pleasant surprise
I updated my net worth (with a few minor details yet-to-be-updated, like the big reduction in my student loan amount and the actual amount of my stocks’ value) and lo and behold, there was a $6,000 net worth increase sitting there staring me in the face! Wow. Praise God!
This progress, despite my newest material acquisitions – clothes, a smart phone, a data plan, weekly visits with a personal fitness trainer – is nothing short of amazing.
Here’s my latest net worth explanation:
“The amount shown in my net worth is incorrect because I’m having technical difficulties with one of my student loan accounts and with my ShareBuilder account, so I can’t see the actual balances. Until I can get these numbers, the amounts shown here are incorrect.
I used my tax refund to pay down some student loan debt. I made my last medical bills payment in April. Yay!!! That is why my “other debts” category has gone down. Another reason it’s declined is because I’m paying back the $7,500 tax credit from 2008 through payroll deductions, since 2010 is the first tax year in which Uncle Sam will start getting his money back from the homeowners who took the 2008 home buyers’ tax credit (i.e. “loan”) – which, in my case, is sitting in a bank account collecting an insulting amount of interest (when are the rates going to go back up?!?!?) and augmenting our emergency savings.
Mister Ant and I have been saving for our wedding expenses and for start-up costs for a family (no, we’re not trying yet!).
The credit cards get cleared by the end of each month, and I’m pretty much using them for rewards points. My main priority is to use the payment amounts I no longer have to pay to the medical bills to pay down my smaller student loan. I’m really excited about seeing that final 0.00 balance when I log in one day! I hate this loan with a passion.
I haven’t been saving much in my IRA, because so much of my money is going towards wedding/household savings and debt reduction. Apparently I lack the drive/discipline to contribute regularly to the fund, but at least I am saving something somewhere, and next month after open enrollment, I’ll start contributing to the 401K at work, since I become eligible this month. I looked into converting the IRA to a Roth, but it’s really not worth the initial tax costs to me right now.
Someone dinged my car, but not so significantly that it would have been worth paying my $1000 deductible, so I took some value ($500) off of the car, since the body is no longer in “excellent” condition.”
But, perhaps most importantly of all – my net worth has broken the -20,000 mark and I feel like I’m oh-so-close to going positive! I was so excited to see that, and then my jaw dropped when I saw that I’m 77% closer to a positive net worth than I was when I started this journey three-and-a-half years ago back in 2006. Oh joy! Negative 87K seems so far away now. I mean, what’s another 16K? I’ve already improved by about 70. This is so awesome!
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That is fantastic!! I don’t think your drive/discipline to put money in your IRA is lacking as much as your priorities are in a differnt place. I currently don’t contribute to my 401K or Roth IRA, in order to agressively pay down my debt. So, don’t be too hard on yourself, you are doing a great job.
Thanks!