March Update #1

March Update #1

I'll cover passive income in another post as the month isn't over, but there were enough updates to break it into two pieces and I know most people don't read really long blog posts anymore.

First, I've created a Hack Your Finances Facebook page.  There is now a Facebook link in the menu list.  If interested, you can check it out here:
https://www.facebook.com/hackyourfinances

Go ahead and give it a like if you use Facebook.  I've decided to post most of the [Shared] things there instead of muddying up the blog with them.  So unless its really really good you'll see the shared links on the Facebook page from now on.  I'm also in the process of setting up a twitter account for Hack Your Finances. To tweet out blog updates and shared links.

Second, based on this post:
http://hackyourfinances.blogspot.com/2015/03/getting-kids-interested-in-investing.html

I've started giving Motif a try.  First with a portfolio to get my daughter interested in investing.  I've also created a few additional Motifs. I made an all REIT one for fun but thus far do not intend to fund it because I don't feel like messing with that taxes. But it was fun to build and tweak it for max return or max dividend and to see how it compares to the S&P.

 

I'll post on the other Motifs I plan to fund a bit later... or if you are super curious comment below and it will motivate me to post about them sooner.  Initial impressions are that I like it. This is mostly because it gives you fundamental details about the stocks (PE, yield, charts, etc). My main gripe with Loyal3 thus far is the complete lack of any fundamental or technical analysis you can do on the site as well as no ability to see your cost basis as you buy shares month to month. I did it manually for March purchases but I dislike manually doing things that can be and should be automated.  I'll do the Loyal3 purchases in part 2 along with Motif purchases.

Third,
March has been an interesting month. I've watched the portfolio value change from 4 figures green to almost 4 figured red then back to green.  Volatile to say the least.  No real point other than acknowledgement that  i'm pot committed to the long play on this.


Thats all for now, thanks for reading.
-CG