March 2016 Financial Statement

According to my Integrity Policy, I want to let you know that this post contains Personal Capital referral links.  Personal Capital is a free service.  They are looking for high-net worth individuals as possible customers for their financial advisory services, but the expense tracking and retirement planning tools that I recommend are free of charge.

February 2016 Financial Statement

It’s all about the Benjamins. And Jacksons. And Lincolns. And Washingtons.

It was a bit of a quiet month for both the blog and for us, but not for lack of progress!  This month, we laid more foundation for improvements in income and net worth that we expect to pay off in the next couple of months.

AccountLast MonthBalanceChange
Personal Checking$4,564.89$6,028.84$1,463.95
Real Estate Operating Account$2,168.24$1,147.97-$1,020.27
Real Estate Cash Flow Account$722.23$1,225.51$503.28
Credit Cards-$16,426.88-$8,015.68$8,411.20
Retirement - After Tax$40,691.88$43,861.40$3,169.52
Retirement - 401(k)$74,181.03$79,654.58$5,473.55
Retirement - Roth IRA$7,971.21$8,530.05$558.84
Asset - Home$478,833.00$480,674.00$1,841.00
Asset - Rental 1$44,198.00$41,832.00-$2,366.00
Asset - Rental 2$66,795.00$66,751.00-$44.00
Asset - Rental 3$88,996.00$86,418.00-$2,578.00
Mortgage - Home-$382,582.70-$382,347.93$234.77
Mortgage - Rental 1-$44,616.97-$44,558.18$58.79
Mortgage - Rental 2-$48,305.65-$48,241.19$64.46
Mortgage - Rental 3-$58,125.00-$58,125.00$0.00
Student Loan 1-$22,583.51-$22,465.07$118.44
Student Loan 2-$14,038.52-$13,972.15$66.37
Student Loan 3-$4,868.61-$4,778.83$89.78
Net Worth$217,573.64$233,619.32$16,045.68

For the March 2016 financial statement, our net worth increased 7.37%!

This month, I spent about ten days in Thailand on my continuing quest for excellent dental health through medical tourism. This is a high-than-average expense for us, and a slight drag on our net worth increase for the month.

My new rental duplex is tantalizingly close to up and running. My first new tenant moves in today, and if my efforts to move the bad legacy tenant out were successful, the other unit should be vacant sometime today.  Unfortunately, I had to initiate an eviction against that tenant, because she did not pay her rent for March, telling my property manager that she “needed it to be able to move in time.”  One way or another, the tenant will be out soon.  In April, I’ll be cleaning out and refreshing that unit with a goal of having a new tenant in by May 1st.  At that point, I’ll be ready to officially count this property’s income towards my safe retirement income!  If all goes as planned, this will mean an immediate $408 increase in monthly income, or the equivalent of investing about $120,000 in the stock market with a 4% safe withdrawal rate.  Not too shabby, considering my all-in cost so far is about $30,000!

If these kinds of returns are appealing, check out my book on out of state and long-distance real estate investment! You can also find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble Nook, and iBooks.

My rental properties continue to see a slight seasonal drop in estimated value, which doesn’t bother me too much.  I don’t have any interest in selling them– they exist for cash flow purposes only, and they do a great job of that!

This coming month, I’m finally going to be able to contribute a good amount to my individual 401(k) again.  Between those investments and the new rental coming online, I hope that next month’s report will be, to quote a candidate for president, yuuuuge!

Blog Income

As I mentioned in my Integrity Policy, I want to make sure I share any and all professional relationships and compensation I make as a part of this blog.  This month was a major milestone for me, because my lifetime earned affiliate income finally equaled the amount I have invested in the blog so far.  I have never seen this blog as a source of income, but every dollar helps, and not losing money running it is great!

I earned the following:

Thus, my total income for the month from the blog was $114.34! What a great month!  Thank you to anyone who has been kind enough to use one of the affiliate or ad links.

If you’re looking to start your own blog or web site, please consider using my referral link for BlueHost.  I’ll get a little cash to help pay hosting expenses, and you’ll get a great hosting provider (the same one I use) starting at about $3.95 per month.

Retirement Update

Our net worth is up $16,045.68 this month. Thanks to the market improving, our safe retirement income also bumped up a little bit, too!

With equity and bond accounts totaling $132,046.03 at the end of March, a 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate would allow us to take out $440.15 per month.  Our rental properties, after all expenses, vacancies, and short and long term maintenance are considered, produce $503.00 of safe cash flow every month.

Safe Monthly Income: $943.15 (+30.67 to Last Month)

% to Goal: 18.86% (+0.61% to Last Month)

Want to Know How to Track Your Expenses This Closely?

It’s really easy.  Sign up for a Personal Capital account, which is completely free.  It’s how I track my balances across time, and allows me to project all my retirement progress without doing any work at all.  As a disclaimer, if you sign up with Personal Capital, this site may get a referral fee depending on the size of your portfolio.

12 thoughts on “March 2016 Financial Statement

    1. The Vagabond Post author

      Thanks, Amber! Yeah, it helps me a lot to keep focused on and enthusiastic about the end goal to express it in real terms. We’re not “x” richer, we just gave our future selves a raise of “y!”

    1. The Vagabond Post author

      Pretty chill with me. I’ve received two calls ever (over I guess about six months), and shut them down within about thirty seconds. Just a “no thanks, I manage my own investments and am extremely happy” seems to be enough to stop them.

  1. Jforest

    I’ve got you say that reading about your successes with remote real estate investing has me very intrigued!

    I am also glad to see you talking about the painful parts of being a landlord. How many bad experiences have you had? I’d it primarily the property management companies problem once you have to initiate eviction processes?

    1. The Vagabond Post author

      Thanks for the comment!

      Once a property is up and running, the hassles are relatively rare– most of my pains so far are between closing and getting the first good tenants in. Last night, for example, after my new tenants moved in, I got three work orders in quick succession about lights being out, hot water being non-functional, and the tub not draining. I don’t blame the tenant, but I did blame my rehab contractor, who installed a shower, re-plumbed the unit, and charged me for “misc electrical fixes” so there’s no excuse for any of those items being present. Had to track him down on a Friday night and get him to get someone out there before my manager could call the “emergency” (expensive) plumber out. After it’s all settled, it won’t be an issue, it’s just that this tenant needs a functional place to live when they move in, after which it’s their responsibility to avoid letting stuff break.

      The property management handles the entire eviction process, so there’s no real hassle (aside from the lost revenue until it’s over). It’s my second all-time eviction. I try to just remind myself that I budget this stuff in from the beginning, and that since I did, I don’t even have to stop transferring the monthly cashflow.

      I guess the TL;DR answer is that there’s more work than index funds, but that the truth is that it’s almost never this much work on the properties I’ve owned for six months or more.

      1. Jforest

        Thanks again, this’d is really great experience to hear about.

        Keep up the good work, and great articles!

        -Josh

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