February was a month with a lot of income and relatively low expenses. I was able to focus my money where I wanted to give myself freedom to invest more and beat down my quickly shrinking student loans.
Student Loan Update
Last month I outlined a new student loan strategy. It is working well so far. I paid off 10% of my student loan balance in February leaving me with $5,629 to go. I am putting 100% of my online net income into the student loans until they are paid. Combine that, my upcoming bonus at work, and my $700 per month contribution, we are looking at a 2-3 month payoff time horizon.
This is going to be a big relief. It will save me a required $92 minimum payment per month, but in reality I will have $700 in new cash flow that I was used to living without. To avoid lifestyle inflation, I plan to use my direct deposit to invest and save the money rather than spend it.
Side Business Income
Narrow Bridge Media is all grown up. It has a bank account, its own PayPal, and its own business checks. I paid myself from the LLC for the first time ever today. I am using QuickBooks for tracking and reporting purposes.
Narrow Bridge Media – All blogs and online activities
- Private Ad Placements – $1,029.59 (net of PayPal fees)
- AdSense – $18.50
- 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 two events coming up in the next few months. I have a contract signed for one private event and an email agreement for a second private event.
DJ Yofi
As I work to build up a DJ business in 2012, I have found that networking is incredibly important. I have an upcoming gig on St. Patrick's Day with a local DJ crew that looks like it will lead to more regular paying events in the future. Hopefully I will have some March income to report.
Net Worth
Here you will see my student loan strategy starting to pay off. You can also see what I transferred to my investment account and the trip I planned to New Orleans in my credit card balance.
Can’t wait to see how your DJ business grows. Hope you keep updated.
I hope it works well. I don’t think it would ever be a full time job, but it is a super fun way to make a few bucks on the side.
Great work! It’ll be awesome to get that student loan paid off. As you said, that’s huge for cash flow. Are you planning to beef up the emergency fund a little?
I don’t keep a unique “emergency fund,” though I do make sure to have enough in my savings to cover an emergency. I will probably throw a little extra cash in there early on, but will focus the rest on long term savings and early mortgage payments.
Looks like you had an awesome month – I didnt do much in the way of the blog advertising (but did get an LLC and bank account opened) but was able to keep expenses low. That plus some tax returns helped me finally make a non-monthly payment on my truck!
Congrats on hitting the truck payment. For a while I was doing two full payments on my car loan every month. Then I paid it off.
That’s some serious progress over the past two years. I didn’t realize that NetworthIQ was still around.
It doesn’t seem like that long ago I bottomed out just over zero. I would never have guessed I was going to hit $100k so soon.
I love seeing net worth updates! Great work over the last couple of years…that’s impressive!
Thanks Jason. I work hard on both the net worth and the updates!
Congrats on a solid month Eric. Keep it up!
Thanks!
Wow, wonderful numbers! I do have a question. My blog, EconomicallyHumble.com, is starting to grow and develop. I’m interested in seeking advertising in the coming months but donut know where to start or where to look for my first ad (or if I should right now). Any suggestions on where to learn more?
I would focus a lot on growth, quality content, your readers, and your community before you look at the money. I have been blogging well over four years on this site to make what I do. You can make more faster, but if you look at the readers before the dollars, you are on the right track.
Also, take a look at the Yakezie community for ideas on growing your site and business.