New Here?

New Here - Welcome

Welcome to Write Your Own Reality (WYOR), my little corner on the internet, where dividend growth, peer to peer lending investments, and some other random financial musings are the soup de jour.  Rental real estate could be considered the oyster crackers of this soup, as a sprinkling of posts mellow out the flavor.

With that being said, allow me to take this opportunity to show you around, and highlight some of my favorite areas of WYOR and some of the content I’m proud to call mine. If you click on any of the links, I’ve set things to open in a new tab or page so that you can refer back to here as you find places you’d like to visit.

A Quick Tour:

Before we get started on showing off the hardwoods and fancy wallpaper that is some of my content, let’s walk through the neighborhood and check out all the hot spots.

The who, the what, the why

New Here - About - Contact - Blogroll

Up top on my site you’ll find my About, Contact, and Blogroll pages. Nothing too fancy here, just a bit about who I am, why I am blogging, and some of my financial history. And if you’re looking for some great blogs to read, I recommend you check out the Blogroll. You’ll notice if you get a chance to explore some of the sites, the dividend growth community is quite robust, and my favorite peer to peer lending sites will rock your socks off with some serious education and research for any due diligence and questions you might have about investing.

Goals, make’em and break’em

New Here - Goals

Not a whole needs to be said here, except that this is my favorite page on my site. NOTHING will keep you on track better than a quality set of goals. If you’re looking for some passive income inspiration, definitely check out my progress on my Goals page and follow along as I make progress and stretch myself to achieve more. Goals are the cat’s meow and should be part of your financial toolbox.

The Money Makers

New Here - Lending Club - Prosper - Dividend Growth

Following closely behind the Goals page as the favorite page on the site; the next three pages summarize the main focal points of this blog from an investment perspective. I am a huge fan of peer to peer lending, and as such, you’ll find all the details regarding my Lending Club and Prosper investments at the respective links. The Dividend Growth page houses a list of my current dividend growth holdings, and explains the purpose of why I created a dividend growth portfolio.

Wrapping things up

New Here - Rental Real Estate - Passive Income Updates - Trades

The last three pages of the site focus on the financials of my unintentional rental property, listing out my monthly update posts for my investments, and any equity trades I’ve made.

Content is King:

Peeling back the layers on my site is great, but you’re here to read, not check out my site design (got lucky with a great theme, I’m a total blogging rookie). Below is a listing of some of my favorite posts and what they are about.

  • To DRIP, or not to DRIP, that is the question: This post discusses what it means to DRIP your dividend growth investments, and reasons for or against automatic reinvestment. While it is absolutely a personal decision, currently I have opted to DRIP my investments until I hit the $2-3,000 level in dividends received annually, from which point I will reexamine my decision.
  • 2013 Passive Income Goals Revisited: After making it through the first five months of the 2013, I needed to drastically improve my goals. You will see how I’ve changed how I was investing, and where I needed to bump up my goals to make them more of a stretch to push me further. Be sure to check out my 2014 goals and 2015 goals as well! Constantly improving and tracking progress is an important aspect of working towards financial independence!
  • The Right Job – Turning Down a 30% Raise: This past spring I interviewed for a position outside of my current company, and ultimately decided to turn down a significant 30% raise by not making the switch. I utilized a set of criteria I developed to remove some of the emotions, thus allowing me to make a more informed and rational decision.
  • Real Estate – Refinancing my Rental Property: This past spring after years of being unsuccessful, I was finally able to refinance my entirely unintentional and absolutely underwater rental property. Values have improved since hitting their low, but this is still a negative equity situation when considering selling costs. Fortunately, refinancing helped take some of the pain away from the monthly negative cash flow as I was able to save over $4,200 per year!
  • While I don’t blog about the actual investments within my investment club, I put together a great (at least I think so) series on the creation and operations of an investment club. Check out each part:
  • Peer to Peer Lending Investment Criteria: Both my Lending Club and Prosper investment criteria were developed after spending hours tweaking and researching different credit models utilizing both company’s loan history. If you are looking for a starting point or a place to ask questions, be sure to check these two posts out. You can now check out my 2014 Investment Criteria for both Lending Club and Prosper as well!
  • Building a No-Cost Dividend Growth Portfolio with Loyal3: Don’t have much to invest? Well Loyal3 offers a no-cost means of investing as little as $10 per month. While the investment options aren’t tremendously robust, there are quite a few solid dividend growth offerings for those looking to create a passive income stream. Feel free to check out this portfolio and the rest of my dividend growth portfolio.

Well that does it folks, welcome to Write Your Own Reality! Please enjoy your stay and feel free to ask questions below. If you’re interested in receiving updates on new content, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook, as well as subscribe using the field near the top right of site on the sidebar. 

Flickr: alborzshawn

Comments

  1. Thanks for the blog! I’ve enjoyed reading it so far.

  2. I’m really enjoying perusing around your blog as well. Great start here page!

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