Interesting perspective--I suppose giving time or money is greatly appreciated by any charitable organization. Maybe I can justify my puny donations by the fact that I do volunteer a little bit. I'm pretty introverted as well, and have (in the increasingly more distant past) had depression, but now that I consider it long beaten, I force myself to do some things that are out of my comfort zone like that.

Technically, I have missed my "in the black" goal date (this past Friday).

However, this is only because my tuition reimbursement of 2063 has not been given to me yet (probably next pay period--2 weeks!), and I anticipated that I'd miss the goal if that didn't happen in time. So I'm not too upset.

If I continue to contribute 350/mo to my Roth (I started out not doing quite as much) I will max it out by December. I'm still saving 10% to my 401k, and as much as I can to my student loan payoff account. My goal is to reduce the loan balance to 16,000 by December. . . It's been hard to find enough money for that, and it's the lowest priority of all my other goals, but I think in the second half of the year it'll be easier to do.

SJean, it seems as if you're doing a great job. Paying down debt and saving at the same time is never easy. Can't wait to hear about your "In the Black" day!

Ladies and Gentlemen, for the first time since I started college, my net worth is NOT red! I missed the date by about 2 weeks, but I had an unplanned vacation and got my tuition reimbursement later than anticipated.

What does it mean? Well I started my first full time "real" about 1 year ago. I was flat broke--I spent my last semester studying abroad and by the time I arived back in the good old USA, my bank account was EMPTY plus I owed my dad $500!!

Then there were the student loans. I had about 22k in subsidized stafford government loans (still have most of that!) and another 6k or so in alternative loans (mainly due to study abroad). So I was not only broke, I had negative money.

After a couple weeks staying with a friend, I moved into my own apartment. There were some good deals--the deposit was low and I got a month free, so that didn't hurt much. My parents gave me a new bed (mattress and box spring, at least) as a graduation present (thanks!), but other than that, I was essentially furniture-less, save the old TV my parents had given me a few years back. Slowly, I populated my small apartment. The furniture wasn't really high end, nor was it junk--I got a lot of nice stuff at an overstock store

I opened a high interest savings account and started putting what I could into that. I countinued to use the Discover card I'd had for years, paying the balance each month and earning rewards.

Within the first 6 months, I paid off the alternative student loans (the interest rate was around 7% they were a high priority). I also have been contributing about 10-15% to my 401k (with 3/4 match on the first 8%). After the first 6 months, I decided to open a Roth IRA rather than focusing on the loans--the rest are at 4.25% but actually, zero percent since I took 6 credits of graduate credits and qualiffied as a half time student.

Now I have 3500 in my Roth IRA, 11,000 in my 401k, and about 6500 in my savings accounts. I still have about 20k in student loans (ouch!), which I plan to pay 4k on at the end of the year (once they start accruing interest again). Sure, financially it may be better to invest the money. Psychologically, I'm dying to make a dent in them.

Also, $100 per a paycheck has been going into my Health Savings account. I don't count that as part of anything, as it is basically my health insurance. The good news is, that won't be coming out anymore after the next paycheck, as I'll have reached my maximum contribution for the year, freeing up 200 (pretax) extra a month for extra savings. I'll dump the difference into savings, as I'm slightly behind on my savings goals.

So in one year I have paid 8k in debt, accumalated 6.5k in non-retirement savings, and accumlated 14.5k in retirement savings (with the help of company match), all while establishing a home in a new city. Not a bad start to the career!

So far my goals only run though December--this is intentional, as I will moving to Los Angeles right around there, and haven't found my future job yet. But I can only hope next year is as financially productive as this year!

Wow, what a great story. Congrats on being in the black!

Yay! That's awesome, and it's an amazing amount of debt to kill in a year. It's amazing how much the retirement funds manage to stack themselves up (of course, the nice current market helps).

Thanks. Now I want to tackle my other goals. If all goes well, my net worth will be around 10 k by the end of the year! I'll have to run the numbers, but thanks for the encouragement!

Also, it wasn't that hard--I think the main thing I did was NOT buy a new car, and not buy things I don't need.

The thing about personal finance is, on a good day, there isn't much that I need to do! I suppose that is good in general, but I really enjoy it and i wish there were actions to take other than reading blogs!

Anyway, this Friday is payday (bi-weekly), and that is when I schedule all my payments. This week, I'm going to actually leave a little extra in my brick and mortar bank, because I've shorted myself more than once and caused unnecessary annoyance. I'll zero out my visa card (just because I like to do it that way) and send some to my student loan account.

Also, I'm going to post my net worth increase, for the following reason. The percent of networth increase is sort of irrelevant when you are in the red, but now that my net worth is so small (1k or so), my percent increase will probably be 100+% this month. I know it is pretty meaningless and silly, but I find it humorous. =)

August wasn't such a great month, and the slow down is a bit frustrating. Still, things are moving in the positive direction.

What really hurt in August and early september was a few little things a few big things:
-a trip to see my relatives back home, probably 100 extra in gas
-a mini vacation with the boyfriend, about 120 for my share for everything
-car troubles: 100 for a new battery, 350 for new brake shoes and rotors
-a plane ticket which will be used next week
-stock market blues attacking my 401k and Roth!

Travel is something I don't mind spending money on, and car repairs are unavoidable. I still have increased my bank account balances, but not by as much as I would have hoped. Car repairs were easily paid for out of savings, but it wrecked my steady progress towards 10k.

Also, I still have one more plan ticket to buy, probably within the next month....

I'm going to try not to spend any unnecessary money for awhile....