Monthly Review - March 2007 ($677,666, +$24,212)

Contributed by mm | April 2, 2007 1:45 AM PST

The dip in our net worth in February is, as I correctly predicted in last month's summary, no more than noise in our march toward financial independence. Helped by a rebounding stock market and a surge of business income, our assets grew more than $24,000 in March. This also concludes the first quarter of 2007, in which our net worth improved by over $46,000.

At $677,666, shall we celebrate this minor milestone that we finally amassed two thirds of a million bucks?

MONTH-END BALANCE SHEET

COMMENTARY FOR THE MONTH/1ST QUARTER

- Our investment portfolio gained almost $13,000 in March, and a total of $16,000 for the 1st quarter. Our 2.2% year-to-date return also handily beat the 0.2% increase in S&P 500 index and put us on the right track for our annual goal of 8% before-tax investment return.

- Our sideline business is again celebrating another five figure income for the month. Our Q1 revenue adds up to $28,000, which is way ahead of our annual goal of $80,000. At this rate, we are very likely to achieve six figure annual revenue for the first time in 2007.

- We also controlled our expense very well in March. Our monthly spending of $6,000 is the second lowest in the last 8 months.

NEXT STEPS

- I'm waiting for KPMG to run its scenario analysis on whether I should contribute to my self-employment 401(k) for the tax year 2006.

- My wife's laptop is nearly broken, so we are in the shopping mode for a new one.

- The family is also planning for the third family trip of the year in June or July. We are looking at a few places in the North America this time.

This Post Has Received 3 Comments. Share Your Opinions Too.

CPA1287 Commented on April 3, 2007

That's absolutely amazing that your sideline businesses are grossing almost $10k a month. Very few households generate that kind of revenue in total. Would you ever give a revenue breakdown among your two sidelines? I'm still confused, but I'm guessing that Perfect Publishing and Expat Service are the two activities that we could call your sideline businesses.

I'm amazed that the blog is able to generate so much cash, given that you're now only posting original content about four times a month, and one of those posts consists of the net worth analysis.

John Commented on April 4, 2007

Can you pls tell me how you update your finance information. Is there any tool to automatically update your bank, credit card etc. info and generate reports like you have here or do u do it manually?

I have seen Microsoft Money, but the reports generated are pretty basic. It's wonderful to have a history of previous year's data to do a comparative evaluation with the current year's performance. Any pointers are well appreciated.

Michael Halls-Moore Commented on April 12, 2007

I think the reason for the blog's popularity is all of the archived content. There is so much here! I'm having a good look around as I write this.

If you're interested in how to generate a high earning personal finance blog, then take a look at Jim's article over at Blueprint:

http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/25-steps-to-a-wildly-successful-personal-finance-blog.html

It's certainly helping me!