October 2008 Site and Net Worth Review (-15.27%)

By Pinyo, on November 3, 2008

Before I begin my review, I’d like to remind you that tomorrow is Election Day — please exercise your right and VOTE!  If you receive a flyer that tries to convince you “Republicans vote on the 4th and Democrats vote on the 5th”, please DO NOT believe it.  We all vote on November 4th.  I can’t believe that there are people that would try to undermine our democracy with such a lie.

Net Worth Review

If September was bad, October was dreadful. In addition to the -9.1% drop in September, the S&P 500 dropped another -16.9% in September — ouch.  The index is actually below the 1000 mark, having dropped from 1166.36 to 968.75.  According to NetworthIQ, my net worth dropped another -5.97%, and my net investable assets plunged -15.27%, or from 21.32% to 18.07% of $1 million goal.

Highlights

• My house value dropped $8,500, or -1.46%, according to Zillow.  Since I am not planning to sell my house, this doesn’t bother me.  Actually it might work out in my favor because I am thinking about buying a second house — that is, if my career move works out.
• My retirement investment dropped another -15.23%.  Good thing I am a long way from retirement.  I am not letting the recent events affect my retirement investing strategy; as such, I am making no adjustment to my 401k portfolio.
• Some interesting changes on the peer-to-peer investment world.
  • Lending Club allows lending again and actually give all of their lenders $25 bonus.  They also added a new feature where lenders can sell and buy loans in their Note Trading Platform.  This adds a new level of liquidity that makes Lending Club even better.
  • On the other hand, Prosper no longer allows lending in their network.  It appears that Prosper will be following Lending Club’s lead.

Alternative Income

Alternative income from my web businesses increased +48% thanks to last month traffic rush from MSN Smart Spending. This brings my projected alternative income against my total income (salary + alternative income) from 17.29% to 19.05% — beating the 17% goal by 2.05%.

Blog Review

October was not the a record month, but it was the second best month by most measures — it was the best search traffic month ever, thanks to searches for financial crisis and stimulus check.

Performance

Here are the key statistics for this month:

• Subscribers increased +5% from 2,110 to 2,213
• Search traffic increased +98% from 18,173 to 36,047
• Visitors increased +7% from 52,971to 56,738
• Page views increased -13% from 97,751 to 85,448

Top 5 Most Viewed Articles

1. What Caused The Financial Crisis Of 2008? from 9/22/2008
2. 40+ Alternative Income Ideas and Resources from 3/4/2008
3. Say No To A Second Stimulus Check from 7/22/2008
4. My 401k Is Losing Money. What Should I Do? from 10/09/2008
5. Extra Income Guide from 7/29/2008

Top 10 Referrers

Thank you to all 806 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. Cash Money Life
   
3. The Dough Roller *
   
4. My Dollar Plan
5. I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… *
   
6. My Two Dollars
7. Being Frugal *
   
8. Gather Little By Little *
   
9. My Supercharged Life *
10. Five Cent Nickel
    

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

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

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Pinyo is the brain behind Moolanomy personal finance blog and a few other web sites. If you like this article, please subscribe for free daily email updates.

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