Look back: 2019 was an interesting year for me financially. When I started to invest in the middle of 2018, the return felt so small and not worth it. It is really nice to see what can change within one year. In 2018 I’ve earned 48 Euro from dividends. This year my dividend earnings were 440 Euro.
Coming back to my financial report February 2020: In February I’ve earned more or less the same passive income as in January. I’ve earned 64,60 Euro in dividends and invested it directly into 2 real estate crowdfunding platforms. The platforms I’ve decided last month are EvoEstate and Exporo. My plan is to diversify my money into 4-5 money “baskets” within this year. With the investment in the real estate platforms, I’ve not only reached my first goal of 2020 but also created my 2nd money basket.
My Story
I’ve started to learn more about saving and investing in the beginning of 2018. I am proud what I have achieved in the past 1,5 years:
- I am debt free.
- Since the beginning of 2019 I’ve increased my savings rate to have a small emergency fund
- I’ve increased my savings and investment rate to 34%.
- I’ve started my dividend portfolio in 2018 and increased my dividend income YoY.
- In January 2020 I’ve invested my first money in 2 real estate crowdfunding platforms.
Of course these are the basic and mandatory steps towards financial freedom, but I am proud where I am so far.
I want to share with you my monthly financial reports to follow my journey to early retirement.
Savings & Investment Rate
In the beginning of 2018 I just saved a little amount per month without having a real sense behind. I just saved, because I was supposed to save.
Reading the book “I Teach You To Be Rich” from Ramit Sethi changed my money mindset and I started to invest and created my own money flow.
You can find my Mr. Financial Freedom Automatic Money Flow in following post: Financial Freedom In Germany – How To Start Your Journey
In February my savings & investment rate was 45 %. It is a 11% increase to the month before.
Invested € in February 2020
This month I have invested 700 €.
425 € into my dividend portfolio, 100 € into my ETF portfolio and 175€ in real restate crowdfunding platforms.
I’ve increased my positions on the following stocks:
$AAPL, $T, $DIS, $MO, $KO, $PG, $VZ, $CVS, $IBM, $JNJ, $MSFT, $MMM, $PM, $CSCO.
Check out my stock portfolio.
Dividend Income in February 2020
In February 2020 I have received 8 payments and my dividend income resulted in 64,60 €. That money was directly invested in my real estate crowdfunding portfolio.
The companies who paid dividends this month:
Gladstone= 6,14 €
Realty Inc = 8,75 €
AT&T = 31,35 €
Procter & Gamble = 2,49 €
Stag Industrial = 5,75 €
CVS = 2,85 €
Verizon = 3,76 €
Apple = 3,51€
Dividend Income in 2020
My dividend income this year is at 127,90 €. In 2018 my dividend income was 48 €. A lot can change within 1,5 years.
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Highest Expenses by Category
I am tracking my every expense every day since about 1 year now. I’ve started this private project when I read the book “Your Money or Your Life” from Vicki Robin.
It helps me to get an idea, where I spent most of my money. I am using the app “Money Manager” on my phone. There is no need to create an account and it is very easy to use.
In February I spent the most of my money on the following 8 categories (sorted by most spent)
- Rent: 24,5%
- Investment: 19,2%
- Dining out, ordering food: 15,8%
- Non-Work related: 43%
- Ordering food: 30%
- Work related: 27%
- Groceries: 10,7%
- Savings: 8,3%
- Gifts for others: 4,1%
- Car: 3,4%
- Phone / Internet: 2,8%
In February 2020 I spent the most of my money for the rent of my flat, This month was also not a good one for “Dining out, ordering food”. Dining out and ordering food, is where I spent the most of my expenses in 2019. One of my goals in 2020 is to reduce my spendings on that category to 2000€ per year.
Join my weekly E-Mail Report “Wisdom Wednesday”
During the week I am reading different articles and listening to podcast. In my weekly e-mail report “Wisdom Wednesday” I am going to send an email every Wednesday to you with all interesting articles or tools I found during the last week. I am sharing / advertising the article of other bloggers. In that way I can make sure that everyone is getting the best resources available on the Internet.
Mr. Financial Freedom
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