6 Month Update!

It has been 6 months since I first published the blog and quite a few things have changed!

​Here is what has been accomplished..

My Country Count Is Now 22!
I went to 6 countries over that time but Mexico was a repeat. I went to Puerto Vallarta for the second time and then popped over to San Miguel for a wedding which was new. I went to Asia for a month over the summer and added China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. I'm excited to post about those and go back and check out more of those pictures and videos.

​My Monthly Passive Income Increased!
​My Roth IRA really took off over the course of the past year and my monthly dividend has grown from a whopping $8.39 to a staggering $29.07. That isn't the only thing that jumped. I rented out another unit in my quadruplex for $775 a month. If you look at my numbers on the quadruplex I have my vacancy and repairs taken care. I am looking to potentially hire a property manager and if it costs me 10% of total rent, which is common,  it would cost me about $400 a month. I want to plan for that as I will be hoping to transition at some point. 

To be conservative we'll say the increase from the new renter is +$375. The total increase to my passive income is $404.07 bringing my monthly passive income to $1,106.00.

​I Bought A New House!
It was a little foreshadowing to say I added a renter but I am onto deal #3 which will be a live in flip! ​The place needs A LOT of work.

​I'm Debt Free!
.. well kind of. After working in the schools for 5 years I was able to get student loan forgiveness for $17,500 and made my final payment in August! I still have 3 mortgages but that doesn't feel as awful as my student loans did. ​

I Got A Health Savings Account!
After first hearing about the triple tax savings of the account I had to wait until the next open enrollment and it final started this fall!

I Have A New Budget!
With the start of every new school year I excitedly create a new budget and get to prioritize where I am putting my money!

​I Got More Travel Miles!
Shortly after starting the blog I got the Chase ink preferred business card which came with 80,000 Chase ultimate rewards points. This isn't a bad deal since it took around 92,000 to get to China and back. I just opened a new Chase United airlines card which has a minimum spend of $2,000 in the first 3 months to earn 40,000 points. A one way flight to Europe can be as cheap as 30,000 points so this will come in handy. These are things I'm doing in the mean time as I gear up for the Southwest companion pass in 2020.

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

​As I look ahead to next 6 months I don't know if there will be this much change or growth but there is hope. I will begin the rehab on deal 3, be going for the Southwest companion pass, maybe try and partner on some real estate deals or look into hard money lending, hopefully max out my Roth IRA, and look more into note investing.