A Look Back At 2007: Digging Out From A Negative Net Worth

2007 has been a great financial turnaround year for us. We went from a negative net worth of -$3,168.85 to a positive net worth of $23,873.25. That’s a $27,042.10 increase in 11 months!

2007 financial highlights include:

• Paid off all of our credit card debt ($5,064)
• Fully funded both of our Roth IRA's ($8,000 total)
• Restarted my 401(k) contribution in April at 2%, and increased it to 3% in July
• Increased our savings account balance to almost half of our $10,000 emergency fund goal
• Paid down 25% of my wife's student loans
• Sold one of our vehicles and replaced it with a vehicle that has less mileage, lower monthly payments, and more affordable insurance costs

As I set our net worth goals for the next 20 years back in April 2007, I wasn't totally sure they were achievable. Sure, I crunched some numbers and kept my assumptions conservative, but I could have been way off. While we still have 19 years left in the plan, it's comforting to have the first year in the bag and to have surpassed our 2007 goal. We are truly blessed.

Some financial plans for 2008 include:

• Increase my 401(k) contribution to 4% in January
• Fully fund both of our Roth IRA's ($10,000 total)
• Begin accelerated payments on our 2nd mortgage balance ($52,648.72)
• Increase our savings account balance to $7,000

I’ve refined our net worth goals table (click on spreadsheet below) to include additional information that I would like to capture each year including household income (not including commissions), % of income invested, and retirement savings. God willing, 2007 is just the beginning to our 20 year journey towards early retirement.