Saturday, December 16, 2017

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - DEC 2017

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 $829,956 (down $11,784 in the last 30-days). Up or down, it really doesn't mean much to us since we have no intention of selling our home.  We mainly post these updates to see the remaining mortgage balance and keep us motivated to push forward to be debt free (including our mortgage) one day!




Mortgage Balance (As of Dec 1st):
$269,925 (down $1,949 from our Nov post)

Percentage Owed:
32.5% (up .2% from our June post)

Home Equity:
$560,031 (down $9,179 from our June)
   
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 9 years and 6 months (114 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 10  years and 4 months (124 months) left on our mortgage.  Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in 10 years or less. 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 as long as we can 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, maybe in 6-9 years, 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.

Sunday, December 3, 2017

NOVEMBER 2017 - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

Below is a recap of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio –  NOVEMBER 2017 (recap).

DIVIDENDS

Feb/May/Aug/Nov are generally our slower dividend months. We have less companies paying us dividends and therefore our overall dividends are less. Nevertheless, this is money we plan to use to help supplement our income in retirement.  Big or small, it is still income for the month. 

During the past month, our family received dividends/partnership distributions from a total of 9 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 9 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $168.11. How did you all do? Hopefully you all continue to see your dividends growth month after to month, year after year! 

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


WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
11/01/17 - VZ (Verizon Communications Co): $23.60
11/01/17 - POT (Potash Corp): $4.51
11/01/17 - T (AT&T Inc): $12.42
11/14/17 - ETP (Energy Transfer Partners): $31.08
11/15/17 - OHI (Omega Health Care REIT): $9.75
11/15/17 - KMI (Kinder Morgan Inc): $20.00
11/21/17 - HCP (HCP Inc): $14.80

11/24/17 - COF (Capital One Financial Corp): $2.00
11/27/17 - RY (Royal Bank of Canada): $3.58

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
11/01/17 - T (AT&T Inc): $46.37

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $168.11
In case you interested, our family's dividend stocks portfolio 
may be found by clicking on the link below: