From the monthly archives: March 2012
As I mentioned in my last Net Worth report, I felt like we were bleeding cash even though our net worth was up a substantial amount for the month. Turns out I was right. I sat down and did the analysis, and most telling is that my wife’s pay was about half of what it should have been for the month. She had some minor surgery and missed some time at work, and boy did we feel it.
A few other things stand out:
- The amount we overspent matched my wife’s lost pay. We would have come much closer to breaking even for the month had she been able to work more.
- Groceries are killing us. Baby formula isn’t helping the issue…. That should end soon though.
- No utility bills in the month of February. I waited until a payday to pay my gas & electric bill, which pushed it off into March. This should mean I’ll have twice as much Utility bills as guidance in March.
Check out the summary below. Guidance is based on recent past averages. I’ll plan on updating the guidance once per month with a rolling 6 month average for non-constant cash flows.
I have no excuse, other than sheer laziness.
So I’ve been inspired by Paul’s Net Worth updates, his table puts all of the relevant information in a nice easy to grok format, and I need to spot being so wordy when I describe my latest financials. So here goes:
Once again Zillow.com is messing with my emotions, and I lost $10,000 bucks in my house. Other than that, I traded in some cash for credit card debt, and I made an investment. I heard some interesting things about a company with a very cheap stock: Torvec (TOVC). I am not a financial advisor, and I have no idea how they’re really going to perform, but they have some interesting technology and a can-do attitude. I think it’s going to work out for them.
If not, I’m only out $500 bucks.
Wow, what a stressful money month. Recently I’ve come to realize that it takes about 2 months to pass large purchases through your monetary digestive tract, and it is very painful. Between Christmas gift purchases and the new car in January, combined with the fact that my wife missed a week of work (without pay) because of some minor surgery, and you can bring on the fiscal heartburn!
Now, after I’ve compiled the numbers, I don’t feel quite so bad. A solid 5% gain ain’t too shabby. Let’s just say that strong stock market returns are the Tums to some indulgent monetary overeating.
Highlights this month:
- The drop in cash and simultaneous drop in credit card debt signify us getting the final portion of the down payment on our new Explorer out of the debt pile, which feels good to say the least. We can finally start accumulating cash again without that big CC payment hanging over our heads.
- Another great month for the stock market equals another great month for my investments! However my investment gains come with a caveat: I had forgotten to track two stock investments that I have in past months. I’ve included them this month, and they show up as about $2300 of the gain. I will continue to track them in the future so they’re always shown in the trend.
- We crossed the $400,000 in assets milestone! Nice!
In other news… I’ll be paid 3 times in the month of March and my wife 3 times in April, so I expect to see some good cash accumulation if I can keep spending in control.
Donald
Age: 32
Assets: $401,669
Liabilities: ($129,290)
Net Worth: $272,379Memberships
Paul
Age: 31
Assets: 477,660
Liabilities: ($123,725)
Net Worth: $353,935
