All posts by 1MansMoney

I am a guy pushing 40 that is married to a beautiful woman in her 30's. If I can only have as much luck with our finances.
Net Worth

November 2010 Net Worth Update +($3,931.33)

We had a solid increase to our new worth again this month. Our net worth increased $3,931.33 from last month, to a total of $108,292.25 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked
We officially passed our 2010 net worth goal of $105,700 this month. Now we can get a head start on our 2011 net worth goal of $138,100. In November, we contributed $1,313 to our retirement accounts and saw them increase $2,333.99 to $78,157.17. We also increased our savings account balance by $1,757.15 to a total of $7,479.92. UPDATE: My wife received her Q3 bonus after I posted this yesterday so I wanted to include the details here. The bonus was for $1680 gross ($941.14 net)!

What Didn’t Work
We’ve falling behind in our retirement account contributions, but this is the result of a slight change in plans. We have decided to focus on growing our savings account balance over the next 12 months so that we can hopefully be in a position to put a down-payment on a house in 2012.

Next Month
December is going to be a great month. I look forward to Christmas every year: celebrating the birth of Jesus, the festive cheer, and delicious food! Financial we’ll have a lot of income in December to look forward to also. My wife receives her Q3 bonus (bonus arrived shortly after I posted this) and I receive a third “extra” paycheck ($1,775.43 net).

Goals, Net Worth

Passed our 2010 Net Worth Goal

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We passed our 2010 net worth goal of $105,700 today!

We’re only over by a few hundred dollars, but we still have all of November and December left. God willing, we can use the next 60 days to make some headway on our 2011 goal of $138,100.

I will update our net worth meter (at left of webpage) at the end of the month.

Income Statement

October 2010 Income Statement

October was a pretty typical income month and a much lower than normal expense month.

In addition to our paychecks, my wife received a $75 reimbursement from her company for internet and cell phone and a $50 Chase credit card reward. They had planned to pay out the Q3 bonus this month, but for various reasons, it has been delayed until December.

Our expenses have slowly crept up over time, so mid October, we decided to challenge ourselves to spend less. I’m happy to report that we did a great job watching each dollar. We spent a total of $4,881.01. Not too bad considering we’ve averaged ~$6,000/month the past six months.

November seems like it might be a pretty normal month. We hope to continue our re-found frugal ways

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Net Worth

October 2010 Net Worth Update +($4,767.46)

I’ll be on a business trip next week, so I am posting our net worth update early.

We were blessed with another very good net worth increase month. Our net worth increased $4,767.46 from last month, to a total of $104,360.92 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked

Our biggest achievement this month was passing the $100,000 net worth milestone. What a great feeling. We contributed $1,313 to our retirement accounts and saw them increase $3,943.63 to $75,823.18. We also increased our savings account balance $990.98 to $5,722.77.

What Didn’t Work

Everything went great this month.

Next Month

November looks like it may be a fairly typical month, and I mean that in a good way. If things go as planned, we should pass our $105,700 2010 net worth goal a month early. That would then give us all of December to get a head start on our 2011 net worth goal of $138,100.

Goals, Net Worth

Net Worth Milestone – $100,000

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We passed a net worth milestone of $100,000. We hit our last net worth milestone, $90,000, back in April.

Psychologically, $100,000 represented a big hurdle that didn’t seem obtainable when we started tracking our net worth in February 2007. At the time, we had a negative net worth of -$3,168.85. Setting a plan and trusting in God allowed us to reach this goal. And there are many more ahead…

Our spreadsheet suggests we will hit our next milestone of $110,000 around March. I will update our net worth meter (on the left side of the screen) at the end of the month.

Income Statement

September 2010 Income Statement

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September was a good month for our income and expenses (see spreadsheet below).

In addition to our paychecks, my wife received a $500 gross ($280.10 net) special bonus and $75 reimbursement from her company for internet and cell phone. We also received a $100 in cash back rewards from our credit cards and an $89.63 auto insurance refund. Not too shabby.

Expenses were more or less in-line with our budget. We each got $140 in extra fun money (we’ve been doing that a lot lately), my wife went on a trip with her friends / family, we bought a few things for the Jeep, and we’ve purchased ~$250 in items for a camping trip we are taking in October.

October seems like it might be a pretty normal month. No large bills are looming and our income should be average.

Net Worth

September 2010 Net Worth Update +($6,826.81)

After taking a small step back in August, our net worth rose again in September. It increased $6,826.81from last month, to a total of $99,593.46 (click on spreadsheet below). Darn close to $100K and on our way to reaching our 2010 net worth goal of $105,700.

What Worked

We contributed $813 to our retirement accounts and saw them increase a whopping $5,891.03 to $71,979.55. We also increased our savings account by $1,116 to a total of $4,731.79.

What Didn’t Work

We’re still falling behind on our retirement account contributions, but may end up focusing on our savings account balance instead. I tried to sell back some vacation time to my company, but they asked me to wait a bit due to the economy.

Next Month

October may be our largest milestone yet because, God willing, our net worth will surpass $100,000.


Income Statement

August 2010 Income Statement

While we missed some of our investment goals in August, our income and expenses were on target.

In addition to our paychecks, my wife received a $75 reimbursement from her company for internet and cell phone and a $96.36 reimbursement from her company for a new phone. We also received a $100 rebate from Verizon for her new phone and $61.59 in reimbursements from her H.S.A. account.

Expenses were reasonable, even considering a mini vacation that we took to Malibu and new cell phones for both of us.

September may be an extra strong income month because my wife receives a $500 special bonus check from her company and I hope to sell 5 days of vacation back to my company. I will also be out of town for 1 week, hopefully reducing some of our expenses.

Net Worth

August 2010 Net Worth Update -($268.43)

Our net worth slipped off a bit in August. It decreased $268.43 from last month, to a total of $92,766.65 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked

We increased our savings to $3,613.59. We plan to focus on getting our savings balance to a much higher level to provide some security in this uncertain economy.

What Didn’t Work

We contributed $813 to our retirement accounts and saw them decrease $1,186.75. So far this year, we’ve contributed $12,609.65 to our retirement accounts. Last year, we contributed a total of $19,437.41. Another $3,658.50 should be contributed to my 401(k) through automatic payroll deductions over the rest of 2010. That leaves $3,169.26 that we have to contribute to our Roth IRA’s in order to match last year’s total contribution. We need to get our act in gear to make this happen.

Next Month

I’m hoping good thoughts for our net worth in September, but whatever comes our way, we’ll deal with.