September Net Worth Update (+$3,411.14)

We are on a roll; 4 straight months of strong net worth increases. Our net worth in

September increased $3,411.14 from last month (link), to a total of $53,536.19 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked

September was a great month. We were blessed with another 1% increase to my salary (it was also increased 1% last month). We paid and extra $1,900 to my auto loan. We contributed a total of $1,592.71 to our retirement accounts (401k & Roth IRAs) and saw our retirement accounts increase to a total of $3,220! We sold 86 shares of our 106 shares of Bank of America stock for a 20% gain. We applied the proceeds to our auto loan.

What Didn’t Work

We took a vacation to Hawaii in September that cost $1,787.69. This should really fall under the “What Worked” category because we had a great vacation for a very reasonable price. Our flights were free thanks to frequent flyer miles and my wife found a great deal on our hotel and rental car. This was a planned expense, but we’ve pulled money out of savings to cover some of the costs and will pull more money out of savings when the credit card bill is due next month.

Next Month

October should be a good month. I will be traveling for 2 weeks of the month, so our expenses will likely be lower than usual. We also plan to make another large extra payment to my auto loan.

$1,900 In Extra Car Payments This Month

We are on a mission to pay off our 6.5% interest auto loan ASAP. Last month, we paid an extra $6,250 to principle. This month, we've paid an extra $1,900 to principle on our auto loan. Most of the money for this payment came from the sale of 86 shares of our Bank of America stock. We are making good headway.

Sold Bulk Of Our BofA Stock

We sold 86 shares of our Bank of America stock today for $17.50/share. We purchased 106 shares of the stock for $14.00/share back in January, so after fees, we earned over a 20% gain. That's a lot more than we would have earned keeping the money in our savings account for 9 months.

Selling the 86 shares basically cashes out the $1,500 that we originally invested. We're going to let the remaining 20 shares ride. This is money (currently ~$350) can now grow without any risk to our original $1,500.

Another Bump Up

More good news! My company again is increasing everyone’s salary by 10% of the amount they were reduced back in February.

My salary was reduced 10%, so it will go back up 1%, or ~$700/year. My company did the same thing last month, meaning I've earned back ~$1,400 of my ~$7,000 salary reduction.

This is a great trend and a blessing in these tough times.

August 2009 Income Statement

Our income statement spreadsheet (click on spreadsheet below) for August shows total expenses of $12,685!

While that number is startling, August was, in fact, a pretty reasonable spending month. If you subtract $6250 in extra auto loan payments and $850 for a boat tower, our expenses only totaled $5,585. That’s pretty close to our $4,919.55 budget.

In addition to our regular salaries, we earned $111.35 in credit card rewards and my wife received a $896 ($480.84 net) quarterly bonus and her $110 company reimbursements. We also earned $4.26 in interest income from our online savings account. My wife’s 15% 401(k) contribution (increased from 5%) kicked in her 2nd check in August.

Next month, there are no large expenses planned, but our net income will be less because we increased my wife’s 401(k) contribution from 5% to 15%.