Bert’s Q1 2016 Goals Review

Posted on April 25, 2016 by DividendDiplomats

The first quarter behind us. Boy did the stock market take us on a quite a ride for the first quarter. Plenty of stocks to consider/grab in the first part of the quarter and….well…the stock market has not stopped climbing for months. Regardless of how Mr. Market performed, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the first three months and see how I am progressing towards the 2016 goals that I set back in December. It is still early on, so I can easily tweak where necessary! Now, lets dive into my Q1 2016 goals review.

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Bert’s August Income and Expense Summary

Posted on September 1, 2015 by DividendDiplomats

Last month I ended my three-month hiatus of posting savings rates articles and afterwards, I vowed to publish my monthly summary in a timely fashion. One of my goals for 2015 is to defeat the Dividend Diplomats’ Savings Challenge and save 60% of my monthly income 6 times in 2015. Will I be able to recover from my just miss in July, where I saved 56.9% of my income? Let’s find out!

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Bert’s July Income and Expense Summary

Posted on August 18, 2015 by DividendDiplomats

Man oh man does it feel weird to be writing one of these articles again. Similar to Lanny, I had taken a few months off of writing an income and expense article for a variety of reasons. Through switching jobs again, traveling for my old job, and insert any life activity, time has been at a premium. Enough with the excuses from my end! While Lanny performed a 3 month income summary earlier in the month, I decided to forgo summarizing the last three months and instead focus solely on July. But don’t worry, I will update our Savings Challenge page to display the last 3 months since one of my annual goals is to defeat the Dividend Diplomats Savings Challenge 6 times this year! Let’s see how I performed in July.

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Bert’s April Savings Rate Summary

Posted on May 29, 2015 by DividendDiplomats

This has been the busiest month for me, by far, since Lanny and I began the Dividend Diplomats’ Savings Challenge last year. I found myself having many new inflows and outflows this month, which can be both a good and a bad thing. The question is, with all of this new activity, was I still able to achieve a savings rate of 60% of this month?

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Bert’s March Savings Rate Summary

Posted on April 21, 2015 by DividendDiplomats

Each month Lanny and I challenged ourselves to save at least 60% of our income. This high savings rate will allow us to jump-start our dividend income snowball by allowing us to invest as much as possible now and allow the power of compounding interest to do the rest! Not only that, but I have found this exercise very beneficial as it allows me to take a hard look at my expenses each month and help me trim the “fat” of my expense outflow. I have had a very successful beginning to 2015, as I was able to save 60% of my income in both January and February. Can I keep the streak alive in March? Let’s dive into my March savings rate summary and find out!

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Bert’s Savings Rate Summary: February

Posted on March 18, 2015 by DividendDiplomats

We are flying through 2015 folks. With two complete months in the book and nearly a third (I apologize this post has taken me a while to finish), we are marching our way through the calendar year. Soon, it will be time for our quarterly goals assessment to see if we are on pace to hit accomplish our goals for the year. Anyway, as February came to a close, it is time to see if I was able to defeat the Dividend Diplomats’ Savings Challenge for the second consecutive month. Let’s review my savings rate summary.

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Bert’s Savings Rate Summary: September

Posted on October 4, 2014 by DividendDiplomats

Last month I accepted Lanny’s challenge to save 60% of my income. As I discussed in my post about my decision, I mentioned that I have been very bad about tracking my expenses and I have never put together a tracking mechanism to calculate my savings rate. Well that has changed and I am now watching my expenses like a hawk. In order to save 60% of my income, I need to watch all income and expense sources closely to figure out where I can trim the fat. Now that September is over, the questions is…Did I save 60% of my income??