Okay, quick status update. I just got home from vacation and updated all my accounts, so i might as well update the post before I crash.

Good Money
ING Checking: $987.47 (bills)
ING Emergency: $1005.06
ING Wedding: $303.99
WaMu Checking: $462.63 (discretionary)
WaMu Savings: $45.65
401(k): $11,455.59 (-0.3% RoR for the year)
Roth: $250
Company Stock: ~$400
CarValue: $13,755 (KBB for Dealer Trade-In)
Total: $28,665.39

Bad Money
Discover: $1320
Car Loan: $16,185.78
Student Loans: $12,598.58
Total: $30,104.36

Net Worth: -$1438.97


Well, I halved the amount of negative net worth this month. I can't take all the credit myself- the extra car payment and pretty big Discover payment helped, but the biggest contribution came from my 401(k) rebounding. Unfortunately, there were quite a few unexpected medical bills this month. Nothing I couldn't cover, but it kept me from adding to the wedding fund. We aren't out of the woods with the medical stuff just yet- we have a minor surgery this Wednesday... so I think it might get worse before it gets better. The "Stimulus" might have to go towards that. On a lighter note, vacation was great. We had started a vacation jug a few months back, and cashed it in for almost $100. That added some welcome breathing room to our rather tight budget. We kept the total expenses under out limit, and had a great time.

Thanks for all the suggestions Clemson and Dani. We have started some preliminary planning, and are on the same page with a lot of the decisions- like buffet style and a single location. We still have a lot to plan though. I'll try and pick up that book when I get a chance.

Anyway, I'm exhausted. Time to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Hooray Positive Net Worth!

Good Money
ING Checking $1,149.08 (Bills)
ING Emergency $1,010.02 (Emergency)
ING Wedding $733.09 (Wedding Fund)
WaMu Checking $546.83 (Discretionary)
WaMu Savings $57.10 (Not sure why i have this...)
401(k) $12,262.27 (.9% RoR this year)
Roth $250.00 (Need to start funding)
Company Stock $508.75 (Would have been worth $1500 two years ago...)
Car Value $14,605.00 (Going Up!)
Total $31,122.14

Bad Money
Discover $0.00 (Paid off Engagement Ring!)
Car Loan $15,283.61 (Chipping away)
Student Loans $12,520.88 (Not so chipping away)
Total $27,804.49

Net Worth: $3,317.65


I paid off my Discover Card! From now on, I will only be using it for gasoline, since it gets 5% cash back. Since I normally paid for gas out of my bills account, I will just pay it off at the end of the month from there.

This next month should be interesting. I am eligible for a raise (which I probably won't see until my August 15th paycheck). I also haven't received my stimulus check, which (I hope) to receive on July 11th. However, some medical bills will start coming in, and I will be moving in with my fiancee soon- which could mean a Security Deposit and/or Realtor fee. We have set up a joint checking account (I've been reading the Joint/Single Accounts thread) to pay our bills, and will retain separate accounts for discretionary spending for now. I have analyzed our incomes and bills we should have around $1000 a month to put towards a snowball/wedding fund. (We'll see how that goes).

Anyway, should be interesting!

Congrats on the positive net worth! It's a great psychological breakthrough to be in the black.

The only thing I'd say is to be careful when you live by net worth you can die by net worth. As a larger portion of your savings goes into investments it can fluctuate pretty wildly. This month was the first month my net worth went down, mostly because it was a terrible month for the market.

Unrelated: how did your car's value go up? Are you calculating it using kbb or edmunds or something?

Yeah, i saw the same thing happen with my 401(k). I didn't post an update last month, but when I ran the numbers, my RoR at that point was +7.6%. Since I'm just starting out, the actual amount didn't fluctuate too much, but I can definitely see how worrying about it as time goes on would be pretty stressful.

I have been using the KBB dealer trade-in amount for my car (2006 Civic) in Good condition. If I HAD to sell it, I might be able to get more from a private sale, but I'm trying to be realistic. I'm guessing that given the current gasoline prices, the value of smaller, fuel efficient cars is going up, much like JammaDave was seeing the value of his SUV going down. I'll take all the help I can get in making this loan right-side up!

So it's been a year and a lot has changed.

Since my last post, I moved in with my fiancee, got a puppy, broke off my engagement, my fiancee moved out, my puppy moved out, and I'm getting set to move in a month.

Financially things have been interesting. Never terrible, but definitely tighter when we were living together. So now I'm pretty much on track to get everything straightened out. This month will be a little crazy but come mid-September things should smooth out. I had to deplete most of my emergency fund because my new apartment wanted 1.5 months Security Deposit and first months rent up front. That means in September I won't owe rent, and I should be getting my old security deposit back, which will put my E-Fund back to around $2k. I'll also be turning 25. Rent will be $150 cheaper a month and it will be half the distance to work. I'll have to pay $40/mo to park at my complex, but that will offset a little bit with the decrease in gas.

Right now I have a couple of debts:
$1400 on Amex: 0%APR until October. This is from new couches (they were gonna save my relationship, I tell ya!) and an emergency visit to the vet involving the pups and a bowl of hershey kisses. I'll be paying $400 towards this in August, and the rest of the $1000 in September since I won't owe rent.

$12,208.73 Car Loan: 7.05%APR. I pay ~$400 a month for the next 34 Months. Starting in October it's my plan to make double payments, which should clear the loan up in December 2010, and save me ~$600 in interest.

$11,624.12 Student Loan: 4.75%APR. I pay ~$112 a month for the next forever (12 years or something). If I make the minimum until the car is paid off, then snowball the $800, it'll be paid off in December 2011. I'll see when that time comes what my goals are at that point and decide how much to put towards it, but I'll definitely like to have it cleared up sooner than later.

Also beginning in October I'll be making it a point to put $250 a month into Savings (right now it's an arbitrary amount based on what's left at the end of the month). I could put it towards debt, but I want a little more than $2k stashed away, just in case. I should also have some extra money each month that I haven't accounted for, because I really need to start taking care of things like eye doctor and dentist visits, which I've been putting off. If I don't use the money on those things, it'll either go towards debt or savings, as I see fit.

My 401(k) has finally vested, and is currently sitting at $19,697.26. I have ~$600 in Company stock, waiting for the price to go up. I think my biggest goal right now is to clear up the car loan. I have no idea what I want to do in life going forward, but I don't want to be stuck somewhere because of debt. Let's see how it goes.

Well this is going to be a little different. I wrote about this in another post, but I recently hit a deer and totalled my car. The insurance paid off the lien and I walked away with $2k. My sister recently came into a pretty large windfall, and as she is having her second child in March, she decided that a new, larger/safer vehicle was in her future. She agreed that I could have her old one instead of her trading it in. It's a 2002 Civic with a little over 100k miles on it, and just what I need right now. She lives in California, and I live in NJ, so I will be using the $2k to cover any minor repairs/tune up, flight out there(with a friend) and travel expenses for the drive back. I also just moved into a cheaper apartment, and my expenses have gone down as a result.

Here's where I sit right now:

Primary Checking: ~750 (Where I pay my bills from)
ING Checking: $2000 (for the car/trip)
ING Emergency: $1000
ING Christmas: $300
401(k): $22,984.19 (Vested!)
Company Stock: ~$600

Debt
Student Loan: $11,433.33 @ 3.75%

Since I had been paying ~$400 for the car per month and ~$100 for the student loan, going forward I'm just going to put $500/mo towards the Student Loan. I have no other debt. With my lower monthly expenses, I can put $500 per month into my Emergency Fund at the same time. This will still leave ~$300-$400 for variable expenses like Medical/Classes/Car related things. Whatever is left at the end of the month I'll decide to sweep either into Savings or at the Student Loan.