March is finally over. The last March was really uncomfortable and in fact, it was the first month from my short investor experience when my total net worth actually decreased. Many things happened to my portfolio last month, in total, I lost about $3,000 in value for crypto investments. One company from the Nasdaq Baltics announced its intentions leaving the exchange.
When writing these dividend income reports, I usually love to write how I enjoy doing nothing much and still get a nice passive income at the end of the month. Now, in the case of the last March, this is not the case. And I'm glad March is finally over. That said, welcome to the eleventh (#11) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies).
For March, there was no dividend paying stock in my portfolio and the lions share for the earnings in March comes from the Mintos.com peer to peer lending operations.
Both individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European Union or third countries currently considered to have AML/CFT systems equivalent to the EU, and have their identity successfully verified by Mintos. At the moment, US citizens or taxpayers cannot register as investors at Mintos.
Affiliate link here: Sign up to Mintos.com here. By using this affiliate link for registration both you and I will receive — 1% of your average daily balance which should be paid in 3 installments for the first 90 days
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to mintos.com peer to peer lending website, by clicking on links on this page and by making an investment on mintos.com, I might earn affiliate income at no cost to you. Also, I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset.
Interest income in March 2018
From investments in peer to peer lending marketplace Mintos.com and from cryptocurrency lending on Poloniex.com I got following income last month:
- Mintos.com: EUR 42.98
- Poloniex.com: EUR 1.02
Total: EUR 44.00 / USD 52.88
Year over year growth rate for dividend income
The YoY growth rate for my dividend income in March is more than 500%. A year ago I just started my way to the financial freedom and laid first bricks with Mintos.com peer to peer lending.
March 2017 | March 2018 | Change | |
Mintos | €8.70 | €42.98 | €34.28 |
Poloniex | €0.00 | €1.02 | €1.02 |
Total | €8.70 | €44.00 | €35.30 |
As a matter of fact, a year ago, I felt more enthusiastic with my humble EUR 8.70 earnings than I feel now with EUR 44 earnings. A year ago I just started to roll this dividend ball.
Now, a year later I have greatly increased my investments on Mintos.com peer to peer lending marketplace and had some humble earning from crypto lendings on Poloniex.com. Unfortunately, I don't hold any dividend paying stock in March (there is no dividend paying stocks in Nasdaq Baltics for March).
Also, I believe the last March was the lowest in terms of dividend income for this year, for the upcoming months I can see $100, $140 and even $200 dividends in a single month.
Monthly income to the date
My portfolio is now more than one year old. As I was just starting out last year, the first months of the year didn't generate me much. Just starting with March, April and May the journey started to roll.
The cumulative earnings for 2018 are $216.72 which is about 18.06% of my goal for 2018 ($1200).
Monthly Income chart as of March 2018
On the average, I should pull about $109.25 each month for the next 9 months to reach my $1200 goal for 2018. Right now it seems I'm on the right track, as there are already a few months in 2018 I'm looking on close to $150/mo and in fact will try to crack $200/mo milestone this year.
Dividend Income Radar March 2018
About investments and return 2018
Since the begging of the year, I've additionally invested $4,024.96 what is about 37.62% of the total $10,700.18 planned investments in 2018. Also, I've reached 1.65% in value for my planned 1 million dollar savings account by 2045. That's a drop by -0.13% if compared to the month of February,
On the average, I should invest about $741.69/mo until the end of the year to reach my goals.
YTD value for the entire portfolio at the end of March is down by - 18.43% but still positive since the begging in 2017 with a positive 2.45 % value growth.
Investment portfolio structure March 2018
March was really bad for my long-term crypto holdings, I lost about $3,000 in value for cryptos in March. The total drop in value for cryptos at the end of March was -59.73% YTD but still positive since July 2017 +22.93%
I really hope the bear trend is over and for the rest of the year I'm looking on a bull trend.
As you can see from the graph above cryptos (16.4%) now is the third largest position in the portfolio after stocks (51.7%), and Mintos.com peer to peer lending (28.6%).
I'm lacking cash reserves (0.3%) in the portfolio, to change that starting March 2018 I decided to run a 52-week money saving challenge and looking to increase cash reserves to about 5% from the portfolio value by the end of the challenge.
Also, I started to build up an emergency starter fund with $1,000 and hope to reach this target by the end of the year. By the end of March, I've reached about 22% of this goal. My current emergency starter fund is in value about 1.31% of the net worth. From the downside, I should add - that with current emergency fund I could sustain the comfort of our family living just for three days. With reaching $1,000 it could sustain about 2 weeks. Yikes. But better have one.
Goals forecasts for March 2019
This is my favorite part of the reports - trying to forecast/set goals for the next year. Despite I made more than 500% growth this year I'm more humble when looking on next year. It would be cool to reach $80/mo a year after. From today's perspective - hard, but doable. There are a few scenarios I'm considering now - one it would ask to boost my deposit on Mintos by about EUR 3,000 or I should start adding US dividend-paying stocks to the portfolio. I'm looking on both now.