Keep Portland Weird

September 2013 Net Worth and Earnings Update

Can you believe it is already September? Summer is on the way out and fall is on it's way here. I just got back from an awesome long weekend trip to Portland, Oregon. It was my first time having a real trip to Oregon, and we had an awesome time.

Banking, Debt, and Investments

September 2013 Net Worth Chart

This was a rough investment month for most of us. I don't feel too bad when my portfolio goes down a bit. Historically when you look at the long run, the markets always go up. If you aggregate all of my portfolios and investment accounts, I was down about 3.3% last month. The S&P 500 was down 2.9%. It may be true what Warren Buffet says (and many finance bloggers), it is almost always smarter for individuals to invest in an S&P 500 index fund than individual stocks.

I hit a wall with Lending Club that has been well documented around the web. There are more eager investors than qualified lenders, so I am having trouble turning my dollars into additional return right now. My account has now led to an account balance over $950, and I turned off the automated investment at Lending Club and turned on an investment with Prosper. My net annual returns at Lending Club are 11.97% and steadily growing as I diversify into more risky, higher interest loans. I currently have 42 active loans, 5 in funding, and 13 fully paid and I have earned $129 in interest. I love Lending Club as an alternate investment vehicle. If you want to know exactly how I make 11+% with Lending Club, check out my in depth guide to making money with Lending Club. I have $150 with Prosper and have earned an annualized return of 10.64% so far.

I have no plans to slow down my investing in the near future. My biggest focus in general is my automatic investing in my retirement accounts.

Liberty Fund Update

I have a $30,000 savings goal for my liberty fund. I started saving in August, 2012 and the fund balance is now at $25,063. I’m making great progress saving.

The bulk of my liberty fund is in a combination of high interest savings accounts and a stock investment account. I suggest 360 Savings from Capital One 360 for this type of savings. I began this fund with a $5,000 emergency fund goal and have expanded it to give me more flexibility and a bigger cushion. Just don’t have too much cash in your emergency fund, and occasionally re-evaluate if your emergency fund is too big.

Side Business Income

Narrow Bridge Media – All Blogs and Online Activities

Revenue

  • Private Ads, Freelance Work – $1,108
  • AdSense – $10
  • Affiliate Payments – $181
  • Premium Plugin Sales – $0 (will be reported only when paid by Code Canyon) – 7 sales to date, need

Expenses

  • Freelance Writers – $90
  • Email List – $19 (Provided by Aweber)
  • Web Expenses and Development – $0

This was pretty good. My goal is $1,000 per month, and this month I beat it by over $100 in revenue.

I created a new WordPress plugin a couple months back to solve a problem I had. I was trying to convert from the Thesis Theme to Genesis (did you notice?) and couldn’t move my Thesis post images as expected. My new plugin takes care of that and is available for $10, of which I get $6 per sale.

Denver Flash Mob – Flash Mob Consulting and Planning

  • Revenue – $581
  • Staff Payments – $100
  • Other Expenses – $0

The completely rebuilt the Denver Flash Mob website is sending me more business leads, but I don’t always have the ability to meet the requests. The busy summer season hit its peak last month, so it won't be like this every month going forward.

Net Worth

September 2013 Net Worth Detail

In total, my net worth was up $1,723, or .96%. I update my condo value from Zillow and update my car value based on Kelley Blue Book annually in January. I pay off my credit cards in full each payday.

author avatar
Eric Rosenberg
Eric is the founder and editor of Personal Profitability. He left his corporate finance job in 2016 to take his online side hustle full-time and now earns a six-figure online income.
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