Disclosure: This site contains affiliate links. If you click and sign up or make a purchase, I may receive a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools and resources that I believe add value to the ‘Snowball’ journey.
Month two of my Snowball Experiment is coming to a close. My Snowball Attack plan change will bring a net positive change to this experiment, even if it extends the timeline.
Last month we tracked an $800 net loss. We also tracked a bunch of incoming money on top of the dividends themselves. The chart on the right side-bar is always a live view of dividend payouts as they happen. This month we’re tracking many different things, like my overarching spreadsheet tracker: Which is more visible on the hidden Progress Page.
That’s a lot of red, but remember I failed to avoid the “Weekly Pay Trap”. I also find it amusing that my 1 share of GOOY with dividends is $0.13 flush while being down $0.93 from what I bought for. Enough discussion I know you all would rather look at my charts.
| February | Vanguard | Robinhood | Sofi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance 1 Feb: | $17,100 | $4,520.94 (w/ Margin) | $68.65 |
| Money Added Feb: | $0 | $1,000 | $0 |
| Dividends Feb: | $243.43 | $139.90 | $1.30 |
| Balance 28 Feb: | $14,546.64 | $5,255.28 | $0.00 |
| Total Dividends Feb | $384.63 |
A few notes on the above. Sofi Invest only exists because of a Swagbucks offer that needed 45 days to not lose my “free” stock. Since we’re at the 60 day mark I already moved that money to Robinhood this week after the COIW dividend.. A chunk of the dip in Vanguard came from $1,600 that was still sitting in VOO. This was always planned for 2025 IRA contributions. It had some minor growth (around $68) which I rolled into AGNC purchases.
As of January my wife’s IRA needed $2,000 for the 2025 cap. (With a Robinhood Gold Account we got her $60 in IRA matching for $50 in Gold cost). My referral code also gave us each $5 in stock at Robinhood. I took PG (Procter & Gambel) and she took NVDA. So, a net $20 after her Gold cost.
February 2026 Income Breakdown
| Source | Income | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Swagbucks: | $300 | $200 Chime Bonus, $45 Kraken, $55+ Golf Game |
| Chase Credit Card: | $300 | Spend $500 get $300 Churn Freedom Card |
| Paycheck: | $400 | This was only to the Snowball. $400 more to wife’s IRA. |
| Total | $1,000 |
Miniwing, you might ask, $2,600 in contributions last month but only $ 1000 this month? Well the $2,600 for the January update included both January and December as I was unable to separate things clearly in my tracking sheets. We also had several set backs, including our surprise, but not a surprise bills. $400 from paychecks also went to my wife’s IRA, outside of the $1,600 from the Vanguard sale. Property Tax hit me with $2,200 and Car Insurance was another $700. I have also been focusing on the Mini Thoughts social media and my YouTube channel, which reduced my ability to spend time on Swagbucks games.
This puts us (with wife’s IRA) at $4,000 over 3 months contributed from income. Which actually seems pretty normalized as it averages to $1333 per month.
I’m not yet monetized in the socials, but it seems to take a similar amount of time as I was putting into Swagbucks. I’m currently working through my taxes, and yes I do pay a CPA. I’ll write about that once I know where I sit on 2025 taxes.
When that happens I’ll know how much more I can put into my deductible IRA for myself, this means I’ll need to slow the snowball down again. Retirement is still a priority, plus tax savings. I still have $5,000 to contribute to my 2025 IRA.
I also made a promise in my surprise bills post that I would take these annual bills and make them work for me in growing interest. That’s around $3,600/y between Property taxes, and car insurance. $5,000 when accounting for Home Owner’s Insurance. So I think I’m going to pump that $5,000 into QQQI this year instead of my Cash Plus account, but I haven’t fully decided.
To end this “end of month round up.” We increased dividends by $14.63. Added $1,000 in new money, and lost around $1,200 in face value of shares at Vanguard and $405 in face value at Robinhood. SoFi had about $80 all in and withdrew at $65.39 for $14.61 in loss.
Total Face Loss Feb 2026: $1,619, but almost $400 in dividends which is our goal. The last two months have hit the market hard and it’s easy to stick to your guns in an up market. A down market can show the value of ‘Trusted’ dividend payers even more.
~~Miniwing~~
Holding the line, Stoic, Investor
Leave a Reply