Back in action, baby.
The stock markets returned to lift up the world’s investments! So it had absolutely nothing to do with me actually doing GOOD! haha…
Okay, well that’s a little bit of a lie, but as you can see in that graph to the left, the bulk of this extra $13Gs came from our stocks & mutual funds going up. And in all honesty it’s going to be this way for the rest of our lives unless we start hoarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash or some exotic antiques or paintings or something. And I really have no intentions of doing that ;) So our wealth will fluctuate every day the market is open, and we hope it just continues to gradually go up! (and if not, at least we’ll be buying low during those points).
But in OTHER exciting news, and completely out of nowhere really, I started paying down our mortgages! AND our 1 credit card which I’ve sworn I wasn’t going to do for months to come! :) Remember how I said I sometimes just can’t take it anymore and will pay off huge chunks of debt when I’m “in the mood?” Well yeah, that happened this month. I unleashed almost $1,000 toward our mortgages and credit card cuz I was getting antsy. We’ll see what next month brings, but it was nice to get it out of my system for a bit. More details are below…
Net Worth break down: September, 2010
CASH SAVINGS (+$1,021.04): Not as much as we’ve been able to save in previous months, but it’s actually pretty good since we paid off that $900+ toward debt earlier this month. Only sucky part is that it’ll slow down my race to the $50,000 “quit my job whenever I want” fund now. But whatever, really can’t complain about banking another thousand dollars away.
EMERGENCY FUND ($0.00): The same boring as ever $10,000 just sitting there, waiting to be woken up with an emergency! (which let’s pray never happens)
ROTH IRAs (+$1,844.23): Nothing new added here either, actually. Just the market doing what it does! And this time in our favor unless last month, bleh.
401(k)s (+$10,244.07): Same with this bad boy. All maxed out and just riding the wave until a fresh new year opens up….although now that we DON’T HAVE A 401(K) anymore at work I’m not quite sure what, exactly, we’ll be up to when January comes… I’ll have research that a bit further.
AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (-$400): Now this makes more sense! If you recall from last month, we were UP $265?! So strange… but this oddly makes me feel better, so well done Kelly Blue Book.
- Pimp Daddy Caddy: $2,695.00
- Gas Ticklin’ Toyota: $9,440.00
HOME VALUE (Realtor) ($0.00): Still @ $300k as our realtor set it at a while back. Our neighbor’s house had an offer of $297k a few months ago on their house, so this should still be a fair estimate.
CREDIT CARDS (-$804.00): We’re getting there! If I suck it up another month we’ll be zeroed out by the time our next net worth update comes around. But let’s not get too carried away here, my $50k fund is still the apple of my eye right now ;)
MORTGAGES (-$130.87): I went back to paying off even amounts against both these guys again. Even just rounding them up to the highest $100 helps chip away at them nicely. No plans on doing much more than that in the future, but for now we’ll stick to this latest “trick” until I start caring again… stupid mortgages…
- Mortgage #1: $286,818.64 – 30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%.
- Mortgage #2: $62,554.19 – Maxed out HELOC w/ 2.8% interest.
Here’s to another month! Hope you all saw increases in your wealth amounts too :) You’re making sure to track it all right? Even if it’s just on a piece of paper or a quick spreadsheet? I hope so! You can’t measure success without knowing your past reports.
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PS: My personal budget has also been updated, and you can download it (and others) here.
PPS: Watched Social Network movie the other night. Mark Zuckerberg did NOT look good…wow. Doctor S had some interesting words to say about him on his blog, you should check it out ;)
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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Hey J-Mula,
Listen good job on the monthly net worth update, I have one piece of advice for you that may bring in even more money. Why dont you set up a CD Ladder for the 10 G’s that are sitting there so lonely not gaining interest. ITs worth it cause you can make some good FDIC secured money and if a real emergency were to arise you can take it out, who cares about a measley penalty when you are big pimpin.
Green = Good. Nice job! :)
Yes, the markets were very nice this past month. I also saw a nice bump. Oh, how I wish the rest of my spreadsheet looked like this. By the way, I use your template and love it. I only get paid once a month, but still works great.
hey hey, lookin good! it’s always nice to be in the green at the end of the month. Congrats on the increasing net worth
J,
Congratulations man. Must be nice to be above average!
Fantastic stuff! It KILLS me month in and month out when I see my mortgage bill and notice that I paid off ~150 of principal lol
Great job J! Can I say that I LOVE that you have 60k in liquid cash!
I have a question…do you recommend that everyone (or only big ballers like yourself) update networth every month? We currently print out a yearly report. My goal for 2011 is to get out a quarterly report.
It’s that time of the month where I despise you for all of your financial success! Just b/c I am bitter and sitting at the other end of the spectrum! But it is good for motivational purposes for myself. I always end up putting out my networth after reading yours! Hahaha, maybe I am trying to tell myself something? Thanks for the link love J$.
J- why on earth do you still have an interest only mortgage?!?! As a banker and somebody who knows mortgages well, this is a disaster waiting to happen (see Enemy of Debt latest blog post for first hand experience)! If I was you I would suck it up and start agressively paying that down- that is going to be a burden much longer than 30 years if you continue to hoard cash money instead of paying down debt!
S W has a good point, however he probably doesn’t know your house is underwater. I’ve read an article about how people are paying down their mortgage in order to refinance at these ridiculously low rates. Unless you plan on a strategic default, you should consider that option. I feel interest rates are itching to go up sooner than later.
Yahoo! Looking good J. Money!
J. Money this post is inspiring. I recently wrote out my 5 year plan, and I’m hoping to have a net worth of $250K. I have a lot of work to do but this is inspiring. I think I should calculate my net worth monthly to see if I’m on track :)
Thanks everyone! It’s definitely nice when all your hard work pays up over time… even if non-directly like this month ;)
@Uncle El – Yeah, you’re totally right dude. I’ve been laxed on just letting it sit there for so long and honestly never think about it. In fact I still probably won’t touch it for a while until more time frees up and it becomes a priority :(
@DD – How wonderful! I LOVE hearing that it helps other people! :) I know how much it helped me so I’m really glad it’s getting passed around. Thx for letting me know!
@James – You two would know ;)
@Evan – Right? If only we can find a suger momma to lend us a few Hundred Gs interest-free ;)
@Trina – YES YES YES! I recommend EVERYONE and their moms track their net worth every month. For two reasons:
1) It’s good to know where all your money is no matter if you have -$56,000 or +$5.3 million! *Knowing* allows you to make quicker decisions and plan better.
2) You can’t track your progress (or problem areas) if you don’t pay attention every month. You gotta compare the current w/ the past and see if all looks good or if you need to make some changes.
3) (just remembered this one) It helps psychologically! I started spending less and trying to figure out ways to save MORE because I knew I’d be calculating it again in a few weeks! And would be really pissed if I did poorly ;)
And also, I’m not big balling ;) But I am more comfortable after working hard all these years.
@Doctor S – We motivate each other Mr. Promotion man! It’s kinda like our football teams too if you think about it. The skins are always 1 step ahead of your Eagles ;) ooooooooooh…
@S W – I see your point, but I can assure you no disasters are looming ;) A few things:
1) I can always use my cash at any point in time to pay it down. So if something crazy were to happen for some reason, I’d have some coverage
2) It’s a fixed rate.
3) I couldn’t refinance even if I wanted too – we’re too far underwater.
4) It allows me to be more flexible. Other mortgages would require me to pay a couple hundred more every month whether I wanted to do it or not. Interest-Only allows ME to choose, like these past 12 or so months when my priorities is banking the cash instead.
5) I’m pretty good at paying off extra when It’s my goal. This is not the case for other people, but I have total confidence in myself.
6) I don’t plan on waiting 30 years to pay it off. As soon as I have my $50k cash cushion, plus or minus a little more to start my own business, I’ll beging forumulating a plan to kill it much much sooner.
But again, this just works for ME. It’s a conscious decision while for others it can cause much much more problems than it’s worth. Does that make sense? I like that you brought it up though so I could share more :)
@StackingCash – Yeah, way too underwater to refinance. A plan will be in the works at some point, just not in the very near future.
Briana @ GBR – Yes, do it! I’m telling you, it helps even just psychologically :)
@ Uncle El & J. Money- I’ve been wondering what to do with my emergency fund.
What are the penalties with a CD ladder? I want to earn some interest but keep it as liquid as possible.
Hello Molly,
I read some good information on Depositaccounts(Dot)com, its a website that is comparable to bankrates(Dot)com but actually in my opinion alot better. Just go there and search for CD ladders and read up on how to structure it so that you can see your options. As far as the penalties go it depends on the institution and it varies, but I heard that some dont even charge. Hope this helps.
Good points J- I did not realize you were underwater as this would obviously cause you to be unable to re-fi.
On another note, I read this blog every day and am EXTREMELY impressed with your retirement savings and your boat loads of liquidity! I strive to get there myself someday.
Congrats- and thanks for the inspiration!
You still motivate me!
@S W – Thanks so much for reading :) Love having you here!
You too Hank and the others!
J,
Love the site like a fat kid loves cake. Did your employer end the 401(k) completely or just stop matching? My employer only matches 25% of the first 6% of my salary, but even though the investment options are mediocre I contribute 15% to avoid paying taxes. (15% is the most I can contribute and still contribute big $$ to my Roth). Since I started reading this site I’ve been tracking my net worth and it’s nice to see the number tick up a little more because of tax savings. So far this year I have an extra $1k in my account because of my extra un-matched 401(k) contributions.
GOOD JOB Sam!!!! Keep doing that too, you will be SO MUCH better down the road starting out now :) And yes, sadly my employer nixed the entire 401(k) plan altogether. I can’t even contribute $1.00 if I wanted too. #FAIL
Pretty impressive stuff here! Especially cracking $50k on your cash.