March 2, 2010
February was a tumultuous financial month, and I’m surprised that there was still some minimal progress made in the net worth growth. If anything I
semi-hinted at yesterday pans out, March will be equally tempestuous with lots of outflow and scurrying to create income to cover it. Which means: blog fodder!
Until then, my vow of Don’t Jinx Yourself pretty much means I’m keeping mum on a lot of fronts.
Taxes are filed — our accountant rose to the occasion and saved me from having to deal with my family’s financial complications. I always mean well but tax time is that time of the year I writhe in agony over dissecting my financial life, entangled with my family’s, and how that means I have to untangle their finances. It’s the one time I let my emotions get the better of me and ostrich myself with regards to money matters.
[By “rose to the occasion” I mean the family accountant called my dad with some tax suggestions before I asked the questions, and won himself my business for another year. I’m filing Head of Household again so that buys me a couple extra thousand in standard deductions and exemptions.]
Between the much reduced income stream, unemployment income (taxes were withheld), HOH filing and having prepaid a lot more in taxes than necessary, my federal effective tax rate is 10.7% and I’m expecting a rather large refund of nearly $1500. Combined with the less-large state refund, I’m going to have a nice lump sum in the Taxes nest egg. That’ll become my Car nest egg. I’ve whined on Twitter about hating shopping for a used car, and the next worse thing to that is having to finance a car.
Of course the PF wisdom is to always avoid a refund but at the end of 2008, I was more concerned about having to pay taxes (which is why I saved cash for it) and paying penalties to boot (hence the extra withholding). It wasn’t worth adjusting partway through the year once we found out that I wasn’t going to be employed post Q3 2009.
This month could have been a lot worse.
February 1, 2010
Shooo-eee, I can certainly spend when I’ve a mind to. Some blame to be placed on school and textbooks, and some on household expenses. I won’t go through the litany here because it just sounds like a bunch of hooey excuses. I’ve already got a few returns in mind (gifts never given), and a mental note says that quite a few of those expenses would have come out of the gift fund. If I still had one for the year.
This, by the by, is what comes of relying on the stock market for NW gains.
To make matters appear worse, I’m going to add another layer of transparency here. According to my spending tracking via the new spreadsheets, I only managed to stay out of the red with regards to cash flow thanks to the last minute arrival of some irregular income checks. It’s not fair to label that as a problem area yet, I knew that I’d be paying some (major) debits of last month out of this month’s cash flow. I didn’t anticipate some of the interruptions in the unemployment income.
Am continuing to bear down on the job search harder, looking out for more freelance opps, while doing justice to my schoolwork. And if the blog becomes an avenue for income, that’d be a-ok by me!
December 31, 2009
From December 2008 to December 2009, after the layoff and continuing unemployment, I’ve recorded a 47% total increase. The progress was distributed pretty well across the board: retirement accounts (aka untouchable money), emergency cash to alleviate recessionary anxiety. The relatively low increase in the short term cash isn’t a surprise; that money is saved in advance for spending throughout the year – I still haven’t decided if I’m going to change how that money is represented in the net worthing. Ultimately, I like seeing that I’ve kept a fairly even keel in terms of pursuing all my goals.
I’d forgotten that I established my cash expense account earlier in 2008. That reminds me that this process of building a solid financial foundation has been slow and steady, and not the work of a few weeks or months. It’s hard to say when the most progress was made, I guess that depends on how you measure progress? Straight numbers? Debt reduction? Asset building? These are all parts of the same puzzle.
These snapshots tend to reflect only what I saved, and not the income and spending. The first half of 2009 I was on a mission to reduce monthly costs down to the $2200 range. We had obstacles along the way like the truck payment until we sold it, getting the family car out of hock and then losing it in an accident. We also had happy expenses like marrying off a friend, planning baby showers, taking care of people, and bought some stock.
Oh yes, then I separated from my job! (Didn’t lose it, I know exactly where it went.) Went on a mess of trips: NYC, San Diego, Miami, Hawaii. Good grief, I’d lost track of everywhere I went in the latter half of 2009.
What I’m saying here is that I spent a whole lot. And you can’t expect me to keep track of all that! I kid, I kid. I’m just too tired to pull together a real spending report, but I’m going to say that it was in the range of $30-40,000. I think what I’m going to do for 2010 is tailor Excel spreadsheets to track spending my way. I just haven’t been terribly happy with all the templates out there.
In blogging, and no small thanks to Twitter, I’ve become much more at home here in my corner of the PF blogosphere this year, and appreciate the community and friendships – deeper than I would have ever have imagined to blossom from a purely online relationship. The Internet’s been an integral part of my life since childhood(ish) but I couldn’t have predicted the candor and wisdom to be found here.
I’m grateful to you, my readers and friends, and wish you all a very Happy and safe New Year’s Eve (New Year to my international friends)!
December 30, 2009
How do you like the new Snapshot format? I’m rather awfully proud of it, it’s growing up to be a real adult being formatted in Excel.
As you can see, the damage is rather substantial this month. I spent another $1100 on classes for next quarter and $210 for Christmas gifts. The rest of the discrepancy was a glitch in the unemployment but it should be resolved in the next two weeks. Oh and I didn’t really add another $231 to the emergency fund, I just “stole” that from the tax fund temporarily. It’ll probably go back. Or not, I like seeing 15k in the ING account.
I’m still prepared for costs to go up in 2010, and I didn’t pick up that 2% CD.
December 1, 2009
| Retirement Savings |
Total: $35,309 (34,001)
|
| Emergency Savings |
Total: $36,535 (36,468) |
| Short Term Goals |
Car Maintenance: $2,225
Insurance: $2,003
Travel/Con: $550
Taxes: $3,594
Moving: $2,798
Total: $11,170 (11,696) |
| Long Term Goals |
House Down Payment: $102 |
| Investments |
TradeKing: $1,095
Prosper-ish Loan: $12,630
Personal Loan: $1,500
Savings Bond: $362 (current accrued value)
Total: $15,587 (15,587) |
| Total Assets |
Illiquid: $35,309
Semi-Liquid: $15,587
Liquid: $36,535
Expense Acct: $7,656
Goals Savings: $11,170
Total: $106,257 (105,181) |
| Debt and Liabilities |
AmEx: $799
Chase: $670
Rent: $1,360
Total: $2,829 (3,593) |
| Net Worth |
$103,428 (101,315) |
A few thoughts …..
Excel and I will have to become buddies to locate exactly when the e-fund tracking went off the rails, but in the meantime, I’ve reset the past numbers in parentheses for both the e-fund and grand total back to the correct September numbers for now.
The total NW is up again due to the uptick in the stock market and sort of controlling my expenses.
A note about the Tradeking account: as I’m a buy and hold investor, that total will only reflect the cash deposited, and not any gains or losses for now. I’m tracking that differently than my retirement accounts because I don’t have those assets in hand until I sell. Does that make sense?
Probable Upcoming Expenses:
1. Christmas gifts — $150-200 total?
2. Another pair of online courses — $1100
While I’m happy to see the NW slightly rebound, I’m not thrilled that it’s on the back of so capricious a creature as the stock market. Cash is my preferred net worth driver, unless it’s being invested purposefully. I look forward to the time when I’m generating substantive income again.
October 31, 2009
| Retirement Savings |
Total: $34,001 (34,951)
|
| Emergency Savings |
Total: $36,741 (36,887) |
| Short Term Goals |
Car Maintenance: $2,223
Insurance: $2,439
Travel/Con: $550
Taxes: $3,590
Moving: $2,894
Total: $11,696 (12,863) |
| Long Term Goals |
House Down Payment: $102 |
| Investments |
TradeKing: $1,095
Prosper-ish Loan: $12,630
Personal Loan: $1,500
Savings Bond: $362 (current accrued value)
Total: $ 15,587 (15,586) |
| Total Assets |
Illiquid: $34,001
Semi-Liquid: $15,587
Liquid: $36,741
Expense Acct: $7,156
Goals Savings: $11,696
Total: $ 105,181 (107,893) |
| Debt and Liabilities |
AmEx: $653
Chase: $1,580
Rent: $1,360
Total: $3,593 (4,014) |
| Net Worth |
$101,588 (103,879) |
A few thoughts …..
Once again we have problems with Yodlee “updating” their site which means problems. This time, the drop down menu that should allow me to update account passwords won’t actually drop down. Those accounts’ll just have to remain inaccessible for now.
Wonky math. Somewhere in the emergency funds, we’ve got math gone wrong and I can’t figure it out. Last month, I was down $76. This month, $146. A difference of $222 total when the only outbound transaction from those accounts is a single $500 borrow when I needed to open a Chase account for a bonus offer. I’m starting to wonder if I just made a clerical error at some point?
Losing steam. I’m sliding dangerously close to the other side of the 6 figure mark. I apparently both miscalculated the bare bones scenario upon layoff, and have been traveling a LOT more than planned. The solution? Find a full time J-O-B! But also finish my classes with high marks because I’ve paid a good chunk of change for them. Which, of course, leads me to Item the Next:
Big things next month! Midterms, a trip to the Big Apple, a trip to the Big Island, hosting a Carnival, and final exams!
October 1, 2009
| Retirement Savings |
Roth IRA: $4,137
401(a):$30,814
Total: $34,951 (33,611)
|
| Emergency Savings |
Catastrophe: $ 35,887
Problem Cushion: $ 1,000
Total: $36,887 (36,963)**
|
| Short Term Goals |
Car Maintenance: $2,244
Insurance: $2,467
Travel/Con: $568
Taxes: $3,590
Moving: $3,994
Total: $12,863 (12,144)
|
| Long Term Goals |
House Down Payment: $102
|
| Investments |
TradeKing: $1,094**
Prosper-ish Loan: $12,630
Personal Loan: $1,500
Savings Bond: $362 (current accrued value)
Total: $15,586 (15,542)
|
| Total Assets |
Illiquid: $34,951
Semi-Liquid: $15,586
Liquid: $36,887
Expense Acct: $7,506
Goals Savings: $12,963
Total: $ 107,893 (105,862)
|
| Debt and Liabilities |
AmEx: $144
Chase: $2,510
Rent: $1,360
Total: $4014 (1,770)
|
| Net Worth |
$103,879 (104,092)
|
A few thoughts …..
Yodlee is all over the place. A few weeks ago, I got an invitation to try their Beta and it kept locking me out of my account. When I gave up on the Beta, the original version kicked me out too! Now it’s showing me bills due two weeks ago that it didn’t think were important until now. Thanks!
Bills-owing are at an all-time high thanks to the school bills (>$1000), and the unexpected traffic fee. That’s eaten into the gains made in the retirement accounts. I’d better hit the books even harder, that quiz I took last night made me sweat!
**Dividend!! My stocks paid out a fat $4 dividend. Marked this one ‘specially because I’m excited. Whoo!
Wonky math. Somewhere in the emergency funds, we’ve got math gone wrong and I can’t figure it out. I never take money out of that account, or at least haven’t yet, but it’s down by a handful of dollars. No time to work on it today, unfortunately.
Changes. This snapshot is useful tracking, but everyone doesn’t need all these details. It’s time to consolidate more accounts and simplify both the system and reporting while preserving the subaccounts I love so much. Currently, my money is spread across ING/ED/Citi/Wamu.
I get free checks from Wamu, Electric Orange can’t serve all my checkwriting needs. Citi is the easier B&M from which to bank with linked checking and “high” interest savings accounts, while the ING/ED accounts have marginally better interest rates. It’s nice to have the flexibility of looking for either Chase OR Citibank branches when I’m travelling rather than hoping for one or the other.
I’m looking for a single bank with B&M and online access, free checkwriting (paper and electronic), ability to manage sub-savings accounts with good interest rates, and no fees. Too much?
