one more thing about april
Here’s my net worth for the month. Not bad - there’s more than a 4% difference over March’s progress. Not great, either, though - I didn’t do as well as I did last month. I will, of course, pay that credit card debt tonight, because I get paid today. And, I will also contribute more to the retirement and savings amounts tonight, too. But for accuracy’s sake, I cut off my numbers as of yesterday, the actual end of April. I will attempt to control my spending more - I bought clothes, books, etc. Nothing wrong with that, but in a sense, some of the spending I did was unchecked. And the more I spend without dire consequences, the easier it will become for me to shed the frugality I used to make progress in the past. Only thing is, I don’t want to shed that frugality. So here’s to hoping that I tighten it up! In the meantime, I will encourage myself with the fact that I am now 1/3 closer to my goal of having a positive net worth than I was when I started my aggressive and concerted push to improve my finances. It feels good.
It might seem like I’m always hitting some kind of benchmark: 1/3 of the way to a positive net worth, ten thousand in non-property assets, another thousand in the My Own Home fund, etc. But you know what? I am MEASURING my progress on a monthly basis, and THAT is what pushes me to save money, to pay off debt, to gather income - to do the things that set me on the path to positive net worth, homeownership, and freedom from debt. If I didn’t recognize my progress, I might come to feel that all this frugality is in vain and not making a difference. Every little bit helps, though. And almost monthly, I get some kind of encouragement from some benchmark or another. I enjoy every seemingly insignificant benchmark I make. And that self congratulating mentality really keeps me going.
