Our net worth is up 40% from last month - now at $95k!

And we owe it all to my 401(k), baby! I've hinted at some problems with it in the past - we were waiting for it to show correctly in our accounts (long story) - but the good day has came and we're back on track! A whopping $30k on track.

I know I've harped on it before, but it just goes to show that consistent saving & investing DOES ADD UP over time. And hopefully you'll be able to watch it grow every month instead of getting a huge sorta-but-not-really surprise in your account one day ;) The point is, you have to start TODAY - not tomorrow, not next month or next year, but today. Start small if you have to, whatever it takes. And while I recommend the 401(k) for all that free money your company hopefully matches you on, it's certainly not necessary. An IRA or savings account would work just as nicely.

So yeah, the 401(k) stuff is the biggest change this month, with a major decrease in cash reserves being second. I'll explain more below, but this was also connected to the 401(k) stuff - and something I consciously decided to do. Only $5k more to hit that $100k mark! Woohoo!

Here's how June's net worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS (-$3,586.80): For the last two paychecks I've been contributing 90% of my paycheck to that same 401(k) so I can make up for some lost time. In doing that, I literally only get $69 and change per check now! Ouch. Thus, I've been dipping into my $5k+ side savings account to make up the difference each period to continue paying all bills & to stay "on budget". As you can imagine, this will only last another check or so before I run out ;) But if YOUR company matched 100% of 100% you put in up to the yearly maximum allowed, wouldn't you find a way to make it happen? It's all about taking advantage of the perks given to you and finding a way to make it work.

EMERGENCY FUND ($0.00): Our $10k is still sleeping away nicely in our Money Market account. It's mixed in with other funds so I can't determine exactly how much interest is accruing on the Emergency Fund in particular, but I it's definitely adding up.

ROTH IRAs (+$358.32): The good thing here is that I was able to scrounge up a decent $550 to put into the pot this month! The downside was that the markets already sucked out $200 of it. But like everything else tied to this roller coaster economy, it has its ups and its downs. But Operation Buffett is still in effect...

401(k)s (+$30,304.58): Is there anything more to say about this? ;) I was contributing a butt load. It wasn't showing up properly. But now it is. Actually, there's a little more to it than that but I can't really talk about it here. But no, mr. punch debt in the face, I was not funding a crack house on the side - you silly goose, you.

SAVINGS BONDS (+$0.20): Oh Joy! This will actually be the last time you see this category here though, so wave it goodbye (byyyyeeee). I finally listened to Ishan's advice to unload the bonds and invest the money elsewhere. You'll hear about it soon as I didn't have the time to incorporate it all here.

AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (-$375.00): A little more than the $50 devaluation from last month, but whatever - no one ever said cars were an investment ;) Here's how they line up this month:

• Pimp Daddy Caddy: $3,620. Down the $50 buckaroos.
• Gas Ticklin' Toyota: $10,435. Stayed the same? weird.

HOME VALUE (Realtor) ($0.00): This will remain @ $300k (the price our realtor set it at) until I hit him up again later for another review. He's the master in our particular neighborhood, and has been selling (and living in) in this area for 20+ years. I keep an eye on Zillow & Redfin.com on the side too to see what else is happening out there. Zillow just fluctuates so much, it's crazy. I love the site, but it's seriously nuts.

CREDIT CARD (car loans) ($0.00): Still at Zero! The previous debt here was an "auto loan" that I happened to charge on my credit card - effectively setting my interest @ 3%. I don't recommend this for everyone, but the method works well if you know what you're doing and don't have outstanding debt lined up. I'll leave this category in until I'm tired of looking at it ;)

MORTGAGES (-$386.01): We're still eager to refinance our first mortgage, but unfortunately we're still too under water to get on it. So in the meantime we chip away with any extra money we have left from our "house budget". Here's how they breakdown:

• Mortgage #1: $287,612.32 - 30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%.
• Mortgage #2: $62,818.33 - Maxed out HELOC w/ 2.8% interest.

Well, that's it for this month. How'd you all do? Anyone win the lottery or take on a major mortgage? Whatever the case, remember to judge your success off of YOUR goals only. I know it's hard sometimes, but it's really the only thing you have control of. So if you're meeting or exceeding your goals, you're on the right track!

God Bless,

-----------------
*My budget has now been updated.
*And so have my sidebars.

Labels: 401k, net worth

Another monthly increase for the BudgetsAreSexy Family :)

The funny part here is that our net worth is back to where it was a year ago in June of '08! A lot of changes have occurred since then (the crazy economy, the combining of our finances, the plummeting of our house value), so I'll take being in the $70k range again a good sign.

What's also cool is that everyone should now have all that crap above factored into your numbers! So instead of being pissed about losing $100k+ myself, I can't help but smile for the fact we're staying on budget and doing our best with what we have control over :) We can't change the market or the economy out there, but we sure as hell can stay on top of our own finances.

On a side note, I've also updated those sweet & sassy sidebars over there on the right. Two of my goals for '09 were met early on (paying off car loans & reaching $10k in our emergency fund - woohoo!) so I figured it was about time to update them with some new challenges. You'll now see I'm working on maxing out both my 401(k) and my Roth IRA in their place. Not sure how easy this will be, but it's certainly worth a shot. Now onto last month's stats!

Here's how May's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS (+$568.39): We're still going through a good $1200 a month while the Mrs. is in grad school (this covers her mortgage and housing-related portions) but luckily we still have that pay-it-forward chunk set aside for exactly that :) All the rest of the money that would normally be pumped into our savings here has gone into my recent stock picking adventure which will be ending as I get ready to jack up my 401(k) contributions again.

EMERGENCY FUND ($0.00): Our $10k is still sleeping away nicely in our Money Market account. It's mixed in with other funds so I can't determine exactly how much interest is accruing on the Emergency Fund in particular, but I promise it's adding up.

ROTH IRAs (+$1,823.68): Another fan-f'ing-tastic month! I'd say about $1500 of that was deposited myself, with another $300 courtesy of the market rebounding and Mr. Buffett's stellar recommendations ;) These jumps won't last much longer though as I get closer to maxing it out.

401(k)s (+$3,106.87): What comes down, must come up right? Seems to be the plan of the stock market lately at least, which is fine with me! Haven't contributed a single dollar here lately (long story) but I'm hoping to start doing so in the near future, esp while everything is still so cheap.

SAVINGS BONDS (+$3.28): I still haven't taken up Ishan's recommendation of unloading these and finding a better place to store the cash, but it's still on the list! I'm gonna do my best to knock it out this month...just takes so LONG with the way the Treasury has it set up online. What happened to the days when your friendly local bank still handled them? Jeesh.

AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (-$50.00): As to be expected - no one ever said these piles of metal were income producing ;) A little will be knocked off every month for sure. Here's how our cars line up :
* Pimpin' Daddy Caddy --> $3,620. Down the $50 buckaroos.
* Gas Sippin' Toyota --> $10,435. Stayed the same? weird.

HOME VALUE (Realtor) ($0.00): This will remain @ $300k (the price our realtor set it at) until I get more word from him in a few months. He has a fantastic eye in our particular neighborhood, and has been selling (and even lived at one point) in this area for 20+ years. I also keep an eye out on what Zillow & Redfin.com show it listed for every month, and the $300k is usually where the average falls.

CREDIT CARD (car loans) ($0.00): Still at Zero! And should be stuck at that amount for a while...I might have to get rid of this category at some point, but I'm just not tired of staring at it yet! haha...The previous debt here was an "auto loan" that I happened to charge on my credit card - effectively setting my interest @ 3%. I don't recommend this for everyone, but the method works well if you know what you're doing and don't have outstanding debt lined up.

MORTGAGES (-$73.81): We actually knocked off around $280 from these mortgages this month, but the #'s don't always match quite well depending on the days I check them. We're still eager to refinance as well, but unfortunately we're just too under water to do so right now. It won't stop us from using our leftover House Budget money to chip away at 'em though! Here's how they breakdown:
*1st Mortgage: $287,612.32 - 30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%.
*2nd Mortgage: $62,818.33 - Maxed out HELOC w/ 2.8% interest.

That's it for this month. Hope everyone's seeing some pretty numbers on their side as well! Don't let these Summer months distract you and steal all your money ;)

-----------------
*My budget has also been updated.
*And here are all the Net Worth Updates.

Labels: net worth

Nothing but love for April! The market was happy, our budget was happy, and life in general was pretty happy :) What more can you ask for?

As you can see, the majority of changes this month were pretty positive, and helped us break back into that $60k range.

But the coolest part of the month was converting over my Roth IRA into a Brokerage Roth IRA so I could start investing in individual stocks again! I won't be able to take that money out for quite some time, of course, but even better. The less temptation I have, the less opportunity for rash decisions ;)

You may also notice a small blemish in the cash & car department. The first has its reasons which I explain below (and is actually a GOOD thing!), and the latter is just pretty much expected. After all, when it comes down to it they're cars - not investments. And then we have a wonderful uptick in the Mortgage department! More on that to follow...

Here's how April's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS (-$224.86): This is awesome! It may not look it, but we actually xfered out around $2,000 into other areas ;) So the fact we're down only $200 is killer. Most of the money went into my new stock picking adventure, and then the rest into paying down part of the mortgages! Not as fun as hoarding it all, but i guess you have to pay them down at some point.

EMERGENCY FUND ($0.00): Our $10k is still sleeping away nicely in our Money Market account. It's mixed in with other funds so I can't determine exactly how much interest is accruing on the Emergency Fund in particular, but I promise it's adding up.

ROTH IRAs (+$2,754.05): Blowin' up baby! Now that I've converted my old Roth into a Brokerage Roth IRA, and the market is still behaving, this area should be seeing some green going forward. And most of it going into hand-picked stocks courtesy of Mr. Warren Buffett ;)

401(k)s (+$4,562.72): Same awesomeness here, except solely based on the market right now. Whenever this goes up, the biggest part of our Net Worth goes up too! I love it. Of course, the opposite has been known to happen as well...

SAVINGS BONDS (+$0.20): I've had this collection of bonds hanging out since I was a wee lad 20+ years ago. And up until last month, I never thought twice about it. BUT, a fellow blogger (Ishan@ Save Few Bucks) pointed out that it would make *more* sense to cash them in and use the money to pay off our mortgages since they're charging us a much higher interest rate (6.875%). And you know what? He makes a valid point. Why the hell am I still holding onto these? Sure they're sexy as hell to look at - all "old school" and all - but when it comes down to it, that money could in fact be used better. So Ishan, this month I plan on doing something about it. Much love for pointing it out brotha.

AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (-$475.00): A bit sucky, but always anticipated. Although I had a brain fart while trying to recall the mileage on the Mrs' car and was too lazy to call her, so i'm hoping i was way off there ;) Here's how the values breakdown:
* Pimpin' A$$ Caddy --> $3,670. Went up $75? haha...I'll take it!
* Gas-Sippin' Toyota --> $10,435. Down a minor $25 buckaroos, gotta love that.

HOME VALUE (Realtor) ($0.00): This will remain @ $300k (the price our realtor set it at) until I get more word from him in a few months. He has a fantastic eye in our particular neighborhood, and has been selling (and even lived at one point) in this area for 20+ years. I also keep an eye out on what Zillow & Redfin.com show it listed at every month, and the $300k is pretty much where the average falls, maybe a tad bit lower.

CREDIT CARD (car loans) ($0.00): ZEROOO!!!! Yup, the last time it was at zero was back in August when we paid off all 3 store credit cards. This previous c/c debt was really just an "auto loan" that I happened to charge on my credit card - dropping a 5.5% interest rate down to around 3%. I don't recommend this for everyone, but this method definitely works well if you know what you're doing and don't have much outstanding debt lined up.

MORTGAGES (-$309.08): We just recently started paying extra towards these mortgages, and will continue doing so going forward. We'd love to take a big portion of our cash reserves and knock a big chunk of it away, but I don't think we're at that point yet. For now, we'll be using any extra money left over from our House Budget to pay it down.
*1st Mortgage: $287,835 - 30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%.
*2nd Mortgage: $62,669.46 - Maxed out HELOC w/ 2.8% interest.

That's it for April! Time to concentrate on May and try and get that net worth back into the $70k's again ;) Stupid house values and economy. Oh well, it'll be that much better when it all turns around again. Hope you all had a fabulous month in finances as well! Time to go play some online monopoly now, I'm freakin' addicted. (and not afraid to admit it either)

-----------------
*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*My budget has also been updated.
*And here are all the Net Worth Updates.

Labels: net worth

Yup, it looks like our Net Worth just floats along now with "the market". Which is totally fine with me at this point - it just means our stuff is finally on autopilot and all we have to do is keep doing our thing!

Now that we've got our budget down pat and a great system in place, the only thing that will really change these numbers around (besides the market) are random life events.


So GREAT for us, BORING for you - I'm sorry :( But ya never know, life can surely be crazy sometimes! Or even better, the housing market AND the stock market can go berzerk and start pumping up all these numers, eh?! HAH. Regardless, I shall continue posting up the numbers every month for you voyeurs out there ;) That, and so I can hold myself accountable and all too. Plus it's always cool looking back a year earlier and comparing all the differences...ooooh, good idea (why thank you)!!! Yes, I shall jot down that little ditty for a future post. Good work, self. Now onto the stats!

Here's how March's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS (+$203): Not bad, not bad. Nothing too big happened this month, so we were able to sock away a little with some pretty good ease. Not as sexy as last month's $13k discovery, but more money is more money right?

EMERGENCY FUND ($0): Our $10k is still sleeping away nicely in our Money Market account (it's mixed in with other funds so I can't determine exacty how much interest is accruing, but it is I promise) In fact, I don't think I've ever blogged much about investing in general...I should change that.

ROTH IRAs (+$254): Score! My Roth finally helps this department! I've got a good $3k in a target mutual fund, and the Mrs. has hers in 6 month CDs. So whenever that market smiles nice and wide, I get to smile as well :)

401(k)s (+$2,855): Double Whammy, baby! Again, our biggest increases this month is due to "the market". So whenever it goes up, the biggest part of our Net Worth goes up - my 401k! aww yeahhh....and, that's without adding in a few deposits too. I can only image how excited I'll be when I see those bad boys hit.

SAVINGS BONDS (+$0.40): A new month, a new 50 cent piece. Haven't added anything here for almost a year now, but you can check out the breakdown of them all here.

AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (-$25): Now THIS makes more sense. Last month we had a weird increase of like $400 bucks w/ no explanation at all except that i probably f'd up somewhere.
* Pimpin' a$$ caddy --> $3,595. Holding this value for at least 7 months now!
* Toyota Gas-Sipper --> $10,985. Down a minor $25 buckaroos, gotta love that.

HOME VALUE (Realtor) ($0): This will remain @ $300k (the price our realtor set it at) until I get more word from him in a few months. He has a fantastic eye in our particular neighborhood, and has been selling (and even lived at one point) in this area for 20+ years. Just for $hits and giggles i checked out Zillow.com and it says our place is now at $345k. hmmm...i love me som Zillow, but I have to give it a WTF on this round - there's no way in hell I could get even close to this right now (although it would be nice).

I also check out Redfin.com after a recommendation from a fellow Budgetsaresexy reader, and $300k is starting to look a bit more accurate there as well. Redfin gives you 3 estimates from other sites (Zillow, Epraisal, and Cyber Homes) and our place ranged from $260k to $345k, so for now I still feel good about our valuation - even though that higher one IS from Zillow...

CREDIT CARD (car loans) ($0): ZEROOO!!!! Yup, the last time it was at zero was back in August when we paid off all 3 store credit cards. This newer (and now cleared away) debt was really just an "auto loan" that I happened to charge on my credit card - dropping a 5.5% interest rate down to around 3%. I don't recommend this for everyone, but it can def. work well for those smaller loans if you have no outstanding debt.

MORTGAGES (+$9.61): This is just due to random timing of me checking the accounts - we didn't pay anything extra against any of our mortgages this month. Our 1st is still @ $288,000 (30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%), and our 2nd Mortgage @ around $62,800 (maxed out HELOC w/ 2.8% interest). I'm planning on throwing a $100 or two against it though starting this month.

That wraps it up for Amazing March. How did you all do? Hopefully just as nice considering the markets were full of life this month. But maybe you beat me by a mile?! That would be awesome. And if so, don't forget about your boy over here and whisper me the secrets. 'Till next month, J. Moneyyyyyyyyy Out! (yes, American Idol is playing in the background)

-----------------
*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*My budget has been updated too.
*And here are all the Net Worth Updates.

Labels: net worth

The roller coaster's back on the up and up w/ +$7k this month!, Yup, that's what happens when you get mad tax returns and then you find out your other half had a bit more money than you originally thought ;)

I knew she was frugal, but good Lord! After brief convo's last month I assumed she had about $2k in her "do as i please" account. But nope, there was almost $9k!

Crazy impressive considering she's in Grad School and not making much from her Teaching Assistantship. Plus, she got it past her frugal husband! haha...good for her. Maybe next month I'll find another stash somewhere? I def. won't be complaining, that's for sure ;)

So that was the biggest "gain" of cash for the month, followed by our $6k back from taxes - of which most was split between the two of us. And what did I do with part of mine? Oh, I PAID OFF MY CAR LOANS!!! Aww yeahhhhhh, ZERO dollars on the ol' credit card now ;) It was pretty hard parting with $1,300 all at once like that, but the feeling from being back outta debt is freakin' awesome. Now just gotta work on those damn mortgages...

Here's how Feb's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS (+$12,300): So yeah....as I mentioned the Mrs. had even *more* money saved up that i missed on my last checkup - a whopping $6,500 more! Add that with a good portion of our $6k from taxes and some better budgeting last month, and it was a helluva good month. Most of this was a one-time occurrence, but I'm hoping we can at least increase our cash reserves by $1k every month.

EMERGENCY FUND ($0): Our $10k is still socked away in a Money Market just chillin' and makin' a little money on the side. It would be cool to see just how much extra it's bringing in every month, but we have some other money mixed in with it at the same time so it's a bit tricky to calculate. We'll be leaving this at $10k for quite some time as it's a great # for us.

ROTH IRAs (-$270): That would be MY part of it too since my Roth is invested in one of those Target Mutual Funds...pretty sucky over all, but I'm not allowed to complain about it ;) I would like to note, however, that my Roth is hovering @ $2800 down from $5400 a year ago...but that's all i'll say.

401(k)s (-$3,400): Yikesy Mama! Just keeps on a crashin' without a care in the world. Sadly, this even includes my $1,250 worth of new 401k $ that got sucked out before it had a chance to play with the others. Although I am still waiting for some deposits that still haven't been made... ho-hum.

SAVINGS BONDS (+$3): Every month brings a little joy into my life :) Haven't added anyting here for almost a year now, but you can check out the breakdown of them all here.

AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (+$400): Now THIS, I cannot explain. The only thing i can think of is that I calculated the Mrs's Toyota wrong on Kbb.com last month, but I'm usually pretty good about that stuff. Maybe gas-sippers are going up now? Guess we'll see what the next month brings...The breakdown of our car values are as follows:
- Pimpin' a$$ caddy --> $3,595. Holding this value for at least 6 months now!
- Toyota Gas-Sipper --> $11,010. An increase of $400 in "weirdo" dollars.

HOME VALUE (Realtor) (-$3,500): After some more thought, I decided to ditch the idea of averaging out Zillow's "Zestimate" with my realtor's estimate. This made sense for two reasons. 1) - Zillow's estimate kept fluctuating every other day! It would be $306k one second, and $318k the next (it's currently @ $324k!). While I'd LOVE to believe this, it just doesn't seem all that plausible. And 2)I took the advice of a commenter and checked out redfin.com which averages out 3 different home sites to give you a better idea of how sites value the homes. And out of these 3, Zillow was by far the highest, with the total average coming to just below $300k.

Sooo, for now I think it's wise to keep the value at $300k and hope for the best. I'll then hit my realtor up again later and get a better update since I know he'll continue to give it to me straight. Afer all, he'd be the one to help us sell/rent out the place so it's in his best interest to be upfront from the beginning.

CREDIT CARD (car loans) (-$1,600): ZEROOO!!!! Yup, the cards are finally paid off after 8 whole months of chipping away :) The last time it was at zero was back in August when we paid off all 3 store credit cards. A post will be coming out shortly on this, but this $7,500 basically came from picking up my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) last year. It was more of a "loan" rather than your ordinary consumer debt, but I just happened to use a credit card to finance it all.

MORTGAGES (-$14.22): This was due to just random timing of me checking the accounts - we didn't pay anything extra against any of our mortgages this month. Our 1st is still @ $288,000 (30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%), and our 2nd Mortgage @ around $62,800 (maxed out HELOC w/ 2.8% interest). I do see us starting to pay them off though now that our budget is looking sexy again :)

That wraps it up for the sexy month of February. March should pan out pretty well too if all goes as planned (and if the market perks up on everyone's behalf). I'm looking forward to having a few extra hundred now that i don't have that $443 monthly car payment anymore! Oh and as promised, I updated my budget again to reflect how it all came together last month - I'll continue to do so during all the roundups. Happy Wednesday everybody!

-----------------
*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are all the Net Worth Updates.

Labels: cash, net worth

Our Net Worth took a *huge* hit, but the Mrs. Saved us! And in reality the stats kinda make it look worse that it really is.

We've been saving and managing our money better than ever, but we decided it was about time to man up and accept the loss in home value now, rather than pretending it doesn't exist and dealing with it later. (as you may have recently read).

It sure ain't fun, but it's all about keeping it "real" and tightening the grasp on your financial situation! Much easier to do in small doses, overtime, than with a powerful punch down the road. Plus if the market miraculously recovers, we'll be able to enjoy the nice spikes in our total worth! But def. not holding my breath there ;)

You'll also noticed we've added a cple new categories too, while ditching some older ones. We're now tracking our Emergency Fund, Home Worth, and Mortgages - and we're unloading Condo Investment, and Home Equity just because it doesn't make sense anymore.

Here's how Jan's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS: Well that's a nice jump! $11k extra certainly won't hurt us. he he....although i'll have to admit that at least $10k of that is earmarked for the Mrs. remaining grad school costs and "her portion" of the mortgage/house stuff - $1200/mo. This is the money we got from selling some of her oil stocks, as well as that Pay it Forward amount we got last year :) So in reality, it just prolongs the time where we need to pick up some side money to pay for our quality of life next year...but maybe by then i'll be a professional blogger! (100% kidding).

EMERGENCY FUND (*New!): Yup, this used to be factored into our "Cash Savings" account, but I much prefer looking at it as it's own category here :) Plus, it's technically in a Money Market account anyways, which is close to cash, but not all the way ya know? And now that we've hit $10k between the two of us (she brought in $6k of it!) we're @ a good stopping point.

ROTH IRAs: Up $4k! Thanks again Mrs. Budgetsaresexy ;) Her Roth is actually much better off than mine these days as it's in a CD gaining a bit of interest every month, whereas mine dropped $2k in the last 2 years due to mutual funds tanking...but soon enough i shall have my glory!

401(k)s: Even WITH her extra $1k we still dropped a good $3,000. How crazy is this market, eh? Again, I'm still missing a good sized chunk of money that still hasn't showed up here yet, but It may be a blessing in disguise as I'll be able to pick up even MORE funds once it hits my account since they're all so low. Definitely more fun last month though!

SAVINGS BONDS: Keep them dollars coming baby! (You can check out the breakdown here.)

CONDO INVESTMENT: Outta here! My brother paid me back the entire $1200+ loan, and we're now all settled up. 1 for 2 in loaning my family money ain't too shabby :)

AUTOS WORTH (kbb): Zero loss again for my pimpin' Caddy ($3,595), and a first time checker-checker on the Mrs' Toyota @ $10,610. Unlike her though, I still have around $1700 to pay off still. Hers is all paid off baby! (whew)

HOME VALUE (Zillow & Realtor) *New!: I ditched the "Home Equity" category and finally owned up and threw our home value and mortgages out there to show a more precise (and honest) picture of our finances. It really just made better sense doing it this way, and now I can track the 2 amounts closer and work on improving our situation!

As some of you know, I am now calculating our "Home Worth" by taking the average of what Zillow shows, and what our Realtor is saying he can get for us. This way I can still monitor the value every month through Zillow without bothering my Realtor every 4 weeks ;) Right now Zillow has it valued at $307k vs the est. $300k per Mr. Realtor. It sucks overall, but at least we already paid a good $10k off the original amount!....even if it WAS by accident.

CREDIT CARD (car loans): This amount is from buying my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) last year. While it's technically ON my credit card, it's really just a loan @ around 3% interest. No consumer debt whatsoever. And to keep on track with paying it off by May, I'm still applying my old $443 car payments (plus any other leftover amounts from my budget) towards the balance every single month!

MORTGAGES: 1st Mortgage @ $288,000 (30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%), and the 2nd Mortgage a maxed out HELOC @ $62,818.15 with a measly 2.8% interest! The game plan is to start knocking away more of this now that the budget is back on track.

So welcome to our newly formed "Family Net Worth"! It took some time smashing them together, I won't lie, but now it's all in one sexy little spot (and will be much easier to update now). I finally did it! And it only took me 8 months after getting hitched ;)

-----------------
*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are all the Net Worth Updates.

Labels: money management, net worth

Up $4k - not a bad way to start the year, eh? I have a REALLY good feeling it's gonna be a good one, so get ready everyone - 2009 is the year of mad financial skills!!!

It's also the year I finally man up and combine Mrs. Budgetsaresexy and I's finances here on the blog :) Oooooh, ahhhhh, how exciting! What, oh what, will our net worth look like now?! (you can hardly keep it in, i know)

It's also a year for new resolutions - although unlike many of you, i have yet to figure out what these will be :) I'll def. holler once they pop into my brain though...i'm thinking a lot of blog stuff in general, but we'll see.

I guess I should also review last year's sexy sidebar goals too while we're at it here. They're now updated again, but as you can see I didn't do as great as my actual '08 New Years resolutions :( I'll have to leave them up until they're completed before swapping them out again. Here's a quick summary on how I did:

1. Pay off all credit card debt: 100% A+ bustaroo! I actually accomplished this twice - once in the first half of the year, and then again in the middle when we added on more wedding expenses. But, luckily enough, we used our wedding booty to knock it all off again!
2. Pay off cars: B. Since the above was scratched off, I decided to replace it w/ this category in late '08, except i pretty much new it wasn't gonna be wiped away before the end of the year ;) but ya gotta give it a shot, right?
3. Emergency Fund to $5,250: B I didn't quite make it all the way, but i sure as hell followed my plan...just turned out our work bonuses didn't pan out like i expected :(
4. Net worth to $100,000: Fail. Pwned. Jacked. Not even close...but again, way out of my hands really. I dutifully paid off debt & made my 401k deposits like a good little boy, but it just so happened the stock market didn't want to cooperate this year.

Not my best end to a story, but I definitely gave it my all!...and momma always said you gotta feel proud for that ;) haha....ah man, good ol' moms always have our backs don't they?

And here's how Dec's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS: Not too shabby considering it was the holiday season! It's all about that holiday budget, baby...well, that and an xmas bonus....but i still had to save it ;)
ROTH IRA: I'll take that $200 any day - a nice break from all the down months recently.
401(k): WOOHOO!!! Up $2.5k! I'm sure many of you noticed the same right? Or are you one of those who stopped looking altogether? ;) Who knows how long it'll last, but i'm enjoying every bit of it.
SAVINGS BONDS: One dollar, two dollar, three dollar SCORE! You can check out the breakdown of my bonds are here.
CONDO INVESTMENT: I stopped lending money to my brother months ago, and it looks like i'll be getting this leftover $700 sooner than i thought! My brother did some side work and gave me a pre-dated check to cash in Jan, 15th. I love it...and so damn proud of that guy! He's seriously come a long way since 2 years ago....*shiver*
HOME EQUITY: This amount still reflects our purchase price minus the money we accidently paid off the mortgage when our heloc froze. As always, i still don't know how to classify this, but it's on my New Year's resolution, so keep your eyes peeled.
AUTO WORTH (kbb): Zero loss? Well that's a first! Perhaps it's because my Caddy is now sixteen (16) years old! haha...but my damn is it ridin' nicely these days...ballin' like a mother ;)
CREDIT CARDS: This amount is from buying my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) a few months ago - that's it. No other consumer debt on this bad boy, just the car amounts. And to keep on track, I'm still applying my old $443 car payments (plus any other amounts leftover from my budget) towards the balance every month until it's paid off.
AUTO LOAN: Zilch, nada, nothing! But please see above :)

And that's it! 2008 comes to a happy end. This is the first year I've tracked my finances like this, and I gotta say it's interesting seeing all the ups and downs through it all! More ups are always better, of course, but as I mentioned 2009 will be full of 'em :) Keep doing your thang ladies and gentlemen...

-----------------
*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are the past Net Worth updates.

Labels: net worth, updates

It's much better than last month's $10k loss! Gotta be happy these days with everything going on out there, especially since i'm employed :)

We had a person leave this month, but luckily it was on his own accord. I'm really just hoping we can weather this storm by cutting back on some of our extravagances here @ work...i've already noticed a few things here and there, so fingers crossed!

It's pretty obvious i'm not gonna reach my Net Worth goal of $100,000 this year, but ya can't say i didn't try ;) Sometimes it's just not meant to be i suppose, but you better believe i'll keep working on it. As long as i continue to stay on top of my budget each paycheck, and slam more money into that 401k while prices are cheap, i'll be on a good track. After all, it's the best time in 50 years to buy, right?! at least that's what i've read recently ;)

I can't tell you *when* things will start turning around, but i gotta stay hopeful and keep my head up. I can't change the economy myself, but i sure as hell can keep staying on top of my finances!

Here's how it breaks down this month:

CASH SAVINGS: Sweetness! I only used $160 of my monthly $200 cash allowance this month, and i guess i saved in some other departments too....esp considering i didn't bring in nearly as much blogging income as i had the previous month or so.

ROTH IRA: Down $400? Yeah....still not fun. I suspect this will go down until the markets level off, but again there's nothing i can do about it. i mean, i could always throw MORE money into it, but i'd rather max out the 401k first, and then pump a little more into the ol' Emergency Fund.

401(k): Down $3,000, BUT that doesn't include my bi-weekly contributions unfortunately... because our 401k company is *still* all sorts of F'd up, i'm awaiting on these to hit my account. If these amounts ($593.75 + $593.75(match) + $593.75 + $593.75(match)) were actually in already, i'd really only be down around $900! And THAT'S not bad at all :)

SAVINGS BONDS: Another 20 cents in the ol' pockets....i'm ritch biatch! haha...crazy old buggers. You can check out the breakdown of my bonds are here.

CONDO INVESTMENT: I stopped lending money to my brother months ago, so it's really just a matter of collecting it all now at 5% interest. There's no real time frame here, but i've been told he'll pay the remaining $900ish over the next cple months - works for me! It all seems "free" anyways since i used to classify it as just another bill to pay. So now it's like a have an extra $123 a month to play with!

HOME EQUITY: This amount still reflects our purchase price minus the money we accidently paid off the mortgage when our heloc froze. As always, i still don't know how to classify this as the house isnt' worth what we paid anymore, but it's on my New Year's resolution...i'll probably just Zillow.com it and then add another row to both Assets and Liabilities to reflect it or something.

AUTO WORTH (kbb): Down $10 bucks - i love it! It's a helluva good feeling knowing that my car is now worth more than i paid for it ($3,100). I do sorta miss riding high in the SUV, but i'd take the stress releiver any day over that :)

CREDIT CARDS: This amount is from buying my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) a few months ago - that's it. No other consumer debt on this bad boy, just the car amounts. And to keep on track, I'm still applying my old $443 car payments towards the balance every month until it's paid off.

AUTO LOAN: Zeroooooooooooooo! That is if you disregard my credit card balance ;) If you remember, i was losing anywhere from $450- $1200 a MONTH keeping the Highlander, so the steady value for my Caddy is freakin' great.

That's it for this month folks. As always, I sincerely hope you did better than i did! Keep staying on top of your finances, and remember that it's just a matter of time until it all turns around :) I'll see ya out there.

-----------------
*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are the past Net Worth updates.

Labels: net worth

What else are we gonna do? I tell you this much - just having my job AND my house is enough to keep me in good spirits, that's for sure!

Every time i turn on that freakin' tv, or read MSNBC online, there is some sort of fiasco happening around the world. So if i can still have all the luxuries i do now in life, i don't mind lose some bucks here and there until it all turns back around.

Plus, i mean, all my losses are really only in my 401k stuff, and you know i won't be touching that for yeaaarrrrrrrs to come, so i can stomach the ups and downs for quite some time.

It does suck that i've been keeping to my plan and doing pretty well w/ everything else though, yet my net worth reflects the opposite :( but that's life - i just gotta keep steering the old' money boat in the right direction, and soon enough i'll hit the $1,000,000 shores! Mmmmmmm a million dollars....

Here's how it breaks down this month:

CASH SAVINGS: Down a couple of hundred, but no biggie. I used some of my Fun Fund cash to pick up a stereo for my car (went w/ a nice, yet exceptionally CHEAP, HD unit so i can listen to some crips music and cd's again! the Caddy only had a tape deck) and then must have spent some more dollars here and there. I also made wayyyyy less in blog income this month (not that i make all that much anyways) but i don't count on that anyways, so it's all good.

ROTH IRA: Still floating on the whims of the market! Not a penny dropped in for months now...have too many other places to save.

401(k): SMACK! Right in my face :( At least it wasn't a surprise, eh? To be honest, I'm more upset that my bi-weekly deposits STILL haven't been made into my account @ work....so while i lost almost 11k's from the market alone, the $2,375 taken from my paycheck this month isn't even IN there. Well, i should say half of that anyways as the other half is company match, but still it's unnerving. I've been told it'll be fixed pretty shortly here, but we're going on 11 months here so i'm not holding my breath. Needless to say, i don't think i'll be hitting my yearly goal of $100k in the Net Worth department, mostly due to this stuff.

SAVINGS BONDS: Forty cents - woohoo! haha...best 40 cents earned in today's market ;) You can check out the breakdown of all my old a$$ bonds here.

CONDO INVESTMENT: I stopped lending money to my brother 3 months ago, so now it's just a matter of collecting it all at 5% interest. He paid me $350 last month, but the rest will come in pieces over time. Def. no rush though, it's all "free" money to me since i classified it as just another bill to pay - which is now over ;)

HOME EQUITY: This amount still reflects our purchase price minus the money we accidently paid off the mortgage when our heloc froze. As always, i still don't know how to classify this as the house isnt' worth what we paid anymore, but it's on my New Year's resolution...i'll probably just Zillow.com it and then add another row to both Assets and Liabilities to reflect it or something.

AUTO WORTH (kbb): I gained $115!!! that's a first ;) You know what did it? The addition of my new cd player! haha...i spent a total of about $170 ($90 for the unit, $40 for some components, and $40 for installation) so i guess it kinda paid for itself! Not to mention my ears now have some better music to listen to ;)

CREDIT CARDS: This amount is from buying my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) a few months ago - that's it. No other consumer debt on this bad boy, just the car amounts :) And to keep on track, I'm still applying my old $443 car payments towards the balance every month until it's paid off.

And i FINALLY got my reimbursements back from cancelling all 3 of my warranties i had on the Highlander, so that was an additional $1400 applied to it as well! That was all factored into my decision to change up the cars from the beginning, so it wasn't a surprise, but it did feel hot paying such a big chunk off!

AUTO LOAN: Zeroooooooooooooo! That is if you disregard my credit card balance ;) If you remember, i was losing anywhere from $450- $1200 a MONTH keeping the Highlander, so the steady value for my Caddy is freakin' great.

That's it for this go-around. I hope you all did better than i did this month, and let's just pray things start turning around now! See ya out there.

-----------------
*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are the past Net Worth updates.

Labels: net worth

Not that it was all that surprising, right? Most of my "worth" is in my 401k, like many of you, and the market just tore it up this month.

It's all good though, just part of the stock market game - at least i'm not personally doing anything stupid! In fact, Roth & 401k aside, I actually did pretty well!

My Cashing Savings went up due to some new blogging income (finally!), and i'm still religiously paying off my Credit Card with any extra income i get my hands on - which is mostly my old car payment amount at the present time.

I've also decided to continue tracking "my" net worth separately until the end of the year. I find that my current method is a PERFECT way for me to track my progress, esp. since I have those 3 main goals i'm working on right now: 1) Erasing all our "credit card" debt, 2) Pumping up my half of our Emergency Fund, and 3) Getting my Net Worth to $100k! (my fav. goal)

So while the Mrs. and I are, indeed, starting to combine all our monies and what not, you'll just have to wait and see what our new totals will be until January ;) And believe me, there are a LOT of changes coming! Esp considering that the Mrs. is now in Grad School and we're technically living off one one income. I say "technically" because we do have some other surplus' coming in like our pay it forward money, as well as her teaching assistantship income of 12k per school year. (thank goodness!) I'll be posting more about the Grad School stuff soon.

Here's how it breaks down this month:

CASH SAVINGS: Looking good! I had a few random expenditures like wedding gifts and wedding trips to pay for, but most of it was covered from our savings accounts which are set up for these sorta things :) So most of the increase here can be attributed to some new blogging income! That's right, companies are finally hitting me up for some advertising action. It only took 7 months ;) haha...

Besides the obvious adsense, and a cple graphics here and there, you can find them under my "Sexy Sponsors" section. I still don't do pay per posts, paid reviews, or any weird linking within any of my posts whatsoever. I don't want any confusion at all with my posts or main site, so dontcha worry about that. Not sure if this month was a fluke or not, but i'm def. hoping it continues!

ROTH IRA: Floating on the whims of the market as usual! Haven't thrown in a dime in months. Once i max out my 401k and Emergency Fund, I'll reconsider.

401(k): Sad :( And not only because of the economey either. Only ONE deposit made it into my account this month - our 401k company F'd up again and waiting for it all to be straightened out again. So while I tecnically threw in a total of $2,565 this month, including company match, only $1,282.50 was physically deposited! Then i got an extra $242.52 in dividends as well. So after all that, i stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil came out in the negative. I'll tell you one thing though, i'm sure as hell gonna enjoy picking up all these funds at lower costs now!

SAVINGS BONDS: Nada. Man, bonds sure are slow ;) You can check out the breakdown of all my old a$$ bonds here.

CONDO INVESTMENT: I stopped lending money to my brother 2 months ago, so we're now just building up this amount by 5% each month until he pays it off in full. He actually just mailed me a check for $350 of it yesterday, so that's promising as hell! Not to mention ahead of schedule (he doesn't have to pay it back until he sells his condo). A+, brother, A+.

HOME EQUITY: This amount still reflects our purchase price minus the money we accidently paid off the mortgage when our heloc froze. Still not sure how to calculate our TRUE equity involved here, but we leave it alone for now. I'll probably end up using Zilllow to estimate the value of it now, and then deduct the amounts we have left on our mortgages but we'll see.

AUTO WORTH (kbb): A loss of only $25 buck?! HOTNESS! haha...i don't know if you'll remember, but i was losing anywhere from $450- $1200 a MONTH w/ the Highlander, so i'll take this loss for my new Caddy any time!

CREDIT CARDS: Still applying my old $443 car payments towards the balance here. It shows i only paid off like $418 in my graph above, but it's only becuase USAA messed up (for once) and the corrections haven't been applied yet - their system didn't catch that the c/c check I used to buy the Caddy was in line with a promotion they were doing, so they charged me a small fee and more interest than they should have. This $6400 is locked in at 3.4% for 12 months, and covers the purchase of the Caddy, and the payoff amount that was left on the Highlander.

AUTO LOAN: Zeroooooooooooooo! That is, if you don't read the paragraph above :)

Well, that's it for this month. I hope you all mastered this market better than i have! Let's just pray that the economy corrects itself and next month brings double digit gains ;) Layter hayters.

-----------------
*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are the past Net Worth updates.

Labels: net worth, stock market

If not, an even $200k certainly would do it. What about for you? I have to give a big shout out to Living Almost Large as she posted something similar the other day and it really got me thinking.

She adds a huge political twist on it, but i'd totally recommend it if you find this topic interesting - at least for the pretty passionate comments being thrown around on it! (you say one thing about Obama or McCain that someone doesn't like and they are allllllll over it..haha)

But what type of salary or other income would it take for YOU to feel "rich"? Have you ever thought about it? I have the tendency to consider one's net worth to determine that, so it was pretty cool to think a bit differently here. I think for me, I'd have to bring home somewhere in the $150-$200k range if i really didn't wanna have to worry about money again.

But to be honest, i really don't think a set salary determines whether you're wealthy or not. It's HOW you spend it, or not spend it, that's the determining factor.

There are plenty of people blowing through $200k-$300k a year on their lavish lifestyles, yet barely saving a few pennies. I wouldn't consider them rich, even though they may look it (The Millionaire Next Door anyone?). At the same time, there are a select few making $500k+ and saving 90% of it while living comfortably and in peaceful bliss. Your salary/other income definitely plays a big role, but you have to account for where it goes to.

Then we have those crazy frugal bastards (meant in the most loving and sincere way possible) who make $60k and invest 20-30% into their already heavily fortified nest egg! So while they may not be rich at the present time, I guarantee they'll make it faster than those a lot of those non-saving fools making twice that.

As LAL also mentioned, $250k will go a lot farther in places like Smallville, USA than New York City or LA. So that has to be considered as well. I can tell you that splitting a bachelor pad in NYC with 5 people cost me more way more than my old abode in Fairfax, VA which i only split with one person. The nightlife was totally different, but so was the fatness of my wallet ;)

Does all of this really matter though? not really....unless someone's about to pay us our "ideal" amount anytime soon, you can go ahead and file it away in your "good to have on hand, just in case" folder. And I'm still gonna have to base my views on the rich depending on what their net worth is since it shows whether someone's saving/investing or just spending it all away.

Definitely leave a comment with your magic # though, as ya never know who'll be reading it! Plus i hear that if you concentrate on it long enough, you can force it to happen circa "The Secret" kinda stuff. But you can think what you want ;)

Labels: net worth, work

Got rid of a heap of debt, and almost ready to combine finance forces now.

I wanted to do it last month, but it just wasn't happening. At least we have a game plan now though :) I'll post about it soon, but we'll basically be using a checking and savings for our most of our combined finances, and then keeping our seperate accounts for whatever else our heart desires.

In other fantastic news, i FINALLY sold my SUV this month and am now working on paying off the difference from that (i was upside down on my loan), and the $3,100 i paid for my now daily driver - the Caddy. I'll be using the same money for my old car payments, only i'll be applying it to the credit card every month, thus staying in budget and knocking it away piece by piece.

I estimate it'll be paid off in full within 6 months to a year, all depending on bonus' and any extra money that may or may not come in. And then i'll be 100% debt free with the only exception of our house! Woohoo!

Here's how it breaks down this month:

CASH SAVINGS: This was quite a nice surprise as i really don't know what i've been doing differently. I know i've been budgeting pretty well, so maybe the differences have been adding up? i REALLY wanted to post our "paid forwarded" money we received, but unfort. i still have to keep shut on it...i almost slipped and added it though!

ROTH IRA: A whole Still left up to the market as usual...haven't put anything extra in it for months. Once i max out my 401k, I'll think about adding to it again.

401(k): Not too shabby, especially in today's market. I put in $593.75 myself, got matched $593.75, and then earned a little over $70 buckaroos on market fluctuations. I f'ing LOVE our 401k plan at work.

SAVINGS BONDS: A few dollars more to sock away. You can check the breakdown of all my bonds and details here. Some go back from when i was born! haha...

CONDO INVESTMENT: I stopped lending money to my brother last month, so now it'll only go up 5% for the interest each month...until he pays it back (which he says should be by the end of '08). Me likey long time!

HOME EQUITY: Steady Freddy...since we paid off a good $10k by accident back in January, we're in no rush to pay any more off right now. Savings a much better option for us these days.

AUTO WORTH (kbb): It dropped significantly, but for good measure - I sold my Toyota Highlander!!! Thank you, thank you, yes i feel like a bad $$ right now ;) Sure only 1 person emailed about it, but that's all it takes baby! This new amount is now ONLY for what my Caddy would probably go for these days. And it rocks. a lot.

CREDIT CARDS: I paid off a good $600+ already on my credit card (my old car payment amount plus some extra i saved from good budgeting), but since i was upside down on my Highlander, I had to slap $4,000 on it. OUCH, right?! Not my favorite thing to do, but the c/c rate is locked in at 3.4% and i'm waiting to get back $1500ish from cancelling all my extended warranties on it. So while i technically have no car payments per se, i'll be still applying the monthly amount of $443 towards it until it's paid off. Gotta keep in the habit!

AUTO LOAN: Zeroooooooooooooo! Hot diggity! But don't forget to read the above paragraph if you haven't already....it's not *as nice* as it may sound ;)

That's it for this month. I hope all your net worth's increased as well, and keep on budgeting! It all pays off baby, it's just a matter of time.

-----------------
*I have updated my sweet & sassy side bars as always.
*And here are the past Net Worth updates.

Labels: net worth