Net Worth February 2011

I can't believe it's finally March! And I'm $1200 richer than I was in February. That feels good. My net worth is -$107,237.





Cash: This has stayed the same. I have more cash waiting to clear my account but then I'm sending it on to our joint account to pay off debt.


Retirement: My 457 account balance stands at $9,213. I have approximately $5258 in my pension (refundable until vested). And finally I have contributed $1000 in my Roth I.R.A. and for some reason that makes sense when my financial advisor explains it, it's only in a Money Market account now. This makes for a grand total of $15,471 saved for retirement.

Student Loans: These are at the LOWEST THEY'VE EVER BEEN at a whopping $121,418.

Credit Card: Not much progress yet as we're scrambling to pay off joint debts first.

Where it Went 9/29 - 10/12

The great news about this budget report is that I was able to bring in $500 in additional income from a court assignment I received. The good news is that I paid off A LOT of debt.

The not so good news is that I also spent more money than I had planned, partly due to the windfall. And the bad news is that I still have a big credit card balance mocking me. I'm just gonna put this out there as I've sort of been evasive about the amount in the past month as I've been trying to attack it: I have $2700 in credit card debt. There I said it. It was actually quite a bit more a month ago. It's "only" at 8.9% interest rate but it's pissing me off and I want it gone as soon as possible.

So without further ado, I will show you how I spent my paycheck plus my windfall the past two weeks:

Budgeted/Actual

Credit Card - 700/700

Law School Loan - 200/434

Perkins Loan - 94/94

Health - 65/100

Gift - 60/60

Misc. - 167/180

Beauty - 0/59

Clothes - 0/198

Yeah yeah, I know. It's pretty bad. If I hadn't overpaid the law school loan so much I would have had money for the clothes. AND if I didn't have such a high credit card balance to work off I would have had money for both the loan AND the clothes. I just really wanted to use the windfall towards erasing debt and it did to a certain extent. Look for a big student loan announcement later this week.

Also I showed up at a doctor's appointment to find out that my health insurance decided not to cover my flu vaccination. What the heck? Luckily I think I am going to be able to reduce my prescription co-pays going forward so that will help a bit. It's also open enrollment time for Flex Spending Accounts so I am looking into that as well.

If all goes according to plan, I can have the credit card paid off by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

Where it Went 915 - 9/28

Good morning! Isn't pay day great? :-)

Time to see how I spent my last paycheck before I go on a flurry of bill paying and budgeting. So here is where my money went compared to the budget I set:

Budgeted/Actual

Sallie Mae - 407/407

Defaulted Student Loan - 260/260

Credit Card - 200/200

Sprint - 74/74

Gift - 40/40

Health - 25/25

Clothes - 100/50

Charity - 20/20

Groceries - 0/30

Misc. - 152/155

Still working dilligently to get rid of our new and unwelcome consumer debt. I'm gonna pay off a bulk of it in a few minutes - that's gonna feel good - and next week I have a legal one time gig that is going to bring in some money too.

I didn't do a big clothes shopping excursion yet - just picked up a few things from Walmart which were suprisingly not cheap but I still need to soon as the weather gets warmer. Moths ate FOUR of my sweaters. I've never had moths before and I don't like them one bit.

Stay tuned for a new budget post!

I Paid Off Nice Collection Agency!!

Back in May 2008, shortly after creating this blog (woah reading those old entries is a bit painful) I posted about reaching a payment agreement with a creditor I termed "Nice Collection Agency." Every month for 21 months they have been deducting $125.81 from my bank account and I knew that, someday, this old credit card would be paid off.

Last month they only deducted $75 and I thought that was curious but since I haven't really been keeping track of the amount I still owed, I waited one more month to see what would happen. And this month it seems the debt has finally been paid off!

So yes, 21 months after entering into the agreement, and a full decade after racking up the charges, I am DONE with Nice Collection Agency. I feel very relieved to have that monkey off my back.

Next up is getting a copy of my credit report to make sure the account shows up as paid in full...and figuring out what to do with an extra $125.81 a month (I'll give you a hint....saving it!).

Today when I was digging through my old blog posts I remembered how frustrated and helpless I felt back in 2008, when I couldn't control how I was spending my money and future stability seemed so out of reach. I realize I still have a ways to go..but it's nice to know I have made some progress.

I'm Credit Card Debt Free!!!

Do I get to call Dave Ramsey? Haha, probably not yet but I have just paid off the full balance of my credit card. Goodbye $15 minimum payments. Goodbye 24.9% interest. I'm not going to close the card as it's my only credit card and only has a $500 limit on it. Hopefully they will enventually lower my rate and I can use the card responsibily to help bring up my credit score. That way in a few years if the fiance and I decide to buy a new place we can have both of our names on the mortgage.

I also paid the balance of my Overdue Utilities today so if you notice the sidebars I am currently free of all "short term debt" except for the "Boyfriend Debt." I plan on enjoying that picture for a few hours until I add new categories to it that I plan on snowballing.

My Resolutions For 2009!

I spent a long time yesterday reading the resolutions from many of my blogging compadres and it made mine feel a tad inadequate. Beachgirl, for example, posted 109 resolutions for 2009. Wow. I'm not too keen on the word "resolution" and as I've explained, it's sort of hard to post financial resolutions/goals when so much could happen in the next several weeks that would impact these goals. But I decided to buck up and post some goals to keep my honest. Here they are:

Financial:

1. Save up a $2000 Emergency Fund
2. Eliminate Law School Loan (Current Balance = $1932)
   
3. Save up a Christmas Fund of $300.
4. Save $1000 for Special Event* in 2010.
5. Continue to save 10% of my salary for retirement.**
6. Pay off all short term debt - don't acquire new debt.
   

Last year started out disastrously (payday loans, overdraft fees, etc.). Then I started the blog, started budgeting, started paying Aunt Sallie and it's been pretty much just keeping my head above water since then. In 2009 I need to step it up and achieve some fiscal responsibility. The Emergency Fund is of course the most important and I don't care if I fail at everything else if I can get this one goal accomplished. Ideally, I should be saving $167 each month in order to reach this goal. This probably won't happen until at least February so don't hold your breath.

Second, my law school in an act of extreme benevolence decided to give me a $2000 loan in my third year of school. For this they are charging me a whopping 8% interest. If I stick to their payment plan of $40 a month, I will only reduce this debt by $72. Yes, you read that right friends. This loan has got to go bye bye. Starting immediately I will increase my payment to $54 a month, which would put me on track to pay the entire balance in 3 years and 5 months (instead of 8 years) and will throw any additional money (I'm looking at you, Extra Paycheck) in order to achieve this goal.

Christmas didn't bankrupt me this year, yay! But it still wasn't planned for in advance and I incurred even more debt ($60) to Boyfriend for our joint gifts. Next year I will be prepared by saving a mere $25 a month.

Special Event* to be named later though you may be able to guess the nature of this event. Sigh. Why did I have to fall in love? Not gonna start this goal until after the move. If I move in May as planned, I would need to save $142 a month.

There's an asterisk next to my goal of saving 10% for retirement since I am currently only voluntarily saving 7% of my salary and the other 3% is saved for me by my pension. If I lose my job, I will roll over this money to a Roth IRA. If I stay a public employee it will stay as is. If I join the private sector I may decide something else entirely.

And lastly, I will pay off all my Short Term Debt (why, oh why did I choose that name for this category?) in 2009. This includes Boyfriend (who has to give me a full accurate accounting please), overdue water ($300), overdue utilities ($125), Friend C ($60), and Capital One ($400). Getting rid of these debts will let me breathe a little easier ($105 in regular payments gone) and focus on the rest of my goals. Also Nice Collection Agency will be paid in full early into 2010 (currently paying $125).

And onto personal goals, which I'm fairly excited to write about:

1. Read 109 books
2. Get wisdom teeth extracted
3. Simplify my life
4. Move!
5. Be a better friend
6. Learn how to use eye liner

You read that right, I've resolved to read 109 books in 2009. In fact, I am happy to announce that I have created a new blog solely devoted to books. Check it out! I will be posting under my alter ego, Reading Diva. The blog will have a frugal theme as well - I will not spend money acquiring new books. This is actually a resolution I made several years ago when I realized how much money I was spending on books. I'm excited to have a new topic to write about since I don't always have something personal finance related to say and entries saying "hi, I'm still broke" may get a little boring.

And sadly, yes, I will enter my 29th year of life without being able to use eye liner. I'm not a big makeup person to begin with but this is something I need to learn!

I'll have to write separate posts on "simplifying my life" and moving but here they are, my ambitious and maybe slightly crazy 2009 goals. Wish me luck! Now I've got a lot of reading to do.

More Good News!

Taking stock of all my finances tonight I logged into my credit card account and saw a balance below $400 for the first time! "That's funny," I thought until I realized that my persistent complaining got them to reverse the finance and late fees for the payment that never got processed. Thus, the $100 payment I made went entirely to the principal. Excellent!

This is my highest interest debt and if I don't get laid off I hope to have it knocked out by next February. Now my goal is even closer in sight!