Monthly Recap: June 2010

Finally getting around to another "monthly" net worth update! June was not a great month in many ways-- my investments lost some value, and I also decided to lower my home value by another $10,000 based on some comparable sales. (I had lowered it by $10,000 in September 2009 also.) My cash on hand increased nicely, but I had a bigger than usual credit card bill to pay off at the end of the month. Here's the details from NetWorthIQ:

Assets		$ Diff	% Diff
Cash	$64,186	$3,115	5.1%
Stocks	$20,237	-$502	-2.4%
Bonds	$5,091	$0	0.0%
Retirement	$240,608	-$10,221	-4.1%
Home	$80,404	-$9,641	-10.7%
Total Assets	$410,526	-$17,249	-4.0%
Debts		$ Diff	% Diff
Credit Card	$3,347	$1,676	100.3%
Total Debts	$3,347	$1,676	100.3%
Net Worth	$407,179	-$18,925	-4.4%

Whenever I look at this chart lately, I'm struck by the jagged ups and downs starting in 2007-- there's a huge dip, as you'd expect with a worldwide economic meltdown, but even aside from that, it's been pretty bumpy month to month when you compare it to the earlier dates. Part of the reason is the frequency of updates-- in 2005 I did about 6 entries, and went to almost monthly in 2006 and later. Years prior to 2005 are represented in annual entries. But when I look at Quicken, where my data has been updated religiously every month since 2002, I see the same pattern-- a nice, gradual upward slope until I bought my condo, then a giant spike in my assets and liabilities, then a series of monthly ups and downs. You'd think having a big chunk of net worth tied up in a home would stabilize those ups and downs... but not in today's world!

Deposit a Check With Your iPhone

I saw this article today and my inner tech geek went "WOW! I have to try that!"
I just happened to have a check in my wallet that I needed to deposit (for a miserable $141 reimbursement of a $2,000 root canal, but that's another story), so I went right to it!

First of all, not all banks offer this, as the Consumerism Commentary article notes. I do my local banking with Chase, and had already downloaded the iPhone app, but I'd never noticed that at the bottom of the screen, there's an icon for "Deposit." The first time you click it, you'll be asked to sign up for online depositing, which is free. The sign up took no time at all, just a few clicks.
When you're ready to actually deposit a check, you have to select which account (i.e. savings or checking) you want the deposit to go to, and enter the amount. Then you have to photograph the front and back of the check. They say it's best to do it in good light, against a dark background. I had had the check folded in my wallet, so I had to flatten it out. The camera frames the check and reminds you to hold still. You take a photo of the front and then the back-- you can zoom in to make sure your photo isn't blurry before you finalize the deposit. Some kind of processing then takes place, and you get a confirmation back, which includes the routing and account numbers from the check-- I assume that if the camera hasn't read the info properly, you'd get some kind of rejection at this point, but they do caution you to hang onto the check until the deposit has cleared, just in case.
I just did this 5 minutes ago, and immediately got an email from Chase confirming the deposit (though it still notes that it's "pending" and not "cleared.") We'll see if it all goes through properly in a day or two, I guess, but it looks like it will save me a trip to the bank. I have to say, I'm kind of amazed that this is possible!