April 2022

Once again I am sorry for another late post. I know I promised some flashy charts and graphics this month but spending a week dealing with finals and a week dealing with COVID I am behind on other important things I need to take care of.

5/1/2022
Inventory	$735.19
Product not inventoried	$0
Payments being processed	$52.04
Future Payments	$778.22
Buy List	$95.65
Cash on Hand	$12.90
Unopened Shipping Supply	$93.80
Total	$1,767.80

Monthly Funds

This month ended with an increase of about $120 to my funds. While this sounds great, I realize it takes a lot of work to make that much. For instance, in the month of April I had 529 orders. This means I made an average of $0.23 an order. That doesn’t sound so hot anymore does it? Add on the fact I spend about 10 hours a week on this project, I am working peanuts. This caused me to think about how can I make this project worth my time. I have come up with some ideas and will hopeful go over those ideas next month

Until then, happy investing and see you in retirement!

March 2022

Sorry for the late post. I have been under the weather the last week or so and had other things I needed to take care of. I wanted to make sure to have this done before May so here I am. March was a good month with the highest month so far for orders and highest month so far for net sales.

Month	No. of Orders	Deposits	Buylist	Net Sales	Product Cost	Shipping Cost	“Profit”
January	503	$2,052.21		$1,902.93	$1,370.27	$426.75	$105.92
February	504	$1,583.96	$70.00	$1,723.27	$1,274.02	$419.73	$29.52
March	535	$2221.24	$72.68	$1908.33	$1312.81	$441.51	$154.01

Monthly Operations

Despite the increase in orders and net sales, it looks like my monthly funds dropped by $35.74 from February. This can be deceiving though because unlike February where I had zero dollars worth of inventory that needed to be inventoried, in March I had $253.34. With my average profit margin around 46% at the end of March, a profit of $116 is missing from the funds for March (Not taken into account daily price fluctuation).

4/1/2022
Inventory	$427.25
Product not inventoried	$253.34
Payments being processed	$131.06
Future Payments	$534.62
Buy List	72.68
Cash on Hand	$31.64
Unopened Shipping Supply	197.37
Total	$1,683.70

Monthly Funds

After 3 months of doing this side business, I am liking the progress. Sure it is demanding especially with my “9-5” job and other responsibilities but nobody said making money was easy. Hopefully April has some good news. Until then, happy investing and see you in retirement.

PS. For May’s post. I am going to add some graphs and switch out these tables for images so they look exactly the way I want.

February 2022

February was an unusual month especially being the shortest month of the year. It started off slow and got busy at the end. I believe it was because of this slowness in the beginning of the month that caused me to not make much of a profit. It could also be that I had about $150 in unused shipping materials. One thing for sure, I didn’t make as big of a profit like I did in January. To get a better understanding of what is happening I have decided to track shipping material that has not been open and thus would be cash in my bank otherwise. I have also decided to add another table that gives you more insight on how the month went in regards to things like orders, net sales, etc etc.

Month	No. of Orders	Deposits	Buylist	Net Sales	Product Cost	Shipping Cost	Shipping Cost Overrun	“Profit” for the Month
January	503	$2,052.21		$1,902.93	$1,370.27	$426.75	$24.35	$81.57
February	504	$1,583.96	$70.00	$1,723.27	$1,274.02	$419.73	$18.13	$11.39

Monthly Operations

3/1/2022
Inventory	$397.19
Product not inventoried	$0.00
Payments being processed	$136.11
Future Payments	$844.66
Buy List	70.00
Cash on Hand	$91.06
Unopened Shipping Supply	144.68
Total	$1,683.70

Monthly Funds

I added two rows to the Monthly Funds table. They are:

• Buy List: Product I buy at a discount that I have not yet received to inventory.
• Unopened Shipping Supplies: Shipping supplies and postage that have not been open or used.

As you can see from the Monthly Operations table, I had the same number of orders in February as I did in January. The biggest difference between the two months is $500 in deposits. Like I mentioned, this is most likely from orders not start coming in until half through February. After crunching the numbers, it looks like my funds only grew by $40.64. This is most likely due to many factors which is why I am going to start tracking how much unopened shipping supply I have. I didn’t do this for January which could mean my profits were actually higher. I will continue to track my progress and see how March turns out.

Until then, Happy investing and see you in retirement.

January 2022

January was a great month. After months of trying to figure out what works, I think I have a system now. You know what they say, you cannot make money if you do not spend money. You also need to put the work in to make it work. Here are some numbers for the month. Remember as of 01/04/22 my company was worth $1,258.85. I also recorded my company’s worth on 02/01/22 so I can do a “true” month to month comparison.

2/1/2022
Inventory	$419.98
Product not inventoried	$212.74
Payments being processed	$142.51
Future Payments	$686.42
Cash on Hand	$36.73
Total	$1,498.38

2/4/2022
Inventory	$573.34
Product not inventoried	$0.00
Payments being processed	$280.67
Future Payments	$709.89
Cash on Hand	$61.68
Total	$1,625.58

A quick breakdown of what each row represents:

• Inventory: Total value of cards inventoried
• Product not inventoried: cards that I have ordered but either have not arrived yet or have yet to be inventoried
• Payments being processed: Payment that has been sent from the e-commerce site to my bank account. This happens twice a week.
• Future Payments: Is payments that have yet to be processed and sent to my bank account.
• Cash on Hand: As stated, this is cash I have not tied to anything that can be used to pay for shipping, supplies, or buying more inventory

So as you can see as of 02/01/22, total company value came to $1,498.38 and on 02/04/22, total value came to $1,625.58. This is an increase of $366.73 or a 29.13% increase in value month over month. As you can see, selling Trade cards like Magic the Gathering can be very lucrative. It is one of the biggest TCG in the world with 35 million players as of 2018 and MTG said it saw its biggest growth ever in 2021. I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s see what the next few months bring and we can go from there.

New Year, new beginnings.

Hello all,

Unfortunately, I had a huge unforeseen event come up at the end of July which caused me to put a pause on my portfolio growth. This year my main goal is to continue a side project I have been working on since August which is selling Trading Card Game cards. With so many different card games out there and new sets being added every other month, it can be a lucrative business.  The downside to this project is that it is almost like having a part time job because I usually put in 2-3 hours a day working on it which is the opposite of a stock portfolio where you “set it and forget it.”  Also unlike dividend investing where you know when a company will be paying their dividend and how much usually a month or two in advance, the price of cards fluctuate regularly so a card that might go for $10 this week might be $8 next week or $12 all depending on the demand for it. I also cannot predict what cards will sell quickly but looking at past sales, I can get an idea of which cards are in high demand which helps me with purchasing. Because I might turn this into an actual business, I will be keeping records just like any other business. This includes revenue, cost, profits, etc. Hopefully I will get back to adding to my portfolio the 2nd half of the year but until then my updates will be about my side business.

Happy investing and see everybody in retirement.

Regards,

Matt

July 2021

So July was a roller coaster. Well at least that one day where the Dow Jones saw a drop for over 1000 points. Let’s just say I wasn’t ready for that and some of my stop-loss orders executed. While this is fine and it didn’t hurt my dividend record dates, my portfolio value did take a little hit. I deposited $600 into my portfolio this month but as you can see below, my portfolio value only increased by about $500. I did make $37.03 in dividends which is the highest so far this year. Hopefully we do not have a another dip like that this year.

Stock Dividends & interest: $37.03
Year to date dividend & interest: $129.23
Forward annual dividend: $342.56
Stock portfolio value: $5095.14(+$501.33/+10.91% MoM)
Yield: 6.72%

Stock	Dividend
AGNC	$3.60
MAIN	$3.28
NLY	$11.00
PMT	$7.05
STWD	$9.60
SUNS	$2.50
Interest	$0.01
TOTAL	$37.03

Happy trading and see everybody in retirement!

June 2021

So after another somewhat flat month of crypto currency, I decided to withdraw more funds and use those funds to buy more stocks. I have about $230 left in my crypto portfolio which I might leave and forget about it for a few months. My stock portfolio grew about $223.00 in value for the month of June even though I added $400 in funds and received $26.49 in dividends. This was because my stocks lost about $190 in value. I bought sixteen shares of ARCC for $321.12 which added $25.60 to my forward dividend bringing it to $304.96. My year to date dividends is $92.20. While I have ways to go to get to where I was in 2018, slow and steady wins the race.

Stock Dividends & interest: $26.49
Year to date dividend & interest: $92.20
Forward annual dividend: $304.96
Stock portfolio value: $4593.81 (+$223.02/+5.10% MoM)
Yield: 6.64%

Stock	Dividend
ABR	$5.10
AGNC	$3.60
ARCC	$12.00
MAIN	$3.28
SUNS	$2.50
Interest	$0.01
TOTAL	$26.49

Happy trading and see everybody in retirement!

May 2021

Looks like I jinxed myself last month when it came to my cryptocurrency portfolio. It doesn’t take much for cryptocurrency to move up or down especially when certain people make comments about it. Anyways, my portfolio topped out at around $1,569.47 at the start of May and by June 1st it was around $576.29. I withdrew around $500 from the portfolio and so I lost around $500. Let’s see what June brings. My stock portfolio saw more than $750 in growth for May. $500 of this was from funds deposited into the portfolio which means $250 was from organic growth. As you can also see, my monthly dividends continue to grow. I hope to make around $200 in dividends this year.

Stock Dividends & interest: $19.79
Year to date dividend & interest: $65.71
Forward annual dividend: $279.36
Stock portfolio value: $4,370.79 (+$752.11/+20.78% MoM)
Yield: 8.80%

Crypto interest earnings: $20.13
Crypto portfolio value: $576.29 (-$993.18/-63.28% MoM)
Crypto Yield: 3.49%

Stock	Dividend
AGNC	$3.60
KNOP	$10.40
MAIN	$3.28
SUNS	$2.50
Interest	$0.01
TOTAL	$19.79

Happy trading and see everybody in retirement!

April 2021

April is a great example of why I decided to invest some money into cryptocurrency. My cryptocurrency portfolio grew from $977 to almost $1,570 in a month with no external funding. Sure, this could have gone the other direction but this is why you have to stay on top of it almost daily and why you do not invest money you are not willing to lose. My stock portfolio saw some growth in stock valuation but I am more happy to see my monthly dividend growth increase.

Stock Dividends & interest: $29.99
Year to date dividend & interest: $45.91
Forward annual dividend: $258.96
Stock portfolio value: $3,618.68 (+$253.79/+7.54% MoM)
Yield: 8.92%

Crypto interest earnings: $179.26
Crypto portfolio value: $1,569.47(+$591.81/~60.53% MoM)
Crypto Yield: 11.42%

Stock	Dividend
AGNC	$3.60
MAIN	$3.28
NLY	$11.00
STWD	$9.60
SUNS	$2.50
Cryptocurrency	$179.26
Interest	$0.01
TOTAL	$208.41

Happy trading and see everybody in retirement!

March 2021

*Sorry I am late about getting this posted. I will try my best to get these posts out the first week of each month.*

March is going to be an abnormal month because of the Covid relief check, I was able to put more money into my portfolios than I normally would. I added $500 to my stock portfolio and $384 to my crypto portfolio. Overall it was a good month for both stocks and crypto but only my stock portfolio saw significant growth because I didn’t realize the amount of fees that are associated with crypto staking, converting, moving, etc (Gives stock trading fees a run for its money).

March’s dividends & interest: $8.55
Year to date dividend & interest: $15.93
Forward annual dividend: $217.36
Stock portfolio value: $3364.89 (+$1,142.53/+51.41% MoM)
Yield: 8.57%

March’s crypto earnings: –
Crypto portfolio value: $977.66 (+$384/~64.68% MoM)*
Yield: –

*Unfortunately, I forgot to record how much money I had at the start of March in my crypto portfolio so I am guessing at how much I had. This means I do not have an actual earnings for last month or yield.

Stock	Dividend
AGNC	$2.76
MAIN	$3.28
SUNS	$2.50
Cryptocurrency	$0.0
Interest	.01
TOTAL	$8.55

Happy trading and see everybody in retirement!