Thanks to Stephanie at Poorer Than You for hosting the Carnival of Credit Report Stories that included my post Credit Reports and Credit Scores. If you are interested in your credit reports and scores, this carnival has it all.
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April 2007 Income Statement
We went way over budget again. Darn it!
To our credit, it was not because we spent frivolously. There were numerous one-time, annual, and prepayment expenditures that brought our total expenses for April to $7,581.50 (click on spreadsheet below).
On the positive side, my wife netted an extra $1,147.24 in commissions, we had $127.55 in “other” income (see spreadsheet notes), and our interest income doubled to $11.08.
May is forcasted to be a lighter month for us expense wise. If nothing unforseen pops-up (yeah right), we should spend roughly $1,300 less than we did in April.
April 2007 Net Worth Update (+$3,145.07)
I didn’t expect us to match our huge net worth increase in March, but we had a good net worth increase in April (click on the spreadsheet below). Our total net worth is now $6,438.50, well on our way to our 2007 goal of $22,000.
Some highlights from April follow:
- The nice boost to our net worth this month came thru a $1,147.24 (after taxes) commission check that my wife earned.
- We deposited $630.00 into our Emigrant Direct savings account for Roth IRA funding (once we hit $3,000 will be moved into Vanguard 500 Index Fund Inv). We also restarted my company 401(k), albeit at a measly 2% of my gross pay. Our retirement investment focus for 2007 is to fully fund our Roth IRA’s, and put any “extra” money into my 401(k) plan.
- We paid off our American Express credit card.
- I took $50 from my April fun money ($180/month) and deposited it into our ING Direct account. I hope to get $500 saved up to speculate with in the stock market (more for fun/education than as an investment purposes).
- We had numerous large expenses in April (noted in the spreadsheet) that totaled $1,219.45.
I have added a 2007 net worth goal meter to the blog (upper right hand corner) that will provide a quick reference on our progress.
Thank God for the great month and hopefully we can duplicate it again in May.
Good Prospective Car Buyer
I have been trying to sell my car for awhile now in an effort to reduce our monthly expenses and increase our net worth. Currently, we pay $883 a month in car payments for our two vehicles.
I spoke to a lady today who seems very interested. She called twice and sent me two emails within a 24 hour period. After a long discussion with her on the phone, we made a tentative plan to meet on Wednesday for her to see the car. She actually owned the same vehicle, but just totaled it in an accident. The good news is that her insurance company gave her a check to get a new vehicle.
Of all of the prospective buyers I’ve had, this one seems the most determined and able. In fact, she told me if someone makes me an offer before we meet on Wednesday, that I should call her. I am selling the car for $18,000 and plan to purchase a vehicle (with similar mileage) that costs $11,000-$12,000. This should reduce my monthly payments by roughly $150 and also reduce my insurance costs. Wish me luck!
What’s In Your Wallet?
I love Capital One’s “What’s in your wallet?” ad campaing; they’re consistantly funny. While I’m not going to sign up for their credit card just because I enjoy the commercials, they do ask a good question. So, here’s what’s in my wallet:
Driver’s license – Of course.
Picture of wife – Gotta have it.
$10.00 bill – I prefer to pay using my cash back credit card, so I don’t carry much cash.
Post-it note with Travelocity vocher code – Vocher code was given to me when Travelocity made a mistake on a trip. I keep forgeting to use this; I don’t even know if it is still valid.
Jambacard – Jamba Juice gift card that probably has $0.73 left on it. I love smoothies!
Blockbuster Membership Card – Gets us movies.
Blockbuster Online E-Coupon for a free movie – We receive these monthly as part of our Total Access membership
PetsMart PetPerks Card – Gets us discounts on all of the stuff we buy for our puppy.
VonsClub Card – I never do the grocery shopping, so I don’t know why I have this.
Passport Service Information Card – In case I lose my passport.
AAA Roadside Assitance Card – In case I have car trouble.
500 minute PrePaid Phone Card – In case I don’t have cell phone service or change to make a phone call.
Health Net Insurance Card – Needed for doctor visits.
Optometrist’s business card – I must have grabbed this during my last visit.
Citi Dividend MasterCard – Cash back rewards card used for household expenses.
HSBC Platinum MasterCard – Cash back rewards card used for business expenses.
Mellon Commerical Visa Card – Company credit card, rarely used since I prefer to place charges on my cash back credit card and get reimbursed.
San Diego County Credit Union Visa Card – I do not use, but has a $10,000 credit limit and long payment history.
San Diego County Credit Union ATM Card – Used to access our joint savings account.
Washington Mutual Gold Debit Card – Used to access our joint checking account.
Bank of America Platinum Check Card – Used to access my personal checking account.
What have I learned from this exercise? That I have too many cards! I am ditching the following:
San Diego County Credit Union ATM Card – we only have $50 in the account to keep it open so that we can have access to the credit union for future auto loans.
Optometrist’s business card – the phone number is already programmed into my cell phone.
VonsClub Card – I don’t use it.
Picture me holding a 4” thick wallet, with a funny expression on my face, as I throw these 3 cards into the trash can, and say in a grumpy voice, “What’s in your wallet?”
RSS Feed
1MansMoney now has an RSS feed! I just learned about RSS feeds and love the convenience they provide. Inside of visiting your favorite blogs each day to see if there is new content, you can subscribe (for free) to your favorite blogs and visit one website to see updated content from all of them.
To subscribe to 1MansMoney’s RSS feed, click on the 
icon in the upper right hand corner of this webpage. You will be prompted to choose a reader (I use Google Reader) and create a user id and password. Then, whenever you want to see if there is new content from 1MansMoney and other blogs you subscribe to, you just log onto Google Reader. What a time-saver.
Real Emergency Fund
I think it’s great to have an emergency fund for unexpected events, such as sickness or job loss. However, if there were ever an emergency that took out the power for a long period of time, such as a major earthquake, it is likely that we would be unable to access our saving accounts or use our credit cards.
My wife and I rarely have more than $20 in cash on us, because we try to charge most of our expenses to our cash back credit cards. This puts us in a tough position if we needed to buy water or gas during an emergency. That being said, we decided to take $150 out of our savings so that we have cash available at home. We requested small denominations ($100 in one dollar bills and $50 in five dollar bills) so that we do not have to worry about getting change.
The money will be hidden in our condo and hopefully never used. We plan to buy a safe within the next year for my wife’s jewelry, important documents, and this emergency cash.
Gotta Love Easy Money
I just received confirmation from HBSC that our $25 cash back redemption request has been received, and our check will arrive within 15 business days. Not a big sum of money, but the only thing I had to do to earn it was charge my business trip expenses to my HBSC rewards Mastercard (which my company immediately reimburses me for).
My wife and I also have a Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard that we use for most of our household expenses. The card is paid off monthly and earns us up to 5% cash back. In fact, we should be able to request a $50 reward from the Citi MasterCard next month. Easy money.
Financial Websites
I really enjoy searching the web for high quality financial websites that I can learn from. It’s amazing how much information is available online. Below is a list of sites that I visit frequently.
Early Retirement Forum
Finding this site started it all for me
2million
My favorite personal finance blog
Morningstar
More finance information that you can ever read
Bloomberg Calculators
Many useful financial calculators
Vanguard
Offers a wealth of resources and low expense Roth IRA choices
Why Don’t We Talk About Money?
Other than my family, I only have a couple of friends that I talk with about money. Even then, our conversations are usually limited to vague references, and not actual numbers. I can see pros and cons to keeping money matters private.
Pros
- Less chance of jealousy if your financial situation is better than another person’s
- Less possibility of embarrassment if your financial situation is worse off than another person’s
- Less likelihood that someone will hit you up for a loan / try to steal from you
Cons
As you can see, I can argue both sides, however, I lean more towards wanting to talk about money – this blog, although anonymous, is a great example.
One exception for me when it comes to talking about money is discussing compensation with co-workers. I don’t do it and wouldn’t recommend it.