State of the Geek Address - Q1 2009

Since I started blogging, I made it a habit to publish my goals in this blog to share them with you. This year, I did list down a personal wish list and made some financial goals that I wanted to achieve within the year. And since one fourth of the year has already passed, I thought of giving everyone an update. Here it is…

Emergency Fund

As expected, my emergency fund was going to decrease because of the canceled bonus that was supposed to pay for the unexpected expenses I had last February. Fortunately, additional online income and realized gains from the stock market came in. As a result, my emergency fund decreased by only 3.72%. With that said, I am still on track with my emergency fund goal for 2009. I wonder how I would fare this month especially since my honey and I are going to my home province for the Holy Week (which, incidentally crosses out my goal of bringing her there).

Increase Alternative Income
In the first quarter of 2009, I saw a dramatic increase of my monthly payouts from Text Link Ads. I also received my first Google Adsense payout and will be receiving my second payout by the end of the month. Also, I was able to earn a $100 commission from IPower thanks to Millionaire SEO. There were also some other deals on the side that helped increase Geek and Money’s overall income for the first quarter of 2009.

AdSense:
In Q1 2009, my adsense earnings averaged $57.27 a month. In 2008, it was only $15.38 a month.

Text Link Ads:
My total earnings from Text Link Ads in 2008 was only $12.23. In the Q1 2009, I earned an average $16.15 per month. The future looks bright as I just got paid $22.33 this April.

Automatic Savings a.k.a. SPF
There is not much to say about SPF, since the same amount is deducted from my monthly salary, regardless if I receive a bonus or not. Status: 29.76% (on target).

Reduce Expenses
Gasoline Expenses are at an all time low. Thanks to my honey’s decision to move to a place closer to mine. Plus the global market price of oil is at its lowest (from the time I bought my motorcycle). Also, since my honey is closer to my place, my cellphone bills have also gone down. I guess this proves that my theory of subtraction by addition did work!

I still need to work on cutting down my dining out expenses. I am way over my budget. And my budget for dining is already bloated to begin with. I can cook, but I’m too lazy too cook. Got any tips on how to reduce my dining out expenses?

Short term CDs
BPI Direct gives the best deal so far for placements below Php5,000. Plus its being online makes it even more convenient. BPI Direct is available to BPI account holders only.

On Quitting Smoking
I quit smoking on December 27, 2008. That means I am a non-smoker for 97 days already (as of 04/02/2009). That also means I have a hypothetical additional savings of Php776.

Career
Hello real world, we finally meet. I just got my worst performance feedback ever. Even though I think it was unfair to get that rating, I guess I didn’t exert much effort either to meet their high expectations. But at least I can take this learning experience and next time, I would know better.

That’s all for now.

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