Thursday, November 19, 2020

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.

Thursday, November 5, 2020

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: