October Net Worth Update (+$675.72)

Our net worth in October increased $675.72 from last month, to a total of $54,211.91(click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked

I received another 1% increase to my salary (3^rd time in 3 months). We paid an extra $1,150 to our auto loan, bringing the balance down to $2,907.26.

What Didn’t Work

We pulled $1,393.43 out of savings to pay our credit card bill for the balance of our Hawaii vacation in September. This was planned so it actually should fall under the “What Worked” category. We contributed a total of $1,497.03 to our retirement accounts (401k & Roth IRAs), but only them increase to a total of $367.45.

Next Month

God willing, November should be another net worth increase month. We plan to continue our accelerated payments on the auto loan and invest another $1,500 in our retirement accounts. I will have a large gym membership bill due next month, a portion of which may come out of our savings.

3.5% Salary Increase

The Owner of my company just announced he will be increasing everyone's salary again. I'll be getting a 3.5% increase, or ~$2,100/year. This brings me to a total of 6.5% in increases over the past couple of months. That leaves only another 3.5% till I'm back to $70,460/year, where I was in February before the 10% salary reduction.

My company has been doing much better lately, but I'm surprised our salaries have been increased so rapidly. I was happy just having a job in this economy, but am very thankful for the extra money. I plan to increase my 401(k) contribution from 8% to 15% in January (my wife just increased her's to15%). These salary increases will help make that doable.

Solid 6 Month

I always feel like we could be doing more to reach our goal of early retirement, but am very thankful for all of our blessings. I'm also thankful for my parents for being such great personal finance role models.

We've been working hard to increase the contributions to our retirement accounts and have done a good job over the past 6 months. Our average monthly contribution since May has been $1,453.

Here's a month-by-month breakdown:
May
$1,025.19

June
$1,675.19

July
$1,743.52

August
$1,181.48

September
$1,592.71

October
~$1,500.00

6,216 Delta SkyMiles

I just returned from another business trip and earned 6,216 Delta SkyMiles. This brings me to a total of 49,939 SkyMiles. I also used my rewards credit card for all business expenses during the trip, earning us a $25 cash back reward.

I leave town again in a 1-1/2 weeks and may reach Gold Medallion status, resulting in double the SkyMiles every time I fly for the next 12 months.

Another 1% Increase

Once again, my company increased 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. This is the third increase since the reduction for a total of ~$2,100. My company is working hard to get everyone back up to their original salaries.

You can't ask for much more in this tough economy.

September 2009 Income Statement

We had a pretty average income and expense month in September (click on spreadsheet below).

Our largest expense for the month was our amazing 6 day vacation to Hawaii that cost $1,787.69 (not too bad, huh?).

Here’s a breakdown of our vacation costs:

Flights: Free thanks to frequent flyer miles

Hotel: $773.70 (wife found a good deal)

Rental Car: $244.55 (wife found a good deal)

Food & Entertainment: $769.44

Other large expenses for September include an extra $1,900 payment to our auto loan and $116.75 at the shooting range.

Our income for the month consisted of our regular salaries and my wife’s $110 company reimbursement. My company bumped everyone’s salaries up again, resulting in another 1% increase to my salary (it was also increased 1% last month). We also earned $1.48 in interest income from our online savings account.

Next month, there are no large expenses planned, other than continuing to pay down our auto loan at an accelerated rate with a goal of having it paid off by the end of the year.