How it ended up being a positive month is truly a mystery.
I mean, it started so well but completely fell apart at the end — which is why I’m weeks late with this update.
Cash:
I’m officially cash poor and back to living paycheck-to-paycheck. Okay, the situation isn’t *really* that dire but things are a bit tight right now in the checking account…
Savings:
Obviously I contributed pretty heavily here. Problem is, nearly all of my contributions this month will come right back out to pay my end of the year property taxes so it’s really more of a lateral move than anything else.
Gov’t Bonds:
Yeah, whatever… Another $15 bucks.
401k:
This is keeping my numbers up. Don’t get me wrong, though, I’m thrilled that I’ve exceeded the $100k mark…
Home:
I’m blaming the cold weather for the drop. Yep, definitely the weather.
Auto 1 & Auto 2:
Having just put in another $1100 into my daily driver, well, I should be good to go for another three or four years without having a car payment. That is, until we go out and buy a minivan…
Credit Cards:
These are moving in the wrong direction. They shouldn’t be but… they are. The good news is that $15k of it is at zero percent for another 5 months. An additional $7k is locked in at zero percent for another 11 months.
Sucks to have balances like this but I’m not anywhere near falling back into the routine of paying hundreds of dollars each month in finance charges alone. I’m confident the balances will start to fall rapidly in 2011.
Auto Loans and Other Loans:
Zilch. Zero. Nada.
Mortgage:
Just another minimum payment. Since the re-fi, I’ve totally flip-flopped and hopped on that bandwagon of folks that say that overpaying the mortgage is stupid. I totally agree with them — but only if your monthly payment is insanely low…
I totally agree with your comment about making the minimum payment on the mortgage, though it wasn’t always the case. My mortgage balance is double your remaining balance (but I split my mortgage with my sibling, so the numbers aren’t too far off). I don’t try to pay down the principal as quickly ever since the refinanced. There are several key reasons:
1) We no longer have that annoying PMI on our backs (which is how I discovered your blog!)
2) I’m putting more $ into my 401k (to reduce tax liability and partly because my 401k account is truly sad in terms of the amount I’ve saved relative to the years I’ve been in the workforce)
3) 401k investment is earning at a higher rate than my mortgage loan rate.
4) My mortgage rate is only at 3.875% now compared to 6% and we’ve refinanced into a 15 year (from a 30), so I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress already.
5) I’ve saving for a rainy day. With the economy being what it is these days, I figured I’d be more conservative and should have more than 6 months of living expenses saved up.
In a worst case scenario, I could resort to credit cards, but I’d rather not play the interest game with credit card companies.
Pardon for the errors in my previous post. I really should proofread before I submit my comment.