Finally free from student loans and textbook costs (until August, anyway), it’s time to start seeing some upward mobility in my net worth again. How did I stack up this month?

Change: $143 or +0.41 %

Up, but possibly not as much as I’d have liked. Although I started my on-campus job again last month, I only got one paycheck for it in April - the rest I’m getting this month. Mostly, that meant I didn’t pay as much into my credit card as I would have liked - I’ll have to make up for that this month.

I have high hopes for summer - new job, no tuition or textbooks sucking away all of my money… I can’t wait!

For a look at my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for April. For an explanation of the categories I use, check out the bottom of my entry about February’s net worth balance.

Another $3,301 in student loans this month, plus a nice tax bill, and I knew I wasn’t going to be sitting pretty when I started tabulating up my net worth for March. Time to check out the damage:

Change: -$3,569 or -11.36 %

Hmm… it sounds bad, but I’m actually not too disappointed. The $3,301 increase in student loans (and a $258 increase in interest on the loans I already have) was inevitable, and I knew I was looking at a tax payment this month.

A tax payment? Yep. I made some money from this blog and from my freelance job last year, but not enough to owe any income tax. But, since those are both self-employment incomes, I did owe Social Security tax and Medicare tax. So I had a $260 tax bill to pay. No biggie, though - I also knew that was coming, and was at least partially prepared for it. I took all the money I’d stashed away in my various high yield savings accounts and threw them at the tax bill.

So if you ignore the student loans and the tax bill, I actually would have gone up by $250 this month! And $190 of that was paid toward my credit card balance - so that’s where I see the silver lining on this. I’m ahead of schedule for paying my balance off in full before I lose my promo 0% APR!

For a look at my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for March. For an explaination of the categories I use, check out the bottom of my entry about February’s net worth balance.

Finally, a month to see some positive numbers, unspoiled by new student loans or car repairs! After three months of down, down, down, I was really glad to be able to calculate some gains and progress this morning. Here’s the result:

Change: $276 or +0.87 %

I made some slight differences in how I arranged the accounts within my NetworthIQ page. It didn’t affect the total (after all, ever dollar that I don’t have is still a dollar that I don’t have!), but I think it better reflects the debts I have, because of the changes I made this month.

Money that I’ve set aside in my ING savings account for paying off my credit card is counted against the credit card balance. Also, money on my second credit card, which is paid off in full each month, is counted against the cash account.

Therefore, the credit card balance is my first card, minus the total of my special savings account. Cash is the total of all my other cash accounts, minus my second credit card balance. This, I feel, better reflects my credit card balance and the amount of cash I have on hand.

Just today, my school withdrew the funds that will make up my last student loans for this school year, so there will be another significant drop in March’s net worth! I’m going to do what I can to cushion the blow, but there really isn’t much to be done about $3,000 in loans!

However, that will be the last drop of its kind until the end of the summer. It will be nice to see the graph climb upward for a few months in a row, again!

For a breakdown of my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for February. Since I’ve changed the way I do things a bit, here’s an updated explanation of the different categories used in the calculation:

Cash: NetworthIQ lumps together all cash, checking, and savings accounts into one “cash” category. I have a checking account and a savings account with Bank of America. I also have several high yield savings accounts which are counted, except for my Credit Card Payoff savings account at ING Direct, which I count against my credit card balance.

I also count the balance of my second credit card (which I use to buy gas and incidentals and then pay off in full every month) against this Cash account, since that money is already spent.

Stocks: I have one share of Eastman Kodak stock, given to me by my grandmother. We Rochesterians are fiercely protective of Kodak, and I just keep hoping that they’ll hold on through this digital photography revolution. (Fuji is a four letter word to a Rochesterian!)

Cars: I have a 1996 Oldsmobile Delta 88. I don’t check the blue book value of it every month - it stays pretty steady, since I don’t put too many miles on it, and it had less than 50,000 miles on it when I got it!

Other assets: If there’s anything in this category, I explain it in the notes on NetWorthIQ - usually it’s checks that I’ve received, but haven’t cashed yet, or money someone owes me.

Student Loans: All of my loans are federal, I have no private student loans. They’re currently in deferment while I’m in school, but the unsubsidized Stafford loans are accruing interest, so those are my next target once my credit card is paid off.

Credit card: This number reflects the balance on my first credit card, which is mostly purchases from 2006 that I’m still paying off! Subtracted from the balance is the money in my Credit Card Payoff savings account.

I knew as I calculated out my numbers for this month that I was going to be down from last month - it wasn’t a surprise, so let’s just move right into the damage.

Change: -$325 or -1.04 %

It’s always depressing to have a “down” month, but three is a row is really starting to irritate me.  I’ve got to keep it in perspective though - there’s a truth here that the numbers aren’t really showing.

The only reason this month was down instead of up is that my car required another immediate repair (water pump and belt replacement). That set me back $360, which I had to actually put on my 0% APR credit card, because I drained my emergency/car fund two months ago, with the first repair.

Without that car repair, I’d be up $35 for the month. Not a huge gain, but it gives me hope for the coming months. I’ll be fighting tooth and nail to make sure that February is an UP month!

For a breakdown of my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for January. There’s also an explanation of my NetworthIQ categories.

$2,000. That’s the exact amount that my net worth fell in 2007. Sort of creepy, isn’t it - getting that nice, perfect, round number? After a year of scrimping, saving, careful budgeting, tracking my spending, and (of course) blogging, my net worth dropped by exactly $2,000.

And I’m quite happy with it.

The truth is, my net worth dropped by only $2,000. With new student loans and some serious cash dropped on car repair, I’m quite happy with the progress I’ve made - even if it is “one step forward, two steps back.” The truth is that I would be much worse off if I hadn’t paid strict attention to things this last year.

Yet, there were several outside factors that helped - especially family members helping me out as birthday and Christmas presents. Repeating this “success” will not be easy, but….

My goal for 2008 is to do as well, or better than, 2007. In other words, to have my net worth fall by no more than $2,000.

Stick with me guys, this is gonna be an interesting year.

Ouch. Just… ouch. Both months, I knew my net worth was taking a nose dive, and both months, I knew it would be bad. It really is akin to being stabbed in the gut. I’m warning you right now: the damage is bad. Don’t scroll down if you’re financially squeamish.

So, what was the damage?

Change, November: -$3,288 or -11.91 %

Change, December: -$474 or -1.53 %

Wow… that… hurts. Look at that line! The drop in November brought my net worth crashing down to lower (much lower) that it’s been the whole time I’ve been tracking it! And December was just rubbing salt in the wound.

So what happened?

Nothing unexpected, really. November’s drop was almost entirely due to student loans I had to take out in order to start Winter Quarter of my glorious education. I don’t actually view November’s drop as a “bad thing,” in the scheme of things. It’s likely to happen at least three more times, as I take out the money for the last three quarters of my undergrad degree.

All I can really do is try and make sure the line goes up as much as possible in between in quarterly drops. And I actually did that fairly well: November also included my biggest gain in cash reserves.

December, on the other hand, I can feel a little bad about. The drop there was mainly due to car repairs. It could have been worse - in fact, it should have been, but my family took on half the cost as my Christmas present. Still, I had to tap my emergency fund in order to keep my car on the road. The other major expenses this month: textbooks and gas.

For January, I’m hoping to lower my spending on gas, and throw as much money at my credit card as possible. But that’s a story all its own, which I will get to in a few days. As usual, stay tuned!

Ok guys, you know how excited I get every month, when I get the opportunity to comb through my finances and tabulate my net worth! What can I say - I’m a geek for numbers. October gave me a bit of a worry - my on-campus job went on hiatus, and I went a little crazy with Halloween. So… did the number go up, or down? *Drumroll time…*

Change: $71 or +0.26 %

Not a great jump up, but up is still good! Almost all of my extra expenses this month could be placed in the “Parties and Dining Out” category. I’m a sucker for hanging out with friends, and I make a big deal out of Halloween, especially.

One other thing I dropped money on was $20 for an audio version of notes for my class. I really enjoy being able to review while commuting to school, by putting the notes on my iPod and plugging it into my car stereo. I’m hoping this will help me get a good grade on the final exam in two weeks!

Gas for my car was also a big expense - commuting is saving me a lot of money, but it doesn’t feel like it whenever I fill up my tank. Environmentally, I wish I was able to live close to (or on) campus, and not having to drive so much - or at all. But financially, I wouldn’t be able to afford school at all if I had to pay for my housing.

For a breakdown of my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for October. There’s also an explanation of my NetworthIQ categories.

Next month: I have hope for November, but it’s going to be a bit of a crap shoot. My on-campus job is still on hiatus, so I’ll be relying on my other two jobs for income. Also, I expect to begin Christmas spending. Oh boy - I think the conversation on Christmas presents will probably warrant an entry of its own, so I won’t get into that just yet.

We all know that I’m a giant geek, and that all month I look forward to these net worth updates. What you might not realize is that I geek out about it even more during months that are ambiguous. Will my net worth go up or down? I don’t know, but I’m excited to find out! I have to restrain myself from calculating it out beforehand, so that I can have the big surprise on the first of the month!

I think I need more hobbies. Anyway, here’s the big reveal… *drumroll*

Change: $141 or +0.51%

Ooo! It went UP! Which is hugely surprising, to say the least. I took out $1,370 in student loans this month to go back to school, so it would have been perfectly expected for my net worth to go down. However, I had a few personal loans forgiven as birthday presents, and I opened an ING savings account to start an emergency fund, and have received some nice bonuses and referral credits from that.

Next month, barring disaster (knock on wood!), we should see another climb. I’ve started my on-campus job and will start seeing paychecks from that next month, and now that I have my emergency fund, I’ll be moving back to aggressively tackling my credit card debt.

Student loans will continue to go up every three months or so for the next year and a half. Most of them are interest free while I’m in school, and I’m going to make an effort to pay off the interest on the other one as it accrues. If I can keep on top of it, the interest won’t capitalize - that is, be rolled into my principal.

Some hefty goals, I know - but look at that upward sloping line! Up $2,000 in less than a year, while in school and accruing student loans! Please excuse my bragging, but I feel like I’ve got a lot to be proud of here.

For a breakdown of my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for September. There’s also an explanation of my NetworthIQ categories.

This month went very well, but it didn’t feel like it because I was desperately watching what’s going to happen in September: a big ol’ bundle of student loans. But September’s inevitable tumble in net worth (which will knock out all of the progress made on this graph, and then some) is not the topic here… yet. So, let’s focus on this month.

Change: $491 or +1.73%

My boyfriend’s generous gift of paying for my summer plane ticket deserves almost all of the credit for this month’s increase.

There are some interesting bits coming into play for next month. First of all, I’ll be driving again, and much more than ever before, as I begin commuting to school. So there will be the gas to pay for. Also, textbooks, a new cell phone battery (mine will no longer last a day on a full charge), renewing my license ($50), and some other small expenditures. Not to mention those student loans!

But, I’ve gotten back my old on-campus work study job, and I’m working on getting another job that I could do from home (a friend put in a word for me, but I haven’t heard from the company). So I’ll have more coming in than before, which should help offset the increase in expenses.

Also, although I am wracking up student loans again, they’ve gone into “deferment” which means I’m not making payments on them, and they’re not wracking up interest - except for one, my Federal Unsubsidized Direct Loan, which wracks up interest whether it’s in deferment or not. And I’m going to try really hard to pay off that Unsubsidized Loan interest as it’s added, so that it doesn’t roll into the principal when I graduate.

For a breakdown of my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for August. There’s also an explanation of my NetworthIQ categories.

Well, it had to happen - this is the first month since I started tracking my net worth that it has taken a down turn. I have to say, though, that I’m pretty proud of it regardless - although it went down, it went down less than it went up last month! So you could say I lost “less than a month.” Here’s the damage:

Change: -$181, or -0.64%

Of course, when school kicks in and I take on more student loans, we’ll see a real nose-dive then. Ooo, won’t that be fun?

This month’s downturn can ultimately be attributed to the $380 plane ticket that I bought. It’s one of the few expenses that really, really matters to me, so I don’t mind so much.

For a breakdown of my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for July. There’s also an explanation of my NetworthIQ categories.