What else are we gonna do? I tell you this much – just having my job AND my house is enough to keep me in good spirits, that’s for sure!
Every time i turn on that freakin’ tv, or read MSNBC online, there is some sort of fiasco happening around the world. So if i can still have all the luxuries i do now in life, i don’t mind lose some bucks here and there until it all turns back around.
Plus, i mean, all my losses are really only in my 401k stuff, and you know i won’t be touching that for yeaaarrrrrrrs to come, so i can stomach the ups and downs for quite some time.
It does suck that i’ve been keeping to my plan and doing pretty well w/ everything else though, yet my net worth reflects the opposite :( but that’s life – i just gotta keep steering the old’ money boat in the right direction, and soon enough i’ll hit the $1,000,000 shores! Mmmmmmm a million dollars….
Here’s how it breaks down this month:
CASH SAVINGS: Down a couple of hundred, but no biggie. I used some of my Fun Fund cash to pick up a stereo for my car (went w/ a nice, yet exceptionally CHEAP, HD unit so i can listen to some crips music and cd’s again! the Caddy only had a tape deck) and then must have spent some more dollars here and there. I also made wayyyyy less in blog income this month (not that i make all that much anyways) but i don’t count on that anyways, so it’s all good.
ROTH IRA: Still floating on the whims of the market! Not a penny dropped in for months now…have too many other places to save.
401(k): SMACK! Right in my face :( At least it wasn’t a surprise, eh? To be honest, I’m more upset that my bi-weekly deposits STILL haven’t been made into my account @ work….so while i lost almost 11k’s from the market alone, the $2,375 taken from my paycheck this month isn’t even IN there. Well, i should say half of that anyways as the other half is company match, but still it’s unnerving. I’ve been told it’ll be fixed pretty shortly here, but we’re going on 11 months here so i’m not holding my breath. Needless to say, i don’t think i’ll be hitting my yearly goal of $100k in the Net Worth department, mostly due to this stuff.
SAVINGS BONDS: Forty cents – woohoo! haha…best 40 cents earned in today’s market ;) You can check out the breakdown of all my old a$$ bonds here.
CONDO INVESTMENT: I stopped lending money to my brother 3 months ago, so now it’s just a matter of collecting it all at 5% interest. He paid me $350 last month, but the rest will come in pieces over time. Def. no rush though, it’s all “free” money to me since i classified it as just another bill to pay – which is now over ;)
HOME EQUITY: This amount still reflects our purchase price minus the money we accidently paid off the mortgage when our heloc froze. As always, i still don’t know how to classify this as the house isnt’ worth what we paid anymore, but it’s on my New Year’s resolution…i’ll probably just Zillow.com it and then add another row to both Assets and Liabilities to reflect it or something.
AUTO WORTH (kbb): I gained $115!!! that’s a first ;) You know what did it? The addition of my new cd player! haha…i spent a total of about $170 ($90 for the unit, $40 for some components, and $40 for installation) so i guess it kinda paid for itself! Not to mention my ears now have some better music to listen to ;)
CREDIT CARDS: This amount is from buying my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) a few months ago – that’s it. No other consumer debt on this bad boy, just the car amounts :) And to keep on track, I’m still applying my old $443 car payments towards the balance every month until it’s paid off.
And i FINALLY got my reimbursements back from cancelling all 3 of my warranties i had on the Highlander, so that was an additional $1400 applied to it as well! That was all factored into my decision to change up the cars from the beginning, so it wasn’t a surprise, but it did feel hot paying such a big chunk off!
AUTO LOAN: Zeroooooooooooooo! That is if you disregard my credit card balance ;) If you remember, i was losing anywhere from $450- $1200 a MONTH keeping the Highlander, so the steady value for my Caddy is freakin’ great.
That’s it for this go-around. I hope you all did better than i did this month, and let’s just pray things start turning around now! See ya out there.
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*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are the past Net Worth updates.
PS: If you’re just getting started in your journey, here are a few good resources to help track your money. Doesn’t matter which route you go, just that it ends up sticking!
- The "Budget/Net Worth" spreadsheet - the colorful Excel template I personally use.
- The "Money Snapshot" spreadsheet - a simple Excel template I created for my former $$$ clients
If you're not a spreadsheet guy like me and prefer something more automated (which is fine, whatever gets you to take action!), you can try your hand with a free Empower account instead (formerly Personal Capital)
Empower is a cool tool that connects with your bank & investment accounts to give you an automated way to track your net worth. You'll get a crystal clear picture of how your spending and investments affect your financial goals (early retirement?), and it's super easy to use.
It only takes a couple minutes to set up and you can grab your free account here. They also do a lot of other cool stuff as well which my early retired friend Justin covers in our full review of Empower - check it out here: Why I Use Empower Almost Every Single Day.
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