Archive for the 'Net Worth' Category

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: 1% [?]

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: 2% [?]

Summary

Well my cash reserves finally took a hit from the large school tax bill I paid the previous month. We also took a big hit from the value of our SUV – I think I did not input the specs in correctly last month as that number seemed high to me, so hopefully its correct going forward.

On the plus side, I was finally able to refinance our home loan down to 4.875% thought it does not take effect until next month. Pretty happy about that since our rate was probably about the highest it had been in the last 6 years or so.

Monthly Goals

Rebuild the cash reserves. They are much lower than I am comfortable with right now. Would also be nice to keep the holiday shopping under control.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Summary

I was happy to see the net worth go up this month. Had a pretty hefty school tax bill which caused the cash reserves to dip a little bit. Luckily our 401ks went up a bit, and the Zestimate of our home as well thanks to a couple strong sales in the neighborhood.

What I didn’t do was pay down much credit card balance which will be going out of 0% very soon. I have been looking for other cards to transfer them to but so far it has come up empty.

Monthly Goals

My refinance should go through this month so I will have a bit of a payment on that for the closing costs. It will bring my rate down to 4.875% though so I think it is definitely worth it in the long run.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Summary

My net worth for this month is a complete rewrite. I decided to include a couple other figured that are my wife’s into our combined net worth which caused quite a crash – mainly her graduate school student loan. We also financed a new (used) car so that loan and car value is now included on my net worth.

Pretty much feels like I’m starting from scratch at this point, but I’m obviously keeping all the history to compare to the past.

Monthly Goals

Rebuild my cash reserves after paying my school taxes – I mailed the check but they haven’t cashed it yet so its not reflected in this months net worth. Also need to continue to make progress on paying down our credit cards, I stalled a bit on that this month.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

Hard to believe its September already, the summer has flown by!

This month I was able to further pay down some of our credit cards while holding the savings pretty steady. My 401k also did pretty well which helped my net worth out.

As part of my ongoing project to simplify our finances I have switched my various ROTH accounts to Ameriprise. This eventually should help me reduce the amount of information I have to sift through on a weekly basis.

Monthly Goals

Pay off some more credit cards whose 0% term will be expiring soon.

Also, I have to seriously consider refinancing. I have been playing the waiting game but the rates have held pretty steady for the last few months. Even if I can’t get in at my goal of under 5% (with no points / low fees) I still will be saving enough at 5.25% to make it worthwhile.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

It has been a pretty slow month financially for me. I started paying off some of my expiring 0% credit card offers. I also was able to reduce my homeowners insurance by shopping around which freed up some extra cash.

Monthly Goals

Pay off some more credit cards whose 0% term will be expiring soon.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Summary

Well, I finally did it. The project I have been talking about for about a year – selling my individual stocks – is complete! Honestly selling them wasn’t the painful part, calculating the capital gains on them will be. I will probably have to dedicate a few days to that.

With the proceeds I was able to rebuild my cash reserves and pay off a credit card whose 0% term expires this month.

Monthly Goals

Pay off some more credit cards whose 0% term will be expiring soon.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Summary

I didn’t too great on my goal this month of rebuilding my cash reserves. Fortunately the stock market was up so my net worth took a bigger than anticipated jump. Other than that everything else was pretty stagnant.

Monthly Goals

Plan once again this month is I am also going to try to get working on my never ending goal of selling my individual stock accounts. I have said I am going to do this for a year or so, but every time I look at it calculating the cap gain on it turns out to be more work than I feel like undertaking.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Summary

Another up month for my stock investments which at the beginning of the year I had all but given up on. As expected my cash reserves dropped due to having to pay my hefty tax bill.

Monthly Goals

Try to rebuild my cash reserves up to their usual levels. This will probably prove to be pretty difficult since we have a large vacation planned for this month.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Summary

The stock market rebounded a bit (finally) so some of my investments actually went up this month! Shocking I know. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. I have been looking into refinancing my mortgage but have not pulled the trigger as of yet.

Monthly Goals

I am going to owe on my taxes this year so that will probably wipe out any gains I am able to make on my cash reserves. I think holding steady on those will be my goal of the month.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Summary

The stock market continues to take heavy tolls on my net worth. I also had a hefty property tax bill due this month which took away some of my cash reserves. I didn’t get as much accomplished this month as I had hoped.

Monthly Goals

Rebuild some of my cash reserves. Also I need to address my credit cards, some of the 0% balances are running out in the next few months so I need to see if I can move them to another 0% offer or if its time to pay them off.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Summary

The continued decline of the stock market has continued to take quite a toll on my net worth. I was able to build up my cash reserves a bit but that improvement was all wiped out by stock loses.

I keep telling myself it will turn around eventually.

Monthly Goals

With the impending credit crisis I think its wise to save up more cash to pay off some of my credit cards even though they are 0%. It looks like its going to be harder to find these offers in the future and I don’t think I can continue to rely on being able to move this around once a year to different cards.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Summary

The end of the year brought a little joy to my plummeting net worth. I was able to stock up some cash reserves this month (though some of that will be eaten away by the upcoming property tax bill). I also switch over my savings account from Countrywide to DollarSavingsDirect. The rate at Countrywide fell all the way to 2.4% and I decided to make the switch since Dollar was offering 4%.

Loyal readers may also notice I have changed the format of my net worth update. I did this so that its easier to read, easier for me to track and update, and falls more in line with the overall design of the site. I hope you find it less cluttered.

Monthly Goals

I have been watching the mortgage rates closely to see where they are going to fall to. I failed to pull the trigger last week when they were 4.5% with no points at IndyMac and they have risen since then. I am hoping they make it down there again so I can refi.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Taxable Accounts:

$469.12 – Liquid Savings – 3.0% APY HSBC Savings Account
$13,000.45 – Savings – 2.90% APY Countrywide Savings Account
$6,549.94 – Checking – 2.2% APY Schwabb Investor Checking Account
$11,069.78 – Stocks – Misc. Direct Investments
$2,560.09 – Stocks – Ameritrade Izone
$1,760.54 – Stocks – Zecco
$2,730.62 – Bonds – TreasuryDirect

$38,140.54 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$11,947.70 – ROTH IRA – Vanguard
$509.36 – ROTH IRA – Scottrade
$41,606.40 – 401K – T. Rowe Price

$54,063.46 TOTAL

Debts

$2,589.17 – Student Loan – AES (3.625%)
$14,850.00 – Credit Card BT – BOA MC (0%)
$15,886.04 – Credit Card BT – BOA NEA (0%)
$4,405.39 – Credit Card BT – Bank Atlantic (0%)
$12,219.72 – Credit Card BT – Upromise (0%)

$49,950.32 TOTAL

Housing / Automobiles

$260,181.97 – Mortgage – Countrywide
$339,500.00 – Approximate Home Value
$8,037.00 – Approximate Car Value – Edmunds.com

$87,173.92 – TOTAL (Approximate Equity)

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Popularity: 1% [?]