The Art of Decluttering and Organizing

I just finished listening to this book:

"The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" by Marie Kondo

And put the words into action.

The author recommended to start decluttering process with clothes and do ALL clothes around the house at once, but I decided to start with school supplies and all papers around the house. I actually declutter my closet regularly, but all papers and supplies were really annoying and it was a project I was putting aside for a while.

I like the idea of this book not to clean by areas but declutter by subject, like clothes, books, etc. So I walked around my entire house and collected all school supplies, pen and pencils, etc. and decided what to keep, donate or discard. I have to tell you - I had lots of papers in recycling bin and a bunch of trash.

Then an interesting event happened. After I cleaned all supplies and papers from my son's room, he came to me and asked to help him to declutter his closet. It was a huge surprise to me because usually he does not do this. So we cleaned his closet too. 

Then I moved to books. I have lots and lots of books. I still have problems to get apart with some but I feel some kind of relief to let go of some old books, which actually just were taking space and collecting dust. Eventually I plan to keep only books I really like or plan to look for references in.

I don't think I will be following book exactly but I gained some ideas and mostly inspiration to start decluttering again.

According to Feng shui cleaning and decluttering bring new opportunities into people's lives.

 I still have lots of areas in my house for tidying up but I already started feeling a surge of energy and a wind of good changes.

Would you join me with your decluttering project? 

Thank you for reading and please share your ideas on decluttering.

  

Project: Dividend Stocks for Teenager - finally... she picked a stock :)

I wrote how we started Dividend Stocks portfolio for my daughter and keep track of our progress here.

About two weeks ago I had a post with list of stocks for my daughter to choose from to pick a new stock.

It took her a while to pick a stock because she was busy with summer class and work plus she was complaining how she disliked all stocks on my list and why could't she have other stocks. I explained her that in my opinion lots of stocks overpriced now and we need to choose from "discount rack"... :) I suggested her to pick her own and I would do research on her pick but apparently she didn't want to do this either.

She changed her mind several times, starting with BUD, then switching to Target and finishing with Ford as a final choice.

So we added to her portfolio 99 shares of Ford at $12.59.
Surprisingly she had one free trade, so we didn't even pay any trading fees.

Thanks for reading and please share your suggestions.

Loyal3 June Purchases and Dividends

I opened my Loyal3 account in October 2015 and I keep truck of my posts here. 

June Purchases

$50 - AAPL - Apple

$50 - M - Macy

$50 - NKE - Nike

$50 - FTR - Frontier Communications

$32 - KSS - Kohl's

$20 - GPS - GAP

Total of $252.00

June Dividends

FTR	$9.19
WMT	$1.25
KSS	$1.59
Total	$12.03

Thanks for reading.

Project: Dividend Stocks for Teenager - list of stocks

I wrote how we started Dividend Stocks portfolio for my daughter and keep track of our progress here.

My daughter finally found a part-time job as a hostess in an Asian restaurant. She likes this job and can work during breaks and even school year.  She also helps as a receptionist from time to time at a small doctor's office. 

Anyway she was not spending much money because she lives home and I pay most of her expenses. So she finally accumulated $1200.00, which she agreed to invest into one stock. 

As usual I made a list of stocks (out of my big list of stocks), which trading below 1 year projections. To make it easier for her I put a column "hypothetical value in 1 year" if stock reach 1 year target. I know it can be more or less but at least it can give her idea. Also You might noticed I highlighted "dividend yield more than 3% and hypothetical earnings more than $200. So we will see what stock she will pick this time.

symbol	name	category	price as of 6/10/16	1 year target	dividend yield	$1000 hypothetical value in 1 year
ABT	Abbott Laboratories	medical	$38.40	$46.67	2.66%	$1,215.36
APPL	Apple	technology	$98.83	$124.90	2.31%	$1,263.79
BUD	Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV	beer	$125.49	$136.95	3.54%	$1,091.32
BA	Boeing	airplanes	$131.14	$148.06	3.31%	$1,129.02
CCL	Carnival	cruise	$47.15	$60.19	2.97%	$1,276.56
DIS	Disney	disney	$97.34	$109.11	1.44%	$1,120.92
F	Ford Motors	automobile	$13.10	$15.87	4.55%	$1,211.45
FTR	Frontier	communication	$5.11	$6.07	8.09%	$1,187.87
DEO	Diageo	alcoholic	$104.63	$121.38	2.32%	$1,160.09
GM	General Motors	automobile	$29.06	$38.25	5.07%	$1,316.24
GSK	GlaxoSmithKline plc	medical	$40.93	$47.00	5.17%	$1,148.30
HD	Home Depot	home and garden	$128.83	$147.29	2.14%	$1,143.29
HRB	H&R Block	tax preparation	$24.23	$30.33	3.71%	$1,251.75
HOG	Harley Davidson	motorcycles	$44.47	$50.77	3.11%	$1,141.67
MS	Morgan Stanley	financial	$25.54	$32.07	2.24%	$1,255.68
NKE	Nike	sport wear	$55.11	$70.59	1.18%	$1,280.89
LLY	ELi Lilly	medical	$73.95	$95.71	2.73%	$1,294.25
RCII	REnt a center	rent to own	$12.40	$21.40	2.45%	$1,725.81
RGR	Sturm, Roger	guns	$57.41	$74.00	2.40%	$1,288.97
SBUX	Starbucks	coffee shop	$54.86	$68.00	1.44%	$1,239.52
TGT	Target	store	$67.88	$77.47	3.26%	$1,141.28
VLO	Valero	gas	$53.43	$72.00	4.37%	$1,347.56
WFC	Wells Fargo	bank industry	$48.34	$54.80	3.01%	$1,133.64

Thanks for reading and please share your suggestions.

Stock I bought today 6/9/2016

Today I bought 52 shares of GM at $29.29. 

Tomorrow I need to decide on my Loyal3 purchases for this month. 
Also my daughter accumulated enough money for her new stock purchase, so I am working on a list of potential stocks for her portfolio. I will keep you posted.

Thanks for reading.

May 2016 Dividends and Passive Income Progress

It's time to report my May progress.

In May besides my monthly Loyal3  investments I purchased

10 shares of AAPL - Apple
21 shares of VLO - Valero Energy.

Dividends received in April 2016:

AAPL	$1.20
BMO	$16.82
DRI	$17.56
KMI	$8.73
NE	$0.65
PG	$17.45
RY	$11.69
T	$13.89
TD	$15.77
YUM	$0.34
Total	$104.10

This is 23% decrease comparing to May 2015.

I analysed why this happened and this decrease was due to decrease in KMI and NE dividends.

Here 2014/2015 vs 2016:

2014	Jan	Feb	March	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
	$48.61	$12.44	$63.58	$90.04	$65.67	$126.98	$122.68	$118.36	$185.28	$93.18	$123.70	$263.68
									Year to date			$1,314.20
2015	Jan	Feb	March	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
	$78.69	106.39	333.50	150.77	128.34	298.21	118.30	122.05	361.36	184.44	113.44	316.17
									Year to date			$2,311.66
2016	Jan	Feb	March	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Nov
	$183.80	104.48	445.07	240.49	104.10
									Year to date			$1,077.94

Additional passive income or free money from different financial institutions:

Interest:                                                          $13.80

Points AMEX                                                  $69.78

Points Discover                                              $14.03

JC Penney/Kroger/Academy                          $25.00

Ebates - get paid for shopping online            $23.00

You might noticed that my points from AMEX is higher than usual. This was due an Amex special offer to cash your points with 20% off, which I used and it gave me extra $50 in gift cards. 

             

My total financial passive income for the month of May was $249.71

At this moment my goal is to have $1k in monthly passive income from dividends and other financial institutions. 

I started tracking my passive income Summer 2014

2014 Passive income
June           $261.00
July            $209.67 
August       $235.62 
September  $212.97
October      $140.37
November  $207.05
December   $377.91

2015 Passive Income

January      $167.44
February    $279.29
March         $397.80
April           $202.48
May            $229.70
June            $368.21
July             $205.56
August        $254.16
September  $494.20

October      $231.18
November   $268.28

December   $458.46

2016 Passive Income
January     $298.49
February   $332.39
March       $500.67
April         $360.27

Thanks for reading and please share your thoughts and progress.