Do physical fun stuff 4x a week
I did full contact training at derby, we went slacklining once before daylight savings gave up and I went rock climbing! I really missed rock climbing, we've got it penciled in for every Monday and I'm so excited to get back to it. Plus I actually picked up my old workout routine again. I noticed that my abs have receded and that's not okay.We also found a new hiking route. It seemed like a nice idea until we were about a kilometer in, climbing a dry waterfall wondering where the trail went. We found some rocks and dirt that looked more compacted than he surrounding scrub, decided it was the trail and followed it to safety. It was so steep I had my hands on the ground in front of me half the way. Thankfully the walk back was gentle, wide paths, well maintained. That's where I fell down, because of course.
I utterly failed to keep a diary as I mentioned less month, and I'm sure I'm not even close to four times a week. After a few months of this I think I ask too much of myself. I'm super physical, I sport, I ride, I work out. Splitting up 'fun stuff' from the rest is asking a lot of myself, on top of all the other things I'm trying to do.
Grade: B
Create something each month
I had two long weekends and I did nothing! It was glorious! Unfortunately about half an hour ago my fat beloved cat broke another platform off her cat tree. That combined with the fact that she has far outgrown her litter tray has me dreaming up plans for a new litter-tray-cupboard / cat-tree / feeding station. Which goes on the to-do list with a new chicken coop, and a new planter box for my poor grape vine.
Grade: C-
Grade: C-
Apply for one freelance task a week
I haven't applied for anything new, but I've made over $50 this month and have another $40 in work awaiting approval and payment! Still no payout because Upwork fees are terrible (20% on earnings, then $1 on withdrawals, bah!). I've set my account to automatically pay at the end of the month when my balance is over $100, so I'll see some of this money at the end of May.Grade: A+
And now, the money!
April Totals
Income
| Salary | $4129.98 |
| Sidegigs | $225 |
| Home | $600 |
| Investment Property #1 | $897.30 |
| Investment Property #2 | $0 |
| Cash Dividends | $62.26 |
| Total | $5,914.54 |
Salary
Nothing exciting here. I work, I get paid.Side gigs
I received $225 in referral bonuses from RateSetter, which almost pushed my income this month over the $6,000 mark so massive thanks to the people who signed up after reading my review. I hope you guys are enjoying the sign-up bonuses! The promotion ended on the 15th of April, but if anyone is still interested I would highly recommend RateSetter. I poured my bonuses straight back in, one tiny little step closer to FIRE!
Home
I bought home entirely in my name, but my partner lives here. He pays half of all the bills, plus $300 a fortnight in rent. Pretty sweet deal.Investment property #1
The tenants reported a water mark on the ceiling and we had a plumber out to check for leaks and seal up the pipes for $200. I'm hopefully heading up later this year to do a walk through and see what needs fixing. Right now I'm waiting patiently for photos of the damage, but I'm told it doesn't require immediate attention. Fun!
Investment property #2
I started including this in March as we had expenses start but since settlement won't be until at least June there's still no income.
Dividends
My bonds were redeemed, despite asking what I should do with the money I just threw it all at the mortgage for the new investment. Starting on the right foot, but not very exciting. I now have 1 set of bonds and 2 types shares that are on Direct Reinvestment Plans, so this section is going to be super boring.Investment performance
| Deposit | Reinvested Dividends | Annual Return | |
| RateSetter | $325 | $81.76 | 6.45% |
| ASX | $-5000 | $84.52 | 7.63% |
| Vanguard | $700 | $330.99 | 4.61% |
| Acorns | $25.50 | $3.85 | 10.47% |
The negative $5,000 'deposit' is the bonds that were redeemed. I didn't sell anything, I'm not that exciting. Also, 10% annualised return on my Acorns account!! Wowzer, I had to double check those numbers, I can't see anything wrong with them! I've only had the account open six months and I bought in just before the Trump rally, so I don't expect this to be a sustain performance.
Expenses
| Spent | Budgeted | Annual Average | |
| Home | $1,060.16 | $1,250 | $1,318.97 (down $0.98) |
| Investment Property #1 | $1,546.86 | $1,250 | $1.613.60 (up $48.25) |
| Investment Property #2 | $512.80 | $600 | $92.63(up $42.74) |
| Personal Bills | $146.91 | $147.08 | $109.51 (up $6.83) |
| Groceries | $168.97 | $200 | $191.0 (up $7.74) |
| Pets | $16.83 | $30 | $23.08 (up $1.41) |
| Roller Derby | $352.21 | $100 | $101.13 (up $22.62) |
| Travel | $0 | $108 | $131.19 (no change) |
| Other | $66.48 | $250 | $533.51 (down $23.67) |
| Total | $3,871.22 | $4,026 | $4,139.19 (up $104.93) |
Home (Under $189.84)
Under budget, woo!Investment Property #1 (Over $296.86)
Council rates and water bill hit together. And the water bill was higher than usual due to summer and everyone using the pool.Investment Property #2 (Under $87.20)
My normal contribution, plus some paperwork. Paperwork is expensive...Personal Bills (Under $0.17)
This is my phone bill and health insurance, it should never change. The average is low because I upgraded my health insurance to include hospital cover in January. So the average is reflecting the old, lower cover and will steadily come up across the year.Groceries (Under $31.03)
I'm not going to lie, I have no idea how this happened. Mr. FIRE and I went camping and I bought way too many expensive junk food snacks, yet I'm under budget? Winning somehow!Pets (Under $13.17)
I think this is the first month I haven't bought anything extra. Just cat food.Roller Derby (Over $252.21)
Well... ummm.. woops! I scored all my expected flights for dirt cheap by using credit card rewards, and then we suddenly scored an extra bouting opportunity! Hello $240 worth of flights, eek! I still need to pay for accommodations for the original trip which will be $155. It works out to less than $40 a night so I'm not complaining.In May I'll be taking the unexpected trip and in June the planned one, so this budget is going to be blown out of the water for next couple of months... PLUS the season has started, which means after-parties, which means beers. I wouldn't be drinking them without derby, so I consider this a derby cost :)
Travel (Under $108)
No travel, no spend. Easy peasy :) Any travel for derby is counted in the derby category. The average isn't dropping because I also spent nothing this month last year.Other (Under $183.52)
I bought completely bugger all this month! I did pay for a tank of petrol because Mr. FIRE does all the driving, so it's fair I chip in occasionally. Next month we buy mead at the medieval fair though, watch me blow this budget right out the water!Savings Goal
High Interest: $5,330.60Offset Balance: $8,795.71
Owing on Credit Cards: $1,673.54
Total: $12,452.77
Increase from last month: $647.95
Amount remaining: $7,547.23 (approx $3773.62 a month)
Now that I'm pushing $460 a month into our second investment (that hasn't even settled yet) this goal has officially crossed the line into mathematically impossible. I'm not too upset about that because I knew it was ambitious when I set it. Back in December I was recovering from completely failing at maths and getting down to under $100 in my accounts and worrying about missing credit card payments. Now I'm back in smug security of having a couple of months expenses in reserve and with multiple income streams this can stretch further if needed.
I fully expect not to reach this goal, but I'll keep reporting and see how close we get. I'm already planning goals for the 2017-18 tax year (July to June for anyone outside of Australia) which involve investing again. I'm very excited to get back into actively investing! I have missed investing so much I pulled down some of the extra repayments against my mortgage and threw them at my Vanguard account. Not even sorry!
Check out this handy-dandy chart to see how well I'm (not) doing.
Check out the history of this goal:
- December 2016 - $6,992.39
- January 2017 - $7,088.91
- February 2017 - $8,735.62
- March 2017 - $11,804.82
Glad to see your update on what you ended up doing with the bonds, understandable that you would put it towards your current priorities.
ReplyDeleteImpressive affiliate income from that article on ratesetter, well done!
Mrs DDU
I was absolutely stoked with the RateSetter referrals. It's a 2% increase on my investment, which is massive.
DeleteIt's also probably enough to pay for a couple of years hosting a 'real' site off Blogger :)
Very nicely done, you have a new follower in me!
ReplyDeleteYay! You've been in my feedly for a couple of weeks now, I owe you a comment back at some point :)
Delete