It was a very Happy Halloween in the Ninja household last night. We had a youth group meetup with about 150 high school kids and it was off the chain. Girl Ninja dressed up as Cruella Deville and had about five other kids dress up as her dalmatians. I, however, was a ceiling fan. Probably my most favorite costume to date.
Anywhoozle, aside from the Halloween festivities, I was able to spend a few moments updating our net worth. I’m liking the way things turned out this month, you’ll see why below…
A$$ets:
Checking Account: $2,141; (change not shown since money is constantly in and out of this account). Finally able to keep this balance under a few thousand dollars. I haven’t been the best at moving money around and often let this creep up to $5,000 plus. Stupid when you consider I am giving up free money by not putting it in my interest earning savings account.
Savings Accounts: $56,981; +$4.929. Finally was able to make some serious progress in our savings category. We haven’t made much of a dent in it since early summer so it feels nice to get back on track. With Girl Ninja working again we should be able to continue this trend for the next seven months. Oh, I also had a pretty good blog month bringing in an extra $2,500 in October. Thanks for letting me make money off you 🙂
Roth IRA: $25,672; +$4,199. Added $2,000 in to my Roth IRA last month to max the sucker out for 2011. It’s nice to see a pretty significant gain last month. Who knows how long it will last, but I wont be mad if things keep deciding to improve during November. Keeping my fingers crossed.
TSP (401K): $25,877; +$2,662. Just the standard $350 contribution, plus another $350 employer match. This is probably the easiest money I’ve ever made. Gotta love matching.
Liabilities 🙁
Student Loan: $0. Knock Knock. Who’s there? Olive. Olive who? Olive not owing Sallie Mae a freakin’ penny.
Credit Card: $984 (change not reflected since balance gets paid off). This is the smallest our credit card balance has been in recent years. As much as I wish I could pretend it is because we were super thrifty, it’s actually the result of a reimbursement we got for a purchase we made the previous month. Brought our balance way down, which is a nice change of pace.
Being invested in the stock market last month was a beautiful thing. It helped push our net worth up another $10,685 from the previous month. This brings our total NW to $111,557. I like the sound of that! It feels AWESOME to make some solid progress and know we are one step closer to securing financial freedom. It’s just what the doctor Ninja ordered.
Anyone else have a great month? What were you for Halloween (or what is your favorite thing you’ve been in the past)?
you can see all of my net worth updates here.
Go you! The $10k increase in one month is awesome. My month wasn’t that good, but I managed to sack away $3k in extra funds due to a surprise bonus. Re: your other question, for halloween, I was a Halloween blizzard on the west coast.
I thought you were “The Debt Ceiling” at first.
Awesome, awesome, awesome costume, Ninja! And it looks like you will hit your 2011 net worth goal. Way to go! As for Halloween, I was working (doesn’t that stink). I always dress up as the guys from KISS anyway….
LOVE your costume Ninja! LOL!! GN rocked Cruella’s look as well! Our month was pretty good… a few extra bucks spend because of kitchen facelift, but we were expecting it and had the money set aside.
We live in a condo, and door-to-door trick or treating is not allowed; volunteers handed out candy in the lobby. We dressed up as a couple who’ve been married for 9 years, spending the evening in front of the TV 😉
I actually went out for a nice dinner with my wife while the teenage kids at home passed out candy. It was a nice date night. I also spent part of yesterday and this early am figuring out my net worth as part of the personal financial statement I am having to fill out for a refinancing. I typically only do this once per year as it takes 2-3 days to gather all the numbers. Anyway, I am not totally displeased but not exactly happy either. I do look forward to the next year and getting debt knocked down.
I can’t think of a holiday I loathe more than Halloween. AFAIC, it is nothing more than an excuse to waste money on sugary garbage to be doled out to the neighborhood’s youth in the initial stages of their quest for obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. It’s worse because I live on the upper floor of a 2-floor apartment complex, and so I have to go up and down stairs 10-20 times an hour. For most of my adult life, I have made it a point not to buy an ounce of candy and instead to go out for a nice dinner, not returning home until it’s safely 10 o’clock or so when the coast is finally clear. (Anyone else notice how much business the restaurants do on Halloween?) Nothing makes me happier than a heavy downpour on Halloween so I can have my home all night in peace. The worst is when the holiday falls on a nice weekend day; your life is not your own until November 1. But then, one risks having one’s car or home egged or otherwise vandalized if one fails to contribute to the neighborhood children’s ill health.
Therefore, of late I have taken a cue from some of my other neighbors and simply left a box full of sugary treats outside the front door, with the message: “Please take 2 each. Please don’t knock. Thank you.” I refill the box every hour on the hour between 7 and 9, and you know what? I have a feeling some of the children have taken more than 2 pieces each. But at least no one knocks.
Not a big fan of Christmas, either (at least not all that leads up to it), but that will have to wait a couple of months.
LOL! I thought I was the only one who bah humbugs the holidays 🙂
Don’t get me started on Labor Day.
Yes, massive improvement this month. I’m up over 8% in October. SWEET!
Nice work! I increased over $6,900 in October, so it was a great October for me as well. Add in that I’m sooo close to $100K ($92K now), and I’m pretty damn happy. Having 4 jobs is starting to pay off…haha!
well not as great as you, congrats1 but did have a little $2.3k increaase
Impressive numbers, Ninja. I’m very impressed with your blogging income. Nothing like bringing home some extra bacon. I need to start a blog…
Incredible progress! I’m very jealous of your Dink-y-ness.
I wanted to hate your costume when you said it but I actually smiled a bit…My month to month I was up 5% can’t complain