Friday, April 28, 2017

First Quarter Investment Results

Taking quarterly stock of your investments seems to be a common thing among financial bloggers, so I'll play too even if I'm a little late.

Vanguard:

My husband and I have Roth IRAs and regular IRAs, and a taxable account.  We did not contribute any money this quarter but the value of the accounts increased by $12,674.  The combined dividends from these accounts totalled $1317.00.  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 5.74%, and the account paid dividends of $421.85 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 inital investment in this account was $7,000.  It began the quarter at $7777.09.  Even though we've withdrawn interest payments, it ended the quarter at $8,176.26,  So far this year the account has paid $42.94 in dividends.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.

Lending Club:

My returns have been steadily dropping.  Accounting for expected defaults, Lending Club estimates my return since I began the account at about 5.68% annually, which is the lowest it has been since I opened the account.  From what I've read in various places, I'm not the only one whose returns have dropped.  We've needed money for tuition so this is where we are withdrawing it as notes are paid.

Prosper:

My returns here have dropped as well, but not as drastically.  Right now my annualized net returns are still over 13%, and my "seasoned" returns--the returns on notes that are more than ten months old are also over 13%.

Loyal3: 

Overall my account is up 10% since purchase.  I've been buying in dribs and drabs, often using dividends paid by Motif.  Unfortunately Loyal3 is going out of business and we have to either sell or transfer our money elsewhere.  More on that in another post. 

Robinhood:

This is another place I've invested a few dollars in stock, and I'm in the black so that's a good thing.  I may be putting more money here in the near future.

Kickfurther:

I've moved from being in the black to being in the red.  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 first quarter of 2017 was a good one investment wise; however there will be changes in the second quarter.
*Part of Financially Savvy Saturdays on brokeGIRLrich.*

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

My Goals: A Quarterly Review

The beginning of the year is a common time to set goals, so I shared mine.  Now that the year is one-fourth over, I'm going to take a look at my progress.

Pay High School Tuition From Checkbook, Not Savings

Since I set this goal I have learned that tuition is due a month earlier than what I thought.  Also, we've had some unexpected medical expenses.  So, we've been pulling money out of the Lending Club account as notes are paid.  Also, we are reducing our exposure to Kickfurther for a lot of reasons, and instead of reinvesting that money elsewhere, it is going toward tuition.

Once I pay this year's tuition, I'm going to open a separate savings account and deposit money monthly so that next year it is there when the bill comes. 

Continue 401(k) Contributions at Current Level

Luckily this is a "fix it and forget it" goal.  The money comes out without us thinking about it. 

Work On Monetizing This Blog

I've done one sponsored post this year and was paid for it.  I added Myfinance ads to the blog, but so far I haven't seen any return.  I'll give them another few weeks and if I don't see any return, they'll be gone.  

Buy at Least One Share of Stock Per Month

This goal got pushed to the side due to tuition.  

Continue My Freelance Writing Jobs and Selectively Try to Find More

One of my regular customers has decided to put her blog on hiatus for now.  She says she may contact me later.  I've applied for a couple of jobs on Upwork but without success.  Most of what I see there doesn't interest me--too much work for too little money.  

Add $4,000 To Our IRAs.

Hopefully my college girl will get a job before the end of the year and start paying rent (or at least her own car insurance).  Otherwise, this isn't looking good, unless you count the transfer of money from a non-IRA savings account to an IRA account to reduce our tax bite.  

Cut Spending On Food

I need more cooperation from the peanut gallery on this one!

Home Renovations

I've got to get in touch with the IRS and try to track down my Dad's final tax refund.  They should have paid me already and then I could distribute the rest of the money in the estate and start working on the house.

We are going to paint this year.  My firm has decided to change the sick leave/vacation policy so that those of us who have a bunch of leave saved up have to use it over the next two years.  I'm getting five weeks off this year and will spend at least on of them with a paintbrush in hand.  
Disease Called Debt

Friday, March 17, 2017

Blog Giveaways--Free is a Nice Price


When you think of retirees you think of people who have time to engage in hobbies.  For many people it is also a time when money can get tight. What if there was a way to get items to use, sell or give as gifts, and all it took was a few minutes of your time?

Many of my  "Kickfurther Merchant of the Week" posts  include a giveaway--and there is a reason for that.  Giveaways attract readers, which makes both me and the company about which I am writing happy.

Like most online giveaways, mine ask entrants to visit the sponsor's webpage and/or facebook page, to follow me and the sponsor on social media and to spread the word about the giveaway.

How to Find Giveaways

It's great if a blog you follow regularly is offering a giveaway, but how can you find the really GOOD giveaways?  Well, first of all, you have to define "good".  Some people are looking for high-value prizes, but the reality is that giveaways of high-value prizes attract hundreds if not thousands of entries and generally allow multiple entries per person. In short, while the value of the prize may be high, the chances of winning are low.  On the other hand, there are plenty of giveaways in the $10-$30 range that take only a few minutes to enter and which attract few enough entrants to give everyone, particularly those who are willing to take time to earn all the entries, a decent shot at winning.

General Giveaway Link-ups:

Link-ups are a popular way to publicize giveaways.  Below are some link-ups that accept links from any giveaway.  They help bloggers get more entrants for their giveaways and help readers find more contests to enter. 


Low Entry Giveaways:

If you only want to enter contests you have reasonable odds of winning, check out these link-ups.  They only allow contests that have fewer entries than their rules allow, and some only allow contests ending within a week.  




Don't forget Google:

I just decided I wanted to win an I-Pad.  I Googled "I-pad giveaway" and sure enough, I found some.

Twitter

Many giveaways required entrants to tweet about the contest.  Go to Twitter and search for #giveaway or # contest 

Your Feed Reader

You are using a feed reader to follow your favorite blogs, aren't you?  My favorites are Bloglovin and Feedly, but there are others out there.  Feed readers allow you to subscribe to your favorite blog and then view the title and first few lines of posts on the reader app or website.  If you find a blog that offers a giveaway that interests you, subscribe to it.  Feed readers allow you to skim through a lot of blogs in a little time, and when those giveaways hit, you can follow the link to enter. 

How to Enter:

Many online contests use either Rafflecopter or Giveaway Tools.  Both offer bloggers either free or paid versions, and of course you are able to do more with the paid versions.  However, on either one, a blogger creates a contest and selects one or more entry methods from the offered choices.  

There are a lot of high-dollar contests what start on one blog, but invite other bloggers to participate, either for free or for a fee.  This can result in giveaways where you can earn dozens of entries by following various bloggers on various forms of social media, by commenting on various blogs and completing other assigned tasks.  

On the other hand, some bloggers simply ask you to leave a comment on their blog in order to enter.  

What Have I Won?

I don't spend a huge amount of time entering blog giveaways because the blogs I frequent don't offer them frequently and I don't have the time to spend a lot of time looking for giveaways.  However, I have won several book giveaways over the years. While most were for individual books, my biggest win to date got me a huge haul. I have won holiday decor and snack samples as well.  Unfortunately, I have not won an I-Pad, yet.  

Which Ones Should I Enter?

It depends.  If you see a prize you'd love to have, enter.  If you see a prize that you know you could sell for substantial money, or that you know a loved one would enjoy, then enter.  However, the more valuable the prize, the longer entering is likely to take and the lower your chances of winning.  I have had my best luck with niche prizes (like a boatload of Catholic reading material) or simple inexpensive prizes simply because few people enter those contests.

Any Other Tricks?

Many people who enter a lot of contests have email and social media accounts just for that purpose.  If you have a Twitter following that cares about financial planning you may not want to innundate them with "enter this contest" tweets, but tweeting is a common way to earn entries in most giveaways.  You may like to keep your Pinterest feed very curated, but many contests ask you to pin things or follow people.  If you have accounts solely for giveaways, you don't have to worry about losing hard-earned followers because they don't want to follow contests.  

Entering blog contests can be time-consuming but it isn't rocket science.  It is something you can do while watching TV or for a few minutes here and there as you surf the web.  Who knows, you could end up winning something really great, and you can't win if you don't enter. 

Leave a comment and let us know if you've won any giveaways!
*Part of Financially Savvy Saturdays on brokeGIRLrich.*