April 2008 Site and Net Worth Review (+6.22%)

Net Worth Review

We definitely saw good recovery in April, but you really have to ask how much more can the Fed cuts interest rates. The S&P 500 index went up +4.75% from 1322.70 to 1385.59. According to NetworthIQ, my net worth actually went up +1.70% and net investable assets went up +6.22%, or from 22.09% to 23.47% of $1 million goal — overall, an excellent month.

Highlights

My overall alternative income from blogging grew 13%.
My peer-to-peer investments grew:
- Prosper grew from $340.56 to $425.55 with 7 loans at an average interest rate of 11.69%. Again, average interest rate dropped further this month.
- Lending Club grew from $225.61 to $492.64 with 20 loans at an average interest rate of 11.00%. Since I can’t fund any new Lending Club loan, this investment will go down next month since there’s no point in leaving the money sitting idle and not earning any interest.
As for the estimate of my house value, I am back to using only Zillow due to changes in other sites.
I have been observing my investment with respect to the stock market over the past few months, and I have to say that regularly adding more money to your investment is a great practice. It really boosts asset growth during good months, and softens the blow during bad months.

Blog Review

As always, I owe the success of this blog to the support from my readers and fellow bloggers. So a big THANK YOU to all! This month, I will continue to award five 125×125 ad spot to five of the top 10 referrers, and there is one $50 prize for May’s giveaway.

Performance

I didn’t quite meet my goal to grow these numbers by 10% each month, but I am hopeful that things will look better in May.

Subscribers grew +19% from 1,108 to 1,317. I believe this was largely due to the guest post I wrote for Get Rich Slowly: Seven Traits of Successful People. If you are not a subscriber yet, subscribe now…it’s free.
Search traffic grew +1% from 6,258 to 6,303
Visitors dropped -12% from 29,751 to 26,080
Page views dropped -18% from 52,675 to 43,384

Top 10 Referrers

Although I wish I could list everyone that sent visitors, it would be an impossibly long list. I do appreciate everyone’s help, regardless of how big or small. Here are the top 10 referrers:

Again, thank you to my readers and fellow bloggers for your support.

7 Comments

Vered - MomGrind
May 2, 2008, 7:21

“regularly adding more money to your investment is a great practice. It really boosts asset growth during good months, and softens the blow during bad months.”
Totally agree. It’s been my experience too, and I have FINALLY learned to NOT be afraid of buying stocks when the market is down.
Make Friends, Earn Money
May 3, 2008, 12:09

Glad to see that your alternative income from blogging grew by 13%, it’s great to keep that value revenue stream open. I hope the fed doesn’t go crazy and cut rates by too much as I’m not sure how effective this will be and it’s bound to undermine investments.
Smart Money Management
May 3, 2008, 19:00

Pinyo, your site looks great and your success is well deserved. Keep up the great work!
Faron
May 4, 2008, 8:11

Great to see your net worth went up 1.7%, imagine if you compounded that monthly over a 20 year span. I was trying to click onto your navigation but it seems that every tab sends me to the free magazine page. Just thought I’d let you know that little error. Keep up the great work.
Faron
May 4, 2008, 8:12

Oh nvm, your navigation is working again. Have a good one,
Faron
Pinyo
May 5, 2008, 6:54

@Faron – I actually found out what was wrong. Thank you for pointing it out.
Mark
May 9, 2008, 9:57

I agree on the regular contribution to your investment portfolio regardless of whether the market is up or down, especially when it is down and you have a long investment horizon of 20 to 50 years.
The market will always go up and down, history has proven that.
The nice thing about when the market goes down is that you buy more shares with your contributions than when the market is up so the more shares you have by the time the market goes up, the greater the return, especially when the market goes up further.