Friday, April 13, 2012

The Latest News

Yes, it's been too long since I've posted a net worth update or any other juicy details. And it's not just because I'm in love! I've been really, really busy at work, far more stressed out than I've been in years. One night I came home from work almost feeling like I was having an anxiety attack-- it's times like this that I start to wonder how else I could earn a paycheck...

So with all that going on, I haven't wanted to be on the computer all that much in my downtime. I haven't been blogging much, and hadn't even updated all my financial data in a while. But I did just catch up on some of that a few days ago-- I reconciled all my investment accounts through the end of March and the good news is that after some nice 1st quarter mutual fund results, plus a better than expected bonus, my net worth is currently somewhere around $620,000.

I will post more detail about my spending and account balances soon. I actually pulled together some comparisons of my spending by category from 2003 to the present. It was interesting to see that a lot of my expenses haven't increased that much (and those that have increased did not increase as much as my income has, so the net result is that I've been saving more). It gave me an idea for a future post about a financial tipping point-- in other words, if your current lifestyle, or what you consider a minimum acceptable lifestyle, costs X, at what point in your life did you start making enough to pay for X without going into debt? For me, at least so far, I'm pretty far past that tipping point, but for a lot of people it's not a one-way journey-- losing a job could mean you go back and forth across that line of being able to afford certain things you consider "normal."

Another tidbit of recent news-- this is the first time I've not been able to contribute the maximum to my Roth IRA because my income was too high. I guess that is a milestone to celebrate, in a way, but I couldn't help feeling disappointed!

And I will have to write more about it soon, but I highly recommend the book Thinking, Fast and Slow. There is a lot of interesting stuff in there about financial decision-making, as well as actionable tips that will help you check yourself from making errors of judgment.

So, lots of blogging ideas on my to-do list if I can get back into a rhythm of posting more frequently! Thanks for sticking with me and leaving comments that remind me to fill you in! I'd love to hear more from all of you about what's up in your financial lives lately-- what's on your to-do list? What's keeping you up at night? How are you personally weathering this economy?

11 comments:

JO said...

Glad you're back! I've missed your posts. And congratulations on those huge net worth and salary accomplishments.

On my financial to-do list: Plan for quarterly (or monthly) withdrawals to automatically deposit into my Roth. Every year I mean to do this, and every year I end up dumping the maximum amount in my account the day before the deadline.

Keeping me up at night: I'm currently contributing 15% to my 401(k), and I feel good about that... most of the time. But should I actually contribute less to my 401(k) and save more liquid cash? Along those lines, once you're making a comfortable income and maxing out your retirement accounts, how do you decide what percentage of what's left to save? It's hard to know...

Anonymous said...

Hope you are aware you can still get whatever remains of your $5K annual IRA contribution into a Roth via the traditional IRA/immediate conversion to Roth, provided you don't have existing traditional IRA assets around.

Anonymous said...

I enjoy your blog so much...I started reading it regularly as you stopped posting regularly, so I enjoy the updates. I live and work in NYC so it feels very real and authentic to me.

Please write more!!!

Anonymous said...

LOL... I asked and you answered. Your like Burger King! I can have it my way. LOL!

missed you.

Kate said...

congratulations on graduating from the Roth. I've been taking full advantage of the Roth rollover "loophole" the past couple of years, it's nice to have this option though I don't know how long it'll last.

I'm impressed your spending didn't rise with higher income and bad working hours. When I work a lot, my food bill goes through the roof as I'm too tired to cook and start eating out all the time.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your update again....I'm so close to your net worth amount, 615k, however it's both for my wife and myself. We have 1 kid now and another on the way so should be interesting trying to save more.

Debt Free said...

Think,fast and slow book is really helpful. I think a person should think slowly and estimate a budget at the beginning of a month and should analyze the possible ways to reduce unwanted expenses and increase monthly savings.

M.Usman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heidi said...

My most pressing financial goal is to payoff our Home Equity LOC.

We had a baby, bought a new car, and bought a rental house (to rent to my Mom) last year. We financed some of the car & house down pymt on the HELOC and it was almost $45K!

Less than a year later it's down to about $37K, and I hope to have it paid off within 3 years.

www.portlandbabylon.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Now that you can't fully do the Roth just to begin, make sure to look at where you contribute the rest to a non-deductable traditional and then convert it over. (Backdoor to a Roth)

Jason said...

Good to see you're back- another great article. I think a congratulations is in order too! Keep up the good work.