Third Quarter Update

As the calendar flips yet another page, I realize that the race to retirment is more than just a blog title.  Time is passing, people are dying, and I'm getting older.  All the more reason to save for the future and to think about the time in my life when I won't get up in the morning and head for the office.

As anyone who has any amount of money in the stock market knows, this has been a very good year.  It makes up for a few stinkers we've had lately.  Let's take a look at how things are going financially at my house.

We are still paying down a substantial medical bill in incurred this spring/summer.  The hosptial doesn't charge interest and the reminder notes it sends aren't mean.  They get a few hundred a month, and if not happy, at least they are not bugging me for more.

My college graduate is still looking for a fulltime job but her mean mom has started to make her pay rent and for her phone and Netflix, so its a little less outgo here.  At this point we own her car and it is on our insurance, which is due this month.  I showed her the bill, explained what it meant and told her that we were paying it, this time.  Next time it is hers.  She can decide whether to transfer the car to her name (and pay the sales tax) and get her own policy or she can keep it on our policy.  She can raise the deductibles, but the car is hers to fix if wrecked.  As long as it is in our name, she has to carry our high liability limits; if she transfers it, she can lower them.  On the other hand, there are discounts on our policy that she wouldn't be able to get on her own.  Oh well, as a recent college student she ought to have research skills.  She can decide what to do and I'll be glad to be rid of that bill.  

Let's take a look at some numbers.

Vanguard:

My husband and I have Roth IRAs and regular IRAs, and a taxable account.  We deposited $1100 in each Roth IRA this quarter.  The combined dividends from these accounts totalled $1751.93.  These accounts consist of a variety of mutual funds purchased for us by our ex-financial advisor, along with Vanguard's International Bond Index Fund, Total Stock Market Index Fund, 500 Index Fund, Total Bond Market Index Fund and REIT Index Fund. In the last year, our rate of return has been 11.5%.

MFS:

My 401k has a year to date return of 16.46 %, and the account paid dividends of $531.60 this quarter.  It is invested in Janus Triton,  Oppenheimer Int'L Small Mid Co A, MFS Government Securities Fund-A , Pioneer Fundamental Growth Fd-A,  and Delaware US Growth Fund-A.  My firm contributes 5% of my salary, and I contribute 6%.  

AXA:

My husband's 401K is with AXA and it has increased in value, though not a lot.  He puts in the minimum necessary for employer match.

Motif:

The initial investment in this account was $7,000.  It began the quarter at $8355.99 and ended the quarter at $8,850.43,  This quarter  the account has paid $33.46 in dividends.  I have invested in "Motifs" or baskets of stock with a variety of themes including dividend payers, things I like and online gaming.

I had been withdrawing my dividend payments and investing them via a no-commission broker, but Motif has changed their fee policy such that if you have less than $10,000 and do not have any commissions in a given six month period, they charge you a $10 fee.  To avoid that, I have started accumulating my dividend payments and last week I purchased another Motif--this one contains shares of a variety of REITs.  My plan is to contribute to the account until it reaches $10,000.  The market is helping. 

Lending Club:

My returns have been steadily dropping.  Accounting for expected defaults, Lending Club estimates my return since I began the account at about 4.53% whereas three months ago I wrote that it was
"5.05% annually, whereas three months ago it was  5.68% annually".  As my notes mature I'm moving the money elsewhere. The economy on the whole is fine now; if I can't make money with Lending Club under this economy, I'm going to lose it big time if things go downhill.  The profits today do not justify the risk.  

Prosper:

My returns here have dropped as well.  Three months ago my annualized net returns were 6.9%, and my "seasoned" returns--the returns on notes that are more than ten months old were 6.23%. Those figures have dropped to 5.41% and 4.82%.  Time to shut off the auto reinvest here as well.  

Robinhood:

At the beginning of the quarter I owned shares of AT&T, Visa, CVS, Lending Club and Hanesbrands.  During the quarter I bought Hormel.   Robinhood is an online broker that uses phone apps only, no webpage.  They charge no commission and allow you to place limit or market orders.  They also allow you to initiate bank transfers and then invest the money immediately--you do not have to wait for the tranfer to complete.  You do have to buy whole shares.  I've added money to this account that I've withdrawn from Kickfurther and right now the value is $442.96.  So far this year, dividends from this account total $2.24.

Stockpile:

This is an online broker for whom I wrote a sponsored post.  I invested $100 in Johnson & Johnson through them.  They charge $0.99 per trade, so even though they sell fractional shares, I don't recommend investing less than $100.00 per trade.  I plan to keep the account and use it when I want to buy shares of stock that are substantially over $100, since my investments in individual stocks are as much toys as investments and I don't plan to put too many dollars in any one stock.  Stockpile had a promotion this quarter where they were giving away $5.00 worth of Apple stock so I got mine.  At the end of September this account was worth $104.06.   

Kickfurther:

I'm in the process of withdrawing my money not only because I'm in the red (an expected risk of investing) but because I've become convinced that Kickfurther is going to fail.  They have too little business at this time and while they have tightened their contracts and changed their business model somewhat, I've just seen too much incompetence to believe that the investment risk is the only risk I'm bearing and the returns have not justified the risk.

All in all, the third quarter of 2017 was a good one investment wise. 

The Bottom Line

As compared to the beginning of the year, we are about almost a year's pay richer, but most of that is stock market gains, not savings.  We did not have to pull any money out of our savings this quarter, but we haven't been able to replace any we withdrew earlier this year.  However, the big bills for the year have been paid; the next big irregular bill will be the car insurance six months from now and we are saving for it and the other big irregular bills. 

How did the third quarter go for you?