We have made good, consistent progress on our net worth and should reach a net worth milestone of $10,000 next month. In fact, if all goes as planned, our net worth in June will be roughly $11,000, half way to our 2007 goal of $22,000.
As we pay off debt and increase our investments, I’m beginning to feel how getting your money to work for you is a powerful thing. I’m sure there will be hiccups along the way but so far, we’re right on track.
My wife and I get paid every two weeks, therefore, there are two months of the year that we both receive three checks. Next month is one of those months for my wife.
We have decided to use her extra check, $1,161.67, to pay off our Chase credit card. Mathematically, this is not the right move since the card is 0% interest until March 2009. We’d be better off depositing the money into our Emigrant Direct account earning 5.05% APY and stretching the Chase credit card payments out to take advantage of the interest free period. However, the catch with the credit card is that if we are late with a payment, Chase can back-charge us interest. I hate having that hang over our heads, so from a piece-of-mind standpoint, paying off the card is the way to go for us.
It will be nice to have one less debt to worry about.
One of the first things I do each morning is to check the status of our investments. Not to react to the ups and downs of the market, just because I enjoy seeing how things are going.
While my wife has been very interested and active with our investments, she hasn’t been as OCD as am I in terms of checking them daily. At least, not until recently. . .
She just opened a Roth IRA account with Vanguard over the weekend and funded it with $3,000.00. Since then, she has been getting a kick out of checking the progress each day. I’m convinced that this peaked interest has something to do with setting-up the account herself and having it in her name. There’s definitely something to be said for pride of ownership.
We met up with our group of friends at 2:00pm and stayed out until 11:00pm. We got an early start because it was Cinco de Mayo, and we knew the bars would be packed. Sure enough, there was already a good crowd on hand at 2:00pm. I originally thought we’d be going home around 7:00pm, but we were having such great time that we didn’t want to leave.
I can see how people who go out multiple nights a week can have a hard time getting ahead financially. Heck, that’s part of the reason I had so much credit card debit.
The fund has an initial minimum investment of $3,000; additional investments are $100. We plan to fully fund her Roth IRA ($4,000 in 2007) , as well as open and fully fund a Roth IRA for me.
As a follow-up to my Good Prospective Car Buyer post, the lady ended up calling me to cancel the appointment because she bought a Mercedes.
I was very disappointed at first, since she seemed so interested and needed a new car (her’s was totaled in an accident). I even began looking for a possible replacement vehicle online.
My car runs and looks great, so this really isn’t a bit deal. I was just disappointed because I was already planning how we should invest the extra $150-$200 that we would be saving in car payments each month.
Thanks to Stephanie at Poorer Than You for hosting the Carnival of Credit Report Stories that included my post Credit Reports and Credit Scores. If you are interested in your credit reports and scores, this carnival has it all.
We went way over budget again. Darn it!
To our credit, it was not because we spent frivolously. There were numerous one-time, annual, and prepayment expenditures that brought our total expenses for April to $7,581.50 (click on spreadsheet below).
On the positive side, my wife netted an extra $1,147.24 in commissions, we had $127.55 in “other” income (see spreadsheet notes), and our interest income doubled to $11.08.
May is forcasted to be a lighter month for us expense wise. If nothing unforseen pops-up (yeah right), we should spend roughly $1,300 less than we did in April.
I didn’t expect us to match our huge net worth increase in March, but we had a good net worth increase in April (click on the spreadsheet below). Our total net worth is now $6,438.50, well on our way to our 2007 goal of $22,000.
Some highlights from April follow:
I have added a 2007 net worth goal meter to the blog (upper right hand corner) that will provide a quick reference on our progress.
Thank God for the great month and hopefully we can duplicate it again in May.
I spoke to a lady today who seems very interested. She called twice and sent me two emails within a 24 hour period. After a long discussion with her on the phone, we made a tentative plan to meet on Wednesday for her to see the car. She actually owned the same vehicle, but just totaled it in an accident. The good news is that her insurance company gave her a check to get a new vehicle.
Of all of the prospective buyers I’ve had, this one seems the most determined and able. In fact, she told me if someone makes me an offer before we meet on Wednesday, that I should call her. I am selling the car for $18,000 and plan to purchase a vehicle (with similar mileage) that costs $11,000-$12,000. This should reduce my monthly payments by roughly $150 and also reduce my insurance costs. Wish me luck!