March 2, 2011

February 2011 Income Statement

As I mentioned in our February Net Worth Update post, we were blessed to learn that my wife is pregnant. Our expenses are going to be higher than usual as we prepare for the new arrival (due in September). February was an outstanding income month and we did a pretty reasonable job managing our expenses (click on spreadsheet below).

Our total income in February was $10,614.56. In addition to our paychecks, my wife received a Q4 2010 bonus of $6,041.28 gross ($3,499.51 net). She received a $30.78 H.S.A. reimbursement and a $50 Chase credit card reward (her $75 company reimbursement for February will come next month). We also earned $15.11 in interest income.

Our total expenses were $5,394.78, not to much higher than our budget of $4,900. As first-time parents, we’ve been buying a few things for the baby’s room and also taking time to enjoy ourselves a little more while we have free time.

It’s hard to say what March may bring. My wife’s company may be doing raises in March, which would be icing on the cake for how well she is doing. We’ll be doing our taxes as well and I don’t have a clear picture at this time on what the outcome will be.

March 1, 2011

February 2011 Net Worth Update (+$10,191.88)

We were blessed with our 2nd largest net worth increase month ever. Our net worth increased $10,191.88 from last month, to a total of $130,665.13 (click on spreadsheet below). Our largest net worth increase of $14,753.11 was in March 2010. But more importantly, my wife is pregnant! We are extremely excited and will be “nesting” from now until the baby is due in September.

What Worked
In addition to the great news that my wife is pregnant, we also passed the net worth milestone $130,000 in February. This is largely thanks to my wife's nice Q4 2010 bonus of $6,041.28 gross ($3,499.51 net). We contributed $813.00 to our retirement accounts and saw them increase $4,605.31 to $89,682.66. We also increased our savings account balance to $18,915.21.

What Didn’t Work
February was a perfect month.

Next Month
I don’t expect March to be able to compete with a month like we just had. The biggest unknown is our taxes. Last year we received a combines Federal and State refund of $4,111, but we have change a few things to reduce or possibly eliminate our refund. We will see…