Saturday, February 23, 2013

January 2013 Progress Report

February has been a lousy month with my being sick and all.  Although it's almost the end of February, I thought I ought to provide my January 2013 progress report.  My current debts are 331.66% my AGI, which is
 MY DEBT


Starting Debt
Last MonthThis MonthDIFFERENCE
Fed'l SL (06/08)$55,852.68$48,542.02$48,318.04-$223.98
Mortgage (1/6/12)$274,000.00$269,463.90$268,607.81-$856.09
Bank of Mom (1/6/12)$68,500.00$60,421.00$60,196.00-$225.00
CC (3/31/12)$34,188.50$26,047.00$26,582.84+$535.84
TOTAL$476,414.00$404,473.92$403,704.69-$769.23

The 0% promotional rates on of my credit cards expired and I couldn't pay off the $18,396 balance.  I transferred the balance to another 0% offer with a 4% balance transfer fee which cost me $735.84.  Hence, the negative development in my credit card balance this month.  The 0% promotional rate on my other credit card will expire on October 31, 2013.  I hope to pay that balance off without incurring yet another balance transfer fee.

Other than my credit card balances, I'm on track with my other debts.

SAVINGS

LAST MONTH
THIS MONTH
DIFFERENCE
$15,527.30$15,945.04+$417.74

I borrowed $282 (net) from my EF to pay for my property tax in December.  My EF is now fully reimbursed and I added an additional $135.74 in January.

The savings I report here is with respect to my emergency fund only and does not include my future spending earmarks. Currently, the total amount in my liquid savings account is $21,284.23.

MY ROP (LIFE INS) FUND

LAST MONTH
THIS MONTH
DIFFERENCE
$2,584.63$2,646.83+$62.20


Long story short, I'm pretending to pay myself $55/month for a "hypothetical" return of premium (ROP) term life insurance policy. (A ROP policy pays back your premium at the end of the term if you outlive the policy term.)  Investopedia looked into whether ROP premiums are worth it and it concluded that "for policy owners that can invest in tax-deferred or tax-free accounts and are comfortable investing in the markets, a basic term policy without the rider probably makes more sense."

That is exactly what I am doing:  I bought a plain-vanilla term life insurance policy and am putting the $55/month savings in my Roth.  I've calculated that I need an annual return of approximately 3.7% to make this experiment worthwhile.

I've paid $4,628 in premiums to date and my ROP balance is $2,646.83.  I've recouped 58.98% of my premiums and the annual return on my investments is currently 3.79%, which is slightly above my target. 

MY NET WORTH

LAST MONTHTHIS MONTHDIFFERENCE
$241,536.92$256,353.60$14,816.68

The majority of the increase in my net worth came from increases in my 401k and investment accounts.    

The history of my net worth can be found here.