Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! Here is wishing you a happy and prosperous 2017. May all your dreams and aspirations come true!!
December is a happy month for all dividend investors and so it was for me too! Passive income coming into my account is validation for the FI path and also motivation to continue the FI journey with even more vigor! Lets look at the numbers for Dec 2016.
| Emergency Fund $60K | 100.0% |
| College Fund (80K) | |
| Passive Income (2015 vs 2016) | |
| Retirement Fund ($900K) | |
| Roof for our Family($750K) | 00.00% |
| Medical Fund | 00.00% |
| Life Insurance | Done (term life insurance policy) |
Main Takeaways this month
- Passive Income Stream
- Passive Income for December 2016 ($1983) is appx 54% higher than December 2015 ($1281.58). This is a big increase and a totally unexpected one.
- The positive surprise was due to more than expected capital gains distribution from VDIGX and VWELX. I will take it…however they come 🙂
- Additional Investments
- VEIEX(Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund))
- Just like prior months, I continued to increase my exposure outside the US. Stocks in United States are way to overvalued and frothy in my opinion. So, I have continued to increase my exposure to countries outside the US. I want my passive income stream to come from many countries all over the world as a good means of diversification.
- This time, I invested in a new fund: an Emerging markets fund called VEIEX. This fund invests in many emerging market countries like Brazil, India, Russia, China, Taiwan and 20 more countries around the world.
- If you want more details on VEIEX, please get it directly from the horse’s mouth: VEIEX.
- VEIEX(Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund))
- Passive Income Goal
- My 2016 goal was to reach $750 pm in passive income by year end. December is done…and my per-month dividend stands at $801.99. Hurrah!
- 2016 had lots of ups and downs…including a phase of unemployment and no salary for a month at least, a nasty health issue and what not. So, achieving this goal and exceeding it by a small amount of $50 makes me very happy.
- Sometime back, I wrote an article called How much freedom did I buy today? I read that article again today and decided to compute the number of hours of freedom I have bought with $801 of passive income per month.
- My Passive Income goal is
- $4000 per month (Why $4000 pm?)
- $48000 per year
- $131.5 per day ($48K/365)
- It is the end of 2016 and my passive income is $801 per month.
- How much freedom will $801 pm buy me?
- $801/$131.5 => 6.09 days per month => 146 hours per month => 4.7 hrs a day (31 day month)
- To put this in perspective, here is the amount of freedom $801 of passive income will buy me:
- 4.7 hours of absolute freedom every day!
- 6.09 days of absolute freedom every month!
- 73.08 days of absolute freedom every year!
- 2.35 months of absolute freedom every year!
- How much freedom will $801 pm buy me?
- My Passive Income goal is
- For 2017, I will aim for a challenging monthly passive income target of $850 pm. Wish me luck!
Humble FI 
Awesome job humble FI! You crushed it in December. And congrats on your goal as well!
I also own VWELX and VEIEX, though I have to disagree on VWELX paying out more than expected, :). I actually think it paid less than it did last December.
Anyway, great work and keep it up. December was a great month for me as well, but I still fell short of my 2016 passive income goal. Take care,
LikeLike
Thanks for the nice comments 🙂 VWELX paid more than what I had assumed for my projections. And you know what, I had accidentally assumed zero for capital distributions 😉 And VDIGX paid out more than last year…my projections were based on last year nos. I am not complaining though!!
And yo mister, $2658 for the month of December is super great! I know how hard it is to get to this number. So, kudos…I am sure you will make up for it in 2017.
Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2017!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great job!
2,35 months of freedom per year is awesome.
In my ideal life, I have 3-4 months of freedom per year.in my book, you would be half way!
LikeLike
Kudos on another fine month. Very inspiring totals.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Every time I see the roof over our head fund at 0% I get a little anxious. I wonder if you could move some retirement fund to housing fund?
LikeLike
>> Every time I see the roof over our head fund at 0% I get a little anxious.
You hit the nail on the head with this one. To be honest, this is giving me many sleepless nights ever since new year….hence no 2017 goals published yet 😦
Purchasing an expensive home is signing up for slavery for the next 30 years. But, more importantly, even if I can afford the down payment, I cannot assume guaranteed employment for the next 30 years. So, what do I do? So, still fighting the war inside my head….lots of doubts and questions for which I do not have answers yet.
>> I wonder if you could move some retirement fund to housing fund?
That is an interesting idea. I had not thought of that. Let me research this one a bit more and see if it can help me out.
Thanks a bunch!
LikeLike
Awesome job HumbleFI, love seeing the progress you’re making 🙂 Good luck for 2017, can’t wait to see what you can produce.
Tristan
LikeLike
Awesome progress, its awesome to look back throughout the years and see how much it has grown. $1983 in Passive Income is a month and half at minimum wage 🙂 Things are starting to get interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person