The summer is FL?YING by! Another month down!

Another uptick to the Networth grind. Still well below the all time high from last year, but we're closing in. If the markets stay strong we've got a chance to hit the target goal for the year. This month we had a $3500 gain. If we can average 4020 a month the rest of the way, we'll hit it. That said, it will be tough to sustain that type of gain. I should say I was pretty aggressive with some of my goals so if we don't quite get there, we'll be fine, but I really would like to.

One big help will be the doubling of my company's contribution towards 401k although they'll only be adding 3% total. I love their wording "50% up to 6%." Oh you contribute up to 6%??? Um, no...only half that if you contribute 6%. So lame.

We'll see how things go...maybe Vegas at the end of the month will help!

Another month in the books

May has ended and it was another good month. Another positive networth month in the books. This one was for about $7800 in the black. The market seems fairly strong and our investments are continuing to climb closer to previous highs (although we still have quite a ways to go). Liabilities are at all time low as well. Hopefully things continue at this page and I'll actually meet my financial goals for the year. I don't think I'll quite hit the goal for our liabilities, but hopefully that will be offset by the assets. We will see.

I do know one thing, three positive months in a row is a welcome relief and this trend certainly keeps me excited for the future.

Keep grinding!

April...another good month

An 8.5k month followed by a 10k month on the upswing. Two good months in a row. Nice. I'll take it! The market has been kind and other things have been falling in place so it's good to see the ol' networth head back in the right direction. So far this month has been a bit of a spending spree, but there have been some things that have to be paid - car insurance, life insurance, etc. The good news is I should be expecting some tuition reimbursement in the next couple pay checks. May might be a tough month to continue the upswing, but let's see what we can do.

So, where were we?

Oh yes, hemorrhaging money left and right. Well, March turned out to be a nice turnaround though. Currently at a high since September. Of course that's not saying much as I lost over 20k that month alone. We were up over $8500 for March so that's a nice step in the right direction. But a trip to LA will surely be putting April behind the 8 Ball to start the month. Oh well, it was worth it and if you can't enjoy any of your money, what's the point? I'm still optimistic that overall we'll be ok as I'm hoping the market keeps heading North, but a small step back won't kill us. That said, I'm ready to get rid of some of our lingering debt. Home equity line and a couple no interest purchases loom. Once those are knocked out, it'll be time to start hammering away at the mortgate.

Ending the year on a positive note

Well, obviously, most of us crashed and burned in 2008. 2008 was definitely not very kind to us, but hopefully we made some "moves" that will payoff in the long run.
First off, we added a full bathroom to our basement. Then we decided to improve the kitchen. We knocked down a wall, replaced the tile flooring with hardwood, added an island with granite top, and made a dry bar area in the eating area. I'd say we spent around 30k on everything, but it was well worth it and hopefully we'll see all of that money and then some come back to us when we do decide to sell our house.
We also refinanced. We got a lower rate, and got out of our interest only loan. Our payment only went up a couple hundred dollars a month and now we're actually paying down the loan. One major move we had to make was paying down our loan a bit because our house appraised for less than we paid and we could only borrow 75% of the homes value. Luckily we had the money to do this and now we owe about 20k less on our mortgage.

In the coming days I'll be updating some of our financial goals for the year and adjusting some future goals I had. Perhaps I'll keep them the same to see if we can aggressively go after them and maybe make up for this year.

Some final #'s for 2008
Assets: -$73,0000
Liabilities: -$25,000

Overall, we were down about $48,000. Not quite what I had in mind for the year, but having our debts down over 25k certainly is a good thing.

I am anxious to put up my new goals for the new year. With much fewer big things planned for 2009, I definitely see a big improvement over 2008. I just hope we surpass my initial expectations for 2008.

We shall see...

Wow...

After almost two years of tracking my net worth, I have basically broken even…and year two isn’t even up yet!  I’ve lost close to 70k from my high point.  The bright side is our debt is lower than it has ever been.  I know it’s the long haul, but it’s tough thinking about all the money I’ve put in retirement funds that I could have diverted elsewhere.

 

November update: -$4100.

 

Here’s to a prosperous Christmas Season!

As bad as it gets???

Well as I'm sure everyone that doesn't stuff their money under their mattresses experienced, October was a bleak month. We ended up down $21,500. I suppose it could have been worse, but I'm not really happy about it. I'm down to the level of Net Worth I was at in about March of 2007. This has been a very tough year financially. The one good thing is our liabilities are at our lowest (well, about 1k more than last month) by far. This is the one benchmark we'll have crushed by years end. I'll definitely be revamping our long term goals, but I'll keep them as is for now and hopefully 2009 will come back strong. I'm not much into politics, but perhaps the change in administration will jump start the economy.