So, this is my first Net Worth Update for the year 2014. You might be wondering: what about January? Well, here's the thing; as I was reviewing my past articles and looking to see where I stood in January, I discovered that I didn't actually publish my January information.
This isn't to say that I didn't review my finances at the start of January, as I review them every month, but merely forgot to publish them. I was debating how to handle this; I could just publish the February financial information, but the January Net Worth Update has the overall financial information from the end of 2013, so it's important for understanding where things stood at the start of 2014.
All of that is the long way of saying that you're going to see two Net Worth Update reports this month: the January/end of the year report, and the typical February report that shows where things have been going in the start of 2014. But first:
Overall, December wasn't too bad a month to end the year, although there was a definite decline in net worth overall. There was a sharp drop in savings, which isn't terribly surprising when you consider that December is accompanied by that whole ‘Christmas Gift-Giving' thing. My debt went up a bit, as a result of the personal loans from family members I'm using to get through this rough patch in life.
My Alexa ranking was pretty healthy to start the new year; it was close to my best ranking ever (around 121,000). There's still much I can do to make my website more popular, of course, but recognition of any kind is appreciated. As for my goals for 2013…Well, I didn't even earn more than $1000 in alternate income, so that needs to be improved. (I also changed how I'm measuring that value for 2014, to be discussed below.) Credit debt was cut by more than $2000 overall, so I'll consider that at least a partial victory, while my overall debt pay down didn't start until this year, which is why it's at zero (setting my starting debt at $101,909 for my credit pay-off resolution this year).
So that's where things were at the start of this year; let's see where things stand at the start of February:
Not horrible, but not incredible by any stretch. Investments (aka, the $150 or so remaining in the Lending Club account) are growing slowly but surely, the savings are nearly tapped out, and the debt increased a little bit, but not too much. (And as with January, the debt increase was with personal debt; the other debts all decreased.) Again, not horrible.
As for everything else: My Alexa score worsened, nearly to where it was at the start of January. The credit card debt has decreased by more than two hundred dollars, but I've added more than one hundred dollars in total debt, so that's mixed, at best. And I haven't made any charitable donations in far too long…
The biggest change with this February Net Worth Report is that I've altered how I calculate my alternate income totals; rather than just the profits, I've included the costs as well, like the hosting costs of this very blog. It should help to give me a better idea of just how much I'm spending to run such side hacks, in comparison to the rewards. Not to say that I'm planning to stop blogging anytime in the foreseeable future (profitable or no), but it's good to know how much your hobby/side hack is costing you.
That's where things stand on my end as of the start of February. Where do your finances stand? Has 2014 been a good year to you so far?
Image Source: Morguefile
