January was a fun month and one that helped me build a little on my net worth. I had the rare family-funded vacation and spent hardly anything for the first two weeks of the month. Since returning, I have had a couple of expensive evenings out, but in general this month was fairly typical.
New Student Loan Strategy
I made a life list goal of paying off my student loans in 2012. This is going to take a lot of cash every paycheck. In fact, I am planning on $300 from each paycheck plus my automatic payment of $92. Automatic payments give me a .25% discount, so I will not be getting rid of that.
According to the goals feature on Mint.com, I should be paid off in December. Since I made this plan, however, I realized that I would be getting my annual bonus and (hopefully) tax refund both before December. If I put those toward the loan, I should be paid off this summer.
Side Business Income
I have told you to turn your hobbies into revenue before, but I have never shared much about my success in entrepreneurial adventures. In the spirit of trust and transparency, I am going to open that up to all of you in my monthly updates.
Narrow Bridge Media – All blogs and online activities
- Private Ad Placements – $720.06
- AdSense – $18.88
- Affiliate Income – $0 (only reported when I am paid)
Denver Flash Mob – Sponsorships and consulting
I have yet to take $1 from Denver Flash Mob for myself, but because Uncle Sam thinks I made money from it, I am going to share it with you as well. I have a contract pending for a future event, but did not make anything thing month.
DJ Yofi
My fledgling DJ business made me a whopping $105 in 2011, but that is $105 more than I made in 2010. However, I also spent quite a bit on the startup costs for equipment. I hope to get more paying gigs in 2012, but had none in January.
Net Worth Update
As you can see, things were slightly up this month, but I started making bigger progress on the student loan. I am excited to see it go to zero!
| Assets | $ Diff | % Diff | |
| Cash | $4,279 | $158 | 3.83 % |
| Stocks | $900 | $384 | 74.42 % |
| Bonds | $0 | $0 | – |
| Annuities | $0 | $0 | – |
| Retirement | $21,675 | $903 | 4.35 % |
| Home | $167,600 | $0 | 0.00 % |
| Other Real Estate | $0 | $0 | – |
| Cars | $14,528 | $0 | 0.00 % |
| Personal Property | $0 | $0 | – |
| Other | $337 | $2 | 0.60 % |
| Total Assets | $209,319 | $1,447 | 0.70 % |
| Debts | $ Diff | % Diff | |
| Home Mortgage(s) | $102,410 | ($144) | -0.14 % |
| Other Mortgage(s) | $0 | $0 | – |
| Student Loans | $6,291 | ($367) | -5.51 % |
| Credit Card | $684 | $105 | 18.13 % |
| Car Loans | $0 | $0 | – |
| Other | $0 | $0 | – |
| Total Debts | $109,385 | ($406) | -0.37 % |
| Net Worth | $99,934 | $1,853 | 1.89 % |
Good work and good luck on the goals. I found that January was slower for ads than I had hoped. Don’t know if it was just me…
I had one big renewal that made up about half of mine, otherwise it would have been slower than usual.
glad to see you’re diversifying income eric! Hopefully 2012 will be the year of dj yofi!
Thanks Jeff. Let me know if you know of any good gigs that need an awesome DJ.
That’s awesome that you’ll probably be able to pay off your student loan earlier than you’d anticipated. And it’s always nice to see a net worth increase! I’m a little behind on doing mine…
It is exciting, I’m ready to be done with the loans and not worry about them again.
Must be exciting to get rid of the student loans! Congrats on the net worth increase. Good stuff.
Thanks Nick!
Wow, 2011 was a rocking year for you from a net worth gain perspective!
I bet you can’t wait to get those student loans off of your back! That will be sweet!!!
It feels like I am getting really close. Thanks for the encouragement.
Congrats on your progress. You’re right… your DJ business may just be starting, but at least you’ve taken the greatest step and started it!
I have had two paying events so far and look forward to scheduling more. I have done a couple of shows for free to get my name out there, and now it is time to capitalize.
That’s a nice looking chart Eric! I wish my Net Worth Chart looked like that! 🙂 Someone should just give you $64 so you can reach the $100,000 mark!!!
Sam
My job gave a paycheck on Friday and I am expecting another next Friday, so I think I should be there next time as long as the markets stay solid for the next few weeks.
Market does nothing but go up now! Obama 2012!
You are the eternal optimist Sam, I love it!