It’s hard to believe the end of 2010 is already here. We ended the year on a strong note, increasing our net worth $7,007.82 from last month, to a total of $115,300.07 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked
We passed our 2010 net worth goal of $105,700 last month, so December gave us an opportunity to make terrific headway on our 2011 net worth goal of $138,100. In December, we contributed $1,219.50 to our retirement accounts and saw them increase $5,437.42 to $83,594.59. We also increased our savings account balance by a $1,715.00 to a total of $9,215.82.

What Didn’t Work
We spent a ton of money this month, but I’ll get into that when I do our December income statement post in a couple of days.

Next Month
In the next few days, we’ll be reviewing our 2010 financial goals and posting our 2011 financial goals.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Wow, our July was a great month for the market. Our net worth increased $6,339.70 from last month, to a total of $93,035.08 (click on spreadsheet below). It feels good to be back up over $90K.

What Worked

We contributed $1,313 to our retirement accounts and saw them increase a whopping $6,251.46.

What Didn’t Work

We didn’t contributing $1,000 to our savings this month as planned. My wife and I gave ourselves some extra fun money instead. We’ll get back on track with the savings account contributions next month.

Next Month

Who knows? Hopefully the market keeps going up and the economy strengthens. Haha.

I really have been neglecting this blog, but at least I’m still updating our net worth each month! Unfortunatley, our net worth decreased $1,240.46 from last month, to a total of $86,695.38 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked

$1,000 was also automatically deposited into savings account this month from my wife’s paychecks.

What Didn’t Work

We contributed $1,719.50 to our retirement accounts (401k & Roth IRAs), and saw them increase $2,015.01. We’re falling a little behind on our Roth IRA contributions. Since my Wife’s company does not have a 401(k) plan, our goal is to max out our Roth IRA’s. We’re half way through the year and have only contributed $1,250 each ($2,500 total) to our Roth IRAs. We need to pick up the pace to reach the $5,000 individual maximum contribution.

Next Month

The markets a little crazy right now, so I won’t even bother to guess at next month.

We slide back quite a bit in May. Our net worth decreased $4,254.95 from last month, to a total of $86,660.75 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked

My Wife received a $1,884.50 gross ($1,055.71 net) quarterly bonus from old job. She also set-up $500/paycheck to be directly deposited into our savings account. So, our savings jumped $1,000 this month.

What Didn’t Work

Almost everything went down this month.

Next Month

I hate to be negative, but I’m forecasting another net worth decrease for us next month. I will be receiving an extra (3^rd) paycheck, but that will be used to pay $1,906.90 in annual insurance premiums (auto and rental) that are due by June 25^th. In addition, we have a number of smaller bills next month that add up to one big bill.