Another down month for my net worth. It dropped 1.68%. And again, it was all due to my investments. My cash accounts and CDs increased, so I’m on the right track. As I’ve got 30+ years til retirement, I’m trying to not worry too much and just continue to invest in my retirement accounts as I have been. I’ve fully funded my Roth IRA for this year, so the only real investing I’m doing is into my TSP, for which I get a match on the first 5% (which is all I contribute). I know that I should invest in my Roth IRA again next year, but it’s going to be hard to start sinking money into an investment that will likely continue to lose money. At least with my TSP I’m getting a match. I never turn down free money, after all. I just try to not look at my mutual funds, because as of late, they just make me cringe.
I’m not going to make my net worth goal this year. In fact, I’m going to end the year with a lower net worth than when I started. It is very hard to not be discouraged by that fact. It’s all in my investments, of course. I’ve managed to save an impressive amount of money in my savings accounts and CDs, which tells me that all my budgeting and planning is really working in my favor. So the plan is to just keep on keeping on.
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I have tried to not even look at our 401(k) and IRA’s since the market started falling. I had to look at my IRA a couple of weeks ago to make a small 401(k) rollover and I was shocked at how much it had dropped. However, it was nothing compared to my husband’s 401(k) balance that we accidentally saw when we were looking at his paycheck online.
Since I have time also, I don’t even want to know. All I can do is keep saving like you’re doing, and hopefully it will go back up soon :-).
not bad at all my friend! and don’t worry, 2009 is gonna rock it all out for us 🙂 i have a feeling…