Thursday, September 30, 2010

Financial Update for September

I've update most of my sidebars with my new numbers, but am still waiting for M to send me a couple data points.

Highlights:
  • We underspent on our food budget! We allocate $800 a month for food (groceries & eating out), but I've been trying whittle that down to $600/month - $400 for groceries, & $200 for eating out. This month we spent $611.04, which I'm pretty excited about. Biggest change over the past few months? We're eating out much, much less frequently. And, I'm using cash for groceries, which has made a big difference.
  • Our net worth grew by almost $100K! $98,487.32, to be accurate. September is always a big month for us, as we get our yearly raises, bonuses, & stock awards. The market recovery also helped both of our 401K accounts.
  • I have also snowballed $573, which is just over my goal of $500. I'm feeling pretty excited about that. The money comes from a variety of sources, but mainly breaks into: survey payments, refunds/rebates from products I buy, etc. I count the cost of those products out of my grocery bill, & then snowball any associated rebates.
  • M & I both received raises & sizable bonuses, which we are saving for a few projects at our house. My raise should equal out to an additional $175/month, which is always appreciated. I'm not clear on the specifics yet, as my paycheck has been fluctuating due to taxes on my bonus, and maxing out my 401K.

Lowlights:
  • Not exactly financially related, but I only lost 2.2 pounds. I could have easily hit 8 pounds this month, and I'm disappointed I'm not heading into my vacation at a lower weight. I feel like I'm stuck in this same 5 pound range, and I really need to kick things into gear.

Specifics:
  • Weight: Started September at 160, now down to 157.8. Total loss of 2.2 pounds
  • Vacation House: Started September having paid off $2805.39 in principal for a our vacation house. Paid off another $414, for a total of $3219.39. Total owing on this is $328,881.
  • Primary mortgage - no change. The September payment is due at the very end of the month, so it hasn't cleared the account yet. Total owing remains at $565,354.19.
  • Second mortgage: Started September at $189,801. Now owe $189,144.96, so paid off $656.04 this month.
  • Youngest son's college account (we're focused slightly more on this one, as it's quite a bit lower than my older son's account. Once we had two kids in daycare, paying for college got a lot trickier. :-) Purchased 2 additional GET credits, bringing the total from 86 to 88.
  • Older son's college account: No change
  • 401K loans. Paid off $753.77 toward each loan - M & Blondie's. Total balance remaining (for each loan) is $45,387.
  • House values. We had an appraisal done as part of our refinance, and our vacation house has gone up quite a bit in value, which accounts for a big jump in net worth - +$70,000. We bought the house at the very low point of the market, & negotiated a great deal since it was on the market for a year. We've also done quite a few interior improvements.
  • Blondie's 401K: I managed to max out my 401K, and the market has recovered a bit, so I saw big gains in this account. Started September with $145,720.64, and ended the month with $160,395. Total gain of $14,674.
  • M's 401K: M also had huge gains, & he started September with $136,829 & ended with $157,184.03 - for a total gain of $20,355.03. Go M!                   
  • Stocks: We both received stock awards in September that will vest over the next five years, as well as had additional stocks vest for us to sell within the month of September, so lots of activity into & out of the accounts. I took this year's vest and invested in in a short-term account, & will use that money to cash flow our vacation house. This provides much more cash flow flexibility than we had last year, and was our plan when we bought the house. So, the decrease doesn't reflect the money I have in my brokerage account, but I no longer want to count that as an asset, as it's earmarked for a standard expense. Not sure if that makes much sense, but I think it keeps things cleaner from an accounting perspective. Anyway, on to the numbers. We started out the month with $172,191.33 and ended with $168,325.98. The stock price we measure this against also dropped, which accounts for the biggest drop month-over-month.

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