Well, another three months have passed (almost), so it’s time to check out my net worth.
It’s been a busy three months, financially speaking. I finally got rid of my old car and bought a new car. So I fully assumed my net worth calculations wouldn’t be so great. Even though the car’s only around a month old, I still used my standard practice of checking the Kelley Blue Book value to use in the net worth calculations. It’s pretty sad how much a car depreciates once it’s driven off the lot. Yes, this is a reason you should buy a used car. I don’t care, I still bought a new car and I love it. Along with the new car comes a car loan. I actually plan to pay this off well before it’s due, but for now, I’m making the standard payments.
My cash accounts are mixed. I didn’t put much into cash savings. And by that, I mean I didn’t save anything. Not the best plan, all in all. I’m trying to work things so I can put more money into savings every month.
My investments are also mixed. Some went up, others slipped a bit. My retirement accounts are still looking good though, and those are important numbers. I’m continuing my automatic contributions, and planning a nice, comfortable retirement in 30+ years.
In home ownership news, I’m still chipping away at my mortgage, and according to Zillow, the value of my home increased. I expect that to drop slightly. A home across the street is currently on sale and they’ve had to drop the price a few times. My house has been upgraded more recently (kitchen, flooring, etc), so in actuality, I’m sure my home would bring a higher price, but Zillow would consider our houses similar when figuring out the value.
So what are the end numbers? Well, my overall net worth went up 1.9%. It’s a move in the right direction, but it’s also the smallest change I’ve had in a long time. The car purchase was definitely a big hit (I currently owe more than the value of my car, according to KBB), but the cash accounts aren’t doing great either. The lesson here is that I need to work more on saving. This month, for example, I spent way too much money going out to meals with friends. It’s awesome to spend time with people, but if I’m going to do that, I need to cut back in other areas. It’s a theme that you’ll see repeated here. I need to work on spending less and saving more.
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.
Leave a Reply