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Personal Balance Sheet, Net Worth, Income, and Expenses, May 2009

by Flexo on June 2, 2009

in Monthly Update

Every month, consistently for the past few years, I take the opportunity at the beginning of the month to develop financial reports. The first report I post every month outlines my “modified” net worth, basically a balance sheet including my bank accounts, investments, the approximate value of my car, and my credit cards. Following the net worth report, I publish an income and expense report. This includes details about the income I earned during the month as well as my discretionary and non-discretionary expenses during the same period of time.

After my net worth decreased last month, mainly due to a large tax payment and poor market performance, my net worth is back up 6.3% for the month of May. Income, on the other hand, is significantly down this month, more in line with my expectations moving forward.

Keep reading this article to see my May financial reports. I will not give further commentary, but I will answer any reasonable questions.

Personal balance sheet and net worth statement

Net Worth Balance Sheet, May 2009

Income and expense report

Income and Expense Report, May 2009

If you have questions, feel free to post them here.

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Tagged as: balance sheet, expenses, Flexo, income, net worth



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About the Author

Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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  • Out of curiousity, why worry about your car's value?
  • Good question. I wouldn't say I worry about it. I only update the value once or twice a year. It's good to keep in a net worth report because it can be a significant asset. All assets contribute to overall net worth. I also find it somewhat interesting to see the depreciation.
  • Couple of things I notice:

    Your charitible controbutions seem ridiculously low for someone earning what you do. Wouldn't it make some sense, even for tax purposes, to give away a little more? This leads in to my next question of: how in the wide-wide-world-of-sports are you earning that much every month? Is it just from your blog, or do you also have a 9-to-5 job?
  • As far as charitable contributions go, I typically give towards the end of the year. Take a look at December's reports.

    The income is mostly split between my day job, which is probably low for what I do, and other earned income, which includes internet-related projects, this blog being one.
  • Jim
    Your "other earned income" is doing pretty well. Nice job.

    With our internet revenue increasing so well are you getting tempted to quit the "day job"?
  • I'm remaining "cautiously optimistic" but I won't be making any moves just yet.
  • Rob
    Good Job, Flexo

    Why do you seem to avoid the question about your income?
    Can you tell us exactly what you do to make that extra income?

    I want details on all your internet-related projects. lol
    That would make a great inspirational post.

    thanks
  • I didn't mean to avoid it. But it's only fair to offer some details, so here they are.

    "Other earned income" includes writing gigs, subscriptions, and advertising. In addition to my day job, I spend several hours a day preparing articles for Consumerism Commentary, contacting people to be involved with the podcast, writing for other websites, writing for books, responding to emails, editing podcasts, researching for articles and podcasts, programming websites (php, MySQL), helping people set up their own websites ("consulting," I guess), managing the technical aspects of hosting websites, networking with other individuals in the industry, and it doesn't seem to end. Until recently I was also spending time developing this redesign of Consumerism Commentary, rather than farming it out to other designers, but that's mostly done.

    ... And cooking dinner, which should be ready right about now. :-)
  • Rob
    How do you have time to do all this plus work a trditional job?
  • That's a good question. I probably can't keep it up for too much longer.
  • Ryan
    Flexo,

    Congrats on the growing 'Other Income' over the past year. Your additional projects seem to be taking off. Your financial disclosure is motivating to say the least. However, could you comment on your 'work-life' balance. More specifically, how many hours (avg) do you spend a night/week on other income? Do you have any non income earning hobbies?

    Unrelated- Have you considered writing any article on IO mortgages? If/when you decide to buy, assuming you don't pay 100% cash, this type of flexibility seems beneficial to those with irregular incomes.

    Thanks
  • Unfortunately I have a wide variety of interests. The biggest one right now is photography. I've even begun taken Saturday morning classes. Not earning any income with that one, in fact, it can be an expensive hobby. For now, it's solely for pleasure.

    Haven't thought much about interest-only mortgages. It's similar to renting -- you're not building any equity and could be left holding the bag if your house declines in value. But maybe I can put together something interesting.
  • Update: I've got a post about interest-only mortgages ready to go for noon tomorrow. Check back.
  • Tyler
    You may have already talked about this, but I've just found your blog. How are you keeping track off all these stats. Well, I really mean, how do you make such a nice report. I'm currently trying to use excel to keep track and well, it sucks. I just keep making more and more columns and every month I have to totally rearrange the cells, etc. There must be a faster way!

    Any ideas?
  • Dan
    "Income, on the other hand, is significantly down this month, more in line with my expectations moving forward.

    Sorry to hear that Flexo. Is this because of a change in google's algorithms or just you scaling back to have some free time?
  • Neither. A number of advertisers just happen to be in industries that are cutting back in advertising expenses, or more likely, bringing them back down to reasonable levels.
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