September 2008 Site and Net Worth Review (-8.65%)

Net Worth Review

September was a rough month!  The U.S. economy suffered from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  Major failures in our financial system forced the U.S. government to take over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG.  On top of that we saw the end of Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, and Wachovia.  All in all, the blood bath on Wall Street resulted in a -9.1% drop for the S&P 500 index from 1282.83 to 1166.36 — and it’s not over yet!

According to NetworthIQ, my net worth dropped another -3.75%, and my net investable assets plunged -8.65%, or from 23.34% to 21.32% of $1 million goal — I will be revising this goal at the end of the year.

Highlights

• My house value dropped another $7,000, or -1.19%, according to Zillow.  This is not bad considering the continuous stream of negative news about the U.S. housing market over the past few months.  However, many experts believe that house prices will continue to decline into 2010.
• My retirement investment suffered from the worst one-day drop since I can remember (I didn’t have any investment back in 1987).  But I am staying the course with my current investments and asset allocation.  However, this meltdown did remind me to look at all of the portfolios that I am managing. I will be adjusting fixed-income allocation for some portfolios once the market recovers a bit.
• My peer-to-peer investments continued to grow — in fact, it’s my best investment so far this year!  I don’t know if the credit crisis will hit the P2P lending market, but I am only choosing borrowers with investment grade credit ratings at the moment.
  • Prosper grew from $751.99 to  $832.64, with average interest rate of 11.98%.
  • Lending Club went down slightly from $438.27 to  $427.78 due to a systematic withdrawal.

Alternative Income

Alternative income from my web businesses dropped -34% compared to last month (expected).  However, this performance is in line with the projected growth rate. This brings my projected alternative income against my total income (salary + alternative income) from 21.61% to 17.29% — beating the 17% goal by 0.21%.

Blog Review

September was a terrific month with two of my articles featured on Need extra income? Here are some ideas at MSN Smart Spending.  I also did better with writing higher quality articles.  I believe my best work this month was Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Asset Allocation (long).

Performance

Here are the key statistics for this month:

• Subscribers increased +7% from 1,968 to 2,110
• Search traffic increased +50% from 12,085 to 18,173
• Visitors increased +42% from 37,296 to 52,971
• Page views increased +47% from 66,586 to 97,751

Top 5 Most Viewed Articles

1. 40+ Alternative Income Ideas and Resources from 3/4/2008
2. Extra Income Guide from 7/29/2008
3. Say No To A Second Stimulus Check from 7/22/2008
4. What Caused The Financial Crisis Of 2008? from 9/22/2008
5. Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step 6: Pay Off Home Early from 3/5/2008

Top 10 Referrers

I wish I could list all 816 web sites and blogs that sent visitors my way. Despite listing only the top 10, I do appreciate everyone’s help. Here are the top referrers this month:

1. MSN Smart Spending *
   
2. Netto — I believe this is a Dutch financial news portal
3. Cash Money Life
   
4. I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…
5. My Dollar Plan
6. Being Frugal *
   
7. Mon Argent — I believe this is a French financial news portal
8. The Dough Roller *
   
9. The Wisdom Journal
10. My Two Dollars *
11. Five Cent Nickel * — tied with My Two Dollars
    

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

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