January Income $788.36

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

Online Income

$433.85

Interest

$25.66

Bank/Other Bonuses

$60

Survey/Half

$37.03

Stock Dividends

$45.73

Cash Back

$1.09

Medical Study

$125

Total

$788.36

This is an ok amount considering I’m not working at a job.  I came up about $20 short of making enough to cover my expenses for the month. My goal is to make enough alternative income to cover my living expenses.  I’ve come close or made that goal three out of the last five months but there is plenty of room for improvement.  This month my income will probably be down slightly.  My online income is going to be down because my Adsense and affilliate sales are shrinking.  My dividend income will also be down because only a couple of my stocks pay dividends this month.  I don’t see any other source of income making up the difference but I will look for ways to increase my income.

January Expenses $806.66

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for January.

Household $406.98
Transportation $10.95
Food $37.23
Entertainment $74.46
Debt/Education $173.06
Phone $34.27
Medical/Dental $69.71
Total $806.66

I’m happy with this total. It puts me on track to have my expenses below $10,000 for the year. This month’s total should be about the same. I’ll probably spend a little more in the household and entertainment categories and less in the education category.

2008 Online Income Total $4644.28

by

I just added up my online income for 2008 and came up with a total of $4644.28.  I need to double check and make sure I added everything up correctly but this figure is at least close to correct. This is my profit after expenses but before accounting for taxes.  Last year my online income didn’t even break a grand at a total of $883.84.  If I could increase my income at the same rate this year I would be doing very well.  That isn’t likely to happen but it would be nice.  I’m setting a more realistic goal of just making at least $1 more this year.

I need to come up with some ideas on how I can increase my income this year.  Last year I hired David at My Two Dollars to optimize my website for Adsense and that paid off handsomely.  Now I just need to figure out what else I can improve and how to do it.  Or pay someone else to do it for me.

January 2009 Net Worth

by

Many PF bloggers share their net worth and I’ve decided to do the same.  This is my net worth as of the end of January 2009.

Assets: $29,866.68

  • Cash Savings – $20,383.05
  • Stocks – $5119.35
  • Roth IRA – $4031.67
  • P2P Loans – $332.61

Liabilities: $4109.60

  • Credit Card – $4109.60

Total Net Worth: $25,757.08

It had been a very long time since I had last computed my net worth.  I was a little surprised by how much I have in cash savings.  I’ve been putting off investing more in stocks because I didn’t feel like I had enough liquid assets.  I can probably safely put some more in stocks.

My credit card debt is part of a student loan debt that I paid off with the credit card using a balance transfer offer of 3.99% for life.  I’ve seen several reports of credit card companies changing the rates or charging a $10 monthly on deals like this but so far that hasn’t happened to me.  I’m going to be sure I have enough to pay the card off in case that happens. I might pay it off in a few months anyway just to have one less thing to worry about.

I’m not including my student loans in my net worth statement.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  One is that doesn’t appear that I will have to pay on them in the near future and they may eventually be forgiven.  The other reason is that I think I will get a clearer picture of my net worth without including the student loans.  They will continue to capitalize and make my net worth appear to diminish even if I increase my assets.  I’m sure some people might not agree with leaving my student loans out of my net worth computation but I think it is better to leave them out.

January 2009 Goal Review

by

I set three goals for myself this year. I’m going to check on my progress at the end of each month to keep myself accountable and to see if I need to make any changes to meet my goals.

My first goal was to increase my passive income. I purchased several dividend paying stocks this month which should help me reach this goal. Sometime this month I need to add up how much passive income I made last year. This will allow me to know exactly how much passive income I need to make this year to reach my goal.

My second goal was to lose thirty pounds. My weight has gone from 214.1 at the start of the month to 213.6 at the end of the month. I’m going to count that as no progress since my weight fluctuates more than a half pound from day to day. I had several sub related to diet and exercise to help me lose weight. The only one I’ve come close to keeping so far is doing the hundred pushup challenge. The others I need to work on this month.

My third goal was to increase my subscribers to 500 from 300. I made some progress on this and my subscriber count spiked up to over 350. It has since come down and is hovering around 325. I should be able to steadily increase this amount over the year to reach 500 and I have some more plans to increase the number of subscribers to TFM.

I did ok on my goals for this month. Two out of three ain’t bad but I’d like to make that three out of three this month.