I’ve got a crush on the last 30 days, because my NW soared. I want to fly like an eagle, I want to run through the halls of my high school, I want to shake my money maker (those are all song lyrics in case you didn’t catch on). My net worth is on the up and up, and daddy likes what he sees. I have a strong tutoring and blogging month to thank for the increase. Let’s take a look at the grizzaph…
Checking Accounts: $1,983, +$106. Made some transfers from checking to the good old INGdirect savings account. I love ING. They don’t pay me to say that, but I wouldn’t mind if they wanted to…you hear that ING… Give me your monies!!!!
Savings Account: $22,765, +$1,700. I’m WHOREding (haha get it!) cash for the time being, until I get a better grasp on what lies ahead. I’ll be using about $4K of this shortly to pay for my upcoming honeymoon. Check back tomorrow to see why I’m willing to give up 4 grand for a vacay.
Roth IRA: $13,539 +$171. I have fully contributed to my Roth since my senior year of college. Right now my account balance is about $700 less than my total contributions. Hopefully soon, I will have actually made money from investing!!!!
TSP (401K): $12,313, +$554. The standard 5% contribution heads this direction each month. I also get that 5% fully matched. Can’t pass up free money now could I?
Student Loan: -$15,612, +$391. Yeah I know, some of you hate me for hanging on to my student loan debt, when I could pay it off. I’ve paid it down $13K in the last two years, that’s got to count for something though…right?
That put’s me at a net worth of….drumroll please….. $33,525!!! I’m up $3,291 from last month, which makes my heart smile. My next paycheck should have my increased salary in it, so I’m hoping for bigger and better things in the coming months!!!
**If you have wondered why the blue bar (debt) in the graph sometimes increases, it’s because my credit card balance gets taken in to account each month. Even though I pay the balance in full it still appears as a “liability” in Quicken. I just deduct this from my checking account balance to give myself an accurate net worth reading. This is why my actual NW increase, may not always necessarily match with the totals of each category, but I promise the overall total is REAL. I chose not to include possessions (including my car) in my NW calculations, which would probably increase my worth by about $8K.**
My experience with retirement savings is similar to your Roth IRA, except after 10 years I was down about 1k from my total contributions. Granted, I picked a terrible mutual fund for my IRA, but I fell for all that advertising that tells you to "invest" and you will get that 8% rate of return. I had enough "investing" after 10 years with a 1k loss to show for it. Your kick ass savings account is similar to my new strategy for retirement. Kinda weird how that works…
lol at the 8%. I actually have what I put in as well–especially TSP but without the match.
Wow, girl's got some front-butt going on there.
We've been in your position before with the whole cash vs. student loan thing before our wedding, and I still think you're doing the right thing. Just stick to your guns and put that money back into debt if you find you don't need it.
"Roth IRA: $13,539 +$171. I have fully contributed to my Roth since my senior year of college. Right now my account balance is about $700 less than my total contributions. Hopefully soon, I will have actually made money from investing!!!!"
"I had enough "investing" after 10 years with a 1k loss to show for it. Your kick ass savings account is similar to my new strategy for retirement. Kinda weird how that works.."
Folks, you have to recognize that investing especially in stocks requires some tolerance for volatility. The market goes up and it goes down. But over time, and the longer you keep holding on to stocks and contributing the better, this volatility has always evened out and stocks have performed better historically than any other investment. And that includes cash, which has always lost value over the long term due to inflation. People who panicked and sold in the last big crash missed the huge upturn that started after March of 2009. The key principles remain to allocate soundly given your time frame, diversify, and don't panic when things get rough.
Oh – and keep your fees low. Watch out for sales loads, high expense ratios, high turnover rates, 12-b1 charges, and other tactics that drain your assets while enriching the stockbrokers and mutual fund industry.
Good advice Larry. I'm in it for the long haul. I have some vanguard index funds so their fees are minimal 🙂
"The key principles remain to allocate soundly given your time frame, diversify, and don't panic when things get rough."
Allocate soundly? Diversify? Might as well wish them good luck!
"And that includes cash, which has always lost value over the long term due to inflation."
What about a stock portfolio that has lost more value because of poor choices? I think people tend to ignore the warnings when it comes to investing, specifically "Past performance does not guarantee future results." I'm sorry but I'll take my inflation lost to a stock loss. Just my 2 cents, because I know I get a great deal of flack from my opinions.
Baller alert! Nice month. Can't wait to hear about your sweet honeymoon.
I'm jealous of the last 30 days. 🙁
20% of your savings is going towards your honeymoon. That is a huge amount but hey, we all gotta live sometimes.
Enjoy your honeymoon!
I am jealous of your past 30 days! Bad Ass
Could have also used a little, "Make it rain"
I've heard your blog's name thrown around a lot and for some reason today I finally checked it out. Being greeted by Luda was the perfect welcome.
I'm right there with you as far as savings go. Waiting for some life clarity before I get more into investing.
Keep up the great work, man!
Austin @ Foreigner's Finances
LOL Front butt. Yeah, what's that all about? She's got the kadonk kadonk and a little something extra up front?? =)
Congrats on the $3000+ net worth increase! That's awesome! $4000 is worth it for a honeymoon (you're including Mrs. Ninja's cost right?)- where are you guys going? =)