A Bargain Sale!?

Did you know that there's a major bargain sale going on right now? This sale could make you thousands of dollars, maybe even hundreds of thousands! And the average person will think you are crazy to buy any of this stuff right now. But you should. It would be to your advantage!

Have you seen the stock market? Apparently there is an election coming up (and many people have already voted) and it's made people more skeptical about the stock market. Silly people. This is great for me! Well, it would be if I had more liquidity right now.

Right now the stock market has plunged, and for dividend stocks this is like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. You can buy a stock for $36/share that was $43/share not that long ago. That doesn't sound like much of a sale until you look at the dividend. <grinning like a kid in a candy store> It's the difference between 4.4% interest per year and 5.3% interest per year, with the option of compounding! That doesn't make sense to most of you, does it?

Here's the example I gave my friend the other day.

Let's say you have $1,500. If you bought shares of AT&T (T) in July or August, you would've gotten about 35 shares. Each of those shares paid $0.48 on Nov 1st. That's $16.80. That's more than most people make in a year on $1,500 in their savings account.

Now, let's say you wanted to buy AT&T today (the market is closed, so will go with a round number from the last few days). You would pay a little over $36/share and get about 41 shares. Those share will pay $0.49/share in January. That's right! The dividend payout has increased! So, in January you would get $20.09.

Pretty neat, right? Bargain sale!

Now, don't get me wrong. You would still be getting a good deal if you had bought in July. The dividend payout did increase for January. But, in reality, I'm assuming you don't own any shares. So, now is a great time to start investing!

I really wish I had already completed my course so I could share it with you. But as a bonus, today, I'm going to compare for you what that $1,500 would look like in a year between stocks and your savings account.

Let's go with you buying shares today. So, you would have 41 shares that will pay $0.49 per quarter. That totals $80.36.

Let's say you have 1% interest on your savings account (this is actually higher than most people I know have). You'd make $15.

Now, let's say your annual income is $40,000. That puts you in the 25% tax bracket. So, you would keep $11.25 of that $15 and pay $3.75 in taxes.

If you had instead invested the $1,500 in AT&T. You would keep $68.31 and pay $12.05. That's because AT&T gives a qualified dividend and those are taxed at 15% if you're in the 25% tax bracket. What would you rather have: $11.25 or $68.31?

This still excludes compounding. That's a lesson for another day!

Don't bury your money in the ground. Let it work for you. 

Scratch That!

So, I started down the nomad journey, then took a huge detour. I found myself stressed out and heavily burdened. I love teaching. I thoroughly enjoy helping people with financial problems, or learning English, or just working through some issue. I also really love pointing people to their ultimate source: Jesus.

And, since Jesus is my ultimate source, I listened when I started having verses pop up in my mind to quell the raging storm.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9

Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.
  Psalm 37:4

Unless the Lord builds the house,
  those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the watchman stays awake in vain. 

It is in vain that you rise up early
    and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
    for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Psalm 127:1-2

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

In all of this, it was abundantly clear that I was striving in vain. I was seeking the kingdom of this world and not the Kingdom of Heaven. I was taking on another burden other than the one Jesus offered me.

So, I stepped away from it all.

This wasn't too hard. I was struggling to find the right passion to pursue. And looking back, I'm so glad I stepped away.

I believe that as a gift from God, I now have the right passion(s) to pursue.

So many of my friends have had to listen to me over the last 2 or 3 months. I've practically droned on and on about a newly discovered game. To them, maybe it's not so much a game. But to me it brings me exceeding joy. It doesn't cease to find a way to brighten my week. In fact, at least once a week I have something to rejoice over.

What is it you wonder?

Dividends!

I've begun dividend investing thanks to the encouragement of a good friend. And since she didn't do much other than tell me to go Google a phrase. I've learned a lot. I've made a few mistakes, but thanks to her guidance and my own acumen for numbers, I've mitigated most of my risks (accounting talk, sorry).

Furthermore, the exercise in being patient when I 'lose' money from an unrealized loss, has built my ability to trust God when it doesn't look like things are going the right way. The patience of having to wait until 9:30am each day for the market to open and on the weekend for a few days, has helped me to wait on the Lord. And, since dividends don't have a great amount of immediate payoff, I've learned to appreciate the small gains. Which again, has built in me an ability to appreciate the small gains in other ares of my life. Crazy, huh?

The best thing about this, is that it can only consume so much of my time. The market closes. I run out of things to research. I have to wait for changes in stock price. I have to wait for monthly or quarterly dividend payments.

It's been amazing.

So, why am I back to writing on this blog?

I found my passion. I found my way to become a digital nomad.

All of my friends have expressed interest in learning more about dividends, as they've listened to me talk so excitedly about what this means for me. However, most of them need someone to bridge the gap between knowing nothing about 'the stock market' and being able to buy stock that pays dividends. I've had to figure this all out on my own. So, I decided that I would create a simple course to explain the basics of dividend investing.

Within a few hours, the outline of the entire course had appeared on paper. The next day, I wrote most of the intro to the course. And the next day, I had done most of the first module and pulled together details for several of the others. I don't expect that I'll have it done in a week. Many of the modules will take a lot more time to write. I am, after all, an accountant. I have to take it down a notch when I explain things. Unrealized gains and losses make perfect sense to me. But the average person may not get them without explanation. 

On top of all that, I have also had an opportunity come up in one of my other passion areas. I'm waiting to hear back about a part-time position that would have me working directly with incoming refugees to help them get oriented into my city. For many of them, culture shock will be immense. I've been to their part of the world, so I know how much harder it is to live where you have to have a car to get around or your neighbors don't talk to you. And so many other things.

Even applying for that was a serious step of faith. It meant applying for a job that I wasn't sure about. I wasn't sure I would get it, and before I learned more details of the actual position, I wasn't sure I wanted it. And I'm still not sure. It's part-time and my full-time job doesn't allow much room for another job. I'm having to trust God with the outcome.

But, at least my journey into frugality over the last several years (ok, more like away from frugality and quickly back into it in the last few months) will pay off. My insurance got reduced a couple months ago. Student loans are down 65% and about 15% was done in the last two months. Another step of faith. Letting go of that much of my emergency fund was hard. I'm likely getting a new renter in the house. Cha-ching. I've been monitoring my spending like a hawk. Refusing to even go into stores where I might buy clothes. And I can wait for the next clothing swap, which is where I've gotten half of my favorite items anyhow!

Trusting Jesus is always worth it! And I want to trust Him with all that I am.

90 days to digital nomad journal -  Week 1 (This is going to be messy!)

Day -5

I put half of my savings fund toward my student loans, dropping my effective interest rate to 4% and decreasing the time until I am debt free! This was a big hurdle and required a lot of prayer. I wanted to make sure my decision wasn’t because of the calculations alone, but rather a step of faith. Several months ago my employer had a reduction-in-force and laid off about 1,200 people. This caused me to evaluate my game-plan and beef up my savings in anticipation of unforeseen events. Then, a few weeks ago there was a voluntary separation program. I really wanted to take part in this, but the numbers weren’t right. I wouldn’t survive past 6 months. So, cutting that savings in half was hard (What if I get laid off in the future?) and easy (Yay! Closer to debt free!!).

Day -2

I’m finding myself more and more frustrated with my job. I’m bored and want more variety. My tasks are repetitive or disinteresting. I wish that I could spend time on my hobbies during the middle of the day, then get back to work. Also, I miss teaching. If only there were a viable way to break free of this rat race.

Day -1

I just discovered the 90 days to digital nomad blog. This looks interesting. I think I’ll read up on it. Also, some of these websites that are mentioned (Fivver, PeopleperHour, and TakeALesson) have things I can do and would enjoy! And, yes, those links are referral links. Be kind and use them to sign-up if you wish.

Day 1

I’m going to do this! Nothing to lose but time and so much opportunity to gain! Even if I can’t break free of the rat race, I can pay of my student debt quicker. Best case scenario, I could make enough to leave my job and have half passive income and half active. Let’s do this! Also, I’m asking Murphy to join. He needs a break from his boring life, too.

First assignment: Write down your why.

Why do I want to be a digital nomad?

I want the flexibility to choose my own hours. I want to be rewarded for putting in more effort. I want the freedom to simultaneously pursue divergent passions and interests, e.g. I’m great in Excel and cost analyses, but I also love teaching English. I want the ability to balance tasks I can complete alone with tasks that have to be completed with other people. I want to speed up my get out of debt timeframe. I want the freedom to choose not to work (even if I don’t get paid for the time off). I want a variety of changing projects and less repetition of the same processes each week/month. I want the freedom to choose my workspace. (Another reason I really want to leave my job right now is that I have allergies and can’t use any of the bathrooms in my building due to the air fresheners. So, every time I need to go, I have to walk to the building over. It’s gotten so bad that I even have to change the path I use to leave the building so as to not walk past any bathrooms.)

Day 2 & 3

What are my monetizable skills?

It pretty much boils down to Teaching, Consulting/Encouraging, and Excel! The easiest one to break into is probably my Excel talent. I’ve sold my time before in teaching, whether ESL, EFL, or tutoring fellow students while in graduate school. However, despite my best efforts, I haven’t had much luck in the last year making money at it. In fact, it took me over 6 months just to be able to volunteer. I love my students, and I love helping them succeed, but it doesn’t seem to have proven profitable.

By the way, work is still rough. I spend a lot of time praying for God to help me endure. It’s not the end of the world, but I feel like I’m breaking.

Day 4

I went to bed praying last night. Then, on the way to work, three verses popped into my head. I love it when God works that way!

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

Psalm 37:4

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 127:1

Unless the Lord builds the house,

the builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the guards stand watch in vain.

These words brought peace to my soul. God is good. He is ultimately in control, and I can trust him. Later in the day, I looked these verses up. (The way I remembered them was only about 90% accurate.) I found a grand surprise right after the last one God had brought to mind!

Psalm 127:2

In vain you rise early

and stay up late,

toiling for food to eat—

for he grants sleep to those he loves.

So, whether I succeed in this path or not, He will give me rest.

Now, for Day 4’s task! Creating a deliverable. This was a fairly easy task for me to decide upon. There is no spreadsheet I am more proud of than my loan analysis. It is because of this analysis and my enthusiasm for becoming debt free that many of my friends turn to me for financial advice. Some of them have even come back after a significant period of time and thanked me as they see their debt evaporate using my methodology. I’ve even sold this spreadsheet before! So, I sat down and worked on it. I made a few tweaks and simplifications. I worked on protecting cells to keep my proprietary formulas top secret! It’s a pretty nifty workbook, not just a single spreadsheet now! Annnnnd! I can alter it several different ways to a client’s specifications. Feeling like a genius!

Day 5: Find a leader.

I might’ve skipped this step, or I might’ve halfway done at some point in the past. There aren’t many styles I would like to emulate. Even Jesus didn’t create spreadsheets. Trust me, I want to be like Jesus more and more every day. However, who do I turn to that promotes financial wisdom, economic freedom, and faith? I guess I’m going to have to work on finding numerous thought leaders.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

My coworker – she’s amazing and encourages me every day to stay the path of faith and frugality. (Hey! I like that name… wonder if I can make it the name of the blog?)

Money Nomad – this is kinda a no-brainer since it’s his blog I’m following to start this path. Also, I found that he's a fellow believer according to his about section.

Live Your Legend – cool resource I happened across and am also using free resources to help me along.

The Bible – this should be #1. God is very wise, the creator of all things, and speaks to me in the stillness of my heart. Storing these words up for LIFE!

Day 6 – Profile and Proposals

I might’ve already created a few profiles, back during days -1 and 1. So, now I’m taking my increased knowledge and confidence to update them a wee bit, tweaking the profiles so as to be more niche specific. I may have still not fully decided on a single niche. I love all the things I’m great at and I think all three of my listed here skills would do me good.

Send out a proposal? That’s scary stuff! What do I say? How do I present myself? Ok, this is the point at which I commented on Rob’s blog and you know what? He responded! And he sent me a personal email sharing links and ideas. Wow! What a great guy!

So, I've managed to send out one proposal. If these require recent postings, I may have a harder niche to monetize. If only I liked to write, knew something about web pages, or SEO (what is that?).