The Dividend Girl between the sun and the sunflowers

Its been a nice and hot weekend here in Montreal. Its still too soon for outdoor swimming pool, but there're nice and free indoor swimming pools a bit everywhere in Montreal. I went to one of them on Saturday and it was fun. Its nice to be in Montreal in this beautiful weather. Under the sun, Quebecker men are just like very very sexy and it make it more appealing than ever for a single New Brunswicker female to get in touch with those delicate sunflowers just showing off their chest in the sun. Just delightful.

(I know what you are thinking at this present time).

!!!

Other than watching the sunflowers, I spent some time cleaning, cooking and doing laundry. I prefer to get everything done before another week kick in because once in, its hard to get things done. I like to have my evenings off to break the routine. I sometime go swimming on the evenings, or I go the movies (on Tuesdays), or just take some walks, sometimes in the Old Montreal. I usually don't go straight home once I am done with my day of work. I have to do something else if not I get terribly bored. Another things I do during evenings is looking up at the stock market and my portfolio.

While another month just begin, I wanted to get an overview of my financial situation and more precisely; my portfolio. I check on my stock one per one, and I calculate my protective dividend income. How I went is that I calculate the earnings with what the stocks are paying right now as dividend. I didn't add special dividend previously earned in 2013 or anything else. I just took what I  have now as stocks in my portfolio. I count my non-registered portfolio as well as my TFSA. And the total is: $6 618.07. That is below the 7k mark. I was quite disappointed by my finding. It make an average of $551.51 per month. I can no longer pay my rent exclusively by using my dividend income, which make me think that my rent is way too much expensive.

So this is it, the hard reality is coming over.

My monthy minimum living expenses are of $1 183.

$1 183 - $551.51 = $631.49

My dividend income cover a bit more than the third cost of my living expenses. Currently, what I am looking to do is to get that $631.49 cover by a third source of income. In 2012, I open my small business, I made a couple thousands out of it. That was before moving back to Montreal. Once I started working on a permanent full-time position, I didn't work much for my business. But would it be very hard to make not even $631.49 per month from self-employed work? It would be quite manageable, even while working full-time. And this is what I am up too. Why now? Well, better later than sooner.

And at this point, I want to secure my position. I know I can easily do this. Its just a matter of making it happen. I am taking off the dividend income at this point because I don't want to get in the same circus again. Meaning I don't want to destabilize my portfolio more than it is now. Meaning I don't want to take any more risk by investing in high dividend yield payers. So I am only relying on that $551.51 dividend income for now. And maybe it will be more later.

And what happen if I cannot get any contracts for any reason? Well, the trick would be to save at least the equivalent of $631.49 on a monthly basis. This is quite easy to do and I am able to even save more than that on a monthly basis if I really work into it.

That is the power of saving. Saving money make it easier to deal with any financial situation. Recently, a surprising laid off happen at work and my workplace seriously begin to smell like shit. I have to do replacement and I don't deal with anything of my own. its all over the place, very confusing and I am slowly but certainly getting sick of it. Some employees have left, other laid off for no apparent reasons. And remember my situation, I wasn't giving the right to take any vacations last summer. I was promised a $500 but they refused to pay it for me after they gave me a permanent position. Is it what my life has to be?

Really, no. To protect myself, I am tempted to put more efforts on my self-employed on a part-time basis. At least, I will have something to rely on if something have to happen. I don't want to give my employer too much power over me. I don't exactly agree with them and their so call business decisions. If I want to escape, I will have a way.

Its kind of dump to establish yourself right downtown where the rent is the most expensive and later on come with some crazy plan to save on photocopies and gave up on pay increases. Where is the coming sense? Want to save money? Do it for real, don't play on the side. Its just so disgusting and disturbing.

This is the reason why its so important to save money, invest in stocks and try to become as financially  independent as possible. Its certainly not an easy task, but at $551.51, I have a good beginning. I also made $107 online recently. Which mean, I only have to make $524.49 this month to reach my goal. Youhouuuu! It could be even easier to just get a part-time job. I am slowly making my choices.