Goal Update: End Of November, 2017

At the end of each month, I post an update of my goals, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred during the month. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog.

Last updated: End of November, 2017
Current value: $37,550
Change from last Month: +1,385
Percent of Goal:  34.53%

Note that the funds in this account are invested in stock, so there will be fluctuations in value that are outside my control. I never withdraw money from this account, so any dips are purely due to stock price changes.

Events Of Note Last Month:

My SQL courses on Udemy generated $96.64 of income. One of my courses was selected to be part of the Udemy for Business program. This means Udemy will be including the course in a package of courses that they sell to businesses. I will earn income based on minutes viewed for courses in this program rather than earning a flat fee per course sold. There seems to be great potential for a large number of students with this program.

And speaking of getting paid per minute viewed, I received my first payment from SkillShare. I made $11.14. Not bad considering I only have 5 students there and they have only watched about 200 minutes of my courses so far. Next month is looking better: I'm up to 11 students and 300 (additional) minutes already.

Cash Backed Naked Put Update

As I mentioned last month, Realty Income stock took a bit of a dip and I was able to sell some cash backed puts at what I felt was a very safe strike price. I received $231 for selling puts with a strike price of $52.50. Sure enough, the price rebounded and when the options expired, the stock was trading at $56.48. This means I keep the $231 I received and was not forced to buy any stock. This three week investment netted me a 10% annualized ROI.

I turned around and made pretty much exactly the same trade on November 22 - I sold 6 puts for $0.40 for a net income of $231. This time, the strike price was $55 with an expiration date of Dec. 15. I have a feeling my options might be exercised when that date rolls around and I'll have to buy the shares. As of this writing, the stock is trading at $55.55. It has to stay above $55 for 2 more weeks for the options to expire worthless (which I want). My mistake, if you can call it that, was that I miscounted the weeks remaining in this option when I sold it. I normally like to only have about 2-3 weeks until the option expires but this time, I sold options 4 weeks out. That gives me a little more exposure than I like.

Assuming the options don't get called, I'll have made a 9.11% annualized ROI. If the stock closes on Dec. 12 below $55, I'll have to buy 600 shares at $55 each. I'm not opposed to that. I like the stock and have no problem owning it at that price. It's just that then I'd be earning a 4.66% ROI from the monthly dividend instead of roughly double that by selling options each month. We'll have to wait and see how this one turns out.

In other news, I've changed jobs! Starting yesterday, I'm now working for a new company based in the Washington area. Although not the reason for the change, the new position did come with a 28% salary increase, plus a significant signing bonus. There was one drawback, but I'll get into that next week. Once I know what my regular paycheck will be, I'll be re-figuring my budget. I expect I'll be able to up the amount I put in the Tesla fund each month!

Net Worth Update

Our net worth increased by $9,922 over last month. This is more or less just a reporting adjustment. Mint finally resolved their issue with accessing my 401(k) account, so that figure finally got updated after a couple of months. (Note there is no more red dot next to the Investments" category.) I did pay about $10,000 in a repair bill for the new house, but the check has not cleared the bank yet, so that's not reflected in this month's numbers.

October 2017

November 2017

If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, please drop me a line in the comments section!