Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - December 2020

   

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include the equity in our home.  Although we do realize that it is technically part of our overall net worth, we decided that since our home equity is not an asset that we can count on for income (unless we sell and buy something cheaper) we would exclude it from our net worth calculation.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in documenting our loan balance rather than our home equity.  With that said, we will use the current Zillow value as our estimated home value and use it to figure out the percentage we owe on our home. For those interested, we will include the amount of our home equity but know that we are less concerned with the equity since we have no plans to cash out or otherwise sell our home. Our main goal is to pay off our home on or before my retirement date. 

HOME VALUE:

According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $906,907 (-$11,922 in the last 30-days). 

Mortgage Balance (As of November 1st):
$197,071 (down $2,148 from our November post)

Percentage Owed:
21.7% (up .1% since our November post)

Home Equity: 
$709,836 (down $13,954 from our November post)
   

Mortgage Background:
For those that have not read the Preface on our home equity, we currently hold a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage at the incredibly low rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 6 years and 6 months (78 months) so we are setting out to pay off our mortgage on or before my retirement date. Right now we are a few months behind the target retirement date. Currently, we have approximately 7 years and 7 months (88 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 5 years. If we accomplish that, I plan to use the money we use to pay our mortgage and aggressively build our passive income to help supplement our retirement and defer tapping into the 457K for as long as possible so it can continue to grow. 

Right now we are not putting any extra money towards the principal given our low 2.875% interest rate. We feel that we could make our money grow faster by investing it and while keeping the money more liquid. At a certain point, we may consider using some of the money from our investment accounts to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance.  Until then, we will continue to grow that money outside, rather than have it locked into our home.

November 2020 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

 

Our family recently contemplated moving to a larger home that could comfortably fit our family of four as well as my aging parents who are now living with us permanently. With housing prices skyrocketing in the past year, and inventory is quite low, we decided to stay and make certain improvements to our existing home instead. I'm happy to say that construction has begun. Working from home with construction activities in the background has certainly been a challenge. Things have progress fairly quickly though. Hoping to be done by Thanksgiving, if not sooner!

As for the stock portfolio, we have pressed pause while we try to cash flow our home improvements which should end sometime just after the upcoming elections. Hopefully, with the presidential race decided, it will help us decide on where to invest our monies as each candidate brings certain benefits and concerns for investors.   

What is everyone else doing? Are you buying anything right now?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 5 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 5 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $230.00. 

Below is a breakdown of the dividends/partnership distributions received this past month:

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
11/2/20 - T (AT & T INC): $52.00
11/16/20 - KMI (KINDER MORGAN INC): 72.71

11/19/20 - ET (ENERGY TRANSFER LP): $38.13
11/19/20 - DHC (DIVERSIFIED HEALTHCARE TR): $1.75

11/20/20 - BKR (BAKER HUGHES A GE CO): $16.20

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

11/2/20 - T (AT & T): $49.21

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $230.00

How did you all do? Hopefully, you all continue to see your dividends growth month after month, year after year! 

In case you interested, our family's dividend stocks portfolio 
may be found by clicking on the link below:

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - November 2020

  

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include the equity in our home.  Although we do realize that it is technically part of our overall net worth, we decided that since our home equity is not an asset that we can count on for income (unless we sell and buy something cheaper) we would exclude it from our net worth calculation.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in documenting our loan balance rather than our home equity.  With that said, we will use the current Zillow value as our estimated home value and use it to figure out the percentage we owe on our home. For those interested, we will include the amount of our home equity but know that we are less concerned with the equity since we have no plans to cash out or otherwise sell our home. Our main goal is to pay off our home on or before my retirement date. 

HOME VALUE:

According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $923,009 ($10,005 in the last 30-days). 

Mortgage Balance (As of October 1st):
$199,219 (down $2,143 from our October post)

Percentage Owed:
21.6% (down .4% since our October post)

Home Equity: 
$723,790 (up $12,148 from our October post)
   

Mortgage Background:
For those that have not read the Preface on our home equity, we currently hold a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage at the incredibly low rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 6 years and 7 months (79 months) so we are setting out to pay off our mortgage on or before my retirement date. Right now we are a few months behind the target retirement date. Currently, we have approximately 7 years and 8 months (89 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 5 years. If we accomplish that, I plan to use the money we use to pay our mortgage and aggressively build our passive income to help supplement our retirement and defer tapping into the 457K for as long as possible so it can continue to grow. 

Right now we are not putting any extra money towards the principal given our low 2.875% interest rate. We feel that we could make our money grow faster by investing it and while keeping the money more liquid. At a certain point, we may consider using some of the money from our investment accounts to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance.  Until then, we will continue to grow that money outside, rather than have it locked into our home.

October 2020 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

Our family recently contemplated moving to a larger home that could comfortably fit our family of four as well as my aging parents who are now living with us permanently. With housing prices skyrocketing in the past year, and inventory is quite low, we decided to stay and make certain improvements to our existing home instead. I'm happy to say that construction has begun. Working from home with construction activities in the background has certainly been a challenge. Things have progress fairly quickly though. Hoping to be done by Thanksgiving, if not sooner!

As for the stock portfolio, we have pressed pause while we try to cash flow our home improvements which should end sometime just after the upcoming elections. Hopefully, with the presidential race decided, it will help us decide on where to invest our monies as each candidate brings certain benefits and concerns for investors.   

What is everyone else doing? Are you buying anything right now?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 8 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 8 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $254.75. 

Below is a breakdown of the dividends/partnership distributions received this past month:

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
10/1/20 - LADR (LADDER CAPITAL CORP): $20.00
10/9/20 - MO (ALTRIA GROUP INC): 38.70

10/15/20 - VER (VEREIT INC): $38.50
10/15/20 - OXY (OCCIDENTAL PETE CORP): $1.45

10/15/20 - CAH (CARDINAL HEALTH INC): $26.24

10/16/20 - NTR (NUTRIEN LTD): $33.75

10/26/20 - GE (GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY): $2.00

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

10/28/20 - CMSCA (COMCAST CORP): $94.11

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $254.75

How did you all do? Hopefully, you all continue to see your dividends growth month after month, year after year! 

In case you interested, our family's dividend stocks portfolio 
may be found by clicking on the link below:

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - October 2020

 

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include the equity in our home.  Although we do realize that it is technically part of our overall net worth, we decided that since our home equity is not an asset that we can count on for income (unless we sell and buy something cheaper) we would exclude it from our net worth calculation.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in documenting our loan balance rather than our home equity.  With that said, we will use the current Zillow value as our estimated home value and use it to figure out the percentage we owe on our home. For those interested, we will include the amount of our home equity but know that we are less concerned with the equity since we have no plans to cash out or otherwise sell our home. Our main goal is to pay off our home on or before my retirement date. 

HOME VALUE:

According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $913,004 ($26,598 in the last 30-days). 

Mortgage Balance (As of October 1st):
$201,362 (down $2,137 from our September post)

Percentage Owed:
22.0% (down .7% since our September post)

Home Equity: 
$711,642 (up $20,639 from our September post)
   

Mortgage Background:
For those that have not read the Preface on our home equity, we currently hold a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage at the incredibly low rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 6 years and 8 months (80 months) so we are setting out to pay off our mortgage on or before my retirement date. Right now we are a few months behind the target retirement date. Currently, we have approximately 7 years and 9 months (90 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 5 years. If we accomplish that, I plan to use the money we use to pay our mortgage and aggressively build our passive income to help supplement our retirement and defer tapping into the 457K for as long as possible so it can continue to grow. 

Right now we are not putting any extra money towards the principal given our low 2.875% interest rate. We feel that we could make our money grow faster by investing it and while keeping the money more liquid. At a certain point, we may consider using some of the money from our investment accounts to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance.  Until then, we will continue to grow that money outside, rather than have it locked into our home.

September 2020 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

 

Our family recently contemplated moving to a larger home that could comfortably fit our family of four as well as my aging parents who are now living with us permanently. With housing prices skyrocketing in the past year, and inventory is quite low, we decided to stay and make certain improvements to our existing home instead. After all, we love our home and our neighbors. I'm happy to say that construction will begin in less than a month! 

As for the stock portfolio, we have pressed pause while we try to cash flow our home improvements which should end sometime just after the upcoming elections. Hopefully, with the presidential race decided, it will help us decide on where to invest our monies as each candidate brings certain benefits and concerns for investors.   

What is everyone else doing? Are you buying anything right now?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 11 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 11 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $273.26. 

Below is a breakdown of the dividends/partnership distributions received this past month:

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
9/1/20 - WFC (WELLS FARGO & CO): $3.00
9/1/20 - ENB (ENBRIDGE INC): $55.27

9/10/20 - IBM (INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORP): $9.78
9/10/20 - XOM (EXXON MOBIL CORP): $34.80

9/10/20 - CVX (CHEVRON CORPORATION): $19.35

9/11/20 - LUMN (CENTURYLINK INC): $15.00
9/21/20 - RDS.B (ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC): $4.48

9/22/20 - BBL (BHP GROUP PLC ADR): $90.20

9/24/20 - EDIV (SPDR S&P EMERGING ETF): $30.93

9/25/20 - SU (SUNCOR ENERGY INC): $7.05

9/29/20 - GILD (GILEAD SCIENCES INC): $3.40

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

N/A

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $273.26

How did you all do? Hopefully, you all continue to see your dividends growth month after to month, year after year! 

In case you interested, our family's dividend stocks portfolio 
may be found by clicking on the link below:

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - September 2020

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include the equity in our home.  Although we do realize that it is technically part of our overall net worth, we decided that since our home equity is not an asset that we can count on for income (unless we sell and buy something cheaper) we would exclude it from our net worth calculation.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in documenting our loan balance rather than our home equity.  With that said, we will use the current Zillow value as our estimated home value and use it to figure out the percentage we owe on our home. For those interested, we will include the amount of our home equity but know that we are less concerned with the equity since we have no plans to cash out or otherwise sell our home. Our main goal is to pay off our home on or before my retirement date. 

HOME VALUE:

According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $894,502 (up $12,995 in the last 30-days). 

Mortgage Balance (As of August 1st):
$203,499 (down $2,133 from our August post)

Percentage Owed:
22.7% (down .6% since our August post)

Home Equity: 
$691,003 (up $17,401 from our August post)
   

Mortgage Background:
For those that have not read the Preface on our home equity, we currently hold a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage at the incredibly low rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 6 years and 9 months (81 months) so we are setting out to pay off our mortgage on or before my retirement date. Right now we are a few months behind the target retirement date. Currently, we have approximately 7 years and 10 months (91 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 5 years. If we accomplish that, I plan to use the money we use to pay our mortgage and aggressively build our passive income to help supplement our retirement and defer tapping into the 457K for as long as possible so it can continue to grow. 

Right now we are not putting any extra money towards the principal given our low 2.875% interest rate. We feel that we could make our money grow faster by investing it and while keeping the money more liquid. At a certain point, we may consider using some of the money from our investment accounts to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance.  Until then, we will continue to grow that money outside, rather than have it locked into our home.

August 2020 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

Right now, our family is trying to pile cash and remain on the lookout for some quality dividend-payers to buy and hang onto for the long haul. We have set a few limit orders and now waiting for the company stocks to reach our target price.  What is everyone else doing? Are you buying?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 8 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 8 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $281.08. 

Below is a breakdown of the dividends/partnership distributions received this past month:

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
8/3/20 - OXY (OCCIDENTAL PETRO WTS): $0.69 (cash-in-lieu)
8/7/20 - VOD (VODAFONE GROUP PLC): $77.64
8/17/20 - KMI (KINDER MORGAN INC): $59.59
8/19/20 - ET (ENERGY TRANSFER LP): $61.00
8/20/20 - DHC (DIVERSIFIED HEALTHCARE TR): $1.75
8/21/20 - BKR (BAKER HUGHES A GE CO): $16.20
8/31/20 - HP (HELMERICH & PAYNE INC): $15.00

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

8/3/20 - T (AT&T INC): $49.21

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $281.08

How did you all do? Hopefully you all continue to see your dividends growth month after to month, year after year! 

In case you interested, our family's dividend stocks portfolio 
may be found by clicking on the link below:

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - August 2020

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include the equity in our home.  Although we do realize that it is technically part of our overall net worth, we decided that since our home equity is not an asset that we can count on for income (unless we sell and buy something cheaper) we would exclude it from our net worth calculation.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in documenting our loan balance rather than our home equity.  With that said, we will use the current Zillow value as our estimated home value and use it to figure out the percentage we owe on our home. For those interested, we will include the amount of our home equity but know that we are less concerned with the equity since we have no plans to cash out or otherwise sell our home. Our main goal is to pay off our home on or before my retirement date. 

HOME VALUE:

According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $879,234 (down $4,474 in the last 30-days). 

Mortgage Balance (As of August 1st):
$205,632 (down $2,021 from July post)

Percentage Owed:
23.3% (down .4% since our July post)

Home Equity: 
$673,602 (up $6,882 from our July post)
   

Mortgage Background:
For those that have not read the Preface on our home equity, we currently hold a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage at the incredibly low rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 6 years and 10 months (82 months) so we are setting out to pay off our mortgage on or before my retirement date. Right now we are a few months behind the target retirement date. Currently, we have approximately 7 years and 11 months (92 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 5 years. If we accomplish that, I plan to use the money we use to pay our mortgage and aggressively build our passive income to help supplement our retirement and defer tapping into the 457K for as long as possible so it can continue to grow. 

Right now we are not putting any extra money towards the principal given our low 2.875% interest rate. We feel that we could make our money grow faster by investing it and while keeping the money more liquid. At a certain point, we may consider using some of the money from our investment accounts to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance.  Until then, we will continue to grow that money outside, rather than have it locked into our home.

July 2020 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

The only good news I have to share is that in the midst of this COVID-19 (otherwise known as Coronavirus) outbreak, our family is still receiving our dividend payments.  For now at least! Let's see how many companies cut their dividends in the coming months. Fingers crossed that it isn't a huge majority! Time will tell as nobody really knows yet how significant the financial impact of this pandemic really is. Especially is there is a second wave in the fall. 

Right now, our family is trying to pile cash and remain on the lookout for some quality dividend-payers to buy and hang onto for the long haul. We have set a few limit orders and now waiting for the company stocks to reach our target price.  What is everyone else doing? Are you buying?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 8 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 8 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $253.85. 

Below is a breakdown of the dividends/partnership distributions received this past month:

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
7/1/20 - LADR (LADDER CAPITAL CORP): $20.00
7/10/20 - MO (ALTRIA GROUP INC): $37.80
7/15/20 - VER (VEREIT INC): $38.50
7/15/20 - OXY (OCCIDENTAL PETE CORP): $1.45
7/15/20 - CAH (CARDINAL HEALTH INC): $26.24
7/17/20 - NTR (NUTRIEN LTD): $33.75
7/27/20 - GE (GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY): $2.00

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

7/22/20 - CMCSA (COMCAST CORP): $94.11

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $253.85

How did you all do? Hopefully you all continue to see your dividends growth month after to month, year after year! 

In case you interested, our family's dividend stocks portfolio 
may be found by clicking on the link below:

Dividend Stocks Portfolio