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.
Market Volatility is continuing, but that’s not a concern for my Index investments, and so far hasn’t been affecting my dividends. Earlier this month I laid out my 15 fund plan to reach $1,000 a month in dividends. Because of this focused priority list almost all of my purchases this month have been in BLOX (wife’s account) and OXSQ (my Robinhood and Vanguard accounts). The only interruptions to growing the snowball, outside of medical bills, have been the need to cap my 2025 Traditional IRA at Robinhood. Due to tax filing dates this has to be accomplished by April 15th 2026.
With the current market fluctuations we’re tracking a negative $3,700 + on principal degradation due to a combination of the current geopolitics and the initial smorgasbord of weekly paying funds that cannibalize themselves. This is a frustrating thing to track visually, I apparently picked the perfect year to test my resolve.
Regardless, the dividends themselves have continued to snowball higher than last month, and the incoming money being put to the project has also done well. Sadly some of my payouts are still pending and might not count as March due to those delays.
| March | Vanguard | Robinhood | Robinhood IRA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance 1 March | $14,546.64 | $5,255.28 | $2,060 ($60 from 3% gold match) |
| Money Added Mar: | $0 | $200 | $5,150 ($150 match) |
| Dividends Mar: | $233.67 | $252.78 | n/a |
| Balance Mar 31st | $13,211.89 | $5,439.32 | Irrelevant buy and hold Indexes |
Now we also know that part of the plan involved reaching a certain amount in my wife’s Robinhood account. March Contributions to her were $380 but $50 was to pay for her Robinhood Gold. So only $330 in investable cash.
Now lets take a look at bonus income this month.
| Source | Income | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Swagbucks: | $0 | $400 Sofi Bonus, $15 Opening Sofi bonus. Earned but couldn’t pay out in March. |
| Chase Credit Card: | $100 | Churned business card for $750 bonus, still pending points. Only $100 popped. |
| Chime Referral: | $300 | Wife’s bonus, plus my referral bonus. |
| USAA Credit Card: | $100 | Points from CC |
| Sofi Checking: | $300 | Combined with Swagbucks SoFI Checking Churn = $715. |
| Branded Surveys: | $200 | Like swagbucks, many bonuses came from “Spend $20 to get $40. Net profit $130, spend $70. |
| FreeCash App: | $187 | Had to send as crypto. |
| Tax Refunds: | $4,298 | $3,579 Fed, $719 State, CPA cost $470. Net: $3,828 |
| Total | $5,713 | $1,415 before tax refund |
Wow! That’s $1,400 and half my churns didn’t even make it this month. I’ve also been thinking that I need some kind of running total for the year. Helpful for tracking things.
2026 Bonus Income Totals
Swagbucks: $300 Jan, $300 February, $0 March ($600 2026).
Chase rewards: $100 Jan. $300 February, $100 March ($500 2026)
USAA Rewards: $100 Jan, $100 March ($200 2026)
Branded Surveys: $200 March
Chime Referrals: $300 March (taxable)
SoFi Bonuses: $5 Jan $300 March (Taxable) ($305 2026)
FreeCash: $187
Total: $2,292.
The Freecash one was interesting, I really liked their payouts vs what I was seeing on Swagbucks, but when I reached $100 and wanted to cash out it wanted to charge me a $5 fee. This fee was waived and my total balance was given 30% more value if I sent it to a gambling website called stake. Stake would not allow me to send the money to my bank, but it would allow me to cash out immediately with the bonus in Bitcoin to my Robinhood crypto wallet. Since this money was going to Robinhood anyway it was actually a pretty painless process aside from having to sell the bitcoin for cash. I took $143 made it into $187 with the transfer. Meeting the goals in those games cost me $73 so net was $114.
Solid growth on the snowball I’d say.
~~Miniwing~~
Investor, Stoic, Optimist