I updated our net worth calculations today for January. I screwed up and saved over December so I had to go back and try to guess what the December numbers were. I know the November numbers and January numbers are correct. So our net worth increased by about 7%. This could be slightly off since I screwed up the December numbers but it's close. Overall we increased our net worth by about $3,000.
Assets increased slightly with contributions to our retirement accounts and the opening of our mutual fund investment account. Total assets went up about $900.
The big jump came from decreasing debts. We paid off a little over $1,000 on my car loan leaving us owing just over $4,000 more. Other debts also went down with payments to our Lowe's card and to our furniture bill. These other debts are at 0% interest so we are in no hurry to pay these off. Total Liabilities decreased about $2,163.
Good month overall. For February we will continue trying to pay off my car. Should look about the same as January.
Showing posts with label Net Worth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Net Worth. Show all posts
Friday, January 30, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Our Progress Since Buying a House
I wanted to do a post on the progress my wife and I have made since combining our finances together about a year ago. Looking back over our net worth statements I decided it would be beneficial to look at the period since we bought our house back in April up until now. This is a period of 9 months and I've wanted to see what we have accomplished and what I feel we need to work on. I also need to take into consideration that we put on and paid for a wedding in that timeframe as well so that takes away from our savings and debt repayment.
First comparing our assets. Comparing the two months I notice our assets has gone up just over $2,000. Most of this jump came from our Retirement accounts with a small portion coming from an increase in personal property (wedding rings, furniture). Our cash level has stayed about the same with a negative $62 difference.
Next, looking at liabilities we can see that our total debts have gone down. Doing the math shows that we decreased our debt by $13,447 since April. The majority of this came from paying off my wifes car and almost paying off my car. Our other debts have gone down slightly but nothing to get excited about.
Combined this gives us a total increase in net worth of $15,644 over the past 9 months.
Looking forward, I think the logistics of how our net worth will increase is going to change. Once we have my car loan paid off and our other personal debts paid off we are planning on changing our focus from paying off debt to accumulating assets. At that point the only liabilities we will still have will be the mortgage on the house we just bought and student loans. We are in no rush to pay off the student loans with thier low interest rates. As for the mortgage, we feel it will be more beneficial to grow an investment account rather then paying this off at a faster rate. I will probably add a little each month to pay down the principal but not as aggressive as I have been trying to pay off our car loans. So for 2009 I see an increase in our net worth coming from a combination of asset growth and decreasing liabilities. But the focus will be for the first half of the year paying off debt and then asset accumulation for the second half of the year.
First comparing our assets. Comparing the two months I notice our assets has gone up just over $2,000. Most of this jump came from our Retirement accounts with a small portion coming from an increase in personal property (wedding rings, furniture). Our cash level has stayed about the same with a negative $62 difference.
Next, looking at liabilities we can see that our total debts have gone down. Doing the math shows that we decreased our debt by $13,447 since April. The majority of this came from paying off my wifes car and almost paying off my car. Our other debts have gone down slightly but nothing to get excited about.
Combined this gives us a total increase in net worth of $15,644 over the past 9 months.
Looking forward, I think the logistics of how our net worth will increase is going to change. Once we have my car loan paid off and our other personal debts paid off we are planning on changing our focus from paying off debt to accumulating assets. At that point the only liabilities we will still have will be the mortgage on the house we just bought and student loans. We are in no rush to pay off the student loans with thier low interest rates. As for the mortgage, we feel it will be more beneficial to grow an investment account rather then paying this off at a faster rate. I will probably add a little each month to pay down the principal but not as aggressive as I have been trying to pay off our car loans. So for 2009 I see an increase in our net worth coming from a combination of asset growth and decreasing liabilities. But the focus will be for the first half of the year paying off debt and then asset accumulation for the second half of the year.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
March Net Worth Update
March was a good month for my fiance and I. We filed my fiances taxes and recieved about $1,000 refund already from her federal and states. This money was put directly into our wedding fund as we had planned along to save all tax refunds for the wedding.
Assets:
Cash was up this month because of the taxes mentioned above. We also did not have to make our payment on our wedding location this month because my fiances parents covered it. I'm hoping this will be the same case next month.
Retirement was up slightly but I feel like we contributed more then the increase shown. So this means our returns were down and ate up some of our contributions. Hopefully next month the market will turn in our favor.
Total assets increased by 3.87%
Debts:
Credit cards took a giant decrease this month. This is because we made the payment to pay off all my credit card debt. The amount we still have in credit cards is for daily expenses that we pay off in full each month. A balance will no longer be carried forward on the credit cards.
All the other debts were paid down with thier usual amounts.
Total debts decreased by -3.95%.
This gives us a total net worth increase of 17.96% or almost $4,000. We have crossed over $25k for our net worth!
Next month I am afraid we must have a drop. We will be closing on our house April 18th so will be paying out money in closing costs. We also might have to make a payment on our wedding location. We are also paying for a drain for our new house backyard where there is a problem with pooling water. This money will be put into escrow by the sellers so I am not sure when we will get the money to pay for this or if it will come out of our pockets at first. Hopefully we will still be able to break even or not go down too much!
Assets:
Cash was up this month because of the taxes mentioned above. We also did not have to make our payment on our wedding location this month because my fiances parents covered it. I'm hoping this will be the same case next month.
Retirement was up slightly but I feel like we contributed more then the increase shown. So this means our returns were down and ate up some of our contributions. Hopefully next month the market will turn in our favor.
Total assets increased by 3.87%
Debts:
Credit cards took a giant decrease this month. This is because we made the payment to pay off all my credit card debt. The amount we still have in credit cards is for daily expenses that we pay off in full each month. A balance will no longer be carried forward on the credit cards.
All the other debts were paid down with thier usual amounts.
Total debts decreased by -3.95%.
This gives us a total net worth increase of 17.96% or almost $4,000. We have crossed over $25k for our net worth!
Next month I am afraid we must have a drop. We will be closing on our house April 18th so will be paying out money in closing costs. We also might have to make a payment on our wedding location. We are also paying for a drain for our new house backyard where there is a problem with pooling water. This money will be put into escrow by the sellers so I am not sure when we will get the money to pay for this or if it will come out of our pockets at first. Hopefully we will still be able to break even or not go down too much!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Updated Net Worth and Progress Bars
Well the end of February is upon us and that means it's time update our net worth and make sure we are still headed in the right direction.
This month our cash is up quite a bit. This is because we didn't pay anything on our wedding and I got my tax refund. I also sold some stock and have the money in cash which will be used probably next week to pay down my credit card. Our retirement went up quite a bit to put us over the $5,000 mark. Hopefully by the end of the year we can get that up above $10,000. With 10 months left that is about $500 a month so unless the market performs very poorly and loses what we are putting in, we should reach this goal.
On the debt side we paid monthly bills as normal. We have one credit card with a balance that we are working on paying down and hopefully next month that will be gone. The other credit card is paid off every month in the middle of the month. Therefore when I update the net worth we will always have a balance on there of monthly expenditures such as groceries, gas, and medical expenses which are the only things we use it for.
Overall our assets went up 5.79% or $3,362 and our liabilities went down 1.4% or $562. This combines for a net worth increase of $3,924 or 21.78% to put us almost up to 22k.
I updated the progress bars on the right. I think I did them right. The only area we aren't making good progress towards our goal is debt reduction. Everything else is going good. However, we are making good progress on getting rid of the credit card balance so this is a plus. Everything else is looking well on track to reach the goals I set out at the beginning of the year.
This month our cash is up quite a bit. This is because we didn't pay anything on our wedding and I got my tax refund. I also sold some stock and have the money in cash which will be used probably next week to pay down my credit card. Our retirement went up quite a bit to put us over the $5,000 mark. Hopefully by the end of the year we can get that up above $10,000. With 10 months left that is about $500 a month so unless the market performs very poorly and loses what we are putting in, we should reach this goal.
On the debt side we paid monthly bills as normal. We have one credit card with a balance that we are working on paying down and hopefully next month that will be gone. The other credit card is paid off every month in the middle of the month. Therefore when I update the net worth we will always have a balance on there of monthly expenditures such as groceries, gas, and medical expenses which are the only things we use it for.
Overall our assets went up 5.79% or $3,362 and our liabilities went down 1.4% or $562. This combines for a net worth increase of $3,924 or 21.78% to put us almost up to 22k.
I updated the progress bars on the right. I think I did them right. The only area we aren't making good progress towards our goal is debt reduction. Everything else is going good. However, we are making good progress on getting rid of the credit card balance so this is a plus. Everything else is looking well on track to reach the goals I set out at the beginning of the year.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
The Ultimate Savings Goal (for me)!
This morning I worked on an excel spreadsheet that I have used to determine how much I ultimately want to save up to be able to sustain my current life. I figured in savings in my 401k and a taxable account. I did not take into consideration taxes.
On my spreadsheet I took my current salary and increased it by an annual raise of 4%. Since I've been there my raises have been higher but I like to be conservative in my estimates. So, if I get no higher of a raise then 4% and no promotions to higher pay grades then I will be making approximately 182k by retirement age of 65. Honestly I'd like to retire sooner but that's going to depend on how well I progress towards my savings goals.
Next I figured out how much I feel I need after retirement to sustain the same standard of living. I decided that in retirement, I would need about 80% of my current income. This is probably a little more then I will need because hopefully I will not have a house payment at that time. To come up with 80% I just figured that if I am saving roughly 20% of my salary during my working years I won't be saving while I'm retired. Thus I figured I need 20% less. This is again pretty conservative I feel. I took the 80% of current salary I figured I would need and adjusted it with a 4% level of inflation out until I am age 95. I figured if I live that long then I'm doing good and honestly I hope I don't live that long. If I pass in my 80's I will be happy.
So next I took my retirement savings. I took what I currently have and what I will be saving into retirement each year from my salary and adjusted it for a return of 8%. Hopefully I can get more of a return but I like to be conservative. I grew this account up to retirement age(65).
I also have a taxable savings account where I took current savings and grew it by about the amount it currently grows and adjusted it for a gain of 6.5%. I will have most of this money in mutual funds so I expect it to earn me a high return. I did this through retirement age as well.
Once I hit retirement age, I took the amount I figured I would need to live off of and divided it by two. I took half of that from the retirement account and half from the taxable savings. I switched the return on those accounts to 5% because they will now be invested in a mix of bonds and stocks. I continued to decrease these accounts by taking out what I would need to live. Once taxable savings was down to 100k I took only from retirement savings. I decreased these accounts until the age of 90 and if I live to 91 with this plan I will be completely out of money.
Anyways, these are all really really rough estimates. In the long run I could need more I could need less. I may live off of half my current salary when I retire. I didn't take into account a pension I plan on receiving from work. I didn't take into account the fact that my highest expense should be gone by retirement which is mortgage or rent. But I said I wanted to live without worry. I wanted to be able to be at financial peace with myself. Therefore, I took the numbers I came up with that I would need at retirement to come up with my goal number. At retirement I figured I would need roughly about 3.5 million. Therefore, my goal savings number is going to be 4 million by retirement. With that number as my target, I will work out a plan to achieve that goal.
By the way, I said I am not worried about being incredibly wealthy and to me 4 million sounds incredibly wealthy. However, once you take into account inflation and the fact that I plan on living off of this savings with no other income for 25 years, this is not a lot of money. Today it is. In 2050 it will not be. Four million is my ultimate goal and next I will work on plans to reach that goal through mini goals.
On my spreadsheet I took my current salary and increased it by an annual raise of 4%. Since I've been there my raises have been higher but I like to be conservative in my estimates. So, if I get no higher of a raise then 4% and no promotions to higher pay grades then I will be making approximately 182k by retirement age of 65. Honestly I'd like to retire sooner but that's going to depend on how well I progress towards my savings goals.
Next I figured out how much I feel I need after retirement to sustain the same standard of living. I decided that in retirement, I would need about 80% of my current income. This is probably a little more then I will need because hopefully I will not have a house payment at that time. To come up with 80% I just figured that if I am saving roughly 20% of my salary during my working years I won't be saving while I'm retired. Thus I figured I need 20% less. This is again pretty conservative I feel. I took the 80% of current salary I figured I would need and adjusted it with a 4% level of inflation out until I am age 95. I figured if I live that long then I'm doing good and honestly I hope I don't live that long. If I pass in my 80's I will be happy.
So next I took my retirement savings. I took what I currently have and what I will be saving into retirement each year from my salary and adjusted it for a return of 8%. Hopefully I can get more of a return but I like to be conservative. I grew this account up to retirement age(65).
I also have a taxable savings account where I took current savings and grew it by about the amount it currently grows and adjusted it for a gain of 6.5%. I will have most of this money in mutual funds so I expect it to earn me a high return. I did this through retirement age as well.
Once I hit retirement age, I took the amount I figured I would need to live off of and divided it by two. I took half of that from the retirement account and half from the taxable savings. I switched the return on those accounts to 5% because they will now be invested in a mix of bonds and stocks. I continued to decrease these accounts by taking out what I would need to live. Once taxable savings was down to 100k I took only from retirement savings. I decreased these accounts until the age of 90 and if I live to 91 with this plan I will be completely out of money.
Anyways, these are all really really rough estimates. In the long run I could need more I could need less. I may live off of half my current salary when I retire. I didn't take into account a pension I plan on receiving from work. I didn't take into account the fact that my highest expense should be gone by retirement which is mortgage or rent. But I said I wanted to live without worry. I wanted to be able to be at financial peace with myself. Therefore, I took the numbers I came up with that I would need at retirement to come up with my goal number. At retirement I figured I would need roughly about 3.5 million. Therefore, my goal savings number is going to be 4 million by retirement. With that number as my target, I will work out a plan to achieve that goal.
By the way, I said I am not worried about being incredibly wealthy and to me 4 million sounds incredibly wealthy. However, once you take into account inflation and the fact that I plan on living off of this savings with no other income for 25 years, this is not a lot of money. Today it is. In 2050 it will not be. Four million is my ultimate goal and next I will work on plans to reach that goal through mini goals.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Adjusted Net Worth due to Mistake on Car Loan
Today I adjusted my net worth on NetWorthIQ because of an error on my fiances car loan. We found out last night that she has a balloon payment due at the end of her loan which she did not know about. I thought something seemed wierd with her loan but since it was something she acquired a couple years before meeting me I did not pay too much attention and look into it. However, her credit report showed a balance of about 5k more then we thought it should be. So after looking into it I found out she took out a balloon loan which would require a balloon payment at the end of 4 years of about 5k. This really sucks. I had thought her car would be completely paid off about a year and two months from now with just the monthly payments. Instead we have to fork over another 5k at that time. This loan seems like a big waste of money. I am not sure why her father funded the car this way instead of just a typical 4 or 5 year loan.
Anyways, I went in and adjusted the car loan for the two months our finances have been joined by 5k. So now our networth is 5k lower then we originally thought. This puts us just over 18k net worth. Hopefully we can cross the 20k mark either this month or next with our savings and debt repayment.
A lesson is to be learned here. When financing a loan for anything, make sure you understand the terms if you are going to put your signature on the contract. My fiance had no idea about this balloon payment which really frustrates me. She is frustrated as well because she has become a lot more financially aware since we started dating and became engaged. She is mad that she now has to shell out 5k at the end of her loan after she's been paying on it for 4 years already. I agree and I know this frustrates her because she is actually more of a money saver them me and really will not like seeing our savings go down by that much.
Anyways, I went in and adjusted the car loan for the two months our finances have been joined by 5k. So now our networth is 5k lower then we originally thought. This puts us just over 18k net worth. Hopefully we can cross the 20k mark either this month or next with our savings and debt repayment.
A lesson is to be learned here. When financing a loan for anything, make sure you understand the terms if you are going to put your signature on the contract. My fiance had no idea about this balloon payment which really frustrates me. She is frustrated as well because she has become a lot more financially aware since we started dating and became engaged. She is mad that she now has to shell out 5k at the end of her loan after she's been paying on it for 4 years already. I agree and I know this frustrates her because she is actually more of a money saver them me and really will not like seeing our savings go down by that much.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
2008 Goal Progress Bar Updates
I updated my 2008 goal progress bars to the right this morning to reflect our end of January numbers.
This month we paid off alot of the credit card debt. The goal is to reduce my credit card debt to zero. This goal does not include B's credit card because it is paid off in full every month. By using my emergency money and some money from B's checking, we were able to wipe out half of the credit card debt this month. We are well on our way to accomplishing this goal in 2008. One credit card is gone. Our next mini goal is to get the other card balance below $1,000.
Retirement was not so good this month. Our accounts rose a total of only $95 which doesn't put us very far towards our goal of $10k. Hopefully next month will be better because we still have 98% to go towards our goal this year.
Paying down our total debt was a decent month. We got 29% closer to our goal of being under 30k by the end of 2008. Hopefully we keep this up and go below our goal!
Total net worth did not have a good month. While our debts decreased quite a bit, so did our cash. What we saved in retirement did not show in the small increase in those accounts. What we paid out for our wedding location won't help us for the next 4 months. While we paid down alot of the credit card debt, it was at the expense of some of our savings so the cash number went down.
Overall, I am pleased with the debt reduction this month. Hopefully next month will be a better month for retirement and overall net worth!
This month we paid off alot of the credit card debt. The goal is to reduce my credit card debt to zero. This goal does not include B's credit card because it is paid off in full every month. By using my emergency money and some money from B's checking, we were able to wipe out half of the credit card debt this month. We are well on our way to accomplishing this goal in 2008. One credit card is gone. Our next mini goal is to get the other card balance below $1,000.
Retirement was not so good this month. Our accounts rose a total of only $95 which doesn't put us very far towards our goal of $10k. Hopefully next month will be better because we still have 98% to go towards our goal this year.
Paying down our total debt was a decent month. We got 29% closer to our goal of being under 30k by the end of 2008. Hopefully we keep this up and go below our goal!
Total net worth did not have a good month. While our debts decreased quite a bit, so did our cash. What we saved in retirement did not show in the small increase in those accounts. What we paid out for our wedding location won't help us for the next 4 months. While we paid down alot of the credit card debt, it was at the expense of some of our savings so the cash number went down.
Overall, I am pleased with the debt reduction this month. Hopefully next month will be a better month for retirement and overall net worth!
January Net Worth Update!
This is my second net worth update where my fiance and I are combined so I can make some comparisons from last month. Overall our net worth increased just $192 or 0.84% to just over $23,000.
Our assets overall went down $1,852 or -3.09%. Cash went down $2,136 because we used my emergency fund to pay down credit cards. We also made a payment on our wedding hall and used some extra money in B's checking account to put towards the credit cards. Stocks went up $189 due to me owning Countrywide when they were announced to be bought out by Bank of America. I quickly sold to take a nice profit percentage wise. Retirement only went up $95. We probably contributed over $300 to retirement accounts so this number is no good.
On the debt side, we paid off $2,044 or 5.51%. Alot of this is from the cash taken from my emergency fund and B's checking to pay down the credit card. One card is completely paid off and we will now be working on the last. Other debts decreased with their normal payments.
Overall I'm happy to see our net worth increase. I know these next 4 months are going to be difficult to increase because of paying off our wedding. Hopefully the stock market turns around and helps our retirement accounts out so we can balance our savings with our outflows.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Created Goal Progress Bars
Today I created four goal progress bars to help keep track of how we are doing in 2008. We have set up goals this year discussed earlier like saving for the wedding, paying down debt, saving for retirement.
I set up four bars to help keep track of paying down debt, saving for retirement, and growing our net worth.
The first progress bar set up is to pay off the credit cards. This is the first debt that we are trying to completely eliminate. I am starting out with just under $3,000 in credit card debt and would like to have that completely eliminated this year.
The second progress bar set up is for retirement. This is a joint goal for the fiance and I. I just chose a nice round number, $10,000, and decided to aim for that. Hopefully by the end of the year our retirement account values will be over this mark.
The third progress bar set up is the debt elimination bar. This is our total debt. Combined, my fiance and I have over $37,000 in debt. This is made up of credit cards, 2 car loans, student loans, and personal loans on an engagement ring, bike, and furniture. Our goal is to pay off at least $7,000 of this debt this year and owe under $30,000 heading into 2009.
The last progress bar is our Net Worth bar. I keep track of net worth in NetworthIQ. This bar is to track our progress throughout the year from the beginning. We hope to grow our Net Worth to $35,000 by the end of the year. This is while we are paying for our wedding this coming October. This will be an increase in net worth of 53% and is quite ambitious considering our upcoming wedding. However, I think with an effort of paying down our debt and saving in retirement, we can come close to reaching this goal.
I will update these bars each month around the same time I update my NetWorthIQ profile. Keep watching to see our progress
I set up four bars to help keep track of paying down debt, saving for retirement, and growing our net worth.
The first progress bar set up is to pay off the credit cards. This is the first debt that we are trying to completely eliminate. I am starting out with just under $3,000 in credit card debt and would like to have that completely eliminated this year.
The second progress bar set up is for retirement. This is a joint goal for the fiance and I. I just chose a nice round number, $10,000, and decided to aim for that. Hopefully by the end of the year our retirement account values will be over this mark.
The third progress bar set up is the debt elimination bar. This is our total debt. Combined, my fiance and I have over $37,000 in debt. This is made up of credit cards, 2 car loans, student loans, and personal loans on an engagement ring, bike, and furniture. Our goal is to pay off at least $7,000 of this debt this year and owe under $30,000 heading into 2009.
The last progress bar is our Net Worth bar. I keep track of net worth in NetworthIQ. This bar is to track our progress throughout the year from the beginning. We hope to grow our Net Worth to $35,000 by the end of the year. This is while we are paying for our wedding this coming October. This will be an increase in net worth of 53% and is quite ambitious considering our upcoming wedding. However, I think with an effort of paying down our debt and saving in retirement, we can come close to reaching this goal.
I will update these bars each month around the same time I update my NetWorthIQ profile. Keep watching to see our progress
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
We Have Joined our Net Worth Calculations!
Yesterday my fiance (referred to from now on as BRG) and I combined our net worth calculations to come up with one number. We did this in my NetWorthIQ account so you can see in the chart that it jumped up quite a bit. This will skew the chart for a few months but we can now go on from this new joint number.
Assets-
BRG had quite a bit of cash saved up which increased our cash numbers by alot. She has a very big emergency fund saved up as well as carrying a large balance in her checking account and a standard bank savings account.
BRG has about $1,000 in her 401k at work. She just started contributing to this account and our retirement numbers should grow quite a bit in the upcoming year.
We looked up BRG's car value in Kelly Blue Book to get a rough value. This amounted to just over 9k.
We added BRG's personal property of around 2k. This is the value we paid for our furniture and is likely the only thing we could sell. We did not include other personal items like clothes or her computer.
Debts-
BRG has student loans from college just under 14k.
BRG has a balance on her credit cards that was added to the total but this balance is paid off in full each month.
BRG has one and half years left on her car loan. This comes in right around 4k.
Last we input the amount we owe on our furniture. We have 0% financing and owe about 1.5k.
Overall our new net worth is $22,822. Before combining our net worth I was just about 5k for December. You can see she was in substantially better shape then I was but we now are combined and look at this as ours together.
Friday, December 28, 2007
A Look Back at 2007
2007! The first year I started keeping track of my finances. I graduated from college in May of 2006 and took what I consider my first real job (current job) in September of 2006. Now I have worked for an entire year and have made significant financial progress.
I started keeping track of my finances more in depth in August of 2007. Back then my net worth started at $2,952. I know have a net worth of $5,321 for an increase of 80.25%. That is quite an increase. My best month was December which accounted for almost half of those gains.
2007 wasn't just a good year for my net worth. This was my first year out in the real world after college and I want to take a look at some things I did right that I am proud of and some things I did that were probably bad ideas.
First lets take a look at what I did right this past year:
I started keeping track of my finances more in depth in August of 2007. Back then my net worth started at $2,952. I know have a net worth of $5,321 for an increase of 80.25%. That is quite an increase. My best month was December which accounted for almost half of those gains.
2007 wasn't just a good year for my net worth. This was my first year out in the real world after college and I want to take a look at some things I did right that I am proud of and some things I did that were probably bad ideas.
First lets take a look at what I did right this past year:
- I began the year by opening a traditional IRA. I contributed 5% of my salary a month into the IRA until I was able to start contributing to my 401k.
- Once eligible to contribute to my company's 401k in September, I took full advantage. I contribute the maximum amount needed to recieve the company's full match.
- I opened an online money market account and funded it with $1,000 for emergencies through automatic savings.
- I got engaged to a beautiful woman who I love with all my heart. I can't wait to get married next year and spend the rest of our lives together.
- I took a nice vacation with my girlfriend (now fiance) to Mexico. A great experience and well worth the money to enjoy a vacation with her.
Now lets take a look at the things that could've gone better:
- I racked up quite a bit of credit card debt through the year before I got serious about finances. I paid for last christmas with my credit cards. I overspent on christmas trying to impress my family with the money I now make. I also paid for the Mexico trip with a credit card. I now know I would have been better off saving for things before I spend money on them and not racking up the debt.
- I bought a new bike and took out a loan to pay for it. The loan is at 0% interest and will be paid off so I won't owe any interest on it. I still count this as part of my current debt. The bike was an impulse purchase and if I would have waited a few weeks I probably would not have bought the bike.
- I opened up a stock brokerage account and tried trading stocks without really knowing what I was doing. I felt like I've read alot about investing but I ended up losing over a thousand dollars. I funded the account with $1,700 and now have about $600. I now plan on leaving the money in the stocks I currently have them in and earning dividends and hopefully seeing some appreciation over the next year. However, I absolutely will NOT add any more money to the account this year. Once I have a better financial base, I will consider trying to invest in stocks on my own. If I had not tried jumping into the stock market prematurely, I would have a net worth of about $7,000 instead of $5,300. In the long run this will be an inmaterial amount but currently, it would have been nice to have that much less debt or that much more into my retirement account.
So, I generally feel like I had a good year. I made some good progress and since tracking my finances have increased my net worth and lowered my credit card debt. Hopefully I continue to make good progress in 2008.
December 2007 Net Worth Update
Today was pay day at work and since I have no more bills going out this month I updated my net worth on NetworthIQ. I had a feeling this month was going to be a good month. I am proud to say that this was the best month I have had since starting to keep track of my net worth earlier this year. The increase in my net worth from last month is 28.22% increase. The dollar amount is a $1,171 increase. This puts my total net worth now up to $5,321. I am extremely pleased to have crossed over the 5k mark before the end of the year.
My cash went up slightly this month. My stocks took another hit losing $223. I have sold out of my big losing stock and bought into a preferred stock that will yeild over 10% in dividends for 2008. My retirement account jumped up nicely by $617 for an increase in retirement assets of 23.31%. On the debt side of the equation, my credit card debt went down $279 or almost 10%. Overall my assets increased 2.67% while liabilities decreased 3.26% giving me a huge boost to my bottom line. These numbers do not include my big bonus I recieved this month from work or the christmas money I recieved. I did not put these figures into my net worth because they are in a joint account set up for my fiance and I's upcoming wedding.
The next step for me is that the fiance and I are about to combine our finances. I will be updating my networth IQ chart again probably this weekend or on January 1st and will get a good picture of where my fiance and I will be starting out together.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Net Worth Update
Keeping track of the net worth is one of my main goals with this blog. I use NetworthIQ to track everything and you can see the results in a graph on the left sidebar. I started tracking my net worth back in August of this year (2007). I am pleased to say that I have had positive months every month since through November which was the last update. My net worth started out at $2,952 in August and as of the last update was $4,150. This is a total gain of $1,198 or 40.6% in 4 months. I'm pleased with the percentage gain so far but the total dollar amount doesn't have me too excited. Here in a couple weeks I will update my net worth for December and give a new post about the year in review. I don't expect it to change too much from where the numbers were in November. This is the christmas season and that means spending money on gifts. My fiance and I do expect/hope to get some cash for presents from our family but this will go straight into the wedding fund which I do not count as part of my net worth. Coming up in the new year the fiance and I will be combining our finances and I will start tracking our net worth together. I wonder if this will make my overall net worth increase or decrease? She has a lot of cash but she also carries a student loan and car loan. Either way the goal is to always make progress and increase our net worth.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Net Worth Update October
First things first. I am now engaged. I asked my fiance over the weekend on October 27th and of course she said yes. Now we have the daunting task of planning and paying for a wedding. For someone interested in personal finance and wanting to grow his net worth, this kind of sucks. Don't get my wrong. I am estatic to be getting married to the woman of my dreams. She is so wonderful and I have never loved anyone like I love her. But the idea of shelling out a ton of dough for a wedding is scary. But I know we are both financially responsible people and we will do what is right. The wedding will be great and we'll keep moving forward in our finances.
So, for the month of October, I was able to increase my net worth by 16.27% or $522. I'm pretty pleased with this jump. This is just about double my increase last month and every time there is an increase I will be happy. This month I have focused on paying off credit cards and other debt. I have made it a new dream in life to be debt free and want to pay off all my credit card debt as quick as possible. This could be troublesome however in the near future due to trying to pay for a wedding. The fiance and I have decided to open a joint account and save all available money for the wedding. Hopefully I will still be able to decrease debt a little just not as fast as I would like. My assets should also still grow nicely from my 401k. Cash should stay idle for awhile.
The upcoming month of November will involve me keeping track of every cent that enters and exits my life. I want to see the net of these numbers be positive. Of course, with Christmas coming up, growing the net worth could be a daunting task. I have saved up for Christmas though so I have that money available. The fiance and I have already talked about not spending too much on each other. Everything is going to work out and I have a goal of a net worth close to $5,000 by the end of the year. Lets see what happens!
So, for the month of October, I was able to increase my net worth by 16.27% or $522. I'm pretty pleased with this jump. This is just about double my increase last month and every time there is an increase I will be happy. This month I have focused on paying off credit cards and other debt. I have made it a new dream in life to be debt free and want to pay off all my credit card debt as quick as possible. This could be troublesome however in the near future due to trying to pay for a wedding. The fiance and I have decided to open a joint account and save all available money for the wedding. Hopefully I will still be able to decrease debt a little just not as fast as I would like. My assets should also still grow nicely from my 401k. Cash should stay idle for awhile.
The upcoming month of November will involve me keeping track of every cent that enters and exits my life. I want to see the net of these numbers be positive. Of course, with Christmas coming up, growing the net worth could be a daunting task. I have saved up for Christmas though so I have that money available. The fiance and I have already talked about not spending too much on each other. Everything is going to work out and I have a goal of a net worth close to $5,000 by the end of the year. Lets see what happens!
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