Over 750K invested

Today, our investment accounts have now hit the biggest financial milestone to date: surpassing $750,000 in value!  

Our investment accounts include money in our 401Ks, Roth IRAs, taxable accounts, HSA and 529.  Index fund investing allows us to diversify our portfolio and keep our costs very low.  This does not include money in our checking accounts, savings accounts, home equity or rental property equity.

The US stock market has hit new all time highs, and so has our investment account balances.  The US market has returned over 37% over the past year, and over 18% just in 2021.  There is a lot of positive news out there.  Big corporations have never been more profitable.  Retail sales are up.  Consumer spending is up.  The travel industry has opened up.  And while there are still many people and families hit hard by the economic impacts of the coronavirus, the stock market is not the economy.  This new highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus does not seem to be discouraging investors.

Sadly, our chance to squash COVID-19 completely may be behind us.  Blame it on the anti-vaxxers.  All we can do now is continue to practice good hygiene, wear masks and social distance when appropriate.  Life, and the economy, moves on.

We are quickly moving towards a 70/30 asset allocation, which is likely where we will hold at long term.  This portfolio will help us stay invested during stock market rallies, corrections and even crashes.  I’ve learned the hard way that my market timing skills are poor.

Here is a look back at the timeline of our previous investment milestones:

July 2010: I opened up my first Roth IRA investment account.

June 2, 2014: 100K

March 12, 2016: 200K

June 5, 2017: 300K

July 15, 2018: 400K 

April 16, 2019: 450K

November 5, 2019: 500K

January 18, 2020: 550K

November 7, 2020: 600K

January 12, 2021: 650K

April 7, 2021: 700K

July 24, 2021: 750K

We’ve been investing for over 10 years now.  Keep saving and investing my friends!

Side hustles June 2021

The great thing about doing side hustles to generate extra income is that you can hustle on your own terms.  The more hard work, time, and creative effort you put in, the more extra money you can make.  You can hustle as little or as much as you want, whenever you want.  It’s your extra money, and you can choose how you want to spend it.  Instead of focusing on what ideas don’t apply to you, try focusing on different side hustle ideas that you can implement to work for your situation. 

Once a month (usually on the 1^st), I like to post a short summary of our personal and financial situation for the previous month.  While I don’t often post articles, I am committed to documenting all of my side hustle income.  Here I’ll share some of what’s been going on with our lives and our side hustles.  

Welcome to July!  Did you have a good June?  It’s been so hot lately that we have mostly been staying indoors.  To decorate our walls, we’ve purchased some blank canvases from the art store and had our kids paint them!  

We celebrated our son’s 6th birthday this month.  We rented out the local children’s museum so we could have a private event with close friends and our son’s school classmates.  It was a ton of fun, and all guests wore masks during the event.  

Both of our kids are growing so fast.  They are definitely one of our biggest motivators for pursuing financial freedom.  

Here’s our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month of June. 

Cash Back 

On 6.11, received a $25 statement credit on my AMEX SimplyCash business credit card from AMEX Offers. This was for $25 cash back on purchases over $500. 

On 6.14 my wife received a $10 statement credit on her AMEX Gold credit card.  This card offers a $10 dining credit every month on select restaurants such as Cheesecake Factory or Shake Shack.

On 6.16, my wife received a $50 statement credit on her Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. This was for free $50 statement credits towards purchases made at grocery stores. 

On 6.18 my wife received a $30 statement credit on her AMEX Platinum card. This was for $30 off $30 on purchases made with PayPal checkout. 

On 6.26, I received a $21.14 cash back statement credit on my AMEX SimplyCash business credit card. 

Rental Income

On 6.5, we received a net profit of $1480 from our rental property.  The tenants are back on track paying rent.

Survey Income

On 6.9, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from The Vision Council for completing a survey.

On 6.8, I received a $40 direct deposit from GLG Survey for completing a survey. 

On 6.10, I received a $35 Amazon gift card from M-Panels for completing a survey. 

On 6.11, I received a $30 Amazon gift card from My Impact Network for completing a survey. 

On 6.21, I received a $25 Amazon gift card from M-Panels for completing a survey.

On 6.25, my wife received a $10 Amazon gift card for completing a survey through Peloton.

On 6.30, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from The Vision Council for completing a survey.

Monthly Totals:

We earned $136.14 from cash back income

We earned $1480 from rental income

We earned $150 for completing online surveys

All of this totals $1,766.14 from our side hustles for the month of June!  Our investment journey continues to be slow and boring.  Keep saving and investing my friends!