September Net Worth Update

As you can see, my net worth increased $5,826 during the month of September.  The increases in my retirement accounts are the main reason.  I contributed a little over $2,000 to my 401k and $200 to my Roth IRA during the month.  The stock market also had a better month than the previous month.  My ING Savings decreased due to my having to “borrow” from it to pay bills   I am hoping to get out of the cycle of having to borrow from savings soon.   

Daily stock market swings

I am guilty of paying too much attention to the daily stock market swings.  Every night I try to update my Quicken accounts.  I do notice that I am a lot less enthusiastic about the daily updates on down market days.  Experts say that you should not watch your accounts so closely and only update every month or so.  I can’t seem to help myself though.  I get a rush when I see that my investments have increased in value.  Of course on down days I feel like I have been kicked in the gut. 

Saving early and often really makes a difference!

I just did a back of the envelope calculation that showed that if I had saved the maximum I could have in my 401k for the past 15 years (even when I was only earning  $30,000 per year) I would now have about $201,425 saved for retirement as opposed to the $89,420 that I currently have.  The $201k amount does not even include possible employer matches!  That is a very depressing eye opener for me.  The only thing I can do now is to maximize from here on out and increase my savings any way that I can.  I currently save 11% in my 401k and $100 per month in my Roth.  I have a $510 car payment for the next 24 months that is my main obstacle to saving more.  I remember several years ago there was an ad on TV that had a tag line of “How are you spending your retirement”  and showed people spending on new cars and other material things that would inhibit them from saving in their 401k accounts.   I am literally counting the months until I free myself from the car payment.

Cold Stone Creamery coupon

Today’s newspaper had a coupon for buy one Sundae get one for 99 cents.  Being the cost conscious consumer that I try to be I marched into the shop and ordered what I thought was two Signature sundaes.  Apparently what I ordered did not constitute a Sundae so I could not use the coupon.  I could not even find the word Sundae on their menu board when I looked for it.  UGH!!! That is the danger of shopping with a coupon…you may end up buying something you normally would not have.  If it were not for the coupon I would not have made the trip for the ice cream to begin with.  Lesson learned!

Sticking to the list

I went grocery shopping yesterday and stuck to my list.  In fact after using $2.75 in coupons I only spent $44.83 which is way below my $60 budget.  I would definitely suggest that people use a list when shopping.  Totally out of the blue, I also recieved a dividend check from State Farm for $58.90 in the mail yesterday.  I will put it in my savings to help replace some of the funds I took out for my recent trip to France.  Iput my info in the Pudding Index andwas unhappy to see that I am in the high 30’s.   I have a lot of savings to catch up on.  Since my raise earlier this month I am saving 11% of my salary in my 401k which is about $444 each paycheck.  During 2007 I have saved $100 each month in my Roth IRA although this month I invested $200.  My emergency fund grows by $175 each paycheck although I have been having to borrow from it lately and will have to borrow again this month to pay my Amex bill. 

Bundling with Bellsouth

I am currently a Bellsouth telephone customer but I have my cable and internet through Comcast.  The total cost is $142.71 per month for telephone, cable, and internet.  I am also considering keeping my Comcast cable but dropping the internet for Bellsouth DSL.  I need to do the math and see what makes the most sense.  I think I could get a BellSouth bundle for about $120 plus I could get $225 cash back.  Even if I only save $15 per month it would add up to $180 over twelve months puls there is the $225 cash back to consider.  My only hesitation is that having everything installed would be a pain. 

Interest rate drop

In anticipation of yesterday’s interest rate drop I transferred $1,500 into a new a 6 month ING CD at 5.15%.  I noticed today the 6 month CD rate is now 4.90% at ING.  In retrospect I should have locked it in for 12 months instead of just 6.  Regardless, it was a good move on my part.  I just wish I had more money to lock in.  I transferred a little less than half of my cash savings to the CD.  The ING savings rate for regular savings accounts dropped from 4.5% to 4.3% overnight. 

An unexpected car expense

This morning I took my car in for its 37,500 maintenance at the dealership thinking that it was a covered expense under the original warranty and got a little bit of a shock to find out that it isn’t covered.  The four previous scheduled maintenance checks were covered under the warranty.  My car has a warranty of 4 years or 50,000 miles but I guess at this point it is only good for things that actually break.  I was able to convince them to let me use a 10% off coupon that is worth $32 so that will bring the price to about $288.  I plan to keep this car for many years so I just need to get used to paying for proper upkeep.  Soon I need to buy new tires for the car.  If it is not one thing it is another. 

$100,000 in Net Worth…almost there

I am getting very close to $100k in net worth.  Hopefully the stock market won’t have a major meltdown in the next few months.   My goal is to surpass $100k by the end of the year but if all goes well I may be there sooner.  $100k represents a significant milestone for me.

Cell phone charges

I have noticed that I am not using my cell phone hearly as much as I used to.  I did have a Verizon plan with 2,000 minutes per month and unlimited nights and weekends.  The past two months I have used about 450 minutes per month.  Based on the reduced usage I decided to change to a 900 minute per month plan that costs $59.99 before taxes.  I will also get a 20% discount through my employer.  My old plan was $99.99 and I received a 19% discount.  In the end I was paying about $88 per month but I was able to expense about $60 of it every month so my part of the bill was about $28.  I have changed roles in my firm so I can no longer expense $60 per month of cell phone charges that I have been expensing up until three months ago.  I will be able to still expense about $20 per month every once in a while but not every month.  Now my bill will be $47.99 before taxes of approximately $5 per month.  The new plan will help me save about $33 every month in unused charges.  That really adds up (almost $400 a year in savings).  I am proud of my new frugal mind set.