We passed a net worth milestone of $40,000! When we hit our last net worth milestone of $30,000 in April, I thought we could hit $40,000 by October. It looks like we beat that guess by 2 months.
As of today, our net worth is $41,489.62. Helping us break $40K this month was a $900 deposit to our savings account from my Wife’s “extra” third paycheck and a $730.72 company profit sharing contribution to my 401(k). We are on pace to meet our net worth net worth goal for the year of $47,800.
. . .into our savings account! We deposited another $900 today into our E*Trade savings account with money from my wife’s “extra” third check this month. This deposit puts our total E*Trade savings account balance at $10,918.89. The funds in this account are a combination emergency fund/future house downpayment.
Good news, a $730.72 company profit sharing contribution was deposited into my 401(k) account today.
With the poor economy, my company only contributed $12K total to the plan this year, much less than last year. Therefore, I knew I would not be receiving the $3K that they gave me last year. Nonetheless, I was happy to relieve 6% of the total they contributed to profit sharing this year. There are close to 40 employees in the company, so I feel like I received more than my fair share.
I’m fully vested, so 100% of the money is ours, although we won’t be touching it for 20+ years.
My company’s annual profit sharing contribution should process in the next week or two. I am anxiously waiting to see what my share will be.
Most of the years I have been with the company, my share of the annual profit sharing has been ~$500. Last year was my 7th year with the company and my first full year as a Sales Manager. I was surprised to see my profit sharing jump to $3,005.63. I don’t expect to receive that much this year because of the challenging economy that we’re in, but I still hope to get a nice little boost to my 401(k).
I’ll keep you posted.
My wife is currently out of town training for her new job on the East Coast. She’ll be gone a total of 2-1/2 weeks. I miss her a lot, but driving her new company car is helping me pass the time.
My wife has an extra $10/month taken out of her pay to allow me to drive her company car (what a deal, huh?). So while she is out of town, I’m getting to use it a lot. It’s a great looking new car with only 70 miles on it. In fact, I’ve already received a couple of complements on it (too bad it’s not mine).
Not only does driving her company car while she is out of town save us the cost of fuel and wear and tear on my car, the XM satellite radio it came with makes driving much more fun.
In addition to this great income month, we were able to keep our expenses pretty well inline. I cost us a $250 because I hurt my ear and have to have surgery. Our phone bill also jumped up because we added a phone for my wife with many minutes because she needs it for work. Thankfully, her company reimburses her $60/month for a cell phone, so most of the added costs are covered. Our gas & electric bill jumped over 40% because we have been using our air conditioning quite a bit (my fault). I’m going to be more careful with running it only when needed.
In August, my wife will receive a third “extra” check and possibly even another small commission check from her old company. My wife will also be out of town for a 2-1/2 week training program. While she is gone, I get to drive her company car and save gas money.
What worked:
The biggest impact in July came from my wife’s huge $4,427.74 commission check from her old job. In addition, my wife began her new better paying job and I received a third “extra” paycheck. All of these funds allowed us to increase our cash and savings balance to $10,299.08, even after withdrawing $1,079.86 from savings to pay down Car 1 in anticipation of selling it (the deal feel thru).
What did not work:
Once again, our retirement accounts were down from the previous month. We contributed a total of $606.50 to our retirement accounts this month, but still saw our retirement account totals reduced by $684.62 over the previous month.
Next month:
Next month, my wife’s 6% 401(k) contribution (and 25% company match) should kick in. She also will receive a third “extra” check, allowing us to boost our savings even more. God willing, we hope to sell my truck next month since it is not being used.
Since my wife’s new company provides her a company car, we had planned to sell her car. Unfortunately, because we bought her car new and it is only 2 years old, we would be upsidedown ~$3,500 if we tried to sell it. So, we decided to put my truck up for sale instead.
It makes sense for us to keep her car – it gets much better gas mileage than the truck, has 25K fewer miles, and is 5 years newer. We also just put new brakes on it. The car payments are $157/month more than the truck and insurance is $29/month more, but we should make most of this up in the gas savings alone.
The first day I put the truck up for sale, I had a gentleman come by and make an offer. I accepted, had the truck smogged, paid down the loan to the amount we agreed upon and contacted him to complete the DMV paperwork. When I got a hold of him, he told me his wallet was stole and needed more time. Since we know some of the same people, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but he flaked and has not called me back since. Lesson learned: Get a deposit before jumping thru hoops.
It’s a tough time to sell a truck. Thankfully, it’s a V6, which isn’t great with the current gas prices, but at least it’s not a V8.
My wife received her final commission check from her old company and it was her largest by far, even larger than we thought it would be: $4427.74! This will have a huge impact on our goals and is such a blessing. We are going to tithe 20% of the check ($885.55), save 25% for taxes ($1,106.94), deposit $2,000.00 into our savings account, and leave the $435.25 balance in our checking account. As usual, the 25% for taxes will be deposited in our savings account until April.
In addition to this awesome commission check, I received an “extra” paycheck this month so we are depositing another $1800 into our savings account from that. By the end of the month, our savings account should be just shy of $10,000.
Since the economy seems to continue to worsen, we have shifted our 2nd mortgage payment plan to a house deposit savings plan. Rather than put our extra cash towards the 2nd mortgage principle, where it cannot be accessed in an emergency, we have decided to just save for a house deposit, providing us with an every increasing emergency fund until we buy.
I hate the idea of paying 8.55% on our 2nd mortgage, but in tough times, cash is king.
My wife’s received her first paycheck from her new company. It was for $1,629.53, quite a bit more than the $1,109.48/paycheck she used to earn at her old company.
This first paycheck did not have any of her benefits deducted, so it was larger than what she will typically receive. Health insurance deductions should hit next paycheck (7/18) and will cost $66.83/paycheck and cover both of us. Her heath insurance plan is better and costs less than the plan my company offers so we’re going to move me to her insurance. Come August, our 6% contribution to her 401(k) plan will reduce the paychecks ~$90 each. Her company also matches 25% of her contribution (up to 6%). She will have ~$48/paycheck deducted for her company car starting in August or September; almost nothing considering that includes all costs associated with the car (car payment, insurance, maintenance, all of her fuel, etc.).
Once all of these benefits kick in, her paycheck should still be over $1,400.