August 2011 Income Statement

August was another very good net income month (3rd in a row over $9K), but also a wild and crazy spending month (click on spreadsheet below).

In addition to our regular paychecks, my wife earned a Q2 2011 bonus $1,006.83 gross ($937.87 net)! These funds will go into savings for now, but are earmarked for a 529 plan for our son. She also received a $25 reimbursement from her company for internet. We earned $170 in credit card cash back rewards and sold a portable A/C unit for $175. My wife scored us a $50 target gift card for giving blood. We also earned $25.09 in interest income from our online savings account.

We gave in to some serious communism this month - $9,022.40 worth to be exact. Some of the bigger ticket items include a $2,715.30 watch for my wife (retails for $4,200), a $532.50 gun for me, a $250 shooting range membership for me, $147.72 for a friend’s wedding shower, $106.46 for a new safe, and much, much more. Hopefully, we got it out of our systems.

September will announce the arrival of our baby boy - we are so excited. With the birth comes a few costs: $400 balance due to doula and $1,850 for cord blood banking. We also need to add the baby to my wife’s insurance so that will increase from $75/month to $325/month. Once the baby is born, my wife will take 3 months off of work using a combination of PTO, short term disability (full pay), Paid Family Leave (55% of your highest gross quarter). As a result, our income will be a bit less until December.

August 2011 Net Worth Update (-$5,075.62)

A market correction was bound to happen :). As a result, our net worth decreased $5,075.62 from last month, to a total of $145,478.34 (click on spreadsheet below).

What Worked
With the huge drop in the stock market, everything went on “sale”. William Bernstein, author of The Four Pillars of Investing, has said that young savers should be praying for a bear market so they can accumulate shares cheaply before they retire. So, we contributed $1,513.00 to our retirement accounts, but saw them decrease $6,500.62 to $89,199.94. We were blessed with my wife earning a Q2 2011 bonus of $1,006.83 gross ($937.87 net).

What Didn’t Work
Our retirement accounts were down $15,000+ earlier in the month, but rebounded considerably, cutting out paper loss in half. Our spending was completely out of control this month. I will provide details in my income statement post in a couple of days.

Next Month
September it is going to be a great month because our first baby will be born. We have a couple of large bills in September: $1,845 for cord blood banking and $400 for balance due to doula. We will also be adding the baby to my wife’s insurance increasing the cost from $75/month to $325/month. Depending on the timing of the baby’s birth, my wife and I are also scheduled to be in our friend’s wedding, which will be roughly $200 for tux (my wife already bought a dress). With these bills hitting next month, we do not plan to save anything beyond my 401k contribution in September.