Well, to start out with I am a little bit late with this update. Usually I get the monthly updates out within a day or two of the end of the month but that didn’t happen this month. Part of the reason is that I had issues accessing the website, trackyourdividends.com, that I had been using to track my dividends. Because of this I have found an alternative site for tracking my dividends, Qualtrim.com. Unfortunately, this site requires a monthly fee for access through Joseph Carlson’s Patreon.com page. Because I signed up after the first of the month I will not have to pay until February 1st so I have a little bit of a free trial period to see if I like it enough to pay $10 a month for the services. So, with that out of the way, December has come to an end and it capped off 2021 in a fitting fashion. Let’s check out the details for the month of December!
Spending/Savings
This month spending was held in check despite the holidays. I was able to use my bonus from work to cover the holiday expenses and was still able to put an extra $500 into the Roth IRA. Overall, I was able to stay on budget this month and increase my emergency fund from 1 1/2 months of expenses to 2 months of expenses.
Dividends/Options/Interest
This month I received $354.62 in dividends. This was an increase of $48.19 over December 2020. That’s a nice 15.7% increase year over year. For the year I have received $3,652.26 in dividends. In 2020 I received $1,877.71 in dividends. I almost doubled the amount of dividends received from 2020 to 2021. As seen below in the chart, I did not really start investing until late March 2020 so the comparison is not apples to apples but I still believe it was good year over year dividend growth.
This month I received $410.11 in options premium. This is up significantly from December 2020 when I receive $339.75 in options premium. For the year, I have collected $3,994.13 in options premium. In 2020, I collected $2,157.58 in options premium but I only began trading options in July 2020.
Income from interest totaled $6.48 this month. For the year, I collected $90.29 in interest.
The total amount received from dividends, options premium and interest was $771.21 for the month. Again, this was well short of my $1,000 per month goal. This was an improvement over December 2020 when I received $646.18 in income. For the year I have received $7,736.68 in income from dividends, options premium and interest. This is up significantly over 2020 when I received $4,035.29 for the year but well short of my goal of $12,000. Even though I did not achieve this goal I still made progress and can continue to build on that progress in the future.
Debt
The amount of debt that I owe decreased by $1,069.20 this month. Since the car was paid off in November I have shifted gears and I am not as focused on paying down debt. For the year I have paid off $26,582.65 of debt. This surpassed my goal of paying $25,000 debt in 2021.
Traditional IRA
The Traditional IRA finished the month at about $124,699. This is up $8,172 over the previous month. Year over year, the account is up $21,443 from December 2020. Due to the issues with trackyourdividends.com, I am giving Qualtrim.com a test run. The projected annual dividend income (PADI) is now at $3895.01. This is up $239.01 from last month.
Roth IRA
The Roth IRA finished the month at about $2,087. This is up $770 over the previous month. This does include about $700 in contributions for the month of December. The PADI is now up to $84.36. This is up $27.36 over the previous month.
401k
The 401k finished the month at about $10,537. This is up $825 over the previous month. Year over year, the account is up $5,426 from December 2020.
Taxable Brokerage Account
The taxable brokerage account finished the month at about $355. This is up $14 over the previous month. When factoring in the $25 monthly contribution, this account was down for the month.
Cryptocurrency
The little bit of bitcoin that I own finished the month around $23. This is down $4 from the previous month.
Total Investments
The total amount invested is now about $137,701. This is up $9,777 over the previous month. Year over year, the total amount invested is up $29,334. All of the positions in my portfolio can be seen by clicking on “Portfolios” in the menu or by clicking here.
Net Worth
My net worth is now up to about $77,012. This is up $12,421 over the previous month. Year over year, my net worth has grown by $60,961 since December 2020.
Conclusion
December was a very positive month with growth in the accounts, dividends, net worth, etc. This was a really great way to cap off 2021. 2021 was a very good year for me. In addition to growing the Traditional IRA and 401k I added a Roth IRA and taxable account to my investing mix. The Roth IRA will provide tax free money for my retirement. While the taxable account performed extremely poorly this year it has still been beneficial in my learning process about investing. This account allows me to try riskier investments on a very small scale. A lot of progress was made this year. I continue to learn about investing and options and made changes to the portfolio as I grow as an investor. I look forward to building on the progress I made in 2021 to grow even more in 2022. That’s it for this month. Thanks for following along!
On a side note, I have added a Recommended Resources in the menu. It currently is a work in progress. It will contain blogs and YouTube channels that I enjoy as well as some sites that I use. I hope you take the time to check it out.
*Disclaimer – I am not a financial professional. The information shared here should not be considered financial advice. I am just a factory worker sharing my experience as I strive to achieve financial freedom. Before investing or making any financial decision do your own research and due diligence or consider seeking the advice of a financial and/or tax professional.
Here are some of the businesses that I use that I thought some of you might be interested in.
Lolli has a variety of stores that it is affiliated with and offers rewards for shopping at these stores. I use Lolli when I shop on Chewy and I get bitcoin as a reward. Who doesn’t want free bitcoin! If you are interested in Lolli and want to help support the blog here is my referral link: https://www.lolli.com/share/XP7gxDgqC4
I use M1 Finance for my taxable growth account. M1 Finance offers promotions for signing up. At the time of writing this post, the promotion is for $50. These promotions vary from time to time but is usually a $10 bonus. If you are interested in M1 Finance and want to support the blog here is my referral link: https://m1.finance/ktIiFeOI5zDr
Varo Bank is one of the banks that I use. From time to time the bank will run promotions. Currently, you can earn up to 3% on your savings with Varo, if you meet certain requirements. If you are interested in checking it out, here is my referral link: https://bank.varomoney.com/signup?r=William360
If you use the referral links listed above I could receive compensation. Please take the time to read the terms and conditions before signing up.
Congrats on a great month and year!
Thanks! I am looking forward to many more.