So again, I realize I’m in the debt paydown process and therefore not really looking to accumulate a large amount of stocks.  But lately, I’ve been very glad in my decision to purchase a decent amount of AIG stock when it hit rock bottom (about $1.40 or so).

Today, AIG stock rose $3.72  per share – which is great considering the only real news was the the new CEO was optimistic.  It just goes to show you how sensitive the stock market is to things like this.  Just more evidence that wealth built on stocks alone can’t really be considered a solid foundation – which is why my monthly payment to the emergency fund is 3x more than my monthly stock purchase.

So I have 10 credit cards right now.  But thankfully, not all of them have balances on them.  In fact, four of my credit cards now have zero balances, but I have not closed them due to fears that it will knock my debt to credit ratio out of whack (more than it already is) and hurt me more than help me.

But in reviewing this old consumerist post, I’m wondering if I should cancel the zero’d out cards now and continue to do so as I whittle my balances down or if I should just wait until I’m completely debt free and have a little card canceling party?  It would be really fun to call these guys up sooner rather than later to say thanks, but no thanks.  But my sense is that I should wait.

I’d really be interested to know what you guys think and why?  Have any of you experienced adverse effects of closing out your cards while still paying down credit card debt?

So I was checking out the debt management section of bankrate.com and saw this:

It’s an ad for a Bank of America Visa Card.  Again, in the Debt Management section of bankrate.com.  I found this to be ironic and a little disingenuous really.  I mean I know that bankrate needs to sell ads to make money, but you would hope they’d align the ads with their content and keep credit cards ads out of that one section.  That’s like M&Ms advertising on the dieting page of a fitness website or something, no?

In today’s Wall Street Journal, there was an article about how the increase in personal savings rates may end up slowing the economic recovery.

Economists are expecting a combination of falling income and higher spending (due to increased costs of gas, etc) to drop savings in the current month, however the overall trend is an increase in personal savings rates.

The general drop in net worth, currently the lowest since 1992, is pushing up the savings rates. Currently, the net worth numbers align with savings rates somewhere between 6% and 10%.

Just how does this impact the economy?

Well a 6% savings rate equates to about $700 billion that doesn’t go into the economy. 10% would exclude $1.2 trillion.

Funny how things change, huh? I remember a time, not too long ago, when the topic used to be how pathetic the savings rates were.

A nice little bump in overall net worth this month, again helped by a pretty nice increase in the assets column as well as a decent amount of debt payoff. Within the past few weeks, I was able to completely payoff the remainder of my Bank of America debt – which felt really good. And may a pretty large payment to another credit card account. Now that Bank of America payment will be rolled into the next card which will hopefully will speed up that pay down. I realize I still have a way to go, but I can start to see the finish line from here and it’s adding much needed motivation.

The debate going on in my head right now is whether to close my zero’d out credit card accounts or just leave them open. My fear is that if I close them my debt ratio increases and my rates could go up even further. The plus side to closing them now is that any damage to my credit score that comes from closing an account would not really effect me much and I’d be able to wait it out while I pay down my debt. I’ll have to do some more thinking and research about this since I definitely want to end up only having two cards once I’m debt free – the ones that have treated me the best during this entire time.

So, I haven’t blogged in a while – sorry about that. It’s been pretty busy at work and I’ve been traveling a bit – both for work and for personal reasons. But regardless, I haven’t given up on the blog and have a few updates to give, which I’ll space out into a few posts.

In the meantime, let’s see where I currently stand. Keep in mind, I didn’t update my net worth for June so this update shows two months worth of financial data.

In the assets column, everything is going fairly well. I needed to dip back into the savings to cover new brake pads and routers for my car, but other than that my retirement and stock accounts are moving along nicely.

I’m still purchasing a set amount of stock automatically, but only at about $30 a month, looking for long positions and undervalued opportunities within today’s market. It’s been going pretty well for me so far as I’ve gained about $400 in the past month in that area.

As for the liabilities, I’m still chipping away at the student loan debt – realizing that more will be piled on once I complete my MBA. The credit card debt is something that I need to re-evaluate and re-focus myself on in the next few days/weeks. With the new credit card regulations coming this February, I’ve noticed my credit limit go down pretty much across the board and some interest rates rise – both due to the falling limits and the ending of low rate promotions.

All together though, in the past two months I’ve been able to get a little closer to having a positive net worth and that is really the end goal – so until then – I’ll just keep moving forward.