I’m failing to grab any traction on the online market. But somehow the money for blogging keeps coming in, albeit at a slower pace (nothing compared to what has happened to the Dividend Income!).

Having blogged at the same URL for over two years, I recently split the blogs into two primary threads (Blogging) and (Personal Finance). As a result I decided to split the income news. So this report is only part of my online success: online ONLY! The next few months should produce a lot of non-online income, as well.

The other change that is still making its effect felt is that I would rather not count money (some of which I may NEVER see) that is not actual income. This makes counting the income somewhat easier as I only have three or four places, and can simply add up the actual cash. The downside is I can’t count income I haven’t received yet, which includes a Google Ad Check, some cash from a client who’s expected to pay in December for work done in November, but I’m not changing the position: If it isn’t in my hand, it isn’t real!

So this is November’s results. Overall, it’s been not too bad a month considering. That makes a handy extra amount of cash, especially after spending so much money on travel this summer.

• Networking Ads – $109.08
• Private Ads – $138.57
• blogging – $126.51
  $374.16

I’ve had a lot of success with one of the blogging networks these past few months, and the number of assignments has kept up until late November. So earnings on that front have been fairly consistent. There was no income from consultation or hosting this month, though, and I’m not counting affiliate income either, since I haven’t seen any checks for that. If you would like to read more about my own money making philosophy, check out A Man and a Plan.

It’s time again for some blogging income news. As you know, I recently split the blogs into two primary threads (blogging) and (Personal Finance). As a result I decided to split the income news. So this report is only part of my online success: online ONLY!

One other change that is making itself felt is the change to cash accounting. Rather than count promised money (some of which I may NEVER see), I am now ONLY counting money that ends up in one of my CASH accounts, a Broker Account or Paypal. I still accept cash, too! I’m no longer counting airy-fairy money either. If it isn’t in my hand, it isn’t real!

So this is October’s results. Overall, it’s been not too bad a month!

• Networking Ads – $139.38
• Private Ads – $164.22
• blogging – $76.50
• Sales – $15.00
  $395.10

I’ve had a lot of success with one of the blogging networks this past few months, and the number of assignments has kept up. So earnings on that front have been fairly consistent. There was no income from consultation or hosting this month, though, and I’m not counting affiliate income either, since I haven’t seen any checks for that.

I’m slowly increasing blogging on some of my other sites as I learn how to manage the networks. They’re as a result seeing some growth in traffic. It’s a sobering thought that Darren Rowse at Problogger once said that he makes MORE money from his non-blogging blogs than from Problogger. That’s something I should strive for. If you would like to read more about my own money making philosophy, check out A Man and a Plan.

Well, the market is back up today (but with the poor performance of the economy, it’s going to be a couple of months before we know the after effects), and in the interests of ‘coming clean’, I’ve decided to reveal what my current stock holdings are. And when it was done, I was staggered how much the portfolio had gone down.

To view the entire sheet, just click on the image. What isn’t obvious from this chart, though, is the regular dividends that get paid into this account.

In 2007, they totalled $1031.53 and in 2008, they totalled $1078.24 with the prospect of another couple of months. In fact, the last couple of stock purchases had been made from the proceeds accumulating in the account. However, with the markets in turmoil, it’s likely that several or more of these dividends may be cut or axed altogether. Bank of America has already announced changes to its dividend as of this month. We also hold several thousand dollars in Mutual Funds via one of our insurance policies, but the details are quite old.

Since, 2001 I’ve focused more on investing for dividends as I believed that dividends do pay back some cash to the investor. Since purchasing my first dividend stocks, I’ve actually earned quite a lot over the years and managed to claw my stocks back to more than just par with 2001. But the last few weeks have eaten away approximately 45~50% of my portfolio’s nominal value. I had been underwater for a while (not including dividends).

The next few months are going to highlight how successful this process of choosing dividends has been, what volatility these dividends have, and whether dividends can actually bring some relief to the current mania. This is the next part of my gradual revelation of my personal assets, and once each part is out there, I will bring it together on a regular basis!

After the modest spending of the last few months, I was greeted by a mighty thwack with September’s Bill. The damage was nearly NT$80,000! So what happened? How could it be so high?

Actually, most credit card statements tell a story: this was no exception. It’s a story of three parts.

Part 1: The business

We’ve been on an energy economy drive for the past four or five months, and the benefits are slowly beginning to pay off in lower electricity bills and lower carbon emissions. It’s staggering how little changes in behavior can have such significant effects: lighting choices, replacing older equipment, changing usage patterns, etc.. I don’t have complete stats for 2008, but I was surprised at how we’ve saved nearly 10% of our annual electricity bill, and there is still one major bill to go. Stay tuned!

Replacing A/Cs is perhaps the most notable way to cut energy use. Our oldest A/Cs are nearly 8 years old, and due for replacement, if nothing else because more modern A/Cs are comparatively more efficient. So after replacing one, we bit the bullet and replaced the one in the office (likely the single heaviest use appliance in the entire school). This month we replaced one that had been malfunctioning in the classroom ever since there was a power outage. It had just been blowing warm air, and wasting our money.

• Damage: NT$48,800 plus installation NT$1450.

Was it worth it? Certainly. Will we save money in the long run? Likely enough to pay for the entire machine! Are our customers/staff happier? For sure.

Part 2: UK Trip

The second part of the story: my unexpected trip to the UK. It was late September when I decided to visit the UK to see my family and friends (an entirely social trip!) but long needed. Maintaining long distance relationships is at best very challenging, at worst almost impossible.

Though, this is the complete list of credit card expenses until September 19th, it was NOT the entire trip expenditure. Woops!

• Phone Bill: NT$1154 – including national and roaming charges;
• Nolita Restaurants: NT$6630 – a meal for my friends, Jane and Philip in Hatfield, which was surprisingly reasonable given the restaurant, but didn’t include much alcohol – one was exhausted and one was driving!
• Boots and Asda: NT$1244 – daily expenses (esp. when I couldn’t cash my traveler’s checks);

Part 3: Online Related Expenses

I finally bought a ‘puter that I could put in my bag. One of the ironies though was that I bought a machine that was made by a Taiwanese company in Shanghai shipped to England and sold cheaper than you could buy in Taiwan at the time.

Mine’s the blue one! Of course, not running Linpus. Sorry!

Enter the Acer AspireOne – Net Book. It’s proved very useful, and I’m seriously glad that I got it. I was able to make calls through SKYPE, surf the Net, listen to music and even do more than just rudimentary blogging on that little 8.9″ screen.

• Damage: NT$17,310. Of course, being an overseas customer, I may be able to reclaim part of my tax (approx. NT$1800) making the deal even better value for me!

I also paid a writer who is helping me co-author a series of posts on the Dow Jones Indexed Companies. I also paid Google an AdWords activation fee.

• Total cost for this: NT$1319.

And, finally, after earning points on the airconditioner purchases at Carrefour, bonus points on our credit card bonus points, we also earned a little cash back on some of my purchases: NT$-213.

• I’m still not exactly sure what purchases triggered this, but still every little helps to reduce the total damage: NT$79,694.

There were no interest or penalties added to this month’s credit cards, and my secondary card had no outstanding purchases at all. oh, and I nearly forgot the NT$2000 life insurance premium that was paid.

It’s funny how credit card expenses can highlight the unfolding stories that compromise our lives. Have a look through your credit card statement? Can you see a story developing there?

• Oh, and by the way: most frivolous expense trip – Hong Kong Airport Starbucks Americano and water bought with a credit card HK$39.00. Just silly.

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Well, it’s time for the blog income report. As I noted a few days, I’m now making several changes to how I report my blog income: First I’m separating it into two parts, and now I’m also counting only cash received.

A lot of companies promise to pay for work completed, but months later I’m still sitting on nearly $200 worth of outstanding receivables. For a short time, though, it may look like I have double-counted some income. For blogging income, this will be most obvious.

So here goes, my first blog only income report: taken straight from the cash in my account.

• blogging: $69.02
• Advertising: $153.88
• Total: $222.90

Naturally, this looks smaller than it should be because there are still outstanding payments to be made from some advertisers that amount to nearly $220.00. September was also a quieter month.

Stats, Traffic and more

Stats wise, I was building up nicely to over 2000 visitors this past month, with over 4000 page views in the month, until I went to the UK. On my travels, I was quite unable to keep up the usual speed of posting, and the recent crescendo of visitors fell apart somewhat, though attrition wasn’t as severe as during the summer. I have somehow retained about 60-80 visitors a day, a PR-2 ranking from Google, and improving visibility on IzeaRanks.

A Special Offer

I’ve also welcomed several advertisers, too on InvestorBlogger’s sidebar, and soon-to-be 125×125 ads. Keep your eyes peeled.

The new 125×125 ads are on special sale until September 30th December 31st – $12.00 per month for a square . Maximum of 3 out of 6 squares available with only one rotation per slot. So grab them now! There are four slots left!

updated: October 4th.

Each month for the past three years, I have been receiving regular dividends in my brokerage account. Previously, these were part of InvestorBlogger’s consolidated income. From this month I will be reporting these as separated income.

• Dividends = $111.19
• Interest Payments = $28.00*
• Other Income = $0.00
• Total = $139.19*

That’s pretty much it for this month. I will shortly detail my current holdings. Also, I terminated nearly NT$100K worth of CDs because the interest rate was so low at about 1.2%. I should be able to get nearly 2.6% by opening new accounts. Since most of my money is in CitiBank, I’ll also be looking to spread the risk a little by opening accounts in the Post Office (currently the highest interest rates on the Island).

*When I was in the UK, I stupidly entered the wrong PIN number (three times!) thinking it was the right number – it was the old 4 digit number, not the 6 digit number we regularly use in Taiwan. Account access frozen except by ATM machine, so I’m unable to figure out my exact details. It would have been $28, but I broke two CDs and turned them into spending cash. Oh, well. At least security is tight!

This amount has been rising for more than 2 years now, since I started focusing more on dividend income. Most of this money has been reinvested in stocks or in CDs as it comes around. The goal is that this money becomes considerably more, and the current market mess provides some good market opportunities for purchases.