needed. If I ever expect to meet a nice girl, I need to at least go out and find them. I have not yet discovered any gorgeous girls randomly wondering into my apartment. Unless that’s a thing, is that a thing?

Back to my Income Report. While I’ve been off galavanting, my dividends have been consistantly moving to make me money. I use the Robinhood App for my brokerage account and I consistently get phone notifications say “Walt Disney (DIS) has paid $2.13 in dividends”. Which both makes me really excited since I didn’t have to do anything to earn that. Then at the same time I get this AWFUL gut feeling that I’ve been slacking on Wallet Squirrel.

So I’m playing catch up and thinking about additional ways to make extra income in addition to dividends. But while we’re focused on dividends, this is what I made this month.

Honestly, I haven’t done much. Mainly I’ve been still attending a Denver Mastermind with other start-ups and entrepreneurs chatting about what it takes to be successful and sharing some awesome tips to make our businesses better. Because as you know, I would eventually love to do this full-time. I just need to make more than $49.63 to leave my current job.

Unless I leave all my worldly possessions, family and friends moving to a third world country where I can live off of $49.63 a month. That could work right? Maybe, I’ll save that as a backup plan.

My Goals this month

Does anyone else hate writing goals? Everyone I write them, I get REALLY ambitious but never reach all of them. Perhaps that the “Reach for the stars and you’ll land on the Moon” philosphy. The pain of not reaching my goals is usually worse than any happiness when I meet them.

So here are some easy goals:

1. Try my first article on SeekingAlpha.com to see if one can get paid to write. Who knows?
2. Completely unrelated to finance, but I want to create some kind of easy breakfast routine. Does anyone know of any good breakfast protein shake ideas? Especially recipes that are EASY?
3. Limit myself to Sundays and Tues-Friday to write good content. That means not going out every night. I can do this.
4. Add 5 people to my email list.

I only have a few people on my email list. Do you have any suggestions to build an email list?

I’ve made it to the future!

Well, I can see the future at least. This month marks the first time dividends out shot all of my other incomes. Even the infamous cash back credit card that usually averages $25. That’s right I make money off my credit card. Proud of it.

In the future, my dividends will be my primary source of income so it’s nice to see when it’s the highest earning income stream in this income report. It can be done!

My Reality Check

If I want to reach financial independence or better yet BF (Boss Free) I need to step up my game. What the hell am I going to do with $55/mo? Oh, by the way, I made $55 this month. I may be able to dig a hobbit hole under a bridge and live off the dead fish from the oil runoff, but let’s be real. That’s a luxury only people with $60/mo can afford.

I NEED, HAVE, MUST find some additional ways to make extra money. My mother always said “follow your dreams”, so here I am following my dreams of eliminating 8-5. This is me saying screw you 8-5, I will beat you superficial social construct with your own time clock. Mwha Mwha I feel cool.

Some Glimmers of Hope

Lending Club continues to surprise me bringing in nearly $3 this month. It may not sound like a lot, but I only invested $300! That’s 1% a month or average 12% if you forget how many months are in a year. I sometimes forget what day it is. Thank goodness there’s an app for that.

Dividends, oh you beauties, outstanding job this month! That’s $25.01 in one month. Yes, other Dividend Bloggers made WAY more this month, but I put mine in pretty colors so it’s worth seeing. That’s cool right?

Google Adsense also made a showing this month. Let me tell you, I used to think Google Adsense was a shame. I’ve added it to a number of other affiliate sites in the past. Maybe there were crappy websites (OK, yes they absolutely were) but I made $0 to a few cents a year. A YEAR! I practically gave up on them. It’s like Melissa in 8th grade, I’ll do her homework on the off chance she’ll go out with me. She never did, but I kept doing it…..

Back to the point, Google Adsense came through with my best month ever at $8.89. Again, doesn’t seem like much, but it feels like I just climbed a mountain. I know it works, and more importantly, it proves people read this thing. There is a HUGE amount of satisfaction knowing that I’m not typing away, practicing my creative writing to random ghost of the internet. If there are ghost on the internet, I very much appreciate you and please keep reading.

Here is an infographic (because that’s totally my thing now) of my Income Report for May, 2016

What I accomplished this month

It was an awesome month because I’ve joined my first Master Mind, which sounds like a cult, but isn’t. In fact, I first heard the term while listening to Pat Flynn. So naturally I wanted to follow in his footsteps and join my own cult, sorry Master Mind.

Essentially the Master Mind is just a group of starting entrepreneurs that help each other out with challenges we all face. Creating good content, how to grow an audience, WTF is marketing and how to be someone worth reading about.

In short, it’s awesome and I’m creating some great stuff for you guys (yes, you reading this). Here are some things I’ve accomplished:

1. Set up my Mail Chimp Account. Now rather than an email from my Gmail account. I can keep a mailing list through MailChimp and send totally professional mailers. Plus it has an easy subscribe and unsubscribe button. I don’t spam, but don’t want to be a dick and send you emails you don’t want.

Actually right now, signup for my email list below. Do it, do it now. I’ll wait. I have like 7 awesome people currently but REALLY want to make it to 10. I keep low goals so I don’t cry at night. I only send out emails ONCE a month of my Income Reports. I’ll be cool, I promise.

2. Signed up to be a contributor to SeekingAlpha.com the stock news website. I’m somewhat following in the footsteps of Justin Feider, but so far I’ve just signed up. I still need to write my first article. Once I do, I share a link here. I’m both terrified and insanely excited!

3. Sent my first guest post email. That means I sent a blogger, who I really admire, an email asking if I could do a guest post. Let me tell you, I was so freaking nervous. I sat here for an hour looking over a 5 sentence email tweaking and critiquing every word. However the blogger loved the idea and I’m crafting the article with a sick infographic now. Let me know if YOU would be interested in collaborating together in the future? Yes, you reader.

My goals this month

1. Obviously, finish up my first every guest post and article submission for Seeking Alpha.com. I keep asking myself, how do I make an article awesome. MORE INFOGRAPHICS comes to mind, right behind MORE COWBELL. No seriously, you guys are awesome and I’ll create some great content.

2. Get more active on Quora. It’s a question and answer platform if you’re not familiar with it (like Yahoo Answers). I’ve been answering some awesome dividend and general life questions and getting thousands of views and sweet feedback. Check out my Quora page.

3. My #1 goal this month is to increase traffic to Wallet Squirrel. I’m still blanking on how to do that right now so any ideas would be great. Seriously, any ideas would be awesome. I’m thinking of paying $5 on Fiverr so someone will stand on the side of the road for 30 minutes with a Wallet Squirrel sign. Too much, not enough?

What’s worked for you this month increasing traffic to your site or earning extra income?

 

I’m trying something new this month, my income report is now displayed via infographic below. People love pretty pictures and as a designer, I can do pretty pictures. What do you think of it?

Highlights:

I broke $70 once again! This is in large to my Cash Back Credit Card because I recently made some large purchases like a new tux (work thing) as well as nice watch. I try not to go excessive buying luxuries, but I when I do, I like to get something that last, much like my dividends.

I had a record number with my dividend income reaching $13.93. That is fantastic. That just proves if I could live off of $13.93 a month I could NOW retire. Unfortunately I can’t because I live in Denver, and there is just WAY to much cool shit to do.

I’m now testing that $13.93 I made from Dividends on a $6,000 portfolio vs the $3.30 I made off of Lending Club with a $300 portfolio. The lending club portfolio is roughly 12% which is so much better than my dividend investing portfolio. Let’s keep track of this and see how it continues to mature.

What’s Next:

1. I recently had a random encounter with Mike Kilcoyne of “Embrace the Suck” while I was out the other night and man, this guy is awesome. While we connected on our entrepreneur spirit. He asked some amazing questions about Wallet Squirrel that I never thought to ask. Afterward I started to peruse his website and the articles & writing are fantastic. I’ve been going over his post the good part of this weekend. I know this random encounter and lessons discussed will improve the direction I want to take Wallet Squirrel in the future.
2. I want to start incorporating more graphics into my post like the infographic above. I am a designer within the investing world, I have a unique edge on most dividend investors in the way I can graphically tell a story. I want to start developing this.
3. Continue to build my audience. This website is both how to make extra money and invest those funds. I’ve been targeting dividend investors, but people wanting to learn how to make extra money would find value in Wallet Squirrel as well. I need to show them what I’ve done that works and doesn’t.

What do you think of the new infographic set up?

I knew this day would come, a sub $70 month. It’s OK though, I’ve been trying some different stuff. I’ve started living on a budget and with less expenses, comes less cashback from my credit card. I do love making extra on my cashback card, but it’s still worth more saving. I’m not a frugal kind of guy, but I can save a few nights not going out to eat.

Additionally, my Halloween Decoration Website isn’t in season, so less money. That’s understandable. Luckily I did make some in dividends this month a whopping ($4.27), pretty cool. Plus Wallet Squirrel made ($0.66) Wahoo!

In January, I have received $48.17 in additional income.

The coolest part is no matter the season, I will always make dividends and with my latest purchase of “O” Realty Income, my monthly dividends will be at least $4.76, that’s already more than I made this month.

Next Month
I am hoping to do a couple things next month to increase my additional income.

1. I am planning on commenting on a lot more financial blogs this upcoming month, this will provide me some great info from different post and maybe some SEO in return.
2. I plan to write some new content for my Halloween Decoration Website hoping to increase my SEO
3. Lastly and always, I will contribute more to my dividend fund.