Net Worth Update: July

I promise I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I accidentally missed posting at all in the month of June. My excuse is that I was busy with work, school, and my "Honey Do List." Well, now I'm back and the good news is that I never stopped tracking my finances. I'm sure all (12?) of my regular readers are just itching to know how I've done.

The market has supercharged my returns and added about $3,500 to the assets side of the equation in the last two months. It has been pretty vindicating to know that I stuck with the dollar cost averaging plan and made money through the market pain. My IRA that I started in 2007 is now firmly in positive territory. The balance is about 5% above the total contributions. My 401(k) still has a paper loss for the shares I held before the drop, but the overall balance is well above where it was in November 2007 when the loses started. I know it may still be a bumpy ride, but it is nice to know that persistence pays off.

On the debt side of the ledger...
I've made very minimal progress by paying off a few hundred dollars. I'm being more and more tempted to drop my IRA investing to focus on the debt monster so I can properly slay it, but for now the tax free gains and low(er) price/earnings ratios are keeping me investing. The plan is to put any bonus, raise, or cost of living adjustment into a "Debt Snowball" to start making traction. A few months without a major run of bad luck would help too.

Speaking of bad luck, the last post dealt with the need for new tires. I bit that bullet and immediately the hydra spawned another head. The latest major unexpected expense was an emergency crown for my #18 molar. That was $900, ouch. On the plus side, I was able to fork over cash (for a 10% discount!) and take the money out of my emergency fund. That was half of what I had put away, but at least it was there when I needed it. Now it is a priority to build it back up.

For a quick run down on my financial happenings from the last two months you can look at my NetworthIQ page. Another month, another post and I'll catch you again soon.

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Net Worth Update: May

So another month has come and gone. I updated the data on my NetworthIQ page and was pleasantly surprised to have added $2,100 to the total during May. The big bounce in my retirement accounts continued, and including new contributions the market accounted for all of my net worth gains. The three month run for my investments is about a 30% return! From peak to trough I'm already back above where I started in dollar terms (because I kept pouring in money on the way down) and on a dollar/share basis I'm down around 20%. That's a whole lot better than the nearly 40% loss I was looking at at the market bottom.

Looking ahead the the month of June I know there will be a big expense when I replace the tires on one of the cars. I've racked up nearly 60,000 miles in three years! Apparently we drive a lot... I also learned that the car has some pretty fat rubber that is going to run me about $150 per tire to replace. Beyond that I think the month will be pretty tame. With a little luck in the markets I might be able to break $40,000 net worth barrier this month. Check back in a few weeks to see if I make it.

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Net Worth Update: March & April

I have continued to update NetworthIQ regularly every month. I didn't get around to a blog post to go along with it last month, but I'm still keeping up with the data. Thankfully the market has rebounded and with my new contributions it has made a big impact. I've added a good amount to the net worth figure in the last two months.

There have been a few interesting financial events lately. My paid for car has been giving me trouble all along and I decided to replace it. I bought a very lightly used (14k miles) 2008 Hyundai Elantra. It was priced very nicely and I think I got a good deal. The downside is that I added a new monthly payment to the mix. Overall it seems like a good reasonable expense to keep reliable transportation.

I've also done some projects around the house. I'm 90% done installing a tile backsplash in the kitchen. It's taken a big investment of time but not a large dollar cost (~$500). I'm also battling the weeds and grass in the yard now that it has warmed up. I need to buy some trees and shrubs sometime soon too.

I'll try to keep up with the blog a bit more over the Summer and write a bit more often. Certainly check out my NetworthIQ page and the blog to follow my updates.

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Net Worth Update: February

Yes, I know it is already more than a week into March. Sorry. For those that pay attention I actually updated NetworthIQ on time at the close of February. The results were lackluster mostly due to the ugly stock market. In all there was a small decrease in net worth. I did make good progress on the debt front (as in, I didn't add any). If you are interested in the details then please click over to the full results via the graphic in the right sidebar.

March is looking like a better month thus far. That is, assuming the nice stock market gains of the last 3 days hold. I'll update in a few weeks to see how it all turns out.

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Net Worth Update: January

The time for January net worth results has arrived. The numbers are pretty straight forward. We reduced our debt a bit and stayed even on our cash. The net result was a moderate increase in net worth during January.

Assets		$ Diff	% Diff
Cash	$2,156	($1,388)	-39.16 %
Stocks	$0	$0	-
Bonds	$0	$0	-
Annuities	$0	$0	-
Retirement	$19,044	($793)	-4.00 %
Home	$194,900	$0	-
Other Real Estate	$0	$0	-
Cars	$12,125	($2,595)	-17.63 %
Personal Property	$0	$0	-
Other	$2,204	$2,204	-
Total Assets	$230,429	$23	0.01 %

Debts		$ Diff	% Diff
Home Mortgage(s)	$175,356	($195)	-0.11 %
Other Mortgage(s)	$0	$0	-
Student Loans	$0	$0	-
Credit Card	$1,346	$167	14.16 %
Car Loans	$6,695	($379)	-5.36 %
Other	$15,865	($359)	-2.21 %
Total Debts	$199,262	($766)	-0.38 %

Total

$31,167

$789

2.60 %

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Net Worth Update: December

Time has flown by as we rush into the New Year. We are almost a week into 2009 so it is time to look back at December and all of 2008 to assess my financial results.

Over the past month a great thing has happened, the S&P went UP 0.78% and the MSCI EAFE Index went up a whopping 7.5%. That means that for the first time since August I had a positive return in my retirement accounts. Because I've poured almost $13,000 of new money into my 401(k) and Roth IRA over the course of 2008 I even had a gain for the year (nevermind the the gain was only $4,900 or a net loss of about $8,000 or 40%). The good news is that I've stuck to my plan and focused on the long term benefits of buying into the down market.

During December I also managed to pile up a significant amount of new cash. This was mostly due generous family memebers at Christmas. Unfortunately there was a corresponding (though thankfully not as large) increase in short term debt as I used most of those funds to buy my wife a laptop. We also paid my wifes Spring tuition. Both of those expenses add up to the entire balance shown for the credit card ($1,179) which will be paid off in short order during January.

For the whole of 2008 kept our cash position virtually equal and made a small bit of progress on the debt front (an almost pathetic $2,500). As far as "bad debt goes" we ended the year almost exactly how we started with about $24,500. This include our car loan, personal loan, and some 0% interest furniture loan.

I adjusted the value of our hard assest this month as well. The result was that the value of our home is virtually static with no change and the value of our cars dropped significantly. No surprises there, but still a bummer to watch how fast a new-ish car drops in value. I do this adjustment every six months rather than every month because the month-to-month trends for auto and home values seems too volitile to give a good reading. If someone has a better suggestion for how to track these values please leave some feedback in the comments section.

I think that covers all of the key areas. The full number can be found in the table at the end of the post. Sometime in the next few days I hope to sit down and write up a list of goals for 2009. Check back for that post soon.

Assets		$ Diff	% Diff
Cash	$3,544	$1,936	120.40 %
Stocks	$0	$0	-
Bonds	$0	$0	-
Annuities	$0	$0	-
Retirement	$19,837	$2,293	13.07 %
Home	$194,900	$0	-
Other Real Estate	$0	$0	-
Cars	$12,125	($2,595)	-17.63 %
Personal Property	$0	$0	-
Other	$0	$0	-
Total Assets	$230,406	$1,634	0.71 %

Debts		$ Diff	% Diff
Home Mortgage(s)	$175,551	($196)	-0.11 %
Other Mortgage(s)	$0	$0	-
Student Loans	$0	$0	-
Credit Card	$1,179	$777	193.28 %
Car Loans	$7,074	($368)	-4.94 %
Other	$16,224	($312)	-1.89 %
Total Debts	$200,028	($99)	-0.05 %

Total

$30,378

$1,733

6.05 %

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Net Worth Update: November

September turned out to be an interesting month. I put to bed $1,200 in debt! Unfortunately the stock market continued to bring the pain which tempered the mood a bit. I poured about $1,200 into the market and ended up down $492 (a loss of about $1,700 or ~10%).

The debt side of the ledger was dominated by my decision to refinance our "bad debt" into a fixed rate, fixed term personal loan. I now have a specific date when we will be (bad) debt free. It has only been one month, but following this plan has proved easier to stick to than plans in the past.

On the asset side there was a dip in cash which will be rectified soon when my next payday arrives. This month I will have an extra paycheck so I will use it to juice up my cash holdings. The retirement accounts continued to suffer with a loss, but I'm holding steady and continuing with my investment strategy.

As the stock market has fallen I have gradually moved away from bonds and become more fully invested in stocks. On November 20th, when the S&P dropped to 752, I moved the last 5% of my investments into stocks. I had set an 800 threshold for myself and went all-in when it dropped below that level. I picked 800 by doing a linear extrapolation of stock prices from the 1980's without the exponential rise that came with the dot.com bull market. It was a rough forecast, but gave me a jumping in point. Thus far it looks like a pretty smart move. Even if I did not hit the bottom of the market perfectly I am confident that a few years down the road I'll be glad that I used this buying opportunity.

Now that you've got the story, here are the numbers:

Assets		$ Diff	% Diff
Cash	$1,608	($502)	-23.79%
Stocks	$0	$0	-
Bonds	$0	$0	-
Annuities	$0	$0	-
Retirement	$17,544	($492)	-2.73 %
Home	$194,900	$0	-
Other Real Estate	$0	$0	-
Cars	$14,720	$0	-
Personal Property	$0	$0	-
Other	$0	$0	-
Total Assets	$228,772	($994)	-0.43 %

Debts		$ Diff	% Diff
Home Mortgage(s)	$175,747	($194)	-0.11 %
Other Mortgage(s)	$0	$0	-
Student Loans	$0	$0	-
Credit Card	$402	($293)	-42.16 %
Car Loans	$7,442	($373)	-4.77 %
Other	$16,536	($341)	-2.02 %
Total Debts	$200,127	($1,201)	-0.60 %

Total

$28,645

$207

0.73%

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