According to my Integrity Policy, I want to let you know that this post contains Personal Capital referral links. Personal Capital is a free service. They are looking for high-net worth individuals as possible customers for their financial advisory services, but the expense tracking and retirement planning tools that I recommend are free of charge.

It’s all about the Benjamins. And Jacksons. And Lincolns. And Washingtons.

October inched our net worth forward ever so slightly, but if all goes well, hopefully it also laid the groundwork for a long period of passive income, too.

On our October 2016 financial statement, our net worth increased by a paltry 0.48%.

It’s actually ok– the market was down, and we were really only saved from a reduction in net worth by contributions to my 401(k). I also had some pretty big expenses for The Earth Awaits. Here are some of the sites where it appeared this past month:

• Lonely Planet
• Credit.com
• The Next Web
• The Front Page of Reddit
• Chris Guillebeau’s The Art of Non-Conformity
• Fast Company
• Yahoo

…and a whole bunch more (in eight languages!). Basically, TEA was super-duper successful this month. That doesn’t mean it will continue to be, but there are at least a couple high-profile places I know it’s going to appear this month, fingers crossed (and not mentioning them because until they appear, I am too afraid to say they’re going to happen).

The thing is, dealing with that kind of traffic can get really expensive, and it did. I also didn’t make any serious effort to make money off the site, so there was a lot more going out than coming in. It was a calculated risk– I wanted to present the best possible experience for everyone who tries it in these early days. I have introduced some unobtrusive ads to try to at least allow the site to pay for itself, and started soliciting some sponsorships. I am hoping that as the site’s profile rises, it will be able to pay for itself, and perhaps help with the path to FIRE, too. So, I consider the costs of making the site run well with the large amount of traffic to be just the cost of doing business, and an investment in the future.

I still managed to write a couple of articles here, though I could be better. It’s hard to balance both sites at once right now, but I’m doing my best!

The next couple of months will still probably be primary devoted to making The Earth Awaits better with things like user accounts, custom budgets, favorites, and other features. It’s a lot of fun to work on, and seeing the level of enthusiasm for it around the world, it’s easy to find the energy to work on it– not to mention there are countless ways it could still be improved!

Blog Income

As I mentioned in my Integrity Policy, I want to make sure I share any and all professional relationships and compensation I make as a part of this blog.

In October, I earned the following:

• $100 from Personal Finance affiliate payments
• $29.43 in Google Ad revenue

The blog made $129.43 this month, more than paying for itself, which is always awesome. If anyone’s curious, The Earth Awaits made $40.51 this month, and cost me much, much more than that to run.

If you’re looking to start your own blog or web site, please consider using my referral link for BlueHost. I’ll get a little cash to help pay hosting expenses, and you’ll get a great hosting provider (the same one I use) starting at about $3.95 per month.

Retirement Update

Our net worth is up $1,466.23 this month. A modest amount, but modestly in the green is still green! This month includes some larger contributions to my 401(k) and maxing out my HSA for the year, so hopefully next months’ net worth will look a little bit better.

With equity and bond accounts totaling $167,714.99 at the end of October, a 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate would allow us to take out $559.04 per month. Our rental properties, after all expenses, vacancies, and short and long term maintenance are considered, produce $986.00 of safe cash flow every month.

Safe Monthly Income:  $1545.04 (-$5.26 to Last Month)

% to Goal: 30.90% (-0.10% to Last Month)

Want to Know How to Track Your Expenses?

It’s really easy. Sign up for a Personal Capital account, which is completely free. It’s how I track my balances across time, and allows me to project all my retirement progress without doing any work at all. As a disclaimer, if you sign up with Personal Capital, this site may get a referral fee depending on the size of your portfolio.