Income Statement

February 2010 Income Statement

Thanks to my wife, February was strong income month and a low spending month (click on spreadsheet below).



In addition to our regular paychecks, my wife received a $3,000 ($1,217.53 net) quarterly bonus. My paycheck was also a bit higher because my company gave everyone another salary increase. My wife received a $110 company reimbursement for internet and phone service, we earned $75 in credit card cash back rewards, and we received a $50 rebate.


Our expenses this month were only $4,930.82, within $200 of our monthly budget. I was on business travel for 7 days, which probably helped save us some money.

March should be a pretty typical income month, but may be a large expense month, depending on how our taxes come out.



Net Worth

February Net Worth Update (+$5,529.60)

After a small decrease in our net worth in January, it was nice to bounce back with a strong net worth increase in February. Our net worth increased $5,529.60 from last month, to a total of $73,303.34 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked
My wife received a $3,000 ($1,217.53 net) quarterly bonus, so we were also able to increase our savings by $1,830.82. We contributed a total of $2,232.69 to our retirement accounts (401k’s and Roth IRA’s) and saw them increase $3,759.37. Good stuff!

What Didn’t Work
Everything went great this month.

Next Month
It’s hard to guesstimate how March will go. We’ll be doing our taxes and likely owe (we paid $2,024 last year), but I may be able to save some money on food and gas since I will be traveling for business for 7 days. We’ll have to see how it works out.

Investing

E*Trade Account Service Fee

1 Comment

While reviewing our accounts, I happened to notice that E*Trade charged us a $40 Account Service Fee for our stock trading account since we have not made any trades in the last quarter.

It’s my fault that I did not read the fine print, but a $40 fee on a ~$300 balance is ridiculous. I’ve put a sell limit order in for our remaining 20 shares of BofA stock for $17/share (we bought at $14/share). The stock is currently at $16.66/share. I hope it will sell next week so we can get this money in to savings and away from insane fees.

Income

Getting Back To Even

4 Comments

My company just increased everyone’s salaries a bit more in an effort to get us back to our original salary levels before the reduction in February 2009.

My salary reduction was 10% last year and my company, through incremental increases, has raised it back 7.5%. So, I just have 2.5% to go before I’m back to my salary level before the reduction. Great news!

Income

More Bonus Money

My wife received a $3,308.00 gross ($1,217.53 net) quarterly bonus today! 15% of the gross, or $496.25, was automatically deposited into her 401(k). We plan to tithe 10% of the gross and deposit the balance into savings. What a blessing!

Income Statement

January 2010 Income Statement

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January was another strong income month and an okay spending month (click on spreadsheet below).



Our incomes dipped a bit in January with my 15% 401(k) contribution kicking in, reducing my paychecks from $1,818.76 to $1,668.40. We certainly felt the missing $300 this month, but the sacrifice is worth it and we’ll get used to it. In addition to my wife’s $110 company reimbursement for internet and cell phone, we earned a $50 Chase credit card cash back reward and $62.44 Citi credit card cash back reward.



Our expenses totaled $5,792.05, which isn’t horrible. A couple of large expenses included: $455.48 traveling out of state and $233.50 for 6 months of life insurance. I was happy to learn that my new gym is allowing me to pay month-to-month, but giving me the 12 month prepayment rate. This kept us from having to pull a large chuck of change out of savings.


February looks like it may be a great income month and low expense month. My wife should be receiving her quarterly bonus that may be as much as $3,000 gross (~$1,500 net). I will be out of town on business for 1 week next month, hopefully saving us a few bucks on food and gasoline.

Net Worth

January Net Worth Update (-$663.89)

1 Comment

January was a tough start to 2010. Our net worth in January decreased $663.89 from last month, to a total of $67,773.74 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked
My 401(k) contribution increase from 7% to 15% kicked in this month. My wife and I are both now contributing 15% to our 401(k)’s. We also increased our payments from $60/month to $100/month on the student loan. This is our last remaining debt, so we want to get it paid off.

What Didn’t Work
We contributed a total of $1,716.15 to our retirement accounts (401k’s and Roth IRA’s) this month, but saw our retirement accounts decrease a total of $616.45. We also weren’t able to put any money away into savings, and that is one of our main goals this year.

Next Month
February should be a strong month. My wife receives her quarterly bonus check, and believes it may be ~$3,000 gross (~$1,500 net). This will help us bloster our savings account balance. I will be traveling for work part of the month, so our expenses may be a bit less too.

Credit Cards, Deals and Bargains

Free Money Each Month

5 Comments

My wife and I try to charge as many of our expenses as possible to our cash back reward credit cards. Not only do we get cash back, but charging expenses to our credit cards helps with our cash flow situation. Of course, we make sure we pay the credit cards off each month so that we don’t incur interest charges.

We each have our own cash back credit card that we use for business expenses as well as a joint cash back credit card that we use for household expenses. We earned a total of $646.36 in cash back rewards from these credit cards in 2009. That works out to an average of $53.86/month. This is truly free money since we pay off the credit cards each month. I love it!

Net Worth

2009 Net Worth Recap

As I’ve already indicated, 2009 was an up and down year, but ultimately, a good one for us. Below is a table of our net worth data for each month in 2009 (click on table to enlarge). Some highlights from 2009 include:

  • We increased our net worth from $42,083.69 to $68,437.63. We missed our net worth goal of $75,600 by $7,162.37, but still did pretty well, all things considered.
  • We contributed $10,000 total to our Roth IRAs.
  • We contributed $9,437.41 total to our 401(k) plans.
  • Our total retirement account balance grew from $23,506.87 to $54,620.37.
  • We reduced our debt from $347,279.48 to $4,148.46. Short selling our condo was the bulk of this reduction, but paying off our auto loan eliminated $15,943.59 in debt that we started 2009 with.

With 2010 underway, we’re working hard create new highlights to review in 12 months.

Our path to financial independence and retiring early.