Life Changes & Growth

So a lot’s happened since my last post:

• New roommate moved into my apartment
• Started new job at new company
• Got into climbing
• I broke up w/ my boyfriend
• I took an awesome trip to Las Vegas
• Saw The Killers perform

With all these changes, my expenses have gone up.

Still, my net worth is gradually increasing:

November 2006

• Cash: 17334
• Stocks: 2594
• Retirement: 6342
• Othe: 740
• Total: 27010

Networthiq.com upgraded their site features.

I like how you can see the percentage change month to month.

Here’s my networth page: http://www.networthiq.com/people/gottahustle

0601 Asset & Liabilities.

So far, so good.

Everything's up.

In the past two days, my Roth IRA has gone up about 2%. Yay!

My teeny brokerage acct is up, too. I made a faulty decision in puchasing some Ashworth stock. It's been going down and more down since I got it. My other stocks are getting even and one stock has gone up a lot. Yay!

My current net worth is about 18,500. Yay!

Net worth: March 2006

Here's my end net worth for this past month:

Net Worth
(  March 2006  )
Assets Cash 11,854 Stocks 544 Bonds 0 Annuities 0 Retirement 4,070 Real Estate 0 Cars 0 Personal Property 0 Other 0 Total Assets 16,468		Debts Mortgages 0 Student Loans 0 Credit Card 0 Car Loans 0 Other 0 Total Debts 0 Net Worth $16,468

Net Worth (March 2006)

Assets
Cash	12,265
Stocks	146
Bonds	0
Annuities	0
Retirement	2,556
Real Estate	0
Cars	0
Personal Property	0
Other	0
Total Assets	14,967
Debts
Mortgages	0
Student Loans	0
Credit Card	0
Car Loans	0
Other	0
Total Debts	0
Net Worth	$14,967

Net worth.

Net worth
I just updated my net worth. It’s roughly at 14K. I am coming close to those under my income bracket. From 145 users, the median net worth is 18K.

I feel really good about this. Like I’m nearing a milestone-Feel REALLY good that HSBC raised their rates to 4.8%. This is one banks that values their customers.

Been rethinking and doing some things
1. I finally set up my health insurance. It took me long enough to get off of my lazy and indecisive ass to choose Blue Shield PPO 4000 & Dental PPO. These plans cost a total of 80 dollars? The Blue Shield PPO has an HSA option, too.

I don’t have any medical conditions and am only concerned about the following: vision, dental, annual exams, random major injuries.

2. I think I want index funds. After seeing my Marketplace fantasy portfolio go up and down, it made me realize that I have no skill predicting good stocks. Besides, it’s too stressful keeping track of the numbers everyday.

3. I set up new budgets that include the following: short-term emergency, long-term emergency, property, portfolio, apple computer, travel, gifts, retirement, tax.

It seems time-consuming and complicated to set up different savings accts for each, but I hope that by creating more specific pockets of savings, I’ll be better at tracking my expenses, progress, and won’t feel guilty over dropping a couple thousand for a computer if I know that I had saved up for it.

Get me off my slacker butt
I’m not going to the gym. Why did I join if I’m not using it? I always have lame excuses like…

• My bf’s not going to the gym, and I want to spend time with him. So, I won’t go to the gym either and we’ll both veg out.
• It’s too late…I have a lot of things I need to do before I sleep.
• If I go to the gym in the morning, it will take too long to get ready for work. Showering and grooming takes longer for women!
• I’m tired. I’m hungry.
• I’ll just go swimming over the weekend.

Unexpected savings.

Reimbursement

My bathroom and bedroom are undergoing repairs. A pipe burst at the beginning of the month and flooded our neighbors downstairs. Looks like I will be reimbursed for each day I’m out of the apartment. Thanks to my lovely roommate! She did all the negotiating with our landlady.

I feel like a lucky girl~

With my reimbursement and my frugal habits these days, I can save another $1100 off of my current paycheck and another $600 off the next one. Woo hoo! My boss also paid for my gas when I dropped him off somewhere. Sweet! And, we ate out on three occassions at the company’s expense. This is too good!

X-mas gifts nearly complete

I bought and sent out most of my X-mas gifts to friends, family & coworkers. I used the $5 Amazon.com gift certificate that Boston Gal posted for answering a survey. Definitely saved on some shipping.

Each gift was pretty personalized:

• Nieces – two matching My Little Ponies on Scooters, The English Roses Umbrella (they live in Seattle) and Wallace & Gromits three shorts DVD
• BF- Coldplay piano sheets, Best of Michael Nyman CD set and The Gift of the Magi by O Henry
• Boss – This American Life CD ($14)
• Coworker 1 – The Sea and Cake CD ($13)
• Coworker 2 – Wet Hot American Summer DVD ($10)
• + Each get edible goodies from Trader Joes ($4X3)
• Friend – Supersized black-rimmed sunglasses from Nordstroms ($10)

Still on my gifts list:

• Mom
• Roommate

Free credit report

I obtained my free credit report today. It looks like I am in excellent standing. I don’t know what my fico score is yet, but I’ll check it next week. I thought I would have some bad marks on my report because of credit misbehaving during college. I had a debt problem and sometimes made late payments. My parents took all my credit cards saying they would close the accounts. But, apparently a lot of them still exist with zero debt. Yay!

Retirement option

As I was talking with one of my coworkers about retirement options, he said that he has been talking with our boss about participating in a company-sponsored 401K plan. Awesome! I guess the 401K plan helps out my boss with his taxes, too. This is definitely worth discussing at the beginning of the new year.

Insurance on my ass!

Like a fool, I ignored the woman I bumped into hoping that she would give up dollar bumper claim. Rather, she called her insurance agent, and now I’m screwed. My mom’s premium will be higher..and she’s bitching about it to me. I know! It’s all my fault..and my irresponsibility. Why am I kicking back into the “save me because I’m the youngest child” syndrome? I need to face reality and deal with things right then and there. That’s what Bob Parsons would do.

Real Estate

So, I talked with my brother about my finance progress and my plan to purchase a 1-bedroom condo with friend in a year and a half. He suggests that I should put my cast in CDs with high rates until the market goes down.

After thinking about it, that’s becoming the more logical thing to do in my situation. LA is ridiculous. Maybe if I were making 10K more…

With this in mind, property investments will be either…

Out of state. (not likely though)

in 2-3 years

What do I do with the cash then?
Goals for 2006 and beyond…

Wells Fargo Savings (immediate emergency fund) – $500-1000
ING Direct (Long-term emergency; ex. layoff) – $5000
HSBC (1. Income tax owed; 2. Investments) – $3000 + $7500-18000
GMAC (Property Downpayment) – $35,000+
Future 401K – 10% of my income

Here’s my current net worth

Cash – $9965
Credit Card – $125
Everything between – $0