Once again, my wife hooks us up. We’ve wanted a new dinning table for awhile, but have been waiting until we could buy one that was nice enough to take with us when we get a house down the road. She found a beautiful wood table that regularly costs $500, on sale for only $250. The table includes a couple of leaves, so we can scale the size up when we get a house. The 4 wood chairs she picked out were normally $120 each, but they were marked down over half price.
Unfortunately, there was a mix-up at the store and they neglected to load one of the boxes for the table. After getting home, my wife discovered the error and called the store to ask that they deliver the box at no charge since it was their mistake. The store offered to discount the table further, if she would be willing to come back to pick up the box. She agreed and picked up the final box.
What started off as a table and chair set that cost $1,000+ (with tax), was discounted down to $324 (tax included). What a bargin!
August was our 2nd lowest month of expenses in this year (click on spreadsheet below). My wife was out of town 2-1/2 weeks for business and I was out of town 1 week for business; all of this business travel helped save us some money. While my wife was out of town, I was able to use her company car and gas card, saving us $125-$150 in gas.
We had another strong income month, which is especially nice when combined with a low expense month. My wife earned an “extra” third check this month as well as a $236.16 commission from her old company. We also received a $200 wedding gift that was totally unexpected, but appreciated, since we have been married a couple of years. With our savings account balance rising, we’re starting to see an increase in interest income; this month we earned $28.05 in interest income.
Next month my wife may receive her 1st quarterly bonus, although if she receives anything, it will be a much smaller bonus than what she can expect down the road. We should also earn cash rewards from our Citi credit card and HSBC credit card. The only major expense planned is a few hundred dollars for a new kitchen table and chairs.
August was another good month for our net worth. It increased $3,434.28 from last month to a new total of $42,207.72.
What worked: I received my annual company profit sharing this month to the tune of $730.72, my wife received an “extra” third paycheck, my wife’s 6% 401(k) contribution (with a 25% match) began this month and we contributed a total of $400 to our Roth IRAs.
What did not work: We still have not been able to sell my truck, but otherwise, no complaints.
Next month: September should be a pretty straight forward month. We have not large expenses forecast or any extra money coming in. Actually, I take that back. There is a chance that my wife may receive her first quarterly bonus from her company, but it will likely be a fraction of what she can hope to receive after she has been in the field awhile.
Last August, I posted about how our financial situation had significantly changed for the better from two years prior. What’s interesting about that post is that 10 days later, my wife was laid off from her job and we faced a potentially challenging time. Less than a week after being laid off, we were blessed with her receiving a new job, saving us from what could put our financial situation in dire straits.
Well, now I’d like to take a look at August 2007 compared to August 2008 (see below). Again, we’ve been greatly blessed and have seen our financial picture improve more than we could have even hoped. We’ve continued to increase our retirement investments and improve our savings. We’ve also eliminated our credit card debt and improved our salaries. Another major change from last year is that my wife now has another new job in a field that she is truly passionate about. Her new job has so many benefits, I can’t list them all here. The short list is company car and gas card, 401(k) with company match, and cell and internet reimbursements. What you can’t see in the breakdown below is that her annual bonus should be ~$20,000!
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).
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.
We earned a total of $13,763.08 in July, by far our largest income month yet (click on spreadsheet below). Over 30% of this came from a huge $4,427.74 commission my wife received from her old company. The balance was a combination of my wife began receiving paychecks from her new better paying job, my third “extra” paycheck, $292.17 from my wife’s company in reimbursements, and $19.81 in interest income.
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.
Our path to financial independence and retiring early.
