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Net Worth Update: February – September 2015

By Stephanie, updated October 1, 2015 3 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links

Hello chilllllllllllldren! It’s Three Dog- wait, no, that’s not right. This is Stephonee, not Three Dog. Sorry, I’ve been playing a lot of Fallout 3 recently. But let’s talk about my collection of real-world money, not bottle caps:

February: $15,334 (-$640 or —4.01%)
March: $15,870 (+$535 or +3.49%)
April: $17,841 (+$1,971 or + 12.42%)
May: $23,478 (+$5,637 or +31.60%)
June: $23,298 (-$180 or —0.77%)
July: $23,651 (+$353 or +1.52%)
August: $24,247 (+$596 or +2.52%)

And currently…
September: $22,838 (-$1,409 or —5.81%)

Credit Card Debt?!?

Those of you paying close attention and digging deep into the numbers (so, uh, probably no one) would have noticed that starting in February, I had a sudden addition to my Debts: $3148 in credit card debt that totally wasn’t there before.

Before anyone flips their shit on me — here’s the deal:

My husband and I bought a couch, after saving up for it. Obviously, it was a ridiculously expensive couch ($3148!), but it’s a really friggin sweet couch and like I said, we saved up for it. (It’s a Sactional from LoveSac — it comes apart for easy reconfiguration and moving, which fits our renting and having-people-over-lots lifestyle.)
Toward the end of saving up for the couch, I laid in wait. Stalking LoveSac’s website, I waited for the best deal to come up. And then suddenly, a post-holiday sale appeared! 20% off the couch covers and 36-month 0% interest financing. BINGO!
I pounced on that offer like angry Lion King Simba (adult Simba, not JTT-baby Simba). The idea was that I’d get the credit card they were offering (in both my name and my husband’s), improve everyone’s credit scores, and make the monthly payment out of the very savings account where we’d saved up, earning interest on the balance the whole while.
That worked like a charm, but something about only earning 0.75% interest on the money sitting in the savings account bothered me. Probably the “earning less than inflation” thing. So I took all the money out of the couch savings account, and threw it at my highest interest rate (5%) student loan. A month later, I was able to pull together the remaining $635.73 owed on that loan, and knocked it right out.
So now I have one less student loan payment ($79.55/month at 5% interest) and a credit card payment in its place ($88/month at 0% interest).

On the surface, it looks like voodoo trickery: I traded a student loan payment at 5% interest for a credit card payment at 0% interest, and got a free couch out of the deal! Except, no. That’s not what happened at all. That line of thinking completely ignores the months beforehand, when my husband and I spent time and money saving up for the couch/loan payoff. Don’t ever make the mistake of ignoring the hard work part of how these things work.

I’ve Gone Rogue

Wesley: I’m a Rogue Demon Hunter now.
Cordelia: Wow. What’s a rogue demon?

– “Parting Gifts” Angel

Much like Wesley Wyndam-Pryce after his unceremonious firing from the Watcher’s Council (clueless gits!), I’ve left the corporate world once again to go it on my own as an independent contractor. Though there are obvious drawbacks (paying for my own health insurance, pay inconsistency, quarterly estimated taxes), it’s the right course of action for me because of all the tasty benefits:

Paying less for my health insurance because I’m not locked into the one-and-only option my previous employer offered
Jeans and hoodies all-day erry-day
Completely setting my own schedule and changing it on a whim
Working with some of my very favorite past coworkers on their current projects
Having the amount of money I bring in explicitly tied to the work I produce
Pay security: rather than one stream of income, I have multiple now. If one ends, I can just ramp up the others the very next day and see no dip in income.

That last one is probably the biggest, for me. During an email exchange with a high school friend, he told me that he’d never be able to do the “gig economy” thing because he needs that sense of security about where he’ll be in 2-3 years. Fair enough, but for me, I like the sense of security I have about right now and knowing that should a client decide to dump me, or go bankrupt, or even if I just decide I don’t want to work on a certain project anymore, I’m not going to have to scramble to look for work or go on Unemployment. That’s what security means to me.

Heck, it’s why I can write this post in the middle of the day on a Thursday in my pajamas. Because I love being a stereotypical millennial blogger, and also because I can get more writing done if I just tell myself not to shower until I’ve finished a friggin post.

Gooooooooooals!

September 14th, 2014 was my goal date for a positive net worth, and I nailed it. I haven’t set any additional goals since then, but considering it’s been one year since that date, it’s a good time to do a check-in:

+$18,895 year-over-year (September 2014 — September 2015)

Yeah, I’ll take it. That’s some good growth.

It’s not a hugely ambitious goal considering what I’ve already achieved, but I’d like to see my net worth hit $38,901 by September 2016. That’s exactly 7 years after my all-time net worth low of negative $38,901 in September of 2009, so it would be some nice symmetry. Even better if I can manage it in 6 months (by the end of March 2016) instead of a year from now.

Got any other ideas for goals I should set right now? Throw those in the comments — I’d love to know what goals other people come up with for me!

Also, if you’d like to see how I stack up against other personal finance bloggers, be sure to check out The Ultimate List of Blogger Net Worths over on Rockstar Finance!

Net Worth Update: March – December 2014

By Stephanie, updated January 4, 2015 9 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links

Hello boys.... I'M BACK

The conflict of interest that put this site on hiatus is over. The future holds a lot of updates and changes to the blog, but before we get into any of that, let’s do a post just on what happened in my personal net worth while I wasn’t writing:

March: $842 (-$1,145 or -57.62%)
April: $133 (-$709 or —84.20%)
May: $2,818 (+$2,685 or +2018.80%)
June: $3,842 (+$1,024 or +36.34%)
July: $3,117 (-$725 or -18.87%)
August: $5,933 (+$2,816 or +90.34%)
September: $3,943 (-$1,990 or -33.54%)
October: $10,272 (+$6,329 or 160.51%)
November: $10,707 (+$435 or 4.23%)

And currently…
December: $11,681 (+$974 or 9.10%)

Total change, from the last update to now: +$9,694 or +487.87%

A few goals hit their deadlines…

You may recall the main goal I was working toward: getting to a positive net worth by September 16th, 2014 (10 years from the date I took out my first student loan and my net worth slid into the negative). And I did tentatively call that goal “achieved” back in February, when my net worth rose into the positive numbers for the first time in my adult life.

Now that September 16th, 2014 has passed, we can look back and see that, yes, I did it! Though my net worth did wobble dangerously close to the negative line again, it stayed positive right through September and for all the months since then.

Achievement unlocked: Positive Net Worth

Just having achieved that goal will make me pretty unbearable to deal with for a while. But I also had another, lesser-discussed goal on the table. In November of 2013, I declared a new goal to see my retirement accounts hit a total of $30,000 within a year.

I managed to slide in right under the wire on that one: by the end of the month of November, my retirement funds totaled $30,689!

Achievement unlocked: $30,000 Retirement Savings

Two ‘cheevos unlocked? That calls for a celebratory “The West Wing” gif set:

Victory is mine, victory is mine! I drink from the keg of glory, Donna. Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land.
It's gonna be an unbearable day. *Josh celebrates*
gif set by kinneys on tumblr

What else happened?

The line graph for these months is awfully squiggley. Ups and downs were had, to be sure.

But that was expected. I started a new job, which paid less than my previous position, but had better benefits. My commute changed, and suddenly I was leaving my car at home for days at a time and reading the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series on bus and train rides.

I got married, and went on a honeymoon. My now-husband (!) and I saved up; paid for most of it ourselves, but also received generous help from friends and family for both events. We set up a “honeymoon registry” so that most of the wedding gifts we received were contributions to our honeymoon fund.

So we saved, and received some gifts. And all of that went right back out the door as we spent on the wedding and splurged on the honeymoon. It could have turned out to be a flat year — and I wouldn’t have been surprised, really. But the overall trend was, despite it all, upward.

And I still got my ‘cheevos.

To combine or not to combine…

While I was tabulating all of these net worth numbers, my husband walked up behind me to ask a question that had been rolling around in my own head as well:

Should we be including all of my husband’s information in these net worth updates?

The short answer: no.

I don’t keep an eye on my husband’s account balances day-to-day, so I’m not going to do it for the monthly net worth update, either. We have a few joint savings accounts (one for each common goal that we are both working toward), but have otherwise decided to maintain our separate accounts. He sends me a monthly Person2Person payment between our Capital One 360 checking accounts to cover his share of the monthly household expenses.

Besides, this blog is my financial journey. Though his help and income certainly play into that, his accounts (that I don’t touch) do not.

Dance party time!

Two ‘cheevos and a wedding this update? I’m feelin’ that it’s time for a dance party. Join me in the comments for some untz untz (animated dancing gifs, YouTube embeds — pick your poison).

Also, if you’d like to see how I stack up against other personal finance bloggers, be sure to check out The Ultimate List of Blogger Net Worths over on Rockstar Finance!

Net Worth Update: April-August 2013

By Stephanie, updated September 4, 2013 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links

First, a correction: in the last update, I left off one little digit while calculating my net worth, and the final number came out totally wrong. Instead of what I reported, March really looked like this: +$2,148 or +12.81%.

Ahem — sorry about that, folks. Now back to our irregularly-scheduled catch-up update!

April: +$1,378 or 9.42%
May: +$346 or 2.61%
June: +$233 or 1.81%
July: +$1,334 or 10.53%
August: +$540 or 4.77%

TOTAL Change since March: +$3,831 or 26.20%

Your eyes do no deceive you! That is indeed positive growth in all five months, culminating in a 26% increase since March. Woohoo!

But before we all put on our celebration hats (which we’re all going to do no matter what because September is my birthday), the bad news is coming…

September is going to suck (other than my birthday). Our apartment complex raised the rent (again) this year, and raised it right out of our price range this time. There will be more about that in future posts, but the short story is:

We went pleaded with our apartment office to work with us (got nowhere), then shopped around, found a lovely new place closer to work for both of us (at a lower price than our current rent) – but in order to secure it, we’ll need to rent it a whole month before our current lease runs out (so pay an extra month’s rent), and also cough up a month’s rent for a security deposit, too.

So if we’re very, very careful, my net worth update next month will be no more than a $2,000 drop. Yeah. There goes most of the progress since March.

Therefore, no updates on Savings Snowballs or my Quest to Reach a Positive Net Worth by September 2014 this time around. Those sorts of things will be best examined after I see where I stand at the end of September.

To end on a high note (because one must always sandwich bad news in between two pieces of good news): I’m getting married! The Boyfriend (henceforth “The Fiancé”) proposed back in July. So there will be at least a few wedding financial updates here, though probably not too many (I have no intention of turning this into a wedding blog).

Got any really good wedding-on-a-budget or moving-on-a-budget advice for me?

Net Worth Update: September 2012

By Stephanie, updated October 5, 2012 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links

It’s been a while since we checked in on my personal net worth progress, and there’s been a bit of excitement these past months — so it’s about time I got with the sharing, don’t you think?

February: +$2,019 or 7.52%

March: +$3,039 or 12.24%

April: +$445 or 2.04%

May: -$393 or -1.84%

June: +$359 or 1.65%

July: -$171 or —0.80%

August: +$301 or 1.40%

September: -$1,092 or —5.14%

TOTAL Change since January: +$4507 or 16.79%

Taxes

Right! So, a nice climb up from where I was in January, don’t you think? My net worth was boosted early in the year by an end-of-year bonus and a rather large tax refund. I hadn’t planned on such a large tax refund — it was a product of the pendulum swinging back the other way after last year’s ginormous tax bill.

The way things are going this year indicates that my taxes still haven’t settled out for me, so in August I adjusted the tax withholdings in my paycheck. I used the IRS Withholding Calculator to figure out how the adjustment, and now I should be pretty close to getting little-to-no refund at all next year (and I have a lot more take-home pay in the meantime!).

The dip in May happened when I used some of my Travel and Weddings (other people’s weddings) savings for a long distance trip.

New Car!

In July, I bought a new-to-me car! My apologies if you had become attached to my Oldsmobile (and her wacky breaking-down-on-the-side-of-the-road-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-whilst-carrying-all-my-earthy-possessions stories), but the costs to repair her again didn’t make numbers-y sense. I bought a used Camry that actually has more miles on it than the Olds (by a few thousand), but is eight years newer and in much better shape, inside and out.

September

So why the net worth dive in September? Well, the Camry has been quickly depreciating in value since I bought her! September took the biggest hit, because I drove the Camry back up to New York to visit my family. According to Kelly Blue Book, the car lost $964 in value in September alone. Eep!

And I spent actual cash-y money on the trip as well — hotels, meals, a concert, two zoos, two museums… all out of my Travel savings, though! Oh, and just to add to the pain, September’s when my car insurance premium is due, so that took a chunk out, as well.

Also in September, I bought some furniture so that my apartment looks like a real person lives in it. Matching shelves to hold all the books, movies, and video games, and a shelf unit for my TV to sit on, so that it’s not on the floor anymore! (Seriously, it’d been on the floor since Christmas.)

My New Lease on… Life?

One last major event that’s happened — I renewed the lease on my current apartment for another year, even though my rent is increasing by more than $100/month. Why? Because in searching for other apartments, I found that it’s not just my complex that raised the rates — everyone around here did. And my complex was actually giving me a great deal on renewing: more than $100/month less than new leases on 1-bedrooms in this complex. It’s frustrating, but it seemed like the best choice, given the situation.

Happy Birthday!

Oh, right! That other thing that happens every September happened — my birthday! No presents for me, though — this year, as in years past, I “gave away” my birthday and asked for donations to help fund clean water infrastructure in Rwanda instead of material gifts.

It went smashingly! We busted right through last year’s fundraiser and raised $1,735 by the end of the day on my birthday — enough to provide 26 people in Rwanda with the infrastructure for clean water. If you’re interested in helping, my birthday fundraiser will still accept donations through the end of 2012:

Stephonee’s 26th Birthday campaign on charity: water

If you have any questions about my net worth or how it is calculated, feel free to ask them in the comments.

Net Worth Update: April 2011

By Stephanie, updated May 3, 2011 14 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links

I just flew in from Rochester, and boy, are my arms tired! Actually, my everything is tired. The NASA Tweetup for the shuttle launch finally happened, but the shuttle launch itself didn’t. And I jet-setted all around the East Coast to be there and get to a wedding back home… but I haven’t got a single regret in the whole thing.

Sure, I’ll tell you more about that. But first, the numbers!

Change: +$522 or +1.75 %

Whoa… not bad at all! Especially considering the crazy travels of the past week! I left for Orlando on Wednesday night, spent two and a half nights in a group rental house near Kennedy Space Center, caught a 6am flight up to Rochester, saw my parents briefly, attended a wedding, visited with local Geocachers for breakfast (tradition!) and then took a final flight back to DC to collapse into bed on Sunday.

With all that going on, I really expected a “down” month, net worth wise, and was prepared to be okay with a down month! But my new pay rate kicked in and a three-week paycheck at the same time didn’t hurt at all, so things balanced out in my favor in the end.

Let’s take a moment to look at what else happened, besides my crazy long weekend at the end of the month:

Taxes: April the taxman cometh! Both my federal and state direct payments were scheduled for April, so my “Cash” assets dropped like a stone, by more than $3,100 this month. That’s okay! My tax liability dropped by more than $3,200 because of those payments, so I actually got another little tax refund of $100 or so there, didn’t I? Woot woot!

New Savings Snowball: Last month I implemented an updated version of my savings strategy, and after my end-of-month payments, you can already start to see progress over last month’s snowball:

Name	Goal Total	Progress	Monthly Payment
Future Car Fund	$10,000	$1096	$50 + All that I can
Travel	Rolling	$0	$90
Weddings	Rolling	$1140	$75
Retirement	$5,000/year	$3,714(total)	$150
Charity Fund	Rolling	$95	$30
Occasionals	Rolling	$361	$110
Emergency Fund	$3,000	$3,183	Achieved!

I was able to drop a whopping $500 extra into my Future Car Fund, despite all the craziness! So that goal is hopping right along — I can’t promise $550 jumps every month, but it was a real kickstart for the new plan, anyway! My travel fund dropped to $0 for very obvious reasons, and probably won’t recover at all next month due to the rescheduling of the shuttle launch.

If you’re not following me on Twitter, I should quickly explain that last bit. The NASA Tweetup was great: it was two days of tours and amazing speakers that was worth it all on its own. Four former astronauts, several amazing scientists, engineers, and support staff from NASA and other agencies took their time to talk to the 150 of us and show us, up close, things that the rest of the public never really gets to see.

It was very once-in-a-lifetimey, but at the last minute, literally as the shuttle astronauts were driving past us in the astrovan out to the launch pad, the launch had to be “scrubbed” due to a failed Auxiliary Power Unit. There was heartbreak, especially for the people who traveled in from places like the UK or Australia, but mostly, there was understanding. Understanding that NASA is not going to unnecessarily risk the astronauts’ lives. Understanding that they’re not going to fly any ship before she’s ready. And understanding that this launch isn’t for us; it’s for the good of science, the nation, and the world.

Plus, a lot of us are so totally planning to go back for the launch when it happens, anyway.