Thursday, November 13, 2008

October 2008 Monthly Recap

How things change.
One day you're up, the next day you're down.
One day you're in, the next day you're out.
One day the little arrows mean "tear from this end," the next day they mean "tear towards this end."
But most painfully, one day your money is growing, the next day it's disappearing.

It's just not as fun doing these monthly updates when my net worth is plummeting faster than I can type!

My net worth dropped about 11% during the month of October. Though my cash/CD savings increased by about 5%, and my credit card spending was about 33% less than the month before, my stock and retirement accounts tanked. As of October 31, I was still hanging in above the $300k mark: $300,032. As I write this, it's already dipped quite a bit lower.

On the bright side, though, I had one of my best months all year when it came to expenses and savings, resulting in a net inflow of $3,213. Hopefully I can keep that up in the months to come. I don't want to have to start saying "onward and downward!"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think alot of people are on the same boat as you. I know when I check my investments, they have gone down in value due to the economy. This sucks. Hang Tight.

Anonymous said...

I've been dealing with work issues for a while, and didn't have time to keep up. Just finished reading past posts last night. I missed everyone, and it's nice to be back!

Yes, it's been pretty dreary recently, just like today's weather, but I really do believe that if you don't have to take money out of your accounts for a while, this is the time to buy. Individual stocks aren't smart now, but I took $1000 out of my emergency fund last week to buy shares of a Total Stock Market Index Fund for my IRA. It's not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but it's a lot for me, so I had to be sure that it was the right thing to do. The market will probably drop some more, maybe a lot more, but I still think I'm getting a good deal buying at the current price, and I've made a pact with myself that if it drops below 7000, I'll find $1000 to buy more. Wall Street is having a fire sale, and it may not have another one at a time that I can take advantage of it.

It amazes me that I'm actually trusting myself on money matters. I would never have had the nerve to do it before reading Money Magazine and this blog. It's not that I'm taking everyone's advice, but that I see that common sense is really all you need to manage your money.

Good luck to all of us, and hang in there!

Anonymous said...

keep chugging away. i have stopped tracking, because i know they are down and because there is nothing i can do about it because i don't have anything to change in the investments. what i am doing, though, is focusing on finding good deals in the market and getting 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 on my money bottom feeding the market. of course, i will have to wait a few years, but that's ok with me.

MW said...

I just want to thank you for your link to networth IQ. I didn't know about it until I saw it on your site.

Anonymous said...

Wow!

You actually did really well - being down only 11% when the market tanked 40%!

Anonymous said...

Strange how the government encourages SEP IRA's. Now mine is suddenly half what I put in. With no ability to get out without heavy penalties and no capital loss possible.

I feel sorry for those who wanted to retire this year.