June 2008 Site and Net Worth Review (-7.23%)

Net Worth Review

Wow, June was a terrible month for stock investors. Bad economy, Midwest flood, inflation, high oil price, among other factors added up to an -8.6% drop for the S&P500 — from 1400.38 to 1280.00! According to NetworthIQ, my net worth went down -3.04% — mostly due to my retirement and stock investments, and net investable assets went down -7.23%, or from 24.34% to 22.59% of $1 million goal — looks like I will have to re-evaluate that goal this year.

Highlights

This month, my 401k, IRA, and stock investments took the blunt of the blow at -8.90%
My alternative income from blogging improved by 64% this month — cool!
There’s not much change for my peer-to-peer investments:
- Prosper grew from $425.55 to $649.33. I am now up to 11 loans at average of 11.61% interest — so far, so good.
- Lending Club went down slightly from $473.40 to $460.80 due to withdrawal because I cannot make a new loan and there’s no interest for idle fund.
My house value, based on Zillow dropped by another -0.95%. I believe this downward trend will continue through the rest of the year.

Overall, this was a tough month for my net worth and investments. I am just happy that my alternative income streams are improving.

Blog Review

June was a strong month, but not quite as good as May. The biggest contributor this month was The Consumerist who featured my alternative income article in their post: Four Ways To Make The Most Of Unemployment.

As always, I owe the success of this blog to the support from my readers and fellow bloggers. Thank you!

Performance

I didn’t expect to meet my 10% improvement goal this month due to strong May, but I am happy with the outcome.

Subscribers grew +10% from 1,534 to 1,681
Search traffic dropped -2% from 9,577 to 9,422
Visitors dropped -21% from 44,071 to 34,606
Page views dropped -15% from 68,754 to 58,255

Top 10 Referrers

I wish I could list everyone that sent visitors, but it would be an impossibly long list (922 entries). I do appreciate everyone’s help, regardless of how big or small. Here are the top 10 referrers this month:

* Indicates the winner of 125×125 banner ad spot.

Some Notes

First, I’d like to congratulate Gibble and wish him a happy 1-year blog anniversary. You can read about it in his post: One year of gathering little by little.
Second, I have been partnering with various companies to provide you with value-added content. If you haven’t noticed the free magazine and credit cards database features, please check them out.
Lastly, I am currently running eFinPLAN financial planning software giveaway. The “secret code” was posted over the weekend. Please enter if you are interested in winning a 1-year subscription valued at $98.

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

6 Comments

B Smith @ Wealth and Wisdom
July 2, 2008, 5:53

Pinyo-Don’t let the down market change your long term plans. It is an opportunity to buy top quality stocks and funds at rock bottom prices. I am currently eying a couple stocks to average down my acquisition cost.
It is easier for me to say this. I pulled most of my investments (except for two stocks) near the peak. No, I didn’t have perfect timing. I just saw that the market was overheated, that the real estate market was about to burst, and felt that the subprime problem went deeper than they were letting on. After getting taken down in 2000 with the tech bubble I learned to start pulling my investments when the market gets too hot. I may lose a few points on the upside but I save a ton on the crash!
glblguy
July 2, 2008, 6:28

Yea I won the 125×125 contest! Thanks for the birthday wishes! Very glad we hooked up Pinyo, first as friends and second as as blogging companions.
Jason
July 3, 2008, 4:05

Looks like a great month – glad I could contribute. Here’s to an even better July!
Pinyo
July 3, 2008, 4:46

@B Smith — I won’t. I am re-evaluating my goals to see if I need to save more / invest more now to reach the same goal.
@Gibble — Thank you. I’m glad to have you as a friend and a teammate too.
@Jason — Congratulation with your blog. You have been doing well lately and I am glad you are kind enough to send me a few visitors.
Curt
July 3, 2008, 10:34

You should have invested more money in gold
Pinyo
July 10, 2008, 10:32

Curt — I wrote about gold: http://www.moolanomy.com/497/g.....t-in-gold/