Thursday, September 06, 2007

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!

4 comments:

SavingDiva said...

Good luck with the property tax problem...

Dawn said...

Wow! You just keep going up and up.

You have been tagged - http://frugalforlife.com/2007/09/im-frugal-subversive.html

Single Ma said...

Glad to see I'm not the only one who has been eating out a lot. :-)

Mrs. Micah said...

Something I recently learned about ATM fees: it can be cheaper to buy something instead.

Example--I needed cash for the Farmer's Market and had forgotten to get cashback or visit a bank ATM. So I went to the CVS across the street. Their ATM charged $2.00 for withdrawls. On the other hand, they were selling CVS brand chapstick (something I use, and I knew I'd eventually need a replacement) for 99 cents. So I bought one and got $10 cashback. If there's nothing that cheap you can use, some little treat would also work. I saved $1 on ATM fees and got something I stock up on anyway.