Net Worth Update: February 2008

January finished with a very impressive and unexpected 8% networth increase.

Things progressed nicely on the liabilites end of things and that was expected.

Total credit card balances are now under $5k, and I’d have to say it’s been over a decade since I was last able to say that. It feels good and I can finally see the finish line. By next month, my total non-mortgage debt will be under $10k. It’s exciting.

The cash reserve on the assets side is due almost entirely to the fact that January was a three paycheck month for me, so the numbers are slightly skewed.

The last minute recovery of the market lessened the blow considerably as well. At one point I was down over $6k this month but it finished up down only $2290. Is it just me, or has it been a routine for the markets to recover lately at the tail end of each month? It sure seems that way to me.

Housing slump? What housing slump? The value of my home skyrocketed this month. I’m not 100% sure why.

Back on January 9th, when I initially checked in on the numbers, it had dropped $12k. Ouch.

But last night, when preparing this post, it had made a nearly $30k swing in the opposite direction?! The fluxuation is making me consider dropping the home value from these updates again, but quite honestly, I haven’t noticed a housing slump in my part of the country.

Homes that are on the market are selling, and for prices higher than I’d ever pay for them, so for now, I’ll take the good with the bad. And this month, it’s all good. Besides, even omitting the huge increase in home value from the totals, I still somehow mustered a 1.4% net worth gain this month.

Here’s to hoping I can keep up the progress in February…

Posted on February 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm by Brainy Smurf
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Net Worth Update: January 2008

No, I didn’t win the lottery…This month’s numbers are going to look a little funky as this is the first time I’m including my house in the numbers.As I mentioned last month, I’ll be calculating its month-to-month value using the 2007 property assessment and the Zillow estimate with the latter holding more weight.

With that out of the way, on the assets end of things I pulled all but $1k out of my ING Savings account. With the rates having fallen even further in December, I decided to pull out even more to throw it at higher rate credit card debt.

And apparently I crossed a “magic” mileage number on my primary vehicle, which lost over 5% of it’s value in the span of a month. It had been holding steady, and even went up in value a few times, over the year, but I guess the 26k mile marker is when the value starts to drop heavily.

On the liabilities end, the credit card balances continue to fall. As hoped, I wiped out the 9.9% Bank of America Business Card entirely, and put a significant dent in the other two cards carrying balances.

Everything else was business as usual.

In the grand scheme of things, ignoring the new house number, my net worth is higher than it’s ever been. My total debt is also at it’s lowest point ever.

Together, that makes 2008 look pretty bright, right from the get-go.

Posted on January 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 am by Brainy Smurf
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Estimating Monthly Home Values for Net Worth Updates

For my monthly “Net Worth” assessments, I’m toying with the idea of including the value of my home on the assets side for the first time.

In the past, I’ve left it off entirely because I never thought I was in a position to accurately estimate the value of my home. Enter Zillow.com.

I’ve played with Zillow for a few months now. Mostly to check in on what my house was worth at any given moment.

Okay, I admit it, it was to size myself up with all of my neighbors — oh yeah, and really pretty much everyone I’ve ever met.

It’s not a “keeping up with the Joneses” type of thing, but let’s face it, it’s fun to compare yourself to others.

Anyway, the city we live in recently completed its city wide home revaluation for tax purposes. The results came in a few weeks ago, and I was going to post about it, but never did because it was, well, a little to bland unless I got a little too personal for my own comfort.

The news, for me, and really everyone in the city was not good.

Average residential property went up a staggering 47% in the city since the last revaluation in 2002.

Thinking about it, from 2002 — the numbers sound reasonable, but the 2009 property taxes are going to hurt considerably, as are my mortgage payments because the property tax is paid through an escrow account linked to my mortgage.

Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to the next escrow analysis Countrywide does on my account.

All of that aside — the report that each homeowner in town received in the mail, along with the bad news, held some really interesting information. Among it — the assessed value, the appraised value, and the replacement cost of your home. (and better yet, a link to an internet site where you could look up everybody in town’s information too!)

I looked at the Appraised Value and liked what I saw. I then headed over to Zillow and their “Zestimate” on the value of my home was, well, within $2000 of what the city’s report said.

I then looked at the historical data Zillow offers to see what the “zestimate” was of my home back when I purchased it, and you know what? It was right around the price I paid for it. How about that?

So I’m thinking that for 2008, I’ll start to use an average of the city’s 2007 apparaised value and the current Zillow zestimate (weighted double to the appraised value as it’s more current) to semi-accurately track the value (and equity I have) of my home.

Posted on December 14th, 2007 at 4:59 pm by Brainy Smurf
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December 2007: Quest for $1,000,000.00 Dollars

Another month where the market recovered, for the most part, in the last couple days…Without the pseudo-recovery on the last day of the month, my bottom line would have decreased significantly.  Even still, November of 2007 would still have gone down as another month headed in the right direction thanks to some large credit card payments.

For those of us with a high percentage of our wealth in the markets, I’m not sure any of us could have come up positive on the Assets side this month.

And on that side, besides the sizable drop in the 401k balance, things were pretty steady.

I temporarily moved some money from my savings over to checking in order to keep my daily balance above Bank of America’s minimun in order to avoid a service fee.

If the $3,000+ payment I’m waiting for on one of my side income projects comes in soon (God willing) — that savings withdrawl will be re-deposited first thing. But, I’m also considering pulling even more out of savings next month to pay for Christmas and knock down debt more rapidly. I’m still weighing the pros and cons but right now I may even withdraw all of it due to the looming interest rate drop scheduled for December 11th.

The Liabilities portion of my net worth is where most of the action took place.

I didn’t make a mortgage payment this month because I’m far enough ahead to be able to let it slide, so I applied what would have been my mortgage payment to the credit cards instead — and did it ever help!

My Bank of America Business Mastercard should be paid off in full by the end of the year as I’d planned back in October before I’d even given a second thought about this snowball business. That’s going to feel really nice as it’s my highest rate debt (a tolerable 9.9%) right now.

At this pace of nearly $3000 falling off of the total credit card balance per month, I could wipe out all of them (and in doing so, fully pay for the siding project that ran them up so high in the first place) in the next four months.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this pace is sustainable.

You never know though, ’tis the season for bonuses and tax refund time is just around the corner as well. I’m not counting on anything, but we’ll see!

Posted on December 1st, 2007 at 2:24 pm by Brainy Smurf
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November 2007: Quest for $1,000,000.00 Dollars

Nothing terribly notable this past month.

My assets remained relatively flat while my debts kept pace in the right direction resulting in another “positive” month.

The Government Bonds were the big negative this month — I cashed out all that I could earlier this month because the money could serve me better elsewhere.

Where’d it go? Well, it got me ahead on my mortgage again (next payment is due in January) and it knocked off some of the credit card debt.

And speaking of credit card debt, I ending up throwing well over $2k towards the debt hoping to really get a good jump on knocking out one of the cards before the end of the year, but the unexpected expense of the hard drive crash swallowed up any of the noticeable drop.

That’s okay though. Under the new plan, November’s looking pretty good already.

Posted on November 1st, 2007 at 11:17 am by Brainy Smurf
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October 2007: Quest for $1,000,000.00 Dollars

Another month headed in the right direction!

That’s what the numbers say, anyway… I didn’t really *feel* like I made any progress in September.

I mean, I’m the type who usually pays the mortgage nearly a month in advance and I was only able to afford it three days before it was due this past month. I hate cutting it that close.

Obviously, the big jump came from my 401k. Over three quarters of the increase is tied up where I can’t touch it. I’m still *very* cash poor and that’s mostly due to the fact that a number of my clients are behind on their bills. One of these days, my mailbox should have a decent number of checks waiting in it.

Until then, I’ll continue to tread water.

Posted on October 2nd, 2007 at 7:26 am by Brainy Smurf
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September 2007: Quest for $1,000,000.00 Dollars

Back on track. Phew!

After a few months headed in the wrong direction, finally I’ve managed to right the ship despite the stock market woes.

Speaking of the stock market, a late month rally put me ahead for the month on my 401k balance. Taking that out of the equation, the assets side of things pretty much went no where.

That’s okay though — the plan is to wipe out the liabilities side first and foremost and everything there is dropping. Not much of a dent in the auto loan, but I don’t actually have a payment due until 2008, so I’m focusing more on the credit card balances.

I’m happy with the $1753 drop there, but it should have been better. I still managed to charge around $425 dollars. That’s still $600 less than last month, but I can cut it even more I’m sure. That will be the goal this month.

In the end, a 6% gain is something to be content with…especially after two consecutive months of double digit drops.

(Still can’t explain the wonky rising car values… Another few months of this, and I may drop them from the calculations.)

Posted on September 4th, 2007 at 8:33 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Net Worth Updates | 2 Comments »

August 2007: Quest for $1,000,000.00 Dollars

As expected, another month headed in the wrong direction. Both losses come on the assets side this month — the tumbling stock market is having an impact on my 401k (like everyone else), and though the chart indicates that I only dropped 2.26%, if you were to just take the second half of July, the losses are closer to 4%. Ouch.

Good thing I’m still young and in it for the long haul. At the same time, it also appears that I’ve timed the market perfectly as I just increased my 401k contributions last week.

Okay, that might be a stretch… I’m not actually expecting it to have a large impact in the short run.

The other sizeable loss came in my checking accout; due almost entirely to the siding project. With that behind us, and just a small electrical project on the horizon, the home improvement expenses are done.With that, the ship will be righted in August as there are no large looming bills, besides a dental bill that might actually fall in September, but in comparison to the renovations, it’s a negligible amount.

Unfortunately, the trend of increasing value on my daily driver (it actually went up $25 in June!) did not continue this month. I didn’t really expect it to, but it was nice while it lasted.

On the liabilities side, it was all good news. All balances, credit cards, auto loan, and mortgage dropped in July. The credit cards didn’t fall as much as I would have liked, but they’re still falling and now, again, with the siding bills paid, my income can be directed at them more aggressively.

Posted on August 1st, 2007 at 10:13 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Net Worth Updates | 1 Comment »