| Starting Debt (6/31/08) | Last Month | This Month | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private SL | $49,528.99 | $46,508.30 | $46,141.85 | $(366.45) |
| Fed'l SL | $55,852.68 | $54,732.28 | $54,594.91 | $(137.37) |
| CC | $13,610.75 | $11,818.08 | $11,696.08 | $(122.00) |
| TOTAL: | $128,771.75 | $113,058.66 | $112,432.84 | $(625.82) |
Yawn. I'm on auto-pilot per my snowball plan. As my faithful readers know, I'm arbitraging my 0% credit card debt right now which means I'm only paying the minimum towards the debt and socking money away in my savings to pay it off when the promotional rate ends. I've so far squirreled away $3,382.08, so my credit card debt is really only (*cough*choke*) $8,314.00. And I guess another good news I can report is that I'm officially $2,371.16 ahead of schedule even if you don't take into account the arbitrage money.
MY SAVINGS
| LAST MONTH | THIS MONTH | DIFFERENCE |
| $7,524.02 | $7,584.91 | +$60.89 |
Heh, heh. I saved a measly $60 this month. And ~$20 of that came from interest I accrued. I partially blame myself for getting nabbed by stupid late fees. But it's also that I've been a bit burnt-out about living on $10/day for food, incidentals and gas.
Fact of the matter is, I have over an additional $7,000 in my "earmarked" savings right now that don't count towards my savings reported above. I guess I'm now at a stage where I want some breathing room in my spending vs. feeling desperate to save money.
MY NET WORTH
| LAST MONTH | THIS MONTH | DIFFERENCE |
| ($16,076.09) | ($3,298.19) | +$12,777.90 |
Looks like my net worth is back to where it was in September '08. Actually, it's better now, since I no longer include the value of my car in my net worth anymore.
Normally, most of the upswing in my net worth is due to reduced debt rather than from improvements in my investments. But April was a good month in the stock market and it's reflected in the 35.25% increase in my taxable stock account, 11.22% increase in my 401k and 8.79% increase in my Roth IRA.
I also accelerated my I-Bonds purchase in April to take advantage of interest rates before it changed to 0% in May. I won't be purchasing I-Bonds for the next 6 months.
As wonderful as the boost in my net worth is, I'm not really jumping for joy here. Call me a Negative-Nelly, but I'm NOT convinced that we've hit bottom in the market. I think this is just a bear-market rally. It's really hard to enjoy something when I fear that it can easily be taken away. *Sigh*
The breakdown of my net worth can be seen here.
4 comments:
You could have said it any better than your first sentence. :)
Glad to see you are making great progress and to see the net worth go up.
Yeah, I'm worried it's a suckers rally too. But keep in mind the stock market recovery should lead the general economic recovery by 6 months or so. So if you think the economy will start turning around next year the market should be climbing this year. Won't be good for your S&P 500 bet though! I'm getting tired of scrimping too, I keep telling myself it's just till I get to such and such goal. Well a new goal always crops up as soon as the last one is finished, it never ends. Progress is progress, however slow it may feel.
good for you - that is fantastic on the savings... and on the debt payoff --- atleast it isn't going up, that is what I keep telling myself!
Wow! Good job on... everything! "living on $10/day for food, incidentals and gas" seems to have paid off. Take some breathing room, but pat yourself on the back for the progress you've made on those loans. Glad the stock market was good to you, too. That's a pretty handsome increase in NW.
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