Comments on My Open Wallet: June 09 Net Worth and Expense Recap

The adevice and expertice are the most profenical ...

2009-07-19T21:02:38.266-04:00

The adevice and expertice are the most profenical i have ever received thanks well done

Thanks for being so open with your finances. I thi...

2009-07-14T14:30:44.610-04:00

Thanks for being so open with your finances. I think it is really helpful to see how others use money.

Hi Madame X, I have to second Wayne's suggestion ...

2009-07-08T14:03:51.112-04:00

Hi Madame X,

I have to second Wayne's suggestion of investing some time to downloading and logging in your bonds into the Savings Bond Wizard desktop application (link to page on the treasury website). I did this a number of years ago and now every month I just open the app and it updates my values for me (once a year or so I have to hit update to refresh with the latest yield data - but that is a painless few moments of time). Well worth the effort. I like the client application since it sits on my desktop and I know the data is secure. It also has additional reports that lets you see how much each bond is earning year-to-date, etc. As well as how much they have earned since purchase - so some nice number crunching data to play with.

Otherwise this update looks like you are doing very well given what a challenging economic year we are having. Great job!

In regards to the Treasury Direct website, yes, it...

2009-07-08T13:43:02.309-04:00

In regards to the Treasury Direct website, yes, it is a pain to log in to check. You can do one of the following,
1) download the savings bond wizard app from them which keeps record of all your bonds and updates it monthly. you will have to input all of your bonds into the app.
2) if you use Yodlee or Mint.com, you can set it up to connect to your account and get your information about the worth of your bonds provided you have bonds you purchased or converted to online with them.

I hope that your new computer is a tax deduction. ...

2009-07-08T13:16:40.947-04:00

I hope that your new computer is a tax deduction. You make some money from the blog, I assume. So any expense associated with making that money should be deductible. At least it is here in Canada. I'm sure you must know that.

I am surprised your savings and retirement accounts are so high when you must still have a significant mortgage balance. The yield from paying off a mortgage is almost always higher than saving and investment accounts. Can you tell us what the thought processes are and why you're doing things this way?