Posted by KC | Posted in net worth | Posted on 05-04-2009
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Needed to dip into the emergency fund and cut back on this months debt pay down due to some school costs that cropped up. However, due to some gains in my stocks and my companies profit sharing deposit into my 401(k) I was able to gain over $6,500 which raised (or lowered depending on how you look at it) my net worth to just under $19,000.
I’m, of course, hoping to make up some ground in the next month or so to put me back on track to have $1,600 by June – but overall I’m happy with the progress. And thankful that I had the emergency account to dip into.
Posted by KC | Posted in net worth | Posted on 04-03-2009
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Wow. That’s pretty much all I can say about it. More than a $1,000 drop in the assets column. That is a pretty swift kick to you know where. But on the plus side – I erased almost $1,400 from my liabilities by continuing to pay off my debt. Also, as mentioned in my last post, my savings has passed the $1,000 mark – which makes me a tiny bit happy. But I’m not easing off the gas just yet. I need to keep working on both ends to get to a place where I feel comfortable.
The main thing I get when I look at this month’s report is how nice it feels to see the debt start to peel away, month-by-month. Besides my emergency fund, I’m not concerned about the assets column at all. Again, as a 28 year old, I’m just seeing this as a great time to spend a little money buying some stocks (through 401k, Roth IRA, brokerage) which will hopefully return and surpass the levels there were at about a year ago. I’m in no rush to sell, so I’m in no rush to panic.
…but that doesn’t mean I don’t see what’s going on…again…wow.
Another month down and I’m pleased that the numbers show that I’m making some progress chipping away at my debt. The credit card pay down combined with a decent increase my emergency fund due to the renewed focus have my net worth being a thousand dollars better than last month. Still a negative number – but I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully am picking up some momentum. At least that’s what it feels like – which is good.
My tax refund should be in my account by the end of this month. If all goes to plan, this should materialize as a reached (initial) goal of $1000 in my emergency fund by June and the milestone of getting my credit card debt below $20K. Not bad for the 2nd month of the year.
I know there’s still a long road ahead, but I am really starting to feel good about my finances and my debt plan. Some scary things still loom on the horizon – job insecurity, economic uncertainty, etc. – but I’m trying to plan for the unexpected now so that it doesn’t set me back if anything were to happen. Something I should have done right from the start of my career – or sooner. Oh well, lesson for my future kids – if they’ll listen.
Last note, I mentioned the economic uncertainty as being something that I need to watch out for in the future. However, I have to say that I am really proud of myself for buckling down and improving my finances little by little during the current economy. Each time I read a story about consumers buying less and saving more, I feel like I’m reading a story about me. It’s nice to be part of a statistic that I can be proud of – instead of the usual statistics associated with my type of finances.
Anyway…onward.
Posted by KC | Posted in net worth | Posted on 12-01-2009
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Near $4,000.00 increase in my net worth – not a bad start to 2009 if I do say so myself. Well don’t get used to this type of monthly report. This was a direct benefit of my end of the year bonus. Now this is where you would naturally say, “Hey, wait a minute, KC…what’s this bonus talk?! Just a post or two ago you were talking about getting fired. What gives?
Yeah, I lucked out. Our year-end bonus is based upon that year’s profitability in terms of a percentage of our annual pay and we did okay in 2008. Now the job insecurity is based a little bit on the 2009 outlook and some other issues I’m going through – namely the perception of my performance from my superiors. Can’t please everyone, I guess. Anyway, that’s a whole other post.
Now in terms of my bonus and just how it affected this months’ net worth update. More than 70% of my bonus went directly to paying off credit card debt. The rest helped me buy some last minute Christmas gifts for my family.
You’ll notice that my retirement account went up by a little more than $1,000. I assure you I did not contribute anything extra to that account. That is soley the benefit of a small and unexpected rebound. However, that being said there are a few expected (knock on wood) things that I can look forward to in the next few months such as a tax refund and the closing of at least one more credit card account which will help me speed up my snowball. So far, so good for ‘09…and yes I know it’s only been 12 days.
Posted by KC | Posted in net worth | Posted on 06-12-2008
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I know, I know – I’ve been a delinquent blogger. Work has been ridiculously busy which is good in a bad economy (especially for what I do), but it’s definitely taking a toll on my personal life (the girlfriend is not happy with the long hours) and my mental state. I’ve been so stressed the past few months I can’t even begin to go into it.
Anyway…the worst part about being so busy is that I completely missed a net worth update. But here is my December vs. October update – so keep in mind we’re looking at two months worth of information here.
Basically everything went down. Stocks were expected, the dip in savings was unfortunately necessary due to an unanticipated hospital bill (no worries – I’m fine) and credit cards are slowly being reduced to nothing.
I haven’t moved begun my test with the envelope system just yet – to be honest I’m kind of avoiding it because I don’t know how user-friendly it would be. But then again it was the user-friendliness of credit cards that got me into this mess in the first way, so maybe the harder road is the better road after all.
Currently, I’m trying to track all of my spending in a google spreadsheet so I can access and update it from anywhere. I’m tracking it by pay period to ensure that I budget my cash correctly and also to be able to look back on what I’m spending my money on. We’ll see how it goes.
Posted by KC | Posted in net worth | Posted on 21-10-2008
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So, like I said, ouch. This may be the largest single month loss in net worth that I’ve experienced since beginning this blog. But oddly enough I’m not phased really or discouraged. I’m still paying down the credit card balances, however I haven’t been able to throw as much money at my debt as I would have liked.
The reason for the trip back to -$30K land is due to stocks. But like I said before – both on here and on twitter – I can’t realistically abstain from buying stock in this market. It’s a fire sale and it’s only going to get better from here…right?
Posted by KC | Posted in net worth | Posted on 05-09-2008
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More than doubled last months net worth increase!! …you have to keep your sense of humor about these things, right?
Anyway, slight set back as I had to dip into my savings to cover some books, etc for grad school.
Honestly, it’s a shame how much textbooks cost and what schools make you do to ensure they get as much money from you as possible. In lieu of a text book for one class I had to purchase a handout packet from the school bookstore (only place it’s produced and carried). That photocopied packet cost $200! So much for googling for used textbooks. It’s a shame how higher education is a business. Another example, book versions/editions. Next time you get a chance to look at two consecutive editions of a textbook try to find a reason they needed the new edition.
I’m able to make some higher credit card payments now and one of my student loans has been deferred. Sure I’ll have more loans to payoff once school is done, but 1. I’ll worry about that when I get there and 2. they’ll be lower interest than credit cards and the interest that is there will be a tax deduction. So I don’t mind deferring for now.
More posts to come soon – I was pretty lame last month. But I have a few things I would like to research/discuss in the next week or so…
