March was a great month for my net worth! It increased 9.96%.
I have to be honest. The majority of that increase was due to some very generous family members who like to share their wealth among the 20-somethings in our family. I am so thankful for their support. That money goes straight into savings, of course, and ideally, will be saved and allowed to grow and benefit others (is it too soon to start a tiny college fund for my hypothetical children?).
But even without that generosity, my net worth still would have increased this month. This month, it was mostly due to investments. My cash accounts increased very minimally, but my investments seem to be on a bit of an upward trend. I can’t say whether or not this will continue, but it’s nice to see a bit of a bump.
It’s especially nice to see in my Roth IRA. I started my automatic contributions this month, putting in $500 a month for the next 10 months, and my Roth is currently worth about $900 more than it was at the end of February, meaning that it’s gone up about $400. Oh, it’s still worth significantly less than it would be if I had just shoved all of that money into a savings account… or into a box under my bed… but it makes me feel much better about the decision to start automatic investments. Sure, it might start to tank again next month, but for now, I’m going to enjoy this little upward bump.
Megan is a 40-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 felt a little bump myself, but I think it was because I contributed $3600, and gained $2565.. but then again I also took 2 trips at around $1000/each, so I should have been in the whole a lot more instead of gaining 4% 🙂
CONGRATS!
Enjoy it 😀
Fabulously Broke in the City
“Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.“
yes ma’am enjoy it all baby! and i’ll see ya @ happy hour tonight. perhaps for a celebratory drink?