Income Report May 2009

Dividend Income - $16.15

Sources of dividend income this month include SCHW ($3.62), PPR ($2.27), HBC ($10.22), and BDMMX ($0.04)

Google Adsense - $0.00

No Google Adsense income this month and only 132 page impressions. This may be due to the fact that I have posted less (especially within this blog).

Total Income - $16.15

So...an underwhelming amount for an underwhelming month dedicated towards passive streams of income. I blame it on finals. And no internet. And visiting California.

Being Successful and Getting There Too: 3 Rules To Live By

One of the first things you need to set out to do in any facet or aspect of life is this:

Know what you want!

Without knowing what you want, all the advice and training and schooling you receive won't help you out. However, this is easier said than done.

I myself don't know what I want completely, but I do know one thing:

I want to be successful.

Now, I don't mean successful in terms of making money (although that would be nice as well) or in terms of how other people view you. Rather, being successful is measured by what you think of yourself. You are successful in your finances if you know what you want to do and you are working yourself to getting there. You are successful in your career if you are working towards your end goal.

Finally, once you know what you want or at least know that you want to be successful, the final step, the hardest step, is getting there. However, if you're on track and you're progressing towards that goal, the final step isn't a destination...it's a journey. And you'll be getting there soon.

So, here are my Three Rules to Live By:

Rule 1: Know What You Want.
Rule 2: Be Successful at What You Do, Or Work On It.
Rule 3: Getting There...It's a Journey.

pic by flickr/dvs

Life Investing

Now in my previous post Generation Y I talked about how we as a generation differ from previous generations. So what comes next naturally is that we as a generation also need a different style of investing.

That being said, I need to lay down what I mean by investing or "life investing." Investing for me doesn't require me to think of endless ways to save money through coupon-cutting, baking your own bread, living on a no-meat diet, and etc. Rather, investing for life requires us have a definitely investing plan in order to enjoy life while we're young (that means now!), and have enough money to enjoy life later as well.

So, if you've come to this site expecting posts like "Five Ways to be Frugal in the Kitchen," then you're better off heading out to The Simple Dollar (which I recommend anyways).

However, if you want to learn how to save, invest, and plan effectively as a member of the exclusive Generation Y club (!), then I welcome you and hope you enjoy the site.

Income Report April 2009

I haven't explained what I mean by "life investing" yet although it can be inferred somewhat. Since I'm still working on that post, I thought it would be nice to update my current passive income state as a consolation post.

As of right now, this will mostly involve the dividends I am receiving from my investment into the stock market. Over the course of my still youthful life, I have poured around ~$10,000 into the stock market, give or take a couple hundred dollars. About half of this amount was in ill-advised investments...the other half was invested once I had an actual picture of how I wanted to allocate my holdings. Today, most of this investment is held within individual dividend-yieldings stocks.

In addition to this, I hope to be able to list the income I earn from Google Adsense and other advertisements posted on this site and one other (a personal site...negligible amount of income).

I'm also considering whether to include the interest I receive from the various savings I have, but I have decided not to release this information as of now because I doubt it will be changing much (since I have no income at the moment).

So here we go for April 2009:

Dividend Income - $30.69

Sources of dividend income this month include GE ($20.67), PPR ($2.37), WIBC ($7.62), and BDMMX (money market fund - $0.03)

Google Adsense - $0.01

Sources of Google Adsense income this month include my personal site ($0.01) and nothing from this site yet...!

Total Income - $30.70

So...I know some of you are thinking that an income report right at the start is useless since I'm not making any money (from Google Adsense) right now. I disagree. The subtitle of this blog states that this is a journal, hence tracking a journey...and you can't start a journey from the mid-point. So, hopefully this gives ya'll some idea of where I am starting from.

Generation Y

Well one of the first things to clarify in terms of this site is title. Why is the title "Gen Y Life Investing?"

I'll be explaining Generation Y in this post, and will explore what I mean by life investing in a subsequent post.

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So, who/what/when is Generation Y?

According to Wikipedia, Generation Y "is said to be consisting of those people born between 1980 and 1998. To make things simpler, I will just consider Generation Y to consist of any of you between 1980 and 2000. So any of you between the ages of 8 and 29, this site is for you (although if you're really 8...play games, play sports, check back in 5+ years!).


The next question is, what makes Gen Y different/special/unique?

To make the explanation simple, we are a generation that grew up in a rapidly changing, technologically innovating modern world. We're comfortable with the current technology and we're eager to embrace the technology of tommorrow. We've lived through the great housing boom, the dot-com bubble/burst, the exponential recover, the housing bust/credit-crisis/recession. Most of us have been highly educated, and the rest of us are smart enough without it.

In addition to technology, we're aware of the burdens previous generations have thrust on us with global warming, loss of environment, growing debt, etc., and we are aware its up to us to ebb the tide on these issues (although we may think its unfair). In short, much like every generation before us, we are a reaction to the actions of previous generations and we will serve to act to change the world, for better or for worse.


Now, back to our normal lives, what do we want as a generation?

Although I know I'm being overly general, we as a generation want to be innovative, well-respected, well-off, and comfortable in our lifestyle. We have neither the frugal tendencies of Depression-era generations nor the lavish wants of the Baby Boomer generation. All we want is comfort, a job we enjoy, and amenities that we can enjoy in our free time.


If any of this describes you, even if you aren't a part of Generation Y, I welcome you and hope you enjoy the rest of this site!