Saturday, August 15, 2009

Update for August

Nice gain of $8,507 to get me to $225,955. It is nice to see the stock market bounce back a bit but the fast gain is a little concerning. As much as the market has come back I think it can give a false sense that things are better. The reality is that although some of the losses have been erased all of the profits from the last ten years are still lost.

For a comment on the local real estate market there are two homes for sale in my area. One is a forclosure..ugh..and in terrible condition. There have been a lot of people in and out of the house looking for a good deal but I'm guessing they are totally appalled by the house. I have not seen the inside but I can tell you that by looking through the fence in the backyard the home appears to be missing the AC unit. This speaks volumes for what the inside must look like. I think we need an investor or a young couple willing to fix it up. On a much more positive note there is another house on an opposite corner (an end unit) that was only on the market for 11 days before showing up as under contract. The pictures that I saw of this home were very good. The home is a good comp for me and shows me that people are still willing to pay for nice things. I will wait to see what the final closing price is. I'm feeling much better that the market in my area is already starting to recover. According to Zillow my house has increased by about $15k in the last 30 days. I am not a huge fan of Zillow but it is a good site to show trends.

Although I am happy with the gain this month I am a little frustrated over the lack of cash savings increase for the month. There was a decrease of cash by about $1,600 because of having to pay property taxes.

My wife and I continue to balance the "wants" and "needs" for our lives. We now have a list of items we want posted on the fridge. This is everything from a $300-$500 carpet for the dinning room, fix the flashing on two windows-$500, new TV for the living room-$900, dining room cabinetry-$unknown, and living trust $300-$1,000 , and a new mattress for our bedroom which is maybe a $1,500-$2,000 cost. We may pick off a few of the smaller items first. A lot of these items are hardly necessities but they are things we want.

Still plugging away with saving...wish it was going faster.

Debating and thinking about contributing to our 1 Roth IRA. I am still wanting my cash to grow by another $4k-$5K before I either start contributing to the Roth or start working on paying down my mortgage a bit. I still think it would be great to have a much reduced mortgage over the next 5-8 years. The increased cash flow by the refinancing would be really nice. Much to ponder.