November 2014 Net Worth Review

Here's to the Numbers!!

Cash - $25,698 ($127)
Investments - $159,391 ($10,449)
Home Value - $366,000 ($0)
Personal Assets - $49,487 (-$1,113)
Less: Liabilities - $306,640 (-$4,302)

Assets -

Cash - A couple large car repairs led to us holding steady in cash.  The Acura needed four (4) new tires and my car needed tires and brakes/rotors within a 6 week period.  So, in addition to paying down debt in September, October was about managing our cash while maintaining out savings.

Investments - Amazing to see how this area has grown!  Over $125k in retirement assets, nearly $18k towards Baby #1's college savings.  Steady growth is what I hope for and love seeing the markets help out!

Personal Assets - 

Just lowering the value of cars....

Liabilities -

Mortgage - $287,971 - I STILL hate this beast.  Slow and steady.

Student Loans - $3,426 (-$2,028) - We've made significant progress in this area and the 6.55% grad loans are a $215?  I'll be paying this off and just haven't due to laziness and desire to build cash.  Undergrad loans are at 1.26% - so the $4/month interest paid is worth waiting to pay it down.

Acura Loan - $12,244   Made some strides in this area and will be continuing this moving forward now that Student Loans have been reduced.
 

Total Joint Net Worth - $293,935.  A 4.9% improvement in three months!  One month to go in 2014 and $300k looks achievable - although tough.

August 2014 New Worth Review

Wow, its actually been 3 months since our last review.  This should make for some interesting fluctuations....

Here's to the Numbers!!

Cash - $25,571 (-$3,410) 
Investments - $148,942 ($9,134)
Home Value - $366,000 ($0)
Personal Assets - $50,600 (-$925)
Less: Liabilities - $310,942 (-$8,197)

Assets -

Cash - We really need to monitor our cash as the Prof has started her new Part-Time position and our monthly income has decreased by 15%.  We've made significant debt progress, so the need to get crazy there is gone, but maintaining our diligence is as important as ever.

Investments - Markets continue to market!  Plus, I've finally qualified for my company 401k match, so our monthly contributions just doubled!  I love it!

Personal Assets - 

Just lowering the value of cars....

Liabilities -

Mortgage - $289,198 - I hate this beast.  Slow and steady.

Student Loans - $5,454 (-$3,703) - Continue to get loco with the graduate student loans in preparation for job change.  My 6.55% (set up monthly direct debits to lower the rate) graduate student loans are at $1,954!!  Should be gone by end of September!

Acura Loan - $13,290   Very slow progress here as I had to dial it back due to some unexpected expenses during the summer.  We had a home improvement project take over our basement in June and we created an awesome living space for the family.  I love it, but not the check book impact.

PNC (Screw You) Loan - $0 - Eff You.

Total Joint Net Worth - $280,171.  A 11% improvement in three months!  WOW!  That is awesome and its a nice kick in the pants as I was feeling worried about the part-time change and other things.  THat's incredible and I think $300,000 is totally achievable by the end of the year if the market continue to rock out!  Even still, our debt progress is encouraging and really gets me excited.

May 2014 Net Worth Review

I just realized now that I did not post last month.  Spring has come and gone and Summer will soon be upon us.

Here's to the Numbers!!

Cash - $28,981 (-$3,338) 
Investments - $139,808 ($2,498)
Home Value - $366,000 ($0)
Personal Assets - $51,525 (-$842)
Less: Liabilities - $319,139 (-$8,410)

Assets -

Cash - Our cash balance took a bite but its been for good reason.  As I mentioned previously, we decided that we have a solid emergency fund and that we should be knocking out our debts faster.  So, I'm okay with the cash balance, although we had a bad spend month, the overall progress was very good.

Investments - We've made normal 401k contributions during the month, but otherwise, its the markets doing their thing!  I'm very proud of our retirement situation and am actually considering dialing back a little bit as the Prof and I consider some family/career goals and how we can gain financial freedom.  Her monthly contributions are around $160, which is always good, but would the extra $125 be utilized more as extra debt payment and allow her to stop working faster.  It's a personal finance no-no to stop contributing to retirement, but sometimes we need to reevaluate priorities.

Personal Assets - 

Just lowering the value of cars....

Liabilities -

Mortgage - $290,412 - I hate this beast.  Slow and steady.

Student Loans - $9,184 (-$5,036) - BAM! BAM!  One of my two graduate loans is GONE!  We had a balance of $18k in June of last year and $14k in December.  Now- GONE!  That feels so good!

Acura Loan - $13,485   Nothing crazy.  Just the usual payments being made.

PNC (Screw You) Loan - $3,058- I hate writing these checks and will be glad when all my PNC accounts are closed.

Total Joint Net Worth - $252,213.  A 5.9% improvement in two months.  I'm pleasantly surprised!  We had an unpleasant family event this past month and performed some home improvement projects to appease our mental state.  It helped, but did put a dent in our credit card.  Not proud of that, but we'll continue our steady upward climb to major financial freedom.

March 2014 Net Worth Review

Spring is here!  Baseball is back!  It's March Net Worth Time!!!

Here's to the Numbers!!

Cash - $32,319 (-$2) 
Investments - $137,310 ($1,520)
Home Value - $366,000 ($0)
Personal Assets - $52,367 (-$1,767)
Less: Liabilities - $327,549 (-$6,715)

Assets -

Cash - Our best cash flow month yet!  That's crazy to see a change of $2 considering everything that happened.  First, we finalized our taxes to the tune of a $4,500 Refund!!! Easily the highest refund I have ever received and something that definitely helped eliminate our debts this month.  I've written before about why I like getting a refund and don't treat it like an "interest free loan to the government".  However, this year's refund is probably little higher than I'd like, it's also out of the ordinary considering everything that went into it.  3 years of grad school, Baby Boy and some capital losses (caused by moving) caused the spike in return - I'm not complaining, but I'm also not going to change my W-2 because not all those things will happen again.

Investments - Considering I invested $1,500 into my IRA and I made $980 weekly contributions into my 401(k), this month was not a great month for the market, but also not a terrible month.  Markets be crazy!!

Personal Assets - 

Just lowering the value of cars....

Liabilities -

Mortgage - $291,214 -   Ho Hum.  I've seen other places that quote this at Home Equity (Home Value less Mortgage), and it's six-and-half-one-dozen-the-other in my mind.  I like looking at it as debt because then I can have a goal = $0.  With equity, my goal would be $1,000,000; which is unattainable.

Student Loans - $14,220 (-$4,220) - BAM!  We beat this up in March.  The prof and I are on the same page about lowering this to $0 before Baby #2 and we are okay with less emergency fund, we'd like around $10k available.  So, I used the refund this month to spear the b*tch, but we'll utilize some E-Funds (mostly cash flow though) to knock this out by Sept.

Acura Loan - $14,622   We'll continue to make larger than needed payments to the Acura, but won't get ultra aggressive until the 6.8% student loans are gone.  Just math.  This should still be gone by mid-year 2015.

PNC (Screw You) Loan - $7,859 - I hate writing these checks and will be glad when all my PNC accounts are closed.

Total Joint Net Worth - $252,213.  A 1.2% improvement in one month.  Nothing to go crazy about, but I feel better about our position and our strategy going forward!

February 2014 Net Worth Review

It's March 2nd and we're expecting 6" to 10" of snow today.  Not cool.  It's been a wild two months of 2014 and as such, I missed the boat on my January Net Worth Review.  Little Guy turned 1 on February 7th and the Prof turned 30 on the 22nd!!  It's been a great month (among the snow and ice) and we are excited for the rest of the year.

Here's to the Numbers!!

Cash - $32,321 (-$839) 
Investments - $135,790 ($10,210)
Home Value - $366,000 ($0)
Personal Assets - $52,367 ($3,968)
Less: Liabilities - $334,264 ($1,960)

Assets -

Cash - January & February were pretty boring months in terms of cash flow.  We've been very aggressive with my student loan payments as you will see below, so our cash levels haven't increased that much.  We're actually happy with our level of cash at this point and would like to use some of the excess to pay down Debt and build investments.  Having an emergency fund is important, but with the new house - our next big purchase need will be construction projects or my new car, which won't be for at least 18 months.  So, eliminating debt is high priority right now.  

Investments - Wow.  January was a sour month for the market place, but February roared back strong.  I've done some consolidating to my accounts this year and transferred my PNC IRA to a Vanguard IRA and then rolled over my 401k as well.  Now, I have fewer accounts and achieved a lower expense ratio as a result of increased holdings!  BAM and BAM!

Personal Assets - 

We got some jewelry appraised as part of our new insurance policy.  The value of our wedding rings and other items increased significantly than my original estimates.  Although we wouldn't sell these items unless absolutely necessary, its also nice knowing that its there.

Liabilities -

Mortgage - $291,612 -   More small gains.  We may attack this harder in the future, but for now, I'm okay with interest rate and a roof over my head.

Student Loans - $18,344 - We've paid down this by $5,732 in only two months!  I'm really excited to watch this go down and we should make another large payment in March when our Tax Refund comes in.  As I said before, we're comfortable with our current savings and using some of that to lower our debt to $0 in 2014 is goal.

Acura Loan - $15,188   We'll continue to make larger than needed payments to the Acura, but won't get ultra aggressive until the 6.8% student loans are gone.  Just math.  This should still be gone by mid-year 2015.
 
PNC (Screw You) Loan - $9,120 - So, the Education Assistance that PNC provided was bogus.  They changed their policy and are forcing me to pay back over $9k of the $15k that was provided.  This is why I will be closing all my PNC accounts in March.

Total Joint Net Worth - $252,213.  A 4.9% improvement since December.  Steady growth even with the unexpected liability (still bitter).  I expect our Net Worth to continue to grow as debt goes down and investments go up!  It's an exciting time for our household!!

December 2013 Net Worth Review

I'm really late on the New Year's review!  I'm sorry but it's been a crazy few weeks with finishing grad school, turning 30!!, and starting a new job!!  Did I mention that was all in the same week!

Regardless, the review should have been done and there are no excuses - so let's review and I'll fill you in on the details later!!

Here's to the Numbers!!

Cash - $33,160 ($6,034) 
Investments - $125,580 ($3,830)
Home Value - $366,000 ($0)
Personal Assets - $48,399 ($0)
Less: Liabilities - $332,304 (-$3,441)

Assets -

Cash - We saw a crazy influx of cash during the month and the major contributor to that was a $5,000 bonus for starting my job, a $3,000 birthday gift from my parents and a $1,000 christmas gift.  The other question is where did it all go - well, we stepped up our graduate school loan payback and will do additional paybacks next month.  So, I'm very happy with our cash position, but will not maintain such a high balance.  

Investments - A good month for the market place.  This was almost solely due to the markets as I have not started my 401(k) at my new work yet, so our contributions were limited.  Little Guy got a nice boost in his college fund from his godfather though!!!

Personal Assets - 

No change here.  Just lazy.

Liabilities -

Mortgage - $292,010 -   Small gains but still loving the house!

Student Loans - $24,076 - We made a big payment in December and have another ready in January.  Our high-interest loans should be around $16k by the end of January.  I'm proud of that considering they were once at $32k!!

Acura Loan - $16,218   Nothing unusual here.  Lower on the priority list but still making monthly progress.  The loan is actually structured so that we don't have to make another payment until August since we've "prepaid" so much already.
  

Total Joint Net Worth - $240,835.  A beautiful 10.3% improvement in December.  I'm pumped how well we are doing and our ability to progress going forward.  I can't expect the market to continue its crazy upward trend, but the debt reduction will definitely continue.  I just have to remember the immortal words of Ferris Buellers - "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop to look around every once in a while, you might miss it."