January was a somewhat neutral month for us. Our net worth was reduced $70.00 from last month to $42,013.69 (click on spreadsheet below).

What worked:
We contributed $771.00 total to our retirement accounts (401k and Roth IRAs), although they only increased over last month by $385.61. We also deposited $900 in our savings account.

What did not work:
We pulled $1,169.14 out of savings for our 2nd property tax payment (this was a planned expense). We also pulled $1,484 out of savings to purchase 106 shares of BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION stock for $14/share. Unfortunately, the stock is currently selling at ~$7/share.

Next month:
February should be a tough month. My company will be implementing a 20-25% reduction in pay that will hit my 2nd paycheck in February. If our business continues on its current trend, there may be layoffs in March. So, we’ll likely not invest much, forcing us to fall a bit further behind pace to hit our net worth goal for 2009. Let’s keep praying things get better.

2008 was a great year, even with the very rough economy. Below is a table compiling our net worth data for 2008 (click on table to enlarge). Some highlights from 2008 include:

• We increased our net worth from $23,873.25 to $ 42,083.69. We missed our net worth goal of $47,800.00 by $5,716.31, but still made good progress.
• We increased our savings account balance from $4,629.57 to $15,651.73. This cash will help provide us some security while my wife looks for a new job.
• We contributed $6,250.00 total to our Roth IRAs. We had hoped to max out our Roth IRA contributions ($5,000 each), but boosting our savings became a priority instead.
• We contributed $4,797.69 total to our 401(k) plans. No real target here, just wanted to continue adding to it.
• We reduced our debt from $374,466.21 to $347,279.48. Over 1/2 of this reduction was from selling Car 1.

We have great hopes for 2009. I will be posting our 2009 goals very soon.

Since we will be traveling for the holidays, I am posting our December net worth a bit early.

Our net worth in December increased $6,906.48 over last month to $42,083.69 (click on spreadsheet below). This is one of our strongest monthly increases yet and is a nice change from the decrease in our net worth over the last 3 months. Unfortunately, even with this very strong month, we came up $5,716.31 short of our 2008 net worth goal of $47,800. All things considered, with this economy, that’s not too bad. We reached 88.04% of our goal for the year.

What worked
We contributed a total of $1,198.50 to our 401(k)s and Roth IRAs. We also deposited a whopping $4,357.40 into our savings account, thanks mainly to my wife’s $3,544.00 quarterly bonus ($2,028.95 net).

What did not work
Nothing I could find. December was a good month.

Next month
My wife received notice that December 31st will be her last day of employment. Therefore, we don’t expect to be able to increase our net worth much, if any, in January. She has already had a successful day of interviewing with another company and has been networking to find a new job. With my paychecks, her unemployment checks, and a bit of baby sitting money, we shouldn’t have to pull any money out of savings for quite a few months.

Ouch, another down month for our net worth, but not by much. It decreased $121.89 from October to $35,177.21 (click on spreadsheet below).

What worked:
We both still have our jobs, even with my company laying off 15% of its employees in October. We were able to deposit $715 into our savings account, but pulled $1,169.14 out for our condo tax payment. Thankfully, this was a planned expense that we have been saving a little for each month. We sold our 15 shares of Toyota Motor Corporation (ticker TM) stock for $82/share, a 26% gain after holding it only 19 days. We purchased another 15 shares of the stock when it dropped back to $65/share the next day and are still holding it.

What did not work:
Once again, our retirement accounts declined. We were down $518.56 from last month, even though we contributed a total of $1,013 to our 401(k)s and Roth IRAs this month.

Next month:
My wife will learn more about her employment situation in mid-December. Her company is having a big shake-up, and it’s possible that her position will be eliminated. We’re prepared, but please pray for us that this does not happen.

As with most people, October was another brutal month for our net worth. It decreased $3,598.11 from last month to $35,299.10, a 9.25% drop (click on spreadsheet below).

What worked:
We both still have our jobs. Seriously, with unemployment at 7.7% in California, we are blessed to be working. We deposited $661 into our savings account and subsequently pulled $1,000 out of saving to open a stock trading account. We purchased 15 shares of Toyota Motor Corporation (ticker TM) for $63.71/share It is currently trading at $76.09/share.

What did not work:
Our retirement accounts declined by $4,536.50, even though we contributed a total of $1,513 to our 401(k)s and Roth IRAs. No big deal, we’re not touching this money for 20+ years. I’m glad we were able to put some extra money toward retirement while the market is cheap.

Next month:
We have a couple of big annual bills due next month: $1,157 for auto insurance, $439 for condo insurance, and $1,169.14 for property taxes. We should be able to cover most of the insurance bills by cashing in 5 days of my vacation and the property tax bill will come out of savings. I will also be out of town ½ of November on business, so our food and gas should be below budget.

It will be interesting to see how many blogger’s actually saw an increase in their net worth in September. It was a very rough month, and our net worth took a huge $3,310.51 drop to $38,897.21. On the bright side, long term, the depressed stock market should help put our investments that much further ahead when it comes time to retire, since we’re buying everything “on sale” right now.

What worked:
We finally sold Car 1 (my truck). This will allow us to save an additional $293/month in car payments. It was a blessing to sell the truck before the economy gets any worse.

What did not work:
Our retirement accounts (401k’s and Roth IRAs) were hit hard, going down a combined $2,660.13 since last month, even though we contributed a total of $713 in September. We also pulled money out of savings to pay off Car 1, since we sold it at a loss. We’ve slipped off track for hitting our 2008 net worth goal of $47,800 in December. We’re going to work hard to achieve the goal, but if the market remains depressed, we may miss by a couple thousand dollars.

Next month:
October should be a low expense month. We don’t have any large bills due and I will be out of town for 2 weeks so our fuel and food expenses should be less. We’re going to work on stockpiling more cash in the coming months to give us more of a cushion during this economic uncertainty.

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.

June ended up being a worse net worth month for us than I expected. We were down $2,221.12 from last month, to a total net worth of $33,464.34 (click on spreadsheet below).

As I mentioned in my previous post, the down month was due to a combination of planned annual expenses (such as our vacation), some overspending (such as the increase in eating out), and depressed market conditions (such as the reduction in our retirement accounts).

I’m not going to dwell on all of the details that made June a bad month for our net worth. We are simply going to move on and focus on turning things around in July.

NOTE: This net worth update is a week early because my wife and I are going on vacation.

What worked:
May was an awesome month for our net worth. It increased $4,247.51 from last month to $35,685.46. This puts us at 74.66% of our 2008 net worth goal of $47,800.What worked: Our retirement accounts lead the way. We invested a total of $1,771 in our retirement accounts and saw an overall increase of $2,296.99. We also were able to increase our savings by $1,358.10, primarily because of my wife’s “extra” check this month.

What did not work:
Our taxable accounts total went down a whopping $14.45.

Next month:
June may end up being a mild month for our net worth. It is likely that we will have to pull some cash out of savings to pay off the vacation we will be on next week.