Monthly Update for May 2008

Great Month!! Very unexpected. This type of month is exactly why it is worth keeping track of all assets and liabilities on a spreadsheet and a blog. I had predicted last month that I would see a several thousand dollar dip in my net worth. However, I was very wrong. I have broken the $200K mark for the first time with a net worth of $202,527.83 which is a 3.3% increase over last month. Wow...

Some Key events of the past 30 days.

• My company added to my retirement account by contributing their matching 5%. They sadly only match me twice a year instead of actually giving me this money every pay check. However, this was an unexpected $2,400 dollar bump to my 401K..Nice...
• Good old fashioned savings...I have been able to save extra money by bringing lunch to work and contributed an extra $850 out of my account and add it to the ING account. This is on top of the automatically saved $2,400 a month to ING.
• $1,200 bucks from Uncle Sam that my wife and I qualified for. Our gross income was over the $150K combined income threshold but luckily we had deducted enough money to qualify. This money went into the ING account.
• Paid off the final home improvement costs of about $7,000. This was actually $1,000 less than anticipated. The contractor came in under budget because of some minor changes that were made along the way. I had actually assumed that these changes were going to increase the price not decrease it. Needless to say this contractor will be hired for follow on work.

Predictions for next month--I am unsure to be honest. I know that a few expenses are about to hit. With that, I will predict a small decline next month.

• My wife and I have spent some money on home furnishings and electronics that were much needed. These expenses won't hit the the CC statement until June. Some of these items are gifts from our family. They are going to reimburse us on some of the purchases. I know this sounds weird but this is the easiest way to do it when you live several hundred miles away from home.

My main goal is to keep us above the $200K mark. With a little help from the Stock Market and hard savings I might just be able to do this. Who knows maybe I will be surprised again and have a gain.

Monthly Update for January 2008

Networth increase of $974.00 to $182,982 Tough month for the networth. Details on NetWorth IQ. With a "normal" stock market climate it would have been a huge month for me. The stock market tank has really impacted my retirement and brokerage account balances. However, on a very positive note, my cash increase has gone up by $4,046 dollars for the month. This is huge!! I am still trying to get my cash account back to the $45K or higher range. Right now it is sitting at $35K. So you can see that if the stock market had gained even moderate numbers or stayed even for the month my increase could have been $5-6K...oh well. I fugure the market will come back and I will make up the networth numbers on the back end...i.e. whenever the stock market comes back.
Highlights for the month

• We finished paying off the HVAC unit for the townhouse.
• Extra income from travel reimbursement
• I spent my last day at my current position at work. On Monday I will be moving to a new sector within my company.
• Two chairs were purchased for the livingroom at Ikea..$100/chair.
• Awaiting an estimate for updating all three of the bathrooms in our townhouse. We will have to prioritize some of this work depending upon what the quote comes in at. We have $1000 from the family to help chip in. Much appreciated...This money is not reflected in my net worth. Check is literally sitting on the dining room table (I think).
• I spent $158 dollars on new clothes for my new position at work. I rarely buy clothes for myself, but the ones I have are very nice. I usually only buy clothes on sale. I got all items on 50% off...not too bad.

Overall, I feel like I am on track... I am really focused on the cash...If only I could get more comfortable with the amount of cash I have on hand for emergencies I would then feel more comfortable in tryng to max out retirement accounts...I am hoping that $45-$55K is the magic number for me. I have looked at many other people who post their networh and the size of cash on hand seems to very. I will keep plugging away and do the best I can.

Monthly Update for November 2007

Net Worth is down by $249 Dollars to $179,561. I'm actually happy about this. There have been some unexpected events the past 30 days or so.


My heating and air conditioning unit in my home decided to go on me. ugh! The joys of home ownership...And this is supposed to be an investment. Yah, I'll keep telling myself that until I believe it. However, the new unit has added a great improvement to the house. We even have a fancy new programmable thermostat. The total cost of the equipment and labor was around $4,700. I got the installer to agree to breaking up the payments over the course of three months. I am learning that I don't like to drag out financial obligations this way. Kind of like my dislike of our CC balance at zero percent. The upside of this is not having to take out any cash from my ING account, but in turn, I have had to suspend any further payments into this account until mid January. I am hoping to pay off the repair bill and maybe add a little additional cushion to the joint checking account by doing this and not have to actually transfer any savings. This home improvement is really crushing my cash flow in a bad way. I am estimating that I can put the ING on automatic pilot for $500 a week beginning mid January.
A few other factors were:
1. My employee stock actually went down by about 7% instead of the rumor of a heavy increase.
2. Overall Stock Market decline


December may not be much better. We still owe about $1,200 to the installer and another $700 for some recent furniture purchases. On a positive note, my next paycheck should be a bit higher. I received a 5% raise and will be able to drop my W4 form down by about $200. I am also expecting about $500 dollars (Net) from a bonus from work. I am hoping to break into the $181K bench mark in December. This should be achievable with just our 401K contributions and company match. As I suspected the stock market has come roaring back in the past few days adding easy money back into our accounts. This will certainly help the cause.


My short term goals are still the same. I want between 40-50K total in our cash accounts. I will then start contributing to our brokerage accounts to include Roth IRA and maybe even a little extra into the mortgage. I must say I feel like I'm running up hill pretty hard right now. Sometimes it feels like I just won't make it over the hill. I look forward to the day when I can feel comfortable with the amount of cash I have on hand and start putting more money into the brokerage accounts.

Monthly Update for October 2007

Another good month! Net worth is up to $179, 810 an increase of just over $6,000 from last month or 3.5%. A more detailed listing of all my assets and liabilities can be found at http://www.networthiq.com/people/VAContractor

I am particularly proud of the large increase in my cash holdings with an increase of over $3,000 for the month. I am still focused on getting my cash savings up to $40-$50K. This will make me rest easier at night. Additional savings this month came from extra income generated from traveling at work.

Projections for next month are difficult to anticipate. I will need to pay my property taxes for $1,600 and also plan to pay down some of the CC balance of $5,000 that I am currently holding at 0%. I would rather pay this down a little at a time rather than just one large $5K payment. What can I say, I just don't like having CC debt. Even if it is at 0%. This could be a weakness of mine. The total amount needs to be paid by May 2008.

Next month could also see a spike in my employee stock (employee owned). I currently have about $8K worth of company stock. Rumor has it that there could be about a 20% jump in the next month. Not sure when I will see this realized in my balance if at all.

This month my wife and I also sat down for about an hour and did an estimate on what we may owe in taxes. The numbers look good. Since we bought our home in May we do not get the full year advantage of writing off the interest but it looks like we may be breaking about even. This is a weight off my shoulders. After December I will be able to adjust my W-4 and give myself about a $175 a paycheck raise (I get paid every two weeks). This is a nice little raise.

On another note, I find myself getting excited as each month comes to a close. I love to sit down and plug in my new numbers to see what progress I am making. This exercise has also forced me to look at each month as a seperate transaction period. I can try and strategise what actions I would like to take place within each month. I guess what I'm saying is that keeping a detailed spreadsheet and this blog makes me view my personal finances as a true business. Each month at work we do monthly roll ups to see if we are going to hit our annual goals/budget. I now do much of the same for my own finances.

Monthly Update for September 2007

Wow! Net worth up to $173,791.84. That's a change of $7,498 dollars or about a 4.5% increase from last month! Details listed on http://www.networthiq.com/people/VAContractor

I have been saving money for some time now but never really tracked my month to month progress in detail. This has been such a great learning experience for me.

A few notes on the month

• Over $2,500 dollars deposited into my ING account!


• Recovery of the overall U.S. Stock Market had a major impact to my mutual fund portfolio (retirement and taxable accounts)


• Limited draw down of liabilities other than the $339 from a mortgage payment
  

A few thoughts on the future

• Expect next month to be another good ING savings month.


• Expecting some additional income from travel reimbursements from work.


• Cash savings goal of $45,000. Within 6-8 months.


• Continue researching new investments for after cash savings goal is attained.