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This month started off strong, and has kind of been hit hard with expenses. While I sometimes feel that I over share my personal details on this website, I do try to play some things close to the vest. That being said, I spent a lot of time over the last week considering if I should talk about a chunk of back pay that I received this month — and especially if I should track it here. I’ve come to the conclusion that to not track it would be disingenuous regarding to my ability to fully fund my 2026 HSA in the very short time window I will have from October through December of this year.
This was not a bonus from work, but a payment that was due from another source that required paying a 30% fee to a lawyer. I think I will only count the remainder after the legal fees, as this is money that was not anticipated this year and it will be going into investments. That being said, I think I will keep it separate from the other items on these posts, because this is supposed to be tracking extra money I’ve made since starting this project.
| August | Vanguard | Robinhood Mine | Robinhood Wife |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance 1 August | $14,219.63 | $40,654.45 | $4,240.87 |
| Money Added | $45.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Dividends July | $242.25 | $547.69 | <<To the Left |
| Money Removed | $0.00 | $500.00 | $0.00 |
| Balance 1 September | $14,606.70 | $42,915.24 | $4,429.08 |
The money added looks a little crazy, since my X account has been posting $100 per day added to my wife’s IRA, but I’m only tracking the taxable accounts here. Since my goal this year is to buy at least 1 share of something each day, and $5 of Bitcoin every non-trading day, I should probably keep a note of this. I have no choice but to take my daily purchases and put them into the IRAs and HSAs to ensure that I meet the caps in the time I have left to do so — especially when the updated Game Plan, only has stocks that are hovering around the $50 mark.
Let’s track that here: $1,800 contributed to wife’s IRA in August, plus $54 in Gold Matching. If I hold strong to $100 per day I will cap the wife’s IRA on November 19th this year. Leaving November 20th through April 14th to cap my own IRA for 2026.
Income was not crazy, I got $100 for my birthday (I guess I’ll count that) and $400 from credit card redemption. I also got a $40.67 travel reimbursement check. The big one, though, was obviously the “bonus” that I mentioned previously: $12,371.68, but $3,708.59 in lawyer fees, which means a net of $8,663.09. The vast majority of this will feed the 2026 HSA cap of $8,750 in October when our High Deductible Health Plan starts. All in all, the lawyer fee gave me $111 in credit card cash back, and the HSA funding will save us $2,165.62 in taxes.
| Source | August | 2026 Total |
|---|---|---|
| Swagbucks | $0.00 | $1,100.00 |
| Chase Bank | $0.00 | $1,300.00 |
| USAA Bank | $100.00 | $300.00 |
| Branded Surveys | $0.00 | $200.00 |
| Chime Referrals | $0.00 | $300.00 |
| SoFi Bonuses | $0.00 | $305.00 |
| FreeCash | $0.00 | $1,684.93 |
| Robinhood Gold Card | $300.00 | $800.00 |
| Covered Calls Premiums | $989.00 | $2,942.00 |
| Dividends | $789.94 | $4,231.24 |
| Neilson | $48.00 | $48.00 |
| Class Actions | $0.00 | $7.31 |
| Honeygain | $0.00 | $17.93 |
| VFW | $0.00 | $5.00 |
| Birthday | $100.00 | $100.00 |
| Travel Reimbursement | $40.67 | $40.67 |
| Total | $2,367.61 | $13,382.08 |
| Source | August | 2026 Total |
|---|---|---|
| Backpay Bonus | $8,663.09 | $8,663.09 |
| Total with Others | $22,045.17 |
I did pretty much zero gaming for cash this past month. I’ve been logging in and doing the daily peanuts’ worth of points on Swagbucks and Freecash. So, I’ll add the chart for consistency.
| Deal | Spent | Earned |
|---|---|---|
| Last Month’s Chart | Annual: $1,154.71 ($38.37 was free) | $1,996.44 |
Well, I think that rounds off the month. I’m very happy with the dividends and HYSA interest this month; the covered calls were also on fire. The downside to $300 in Robinhood points, is that it required a ton of spending to generate. On the bright side, I finished up all the mandatory purchases from the updated game plan for the Vanguard account, and until the IRAs and HSA are fully funded for 2026, I will start withdrawing about $200 of the $250 per month in dividends to put into those retirement accounts…maybe the debt pile would be better.
~~Miniwing~~
Parent, Investor, Stoic
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