fall classic
Well, according to this month’s net worth chart, I made less than $1,000 improvement this month, despite my saving over $1,500 and getting rid of over $500 of debt. My car is getting old. I mainly track its net worth because I want to keep track of how much I owe on it compared to its value. This month, car depreciation, combined with stock and IRA value losses, really dragged down my progress on paper. I’ll just think about it this way: look how much worse it would have been if I hadn’t paid off so much debt and saved so much money. My IRA balance would also be worse if I hadn’t made a "rescue" contribution late this month to pull it up from being down by 30%. I knew my progress this month would not have been as good as other months, because of some of the car maintenance and other expenses I wanted to face before getting laid off again. Hey, I did what I had to do - what I was supposed to do. I invested. I saved. I paid off debt. And even though my car depreciated, it’s running very well, it’s in excellent condition, it’s as beautiful as the day I picked it off the lot, and perhaps most importantly, it’ll take me to any interview I need to get to with no problem. The last thing you want when facing unemployment is an unreliable car - been there, done that - it wasn’t cool at all. So goes the month of October 2008.
One more thing. This is the two year anniversary of my wake up call to get my finances in order. Since October 2006:
- I have improved my net worth by $36,415. That’s a 51% improvement.
- I have totally eliminated my credit card debt.
- I have credit scores that are consistently near 800.
- I have saved over three months’ living expenses in an emergency fund.
- I have saved almost $14,000 for my dream of home ownership.
- I pulled my car loan balance down to less than the worth of my car.
- I finally started investing in stocks and retirement mutual funds.
- I changed my earning potential by getting certified in my profession.
- I have prioritized charitable giving on a regular basis.
- I finally got my student loan balances down into the principal amount borrowed.
