Archive for 2010

Summary

I was a little late with the net worth update this month, so my cash numbers are a bit down since the mortgage was already taken out. I think it should rebound as normal next month.

Other than that it was a pretty steady month. I hope to continue the upward trend.

Monthly Goals

Its Christmas time this month, so that probably mean our credit card bills will be higher than usual. I hope to get some cash built up to keep these paid off.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Summary

Another strong month for our net worth. I was able to stack up some cash which I will be distributing throughout some of our accounts. Unfortunately though we do have a rather large credit card bill to pay so some of that gain was artificial.

I have been saying for months that we want to increase our savings account, so I finally setup my direct deposit to put some money in there automatically. This way I won’t have a choice anymore so it should be up to where we want it in a few months.

I also decided to downgrade one of our cars from clean to average on Edmunds since it is starting to get up there in age. That dropped its value quite significantly.

Monthly Goals

I do not have anything major coming up this month so hopefully we can continue this positive trend.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Summary

Ended up being a pretty strong month for us. I was able to pay off one credit card whose 0% term was expiring. I also added a new stock account, my wife is able to purchase company stock at a discount so we started contributing to that. Also had a pretty good month in the stock market which also drove up our numbers.

Monthly Goals

I have been saying this for months, but I would still like to get my cash reserves back up to 18k. Other than that, I don’t really have any big expenses coming up that I am aware of so should hopefully be able to post some positive numbers.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Summary

Held just about even this month. Had a devalue of my home on Zillow which accounted for a decent chunk of the negative. I was not able to build up my cash reserves as much as I had hoped – hopefully this month I can focus on that.

Monthly Goals

I need to get my one BOA card paid off as the promo rate on that is going to expire. Also would like to build my cash reserves back up to 18k.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Summary

Finally got back into the positive this month. Most of that was due to a good month in the market which saw our retirement accounts go up over 7%. A nice gain on cash as well but that most likely will be going away next update as we had quite a few home improvement issues come up.

Monthly Goals

Hoping to keep status quo this month. Have quite a few expenses from July that are due mid-month so I am hoping just to stay stable with our cash positions.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

Another slightly down month here. Our water heater broke unexpectedly which accounts for the lack of progress so far. It was also a down month in the stock market too which has been the case the last few.

Monthly Goals

Still would like to get a little more padding in our liquid savings. Also have a few home improvement expenses coming up so am hoping to cut back in some other areas to prepare for those.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

Pretty bad month in the market which accounted for my net worth downfall. Our retirement accounts went down 6.78% in May. Personally I’m not really too concerned about that.

I was able to put some money in our savings account, but overall the rest of our accounts were pretty much stagnant.

Monthly Goals

We went on our yearly vacation last month so there will be some bills to pay off from that. I am hoping to keep expenses down this month to account for that. I would also like to build up our liquid savings a little more over the next month or 2.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

In case anyone was wondering, yes I did finally do my taxes before the April 15th deadline. It turned out to be just as difficult as I was dreading. Luckily I was able to get it all done this year so hopefully next year will be much easier.

I had a couple large payments due this month that I had to dip into my savings for to make sure I had enough to cover. I am ready to transfer that money back into my savings now. I will still not be at my $18k goal though.

Monthly Goals

I am going to focus on increasing my savings as much as possible this month.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

Had a great month in the market which accounted for most of the gains in my net worth this month. My company also reinstated some of our 401k match which is great news, so I increased my contributions up to the match amount.

Everything else was pretty stagnant.

Monthly Goals

Call it laziness, but I still have not finished our taxes. It has proven to be pretty difficult this year and I admit I have been pretty apathetic to the whole process. Unfortunately most of it is prep work so I can’t even really pay a pro to do that (or if I did it would probably cost a fortune). Obviously I need to finish those this month.

I also would like to get my cash reserves back up to $18,000. Not quite sure that I am going to make it this month though.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

Made some progress this month towards increasing our cash reserves as well as bringing down the credit cards. Was also helped by an increase in our retirement accounts.

I also closed out my HSBC Savings account which I haven’t used in a few years. I had a free checking account for quite some time with them and they sent me a notice that they were going to start charging a $3 monthly service charge on it – so I promptly closed it.

Monthly Goals

Finish my taxes is priority number one. It has been slow going as I sold a bunch of individual stocks so need to figure out the cost basis for those.

Popularity: 3% [?]

For those of you like me wondering when you can expect to receive your refund direct depot or check once you efile the IRS has a handy publication 2043 with this information.

The table below shows when your federal tax refund should be deposited in your bank account or your check mailed if you efiled and your refund was accepted within the dates listed.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Summary

Not much happened this month. Was able to pay a little towards my credit cards, but the drop in net worth is due to losses in the stock market which took a bite out of our 401k accounts.

My tax documentation also has started rolling in so I can begin that journey shortly.

Monthly Goals

I am slowly trying to build the savings account back up to $18,000. Also hoping to get my credit card debt down as much as possible as well.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

Happy New Year everyone! December was a pretty interesting month financially for us with some large swings.

First off, the refinance on our home was complete and our interest rate is now 4.875% which is pretty exciting. The mortgage total went up because we rolled the closing costs into the loan rather than paying them out of pocket. By my calculations the refi should pay for itself in about 18 months. Also, due to the timing of the close we ended up not having to make our December mortgage payment which is part of the reason for the cash reserve increase.

The market was also up this month which bumped up the retirement portfolio a bit. Was also to pay down a bit on the credit cards so overall I was pretty pleased with the month.

Monthly Goals

Going to have to pay off the holiday bills which is always tough. We kept it somewhat under control this year. Would like to increase my cash reserves up to about $18,000 which is where I like to see it at.

Popularity: 3% [?]