Amazon and Book Giveaway Winners

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The winners of the giveways have been determined by using Random.org. The winner of the $5 Amazon e-gift card is Paid Twice.  The winner of the book Nine Steps to Financial Freedom is Start Up.  By coincidence they are both bloggers. That isn’t too big of a coincidence since a large percentage of my readers are also bloggers. I’ll be sending you emails shortly.

I haven’t heard back from the winner of Your Money or Your Life yet.  Sandra B. are you out there?  If I don’t hear from her in the next week I’ll give the book to someone else.

I’m going out of town this weekend and might not be able to get on the Internet.  If you don’t hear from me over the weekend I’m not ignoring you and I’ll get back to you on Monday.

January Income $788.36

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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

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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

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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

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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.