April 2008 Recap

Okay, my net worth at the end of April was $372,870, up from $357,891 at the end of March for a 4.2% increase. The main factor driving last month's change was my 401k bouncing back after a few really dismal months. I also managed to save some cash, and I was paid back for a fairly large expense that I'd covered for a friend-- I knew I'd get that money back but I hadn't counted the accounts receivable as an asset, so last month's net worth was sort of artificially low.

As for April expenses, here's some categories of note:
Dining: $641, under my $650 budget for a change!
Education: $120 (French class: tuition and an expensive book)
Gifts Given: $377 (some family birthdays)
Household: $123 (some cleaning and gardening supplies)
Clothing: $6 (I bought an expensive pair of jeans, but returned some other items bought in March)
Entertainment: $6 (Netflix)
Subscriptions: $70 (internet and daily newspaper)
Utilities: $114 (electric and telephone)
Housing: $2,314 due to this continuing craziness with the property tax escrow being wrong.
Miscellaneous: $310 (includes a haircut and my genealogy obsession)

I don't know what I was doing all month, but I wasn't really spending too much money, at least compared to some other recent months! That's good but I have to keep reminding myself that I've got an expensive trip with another payment due soon... must not get lazy about saving! Until next month... onwards and upwards!

March Recap

I've been so busy lately I haven't found the time to sit down and do my monthly numbers. I haven't entered my investment transactions into Quicken, so I'm just doing a quick guesstimate this month based on the numbers I have at hand (in Pocket Quicken on my Treo).

Net worth 3/31: approx. $357,000

Notable expenses:
Dining $743
Clothing $407
Gifts Given $456 (includes plane ticket for mom)
Household $403 (includes new dining table & chairs for $300)
Miscellaneous $2,329 (includes new computer for for $2,012)

Fortunately my income was quite high this month, as I got my NY State tax refund and my bonus, so despite the big expenses and lackluster investment performance I had a nice gain in net worth, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4%.

Other activity of note: I transferred $5,000 to my FNBO online account. That is a good chunk of my after-tax bonus going into savings, not to be touched. I left some in the account I use day to day, as I have a huge credit card bill hitting this month due to some vacation expenses I've paid in advance. Next month should be a bit more normal in terms of expenses and income.

February 08 Recap

My net worth increased a wee bit in February, an almost negligible +0.2%. My federal tax refund was deposited, which was a big plus, but I spent a large amount on some plane tickets, which was a big minus. There were a few other odd one-time things, but otherwise my spending was more or less in line, and the stock market continued to be its ugly self.

Assets:

• Cash and Bank Accounts total $35,689
• Condo Equity $86,707
• Retirement $207,128
• E*Trade $15,771
• Treasury Direct & Bonds $4,583

Liabilities:

• Amex $185
• Visa $6,293

Net worth $343,400


Expenses:

• Housing $1,944 (this is just my maintenance charge and a prepayment of principal made in error so it's really going more towards home equity rather than being a true expense)
  
• Business expense $414 (will be reimbursed)
• Charity $230
• Clothing -$105 (returned some stuff bought last month)
• Dining $923 (bought Rolaids for the first time in my life. But at least they were the cheaper Duane Reade generic version.)
• Entertainment $23
• Gifts Given $57
• Household $113
• Misc $520 (includes tax prep fee)
• Taxes, Self $2,029
• Subscriptions $61
• Travel $3,942 (includes Metrocard, a family visit, and part of vacation cost)
• Gas & Electric $38
• Telephone $78

Total Expenses $10,353

Next month will look weird due to two mortgage payments, and hopefully, another tax refund and a bonus... and let's hope the market does a little better too!

January 2008 Monthly Recap

I flipped out when I ran my 1/31 net worth in Quicken-- for some reason, the balance on my 401k appears weirdly low on that day. At first I thought it must have been when the recent market ups and downs really bottomed out, but when I checked it against my actual statement, I wasn't really down 18% for the month!! So with a little adjustment, I think I can confidently say that my net worth was NOT $317,455, but rather $342,763, a loss of 4.8% for the month.
It's disappointing, of course, but with the stock market the way it's been, what can you do? You can try to save money, and I did manage to save a little.

My expenses for the month were $6,331 vs. a budget of $6,572. Most of the reason I look good vs. the budget is that I overestimated my taxes at $2,394 vs. an actual of $2,029.
In other areas, I didn't fare as well:

• Dining: though I felt like I was eating dinner at home a bit more, I did have a couple of nice meals in restaurants, so I spent $776 vs. a budget of $600.
• Clothes: I bought a few things on sale, so I spent $426 vs. a budget of $167, but I've already returned a couple of things so I should be in better shape next month.

Other assorted actual expenses:

• Utilities $219
• Education $48
• Entertainment $5
• Household $26
• Misc. $305 (this includes a new portable hard drive, a protective skin for my ipod, a haircut and stocking up on some hair products that should last several months)
• Internet $20
• Newspapers $75 (2 months of the NYT subscription happened to fall in this month)
• Travel $576 ($76 Metrocard and $500 deposit on extremely exciting vacation!)
• Housing $1,944 (still no adjustment to escrow for property taxes)
• Charity $0. Zippo. Nada. And it's because I'm a horrible person, ok? I don't give a shit about anyone less fortunate than me! I am an evil, greedy bitch who likes to dance on the graves of starving children! (Actually it's just timing. There will be some items in this line next month.)

The bottom line for income vs. expenses was about $2,000. $1,395 of that was due to payroll deductions going straight into my 401k. If you factor out some miscellaneous investment income and gifts and the payment towards the principal on my condo, I only saved $24 of my net paycheck, which is less than I'd like but will hopefully be made up for in other months. Now if only that pesky stock market would cooperate! Onwards and upwards!

Year-end Net Worth

It was a squeaker, but I made it!
I was so depressed the other night when I was looking at my net worth in Quicken and seeing a figure of about $349,300. I knew all my salary and credit card transactions had been entered for the year, and the interest on my main bank accounts. I was bummed out that my net worth was below my $350,000 goal, and nowhere near my $370,000 revised goal that I set mid-year. When I got to work the next day, I remembered to check Paypal and another bank account, and sure enough, I had a little more interest but not enough to save the day. My last hope was that my investment accounts would be showing some pretty nice dividends in December, and sure enough, they managed to save the day! Here's how things ended up:

ASSETS:

Cash and Bank Accounts

• Cash $119
• Chase CD 6 mo. $3,054
• Chase Checking $179
• Chase Savings $5,018
• E*Trade 2-Yr CD $5,972
• E*Trade Money Market $5,021
• E*Trade Savings $12
• FNBO Direct Savings $11,104
• Laundry Quarters $6
• PayPal $152
• Misc foreign currency $30

Retirement

• 401k $195,613
• E*Trade Roth IRA $23,453
• Chase Roth IRA CD $3,037
• Chase Roth IRA CD $2,639

Investment

• E*Trade $17,255
• Treasury Direct & Bonds $4,583

Other Assets

• Condo equity $84,620

LIABILITIES:

Credit Cards

• Visa $1,859

Net Worth as of 12/31/07: $360,008
+$7,331 (up 2%) in December
+$47,237 (up 15%) for the year.


A few notes:
As usual, I am showing the equity I have in my condo, rather than breaking out its value and the balance owed on my mortgage. I haven't adjusted the value of my condo up or down since I initially determined the number last year after I moved in. Despite the rocky real estate market, I think my valuation is probably slightly conservative, but I'm going to sit tight until I see more condos similar to mine being sold in this area. The rest of the accounts are pretty self-explanatory, I think.

Overall, I feel okay about my result at the end of this year, but now that more and more of my net worth resides in assets other than cash, it's hard to use net worth alone as a goal. If I wanted to, I could reasonably assume that my condo is worth $10,000 more and say I'd met my goal of $370,000 net worth. Or I could look at the peak prices of my stocks and mutual funds this year and say that if they hadn't fallen from there, I "would have" made my goal. Neither of these things would change how much money I managed to save or spend or earn this year, which is more important.
I can't just compare the total for my "cash and bank accounts" group to try to break out the investment fluctuations, since I moved some money between that group and the retirement and investment groups. So where did the gain in my net worth come from? Here's a few factors:

• My 401k statement says my rate of return was 6.8% for the year.
• My main E*Trade account was up 8.4%, and my Roth IRA at E*Trade was down 9.5% for the year. (The S&P 500 was up about 3.5% for the year.) I think have to make some changes in that Roth IRA portfolio-- it's never done all that well, but this is ridiculous.
• I had a little more than $20,000 of interest and investment income from all accounts for the year. This includes dividends and capital gain distributions which were reinvested. I was kind of amazed at this number, and it really shows you how important it is to build up capital! It's not like I'm anywhere near the point where I could live off my investment income, but it's encouraging to feel like I'll get there someday! And to put this in perspective, it was only 16 years ago that my gross salary was less than $20,000...
• I had about $5,500 in "other income" this year, which is mainly 401k matching contributions from my employer.
• My "savings," as defined as salary and bonus earnings minus my expenses, not counting what went into equity on my condo, was about $18,500. (Of that, $15,500 was from payroll deductions for my 401k.) 2007 may mark the first time I ever made more from investments than I saved in cash!

Looking at all the factors that contributed to my net worth increase has been helpful-- it's made it easier for me to start thinking about goals for 2008 in terms of things that I can actually control as well as outside factors like market performance. But that is a topic for another post! Until then, onward and upward!

November 07 Recap: Income and Expenses

Here's a run-down on my income and expenses in November. Some of my mutual funds paid dividends this month, so the "Other Income" line is higher than usual. I try to ignore this line anyway, and focus on how my expenses compare to my actual salary.

Inflows

• Salary $7,750
• Other Income $4,540 (dividends, interest, 401K employer match, etc.)

Total Inflows $12,290

Outflows

• Business expense $293
• Clothing $586 (blame it on the thong)
• Dining $582 (under budget! yay!)
• Entertainment $54
• Gifts Given $245 (It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...)
• Household $194 (I decided I needed a humidifier and a shelf for my bathroom)
• Housing $1,944 (when oh when will my tax abatement kick in?)
• Medical -$214 (flexible spending account reimbursement received)
• Misc $282 (most of this represents my ridiculous efforts to buy a new backpack. 6 purchased, 6 tried, at least 5 in various stages of being returned. Gotta love those free returns at ebags.com)
• Payroll Taxes, Self $2,544 (a little higher now that my 401k deductions have ended)
• Subscriptions $61
• Travel $77
• Utilities $195 (gas, electric and telephone)
  

Total Outflows $6,843


Net Inflows/Outflows $5,447

If you back out the atypical dividend income, I managed to save $907 in cash. My 401k contributions were only about $16 this month, as I hit the $15,500 annual maximum. That meant I had a higher net paycheck, and higher taxes. This wasn't my greatest month ever for savings, as I did buy some clothes and "stuff," but I did at least get my dining expenses lower than they'd been for the past 6 months. I'm definitely over budget for the year-- my spending habits are still showing the effects of buying a new home, and also, as a commenter pointed out, catching up on all the spending I was reluctant to do while saving money for that new home! I think the only areas where I'll end the year under budget are education, entertainment, and travel. Next year I definitely want to take a big trip, so I'll be taking a hard look at my spending plans to budget for that!

November 07 Recap: Net Worth

How did I fare in November? Not all that well, but I guess it could have been worse. Here's how my net worth stacked up at the end of the month:

Cash, CDs and Bank Accounts: $29,216

Investments:
E*Trade $16,583 (this is almost $2k less than last month)
Bonds $4,583

Retirement (401K and Roth IRA): $220,290 (this is about $12k less than last month)

Misc. Foreign Currency: approx. $30 (maybe less. I haven't updated exchange rates!)

Home Equity: $84,339 (home value less mortgage balance)
Credit Card: -$2,364 (always paid in full each month)

Total Net Worth: $352,677

At the end of October, my net worth was $365,383, so I'm down $12,706, or 3.5%. My investments took a slight bounce back up at the end of the month, which is why I say it could have been worse! And my losses for the month were entirely in my stock and mutual fund investments. I did save some cash during the month, which I'll detail in the next post. Obviously this is disappointing, but you've got to roll with the punches. I will hopefully still meet my original goal of a net worth of $350,000 at year end, even if I miss my revised goal of $370,000. And soon I'll have to figure out my goals for 2008! Onward and upward!

October Expenses

Here's the breakdown of all my expenses in October:

Bank Charge 3.50
Business expense -492.35 (reimbursement for previous months)
Charity 220.00
Clothing 377.92 (a much needed investment in cool weather fabulosity)
Dining 785.72 (um, I was hungry?)
Education 96.61
Entertainment 36.66
Gifts Given 5.00
Household 30.25
Insurance 320.00 (property insurance for a full year)
Medical 102.42
Misc 245.42 (includes a new bag that will be returned, as well as stocking up on hair products)
Taxes 2,588.19 (higher than usual due to retroactive raise)
Subscriptions 63.25
Travel 295.00
Utilities 152.94
Housing 1943.84 (still no adjustment for tax abatement. grr.)

Total Outflows 6,774.37


Net Inflows/Outflows 2,752.38

This was a somewhat unusual month, in that my raise finally came through, including a couple months' worth of retroactive pay. I also had some one-time expenses, such as my condo insurance. But what it all boils down to is that I managed to save 30% of my gross income this month-- not bad, but given it's such a weird month, I'd rather see how things settle out in November with my new salary and hopefully more normal expenses... though I do need to start my Christmas shopping... ugh.

October Net Worth

Ok, time to do the monthly numbers again. Quicken tells me that my net worth on Oct. 31st was $365,383, an increase of 2.6%. This is excitingly close to my year-end goal, however, it's a bit suspect as when I was looking at it the other day, my 401k showed a higher balance in the net worth report than it did in another screen. Anyway, for now, I'll take it. It makes me feel a little better given how much lower it is today after the recent stock market slump.
A commenter asked me to explain the composition of my net worth in more detail, so here is the full scoop:

Cash & Bank Accounts:

• Cash $37
• Chase CD 6 mo. to 3/08 $3,034 @ 3.92%
• Chase Checking $160 @ negligible interest rate
• Chase Roth IRA CD 48 month to 4/09 $3,020 @ 4.16%
• Chase Roth IRA CD 60 month to 2/09 $2,627 @ 3.25%
• Chase Savings $3,400 @ 0.8%
• E*Trade 2-Yr CD to 10/08 $5,899 @ interest rate 4.75%?? hard to tell, for some reason E*Trade is making it very difficult to see what my actual interest rate is! But it must be in that range given what my recent quarterly interest payment was (see Rule 17 about doing the math).
• E*Trade Money Market $5,001 @ 2.5%. I will leave this here for a couple of months, probably, but I plan to close this account soon and invest the money elsewhere. This may result in my being charge a higher fee per trade in my E*Trade brokerage account, but I hardly ever do any trades, so no great loss.
• FNBO Direct Savings $11,000 @ 5.05%
• Laundry Quarters $7

Investments:

• E*Trade $18,142 Return on this portfolio was 11.7% in 2006
• E*Trade Roth IRA $24,813 Return on this portfolio was 7.69% in 2006
• 401k $202,314 Return on this portfolio was 11.5% in 2006
• Treasury Direct & Bonds $4,482 This is all I-bonds, rates 3.63-4.18%

Other:

• Credit card balance -$2,646
• Home Equity $84,059

So that means about 60% of my total net worth is in stocks & mutual funds earning 7-11% last year, 17% of my net worth is earning in the 3-5% range or less, and 23% is home equity. If you look at it just in terms of my investable assets, about 77% is in stocks and mutual funds, and 23% is in cash/CDs/bonds, etc. At my age, I suppose I could nudge myself a little further into risky investments like stocks, but not too much further. I like knowing that I have secure, steady investments balancing things out-- but I do need to make sure I pay attention when my CDs mature to make sure I get the best rates available, and also watch my bank accounts to make sure I am maximizing my interest there too. I did some work on that this month, by opening the FNBO Direct account with money I'd had in the E*Trade money market account.

September Net Worth & Expense Recap

My net worth on September 30 was $356,095. It's nice to have finally crossed that $350k mark, after a couple of months where stock market setbacks prevented it from happening! But from here on, I'll be lucky if I can make it to my revised year-end goal of $370k.

Here's my net worth broken down in way too much detail:

Assets:

Cash
Cash 73.26
6-month CD 3,003.12
Checking 214.34
Savings 4,268.65
2-Yr CD 5,826.67
Money Market 17,320.99
Laundry Quarters 12.00
PayPal 61.09
Miscellaneous Foreign Currency 35.47

Retirement
Roth IRA CD 2,984.67
Roth IRA CD 2,603.16
Roth IRA 20,495.06
401k 195,805.44

Stocks & Bonds
Treasury Direct & Bonds 4,482.40
E*Trade 17,217.74

Home Equity 83,779.17


Liabilities:

Overdraft Line of Credit -7.40
Visa 2,096.00


As for my spending last month, my total expenses were $6,403. A few notable items that contributed:
$378 business expenses (which will be reimbursed)
$1,908 payroll taxes
$264 gifts given
$843 food
$250 clothing
$1,944 housing
$165 household
$55 gas & electric
$117 telephone

I certainly did some damage in the food area, as I went out to dinner a lot. But aside from that, and a wedding gift, and some new clothes, I didn't spend too much on other controllable expenses, and I managed to save about 13% of my gross income. I would like to have saved more, but oh well... c'est la vie...

August Wrap-Up

Time for the latest monthly recap. First let's look at my net worth.
My total net worth is $346,143 as of the end of August, up just a hair from the end of July, but down from where I was at the end of June. Here's how it breaks down:

Miscellaneous Cash Accounts:
Cash $115
CDs $8,829
Checking $123
Savings $4,422
Money Market $17,085
Laundry Quarters $2.25
Paypal $61
Misc. foreign currency $30

Stocks/Mutual Funds:
E*Trade $15,999

Bonds:
Treasury Direct $4,482 I haven't updated the value in a couple of months, so this might actually be a wee bit higher.

Home Equity:
Estimated home value minus mortgage balance: $83,502 I have not changed the value of my home since buying it, but based on what I've seen going on in my neighborhood, I don't think I need to adjust it downwards.

Retirement:
$204,588 in stocks & mutual funds in 401k and Roth IRA accounts
$8,590 in Roth IRA CDs

Credit Cards:
Visa $-1,694 as always, my credit cards are paid in full every month.


As for my monthly expenses, August wasn't the greatest month, but it wasn't too bad:

• Housing $1,944. Boy does that seem like a lot, especially compared to my old rent of $850. I keep reminding myself that some of it is going to equity, and also that my property taxes still aren't reflecting an abatement that is supposed to have kicked in, and on top of that, they've raised the escrow amount assuming that the taxes will increase. So fingers crossed that this will all work out someday and my normal housing costs will be a couple hundred dollars less.
• Bank Charge $3.50 very annoying fees for one use of the wrong ATM!
• Business expense $30.85 this will be reimbursed by my company
  
• Clothing $272.98 I had that end of season desire to buy cheap summer things on sale, which turned into buying new fall clothes not on sale. oops.
• Dining $838.33 this is where I was bad. But I had fun! Just had a much more social month than usual and ate out in restaurants a lot.
• Entertainment $107.03 this again is due to a bit more social activity than is typical for a hermit like me.
• Gifts Given $27.94
• Household $192.55 lots of drycleaning & laundry, and a few small household purchases at Home Depot
• Medical $130.67 basically just insurance and my FSA
• Misc $88.75 of which $80 is a haircut
• Payroll Taxes $1,908.36
• Subscriptions $60.75 internet and daily newspaper delivery
• Travel $431.40 includes the hotel room for a wedding I went to in late July
• Utilities $271.55 telephone was under budget, but the electric bill has been high with A/C running fairly often.

The end result for the month was that I did save about $1,400, but that was almost entirely due to my deductions going into my 401k. I barely saved any cash out of my net paycheck. My goal is to save at least a couple hundred dollars a month on top of what I put in my 401k, so I'd like to be doing better, but a lot of the problem is due to my property tax problem, so I actually won't be in such bad shape if I can get that resolved. Until next month... onwards and upwards!

July Recap

Well, it's a bit late to be getting to this. And I'm not really even getting to it properly! I think my net worth was down to about $342,000 at the end of July, due to all this stock market mess, but I've been busy and barely had time to sit down and go over everything in Quicken.
Expenses weren't too bad-- I went over my dining budget, spending $711 due to some dinners out, and I spent $143 on gifts and $292 on travel, due to a wedding and bachelorette party, but I've cut back quite a bit on the household spending, which was only $201, a fair amount of which was just dry cleaning! Telephone was over budget at $156 due to having forgotten to use my calling card on a lengthy international call-- ouch! I spent $0 on clothes, but am making up for it this month as I have tried to catch the end of summer sales only to find that there is nothing good left, but that I'm interested in some of the new fall merchandise at full price!
I'll try to do a better job next month!

Net Worth June 2007

My net worth at the end of June was $349,426, just a hair under my year-end goal of $350k. The money I saved was basically my 401k deductions, and the rest of the increase is due to business expense reimbursement received, and investment performance, and the very gradual chipping away at my mortgage balance!

So now it's mid-year, and I really do need to revise my year-end net worth goal. Factors to consider:
-- I will continue to contribute to my 401k, up to the total maximum allowed this year, $15,500.
-- I should get a raise between now and the end of the year.
-- Some of my major expenses for this year should be behind me, such as my gym membership and a lot of "new home" stuff.

My net worth has increased by over $30,000 in the first 6 months of the year, but part of that is due to a $10,000 bonus and tax refunds, so I won't keep up that pace. But I think I might be able to get to $20,000 more in the last 6 months of 2007.
So my new net worth goal for the end of 2007 is now $370,000. Wish me luck!

June Expenses

Here's a quick dump of what I spent this month:

Business expense -678.39
--Finally submitted a lot of expenses for reimbursement!

Clothing 183.99

Dining 702.19
--This is baffling, as in general, I've been under budget on food lately, and I've hardly been eating out or ordering takeout at all! I did stock up on some frozen foods but I was still surprised that my food spending was so high this month. I did just realize, though, that this includes about $30 of liquor given as a gift, so that is something, at least!

Entertainment 5.41

Gifts Given 47.91

Laundry 43.15

New Home Decor 438.63
--I finished off a couple of projects around the house, but from here on I'm going to stop for a
while, really!

Household - Other 35.32

Medical 589.42
--I had to pay $100 for an emergency room visit a couple of months ago.

Misc 31.79

Payroll Taxes, Self 1,910.36

Internet Access 19.95

Magazines 23.88

Newspapers 39.60

Travel 76.00

Gas & Electric 28.87

Telephone 97.13

Housing 1810.00


Total Outflows 5,405.48


Net Inflows/Outflows 2,225.06

At least that's better than last month!

Expenses May '07

As detailed yesterday, the nice increase in my net worth this month didn't have much to do with my income vs. expense ratio:

Total Inflows, including salary, interest, etc. were $7,772.80

As for the ugly outflows:

Housing $1,810
This is still somewhat higher than it should be because of the property tax escrow thing that needs to be adjusted. But sometimes it still blows my mind that I spend this much on my apartment, vs. the $850 my old studio cost me. Especially when you add the following, which wasn't an issue in my old place:

Gas & Electric $204
That is more than my average monthly cost, as the gas bill only comes every other month.

Payroll Taxes $1,904.88

Business expense $301.49
This at least should be reimbursed soon.

Clothing $331.69
When I discover that the Gap has lovely, soft low-rise khakis that fit me perfectly, I have to buy about 5 pairs. Plus some t-shirts I don't need.

Dining $527.93
Another month where I'm under budget! Yay!

Education $41.00
Don't I sound smarter than I did last month?

Entertainment $5.41
Just Netflix.

Gifts Given $533.64
This was mostly a long-overdue $500 savings bond given to my nephew as the start of a college fund.

Household $1,296.76
This includes miscellaneous things like laundry, but is mostly the new mattress I bought and a few other home items.

Medical $97.42

Misc $229.17

Subscriptions $55.45
This includes internet access and the newspaper.

Travel $308.00
Just commuting and a family visit.

Telephone $89.78
Another area where I have managed to be under budget lately.


Total Outflows $7,736.60


Net Inflows/Outflows $36.20

I'd really like to be saving more than $36 a month! Which I actually did, if you back out the business expenses. And I keep telling myself I had some atypical things this month, mainly the $500 gift and the mattress, and the clothes. But still, that bottom line number was kind of scary!
I need to do some analysis soon on year-to-date monthly averages vs. my budget and make sure things are still in line!

Net Worth May 2007

As of May 31st, my net worth was $344,102.13. I'm less than $6,000 away from my year-end goal, so I think I'll have to revise that and challenge myself a bit more!

Here's how it breaks down:

Cash, including savings and checking accounts and CDs: $30,030.46
That is starting to feel like kind of a lot to hold in cash, even though about $10,000 is in CDs I can't immediately access without penalties. Assuming my monthly expenses will soon settle into more normal patterns, I think I may put some of this money into mutual funds and hopefully make it work a little harder for me.

Retirement, including 401k and Roth IRA accounts: $212,797.34

Stocks & mutual funds (that aren't in retirement funds): $16534.18

Bonds: $4482.40
This may be a little low, as it's been a couple of months since I checked the current values online.

Home Equity: $82,677.27
This is what I determined to be the present value of my condo minus what I owe on my mortgage. I haven't adjusted the value of my condo since first coming up with it after my closing: it's more than I paid, but may be less than it could sell for, if other prices in the neighborhood are any indication. But it's a moot point, as I don't intend to sell or try to borrow against it any time in the near future.

Credit Card: -$2419.52
That balance is always paid in full each month.

My net worth has increased by about $31,330 this year, despite the fact that I've been spending money like a madwoman, and am actually in the red by about $2,300 in terms of spending more than I earned in my net paycheck. How'd I pull off that neat trick? It's all the market, and the fact that I steer 18% of my gross pay straight into my 401k.
My 401k contributions total $8,528 year-to-date. Yet my retirement accounts are worth $31,388 more than at the end of last year. So that is $22,860 in interest, dividends and unrealized gains. Of course the market could take a downturn and it could all evaporate, but it does nicely illustrate the point that having money makes you more money.

So what about my goal for the end of the year, up til now set at $350,000? I'm going to think about that and post a new one when I do a mid-year recap next month.

March 2007 Net Worth, Income and Expenses

My March 31st net worth was about $327,000. That is an increase of about 3.5% from last month. Here's what got me there:

Total Inflows $21,232.16
Boy do I wish I had that every month! That includes a bonus and tax refund, as well as interest and employer matching in my 401k.

Outflows
Business expense -326.22 (reimbursement of expenses from earlier in the year)
Charity 1.00
Clothing 239.77
Dining:
--Breakfast 68.44
--Dinner 219.52
--Groceries 452.94
--Liquor 74.23
--Lunch 106.55
Total Dining 921.68 (this is way over budget due to all the extra groceries I've been buying for my mom's 3-week visit)
Education 40.63
Entertainment 5.41
Gifts Given 77.93
Home Repair 55.56
Household:
--Laundry 33.30
--New Home Decor 3,269.49
--Household - Other 553.24
Total Household 3,856.03 (I bought some major furniture this month, as well as smaller household items like towels and silverware. Hopefully my expenses in this category will be MUCH smaller from now on!)
Medical 97.42
Misc 1,034.90 (I will explain why this is so high in another post later this week)
Total Payroll Taxes, Self 5,979.38
Subscriptions 59.51
Travel 85.00
Utilities 322.32 (this is higher than my monthly average, since the gas bill only comes every other month.)
Housing 1810.27 (this is still artificially inflated due to a property tax abatement that hasn't kicked in yet.)

Total Outflows 14,260.59

Net Inflows/Outflows 6,971.57

The rest of the change in my net worth was due to my 401k savings and slight gains in investments since last month.

I was wondering if I should change my year-end goal, as $350,000 is seeming very reachable. But I think I'll let it stand for now. I won't have any more big bumps in my income this year, and even if I stop spending so much on decorating my apartment my regular monthly savings won't be very high until I get a raise again. And who knows where the stock market is going. But I'll take a look at that goal again in June.

January Spending

I've been feeling like a crazed consumer lately, but how did I do against my spending budgets last month? Not too bad, I think, as a lot of my spending was on one-time items, and my routine monthly spending was pretty much in line:

Clothing: $437-- over my $150 monthly budget but I'll have other months where I'm under budget. And part of this was a $75 pair of shoes from Zappo's that has already been returned.
Dining: $495-- yes! I recently revised my dining budget from $650 down to $600 and I still beat it this month due to lots of cooking at home.
Education: $99 (tuition and a book)
Entertainment: $11 (movie rentals)
Gifts: $30
Home Repair: $163-- nothing's broken yet, so it's not technically repair. This is all painting supplies and miscellaneous hardware store purchases. (I don't have a monthly budget number assigned to this category. I'm trying to track these expenses, and some of my Household expenses against a total budget of $5000 that I came up with for buying furniture and other miscellaneous items. I actually might recategorize some things in Quicken so I can separate these start-up expenses from other everyday things like laundry or buying paper towels. I'll have to look at these expenses more in a future post.)
Household: $410-- definitely did some damage here, and it doesn't even include the $80 that I spent on sheets, since I decided not to enter that until the final bill arrives from Bloomingdales (they do this weird thing where your 15% discount for opening a charge card only shows up once you get your statement). About $22 of this is laundry and drycleaning, but the rest is outdoor furniture for my balcony and some pillows. (Budget was $50)
Subscriptions: $156-- this includes the newspaper, a couple of magazines that I had to renew, and AOL. (budget was $77)
Travel: $119 (budget was $333 but this is another one where it fluctuates a lot from one month to another)
Gas & Electric: $67 (budget was $100)
Telephone: $88 (budget was $100)

June Wrap-up

My net worth at the end of June was $285,653, up almost $30,000 since the end of last year but still pretty dismal over the last couple of months. If I hadn't cashed out all those stocks and mutual funds in April, it would have been worse, though!
My net worth includes:
about $155,200 in retirement savings
about $13,500 in stocks and mutual funds
about $4,300 in I-Bonds
a credit card at about -$2,000
the rest is cash, CDs, and a 10% deposit on my condo


My expenses for the month were quite high:
Clothing: I finally bought some! $291, though some of that will show up as a return next month
Dining: really high at $984, due to going out a lot, mostly while my friend visited
Entertainment: high at $177, again due to friend's visit
Travel: $1,151-- this is high for the month, but I'm still well under budget for the year.
Other categories were pretty much in line or under budget.
My total non-tax, non-business expenses were $3,836. Year to date, my average monthly expense amount works out to about $2,700. I like to compare this expense amount to my take-home pay, which is just under $4,000 a month (not counting 401k, flexible spending account, etc.) I aim to save at least $1,000 a month out of my paycheck. Then any interest I earn is gravy on top of that. This month was an "ouch" because I only saved about $89 out of my paycheck. The next few months will also probably be "ouches" as I start getting into moving expenses, etc., and higher housing costs that will take a bigger bit out of my paycheck up front. So I'm going to grit my teeth and try to get on the austerity program for a while!