Sunday, April 09, 2006

Reevaluating

Something happened last weekend that made me seriously reevaluate the way I feel and think about a lot of things. It made me really question why I do a lot of the things I do. One of the outcomes was the selling of a bunch of old stuff on Half.com.

But it's also made me just stop and wonder why people in general do what they do. Why do people buy what they do? And why do some people save as much as they do? I honestly believe that there exist two extremes, and that there are people at both ends. Of course, it seems like there are more people that currently spend more than they earn in a year, but there are also people who have lived their whole lives as if they were broke, just to leave millions behind when they die. (One recent example that I read about was Hetty Green over at Boston Gal's Open Wallet.)

I suppose I've always had an interest in how other people do things, how they live, how they think, etc. Reading other people's blogs gives me an insight into how they think and feel. It also helps point out areas where I may not have even realized my own behavior, and helps show me the things that I may want to change about myself.

I'm not really sure what will end up happening, but I've noticed that over the past week, just stopping and thinking has resulted in me spending a lot less, being more polite to others, and just being more aware in general. I question things that I may before have just accepted without even thinking. I wonder how many people are experiencing the exact same thing right now. Because even though I may think I'm the only one, I know that's not true.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Making money off my junk

I'm usually fairly disciplined when it comes to not spending money, but every once in a while I have a shopping binge, where I go a bit crazy. This doesn't happen more than every few months, and usually isn't too bad. Well, I had a crazy shopping period in January, when all the stores discounted all the stock that didn't sell at Christmas time.

My weakness this time was video games. I enjoy playing console and PC games, and started following a few discount sites, including Cheap Ass Gamer. Spending while saving is some kind of weird addiction for me, and visiting sites such as CAG make it even harder to not buy stuff. When you know that you're getting a $50 game for $3, it almost doesn't even seem like spending.

I was walking around the house, and noticed that a stack of the stuff I bought was still just sitting there, unopened and unplayed. And I finally got fed up with myself for buying it. So I did something about it.

I listed them on Half.com.

Most of them are listed for more than what I paid for them. I like the way Half.com works more than eBay for things like this, since I know it will sell eventually, but that it may take a few months to get what I want for it.

If everything sells for what I listed it for, I should get more than $400 for it. It's a good feeling to be getting it out of the house, and getting paid for getting rid of stuff I'd probably never use anyway. Now I just need to keep finding more stuff to sell. And maybe next time, I just won't buy stuff I'm not going to use in the first place.

Monday, April 03, 2006

March Highlights and April Goal

As I've already mentioned, I was fortunate enough to get a bonus last month, which helped increase my net worth. Other than a few neccessary large expenses (mainly 4 new tires for my car) I really cut back on my spending in March. I've been keeping the temperature in my home lower to cut on utility bills, and making a point to turn things off when I'm not using them. I made large contributions to my 401k account, and the stock market did well last month, which resulted in the large gain I had this month for stocks.

I know future months won't be quite so good, and I need to keep my expectations realistic. My goal for the month of April will be to increase my net worth by $1,600, which I think is a very reachable target for myself.

Friday, March 31, 2006

March 2006 Net Worth Update

I knew the numbers were going to look nice, but even I'm a bit shocked.

As of March 31, 2006:
  • I have $9489.11 in cash, checking and savings accounts. An increase of $2818.48.
  • I have $12964.95 in my 401(k), Roth IRA, and other stock accounts. An increase of $3017.79.
  • I now owe $5991.61 on two credit cards at 0% interest. An additional debt of $952.03.
  • I have a home and a car woth approximately $130,900.
  • I now owe $120,961 on my mortgage and home equity loan. I paid off an additional $603.
My total net worth is now $26,401.45. This is an increase of $5487.24 in one month.

Wow.

I'm going to take some time to break down exactly how this happened.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Looking forward to tomorrow

Tomorrow is Friday! I'm really looking forward to it. We're having a team meeting at work (which means free lunch.) It's the end of the work week. And it's the end of the month, which means... time to update my net worth spreadsheet.

I'm a bit embarassed that I'm so happy about it, but I've done really well this month. It's the end of the term for our Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) so that should boost things a bit. We get a 15% discount and our company stock has done fairly well. I'm nervous about relying too much on our company, since my whole paycheck comes from them to begin with, but I figure an extra 1% of my income wouldn't be too big of a risk. I'm lowering the percent of my 401k that is currently in our company stock from 4% to 3% to make up for it, and may lower it even further when I rebalance at the end of the year.

I also got a bonus this month, which I never even saw. 30% went to my 401k, 27% to taxes, and the rest went right to ING. Since my credit cards are all at 0% interest, I'm not paying them off right away and am earning interest on the money instead. Because of this, I'm not counting it towards my emergency fund, even though the balance keeps getting bigger.

Between the extra income and my normal savings rate, it should be a nice update, and I feel a bit giddy. Anyone else ever look forward to updating?

I love my car

I really love my car: a 1992 Toyota Corolla. It's the first car I ever had, and I own it outright which makes me even happier. (It was really more of a hand-me-down, but it suits me very well.) It may not be much to look at, at it may not be worth much, but it's been very reliable and it gets me where I'm going. Other than routine maintenance, I haven't had much work done on it. But given its advanced age, I've been getting worried that I may need to start looking for a replacement.

While visiting two dealerships for freebies tonight I checked out a few used cars, but was fairly unimpressed. I'll need to keep checking for privately owned cars, I guess. Is it really too much to ask to find a well maintained car with good gas mileage that's cheap and looks nice? I doubt I could find one I like if I also want to get it from a dealer with any sort of warranty.

Dealership Freebies!

A few weeks ago I saved a Jeep ad from our Sunday paper. Inside was a promotion where you could win a new Jeep or Chrysler car, and everyone who entered was guaranteed a 31-piece emergency roadside kit by mail. The promotion ends on March 31, 2006, so I decided to stop in tonight and find out if I would be taking home a new car (Yeah, right.) Since the dealership was actually on my normal route home, it didn't really take any extra gas, and only a little bit of time. My kit should be arriving in 6-8 weeks.

Needless to say, I didn't win a new car.

A couple blocks away there is a Lincoln dealership, and it just so happens that there is a promotion for free American Airlines AAdvantage miles going on right now. So I stopped in there as well. I got 2,500 bonus miles for stopping in, as well as 250 more for viewing a clip online. I could get 25,000 miles for buying a Zephyr, but I think that one I'm going to pass on. If you're an AAdvantage member, check out www.aa.com/lincoln.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Account List

I like to think I'm somewhat computer savvy. I've been using a computer in some form or another for around 20 years now. I play games on my computer, I use email to communicate with most of my friends, I work on a computer all day, and most of my financial information is stored on my computer. I'm pretty good about creating backups of the important files, but what if something happened to me?

Almost all of my banking is done online. I manage my 401k, Roth IRA, brokerage accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, checking accounts, home loans and credit cards online. If something happened to me, it would be very difficult for someone to track down exactly where I keep all of my money.

And for this reason, I need to create a list of all my accounts, what the current value of each is, and how to access the account if something were to happen to me.

Taking Inventory

I'm a self proclaimed packrat. I've been this way as long as I can remember. When I was a little kid, I had a room full of "stuff." Now I'm an adult, and I have a condo full of "stuff." Some of this "stuff" doesn't really matter to me, some of it is expensive, and some of it is irreplaceable.

I just re-evaluated all of my insurance coverages, and was reminded that I need to take an inventory of everything that I would replaced in case of emergency. Since I have so many things, I'm trying to go through everything and donate or sell the things I no longer need. Once I'm done, I intend to take a full inventory of what I'm keeping.

My plan is to do the following:
Create a spreadsheet of any belonging worth more than $25.
Take digital pictures of all items in the spreadsheet.
Burn two CDs containing all the pictures and spreadsheet, storing one in my fire safe box in my home and keeping the second in a safety deposit box.

As part of this, I also need to look into getting a safety deposit box. I also need to make backups of any important documents and keep a copy in the safety deposit box as well.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Writing a will

As a young, unmarried woman with no dependants, I have not felt a major need to get my will written down. Now that I have more assets (401k, Roth IRA, condo, etc.) I think that I should probably outline who I would like everything to go to. I can specify beneficiaries for my insurance policies, 401k and Roth IRA, but as far as everything else goes, I think I could probably use some guidance.

My employer does provide legal assistance for creating a will, so I need to look into how I can take advantage of this. I figured this would be a good overall goal to complete this year.

Friday, March 24, 2006

2006 Goals

The next step for me was to figure out what my goals for this year are.

1: Have an emergency fund with at least 3 months of expenses. For me, this would be $4500.
2: Fully fund my Roth IRA ($4000) and 401k ($15,000) this year.
3: Net worth of $40,000 by the end of 2006.

I believe that all of these are very reasonable goals. My current emergency fund has $3,600 in it. I'm contributing enough to my 401k that I should have it fully funded before the end of the year. This year I haven't yet made any Roth contributions, but those will be starting in May, and I'll contribute $500 a month for 8 months. My current net worth is $20,914, and based on my calculations, I'll hit at least $39,868 by the end of the year. After taking into consideration all dividends, increase in stock prices and interest, I should be well above $40,000.

Other non-monetary goals are:
1. Have an up-to-date will.
2. Take an inventory.
3. Create a list of accounts in case of emergency.

I'll cover what I think each of these entail later.

Background

I've heard that one of the most important steps is to find out where you are and what you hope to accomplish. I'll start by giving some information about myself and where I'm at.

I am a single female living in the far western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science in May, 2005. I had a job lined up as a software engineer right after college. I graduated without any student debt, and enough saved up to make a down payment on a small condo.

Where I'm at currently (as of Feb 28, 2006):
I have $6,670.63 in cash, checking and savings accounts.
I have $9947.16 in my 401(k), Roth IRA, and other stock accounts.
I owe $5039.58 on two credit cards at 0% interest.
I have a home and a car woth approximately $130,900.
I owe $121,564 on my mortgage and home equity loan.

Overall, I have a net worth of $20,914.21.

Welcome

I've become and avid reader of finance blogs recently, and it has prompted me to start my own. My plan is to outline my current financial state, pick some goals, and track my progress towards them. Hopefully this can be somewhat informative to others, as well as allowing me to look back over how I've done.