Pride of Ownership

I don’t want to put words in her mouth, but I think my wife is now as obsessed with watching our investments as I am.

One of the first things I do each morning is to check the status of our investments. Not to react to the ups and downs of the market, just because I enjoy seeing how things are going.

While my wife has been very interested and active with our investments, she hasn’t been as OCD as am I in terms of checking them daily. At least, not until recently. . .

She just opened a Roth IRA account with Vanguard over the weekend and funded it with $3,000.00. Since then, she has been getting a kick out of checking the progress each day. I’m convinced that this peaked interest has something to do with setting-up the account herself and having it in her name. There’s definitely something to be said for pride of ownership.

Going Out Is Expensive

We went out for a friend’s birthday on Saturday and ended up spending about $120.00. Back in my younger days, that might not seem like a lot of money for a night on the town, but now, it shocks me a bit.

We met up with our group of friends at 2:00pm and stayed out until 11:00pm. We got an early start because it was Cinco de Mayo, and we knew the bars would be packed. Sure enough, there was already a good crowd on hand at 2:00pm. I originally thought we’d be going home around 7:00pm, but we were having such great time that we didn’t want to leave.

I can see how people who go out multiple nights a week can have a hard time getting ahead financially. Heck, that’s part of the reason I had so much credit card debit.

Opened Roth IRA For Wife

We opened a Roth IRA for my wife this weekend, selecting the Vanguard 500 Index Fund as her investment. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund is the largest mutual fund in the world and attempts to attempt to mirror the S&P 500.

The fund has an initial minimum investment of $3,000; additional investments are $100. We plan to fully fund her Roth IRA ($4,000 in 2007) , as well as open and fully fund a Roth IRA for me.

Good Prospective Car Buyer - Follow-up

As a follow-up to my Good Prospective Car Buyer post, the lady ended up calling me to cancel the appointment because she bought a Mercedes.

I was very disappointed at first, since she seemed so interested and needed a new car (her’s was totaled in an accident). I even began looking for a possible replacement vehicle online.

My car runs and looks great, so this really isn’t a bit deal. I was just disappointed because I was already planning how we should invest the extra $150-$200 that we would be saving in car payments each month.

Carnival of Credit Report Stories

Thanks to Stephanie at Poorer Than You for hosting the Carnival of Credit Report Stories that included my post Credit Reports and Credit Scores. If you are interested in your credit reports and scores, this carnival has it all.

April 2007 Income Statement

We went way over budget again. Darn it!

To our credit, it was not because we spent frivolously. There were numerous one-time, annual, and prepayment expenditures that brought our total expenses for April to $7,581.50 (click on spreadsheet below).

On the positive side, my wife netted an extra $1,147.24 in commissions, we had $127.55 in “other” income (see spreadsheet notes), and our interest income doubled to $11.08.

May is forcasted to be a lighter month for us expense wise. If nothing unforseen pops-up (yeah right), we should spend roughly $1,300 less than we did in April.

April 2007 Net Worth Update (+$3,145.07)

I didn't expect us to match our huge net worth increase in March, but we had a good net worth increase in April (click on the spreadsheet below). Our total net worth is now $6,438.50, well on our way to our 2007 goal of $22,000.

Some highlights from April follow:

• The nice boost to our net worth this month came thru a $1,147.24 (after taxes) commission check that my wife earned.
• We deposited $630.00 into our Emigrant Direct savings account for Roth IRA funding (once we hit $3,000 will be moved into Vanguard 500 Index Fund Inv). We also restarted my company 401(k), albeit at a measly 2% of my gross pay. Our retirement investment focus for 2007 is to fully fund our Roth IRA’s, and put any “extra” money into my 401(k) plan.
• We paid off our American Express credit card.
• I took $50 from my April fun money ($180/month) and deposited it into our ING Direct account. I hope to get $500 saved up to speculate with in the stock market (more for fun/education than as an investment purposes).
• We had numerous large expenses in April (noted in the spreadsheet) that totaled $1,219.45.

I have added a 2007 net worth goal meter to the blog (upper right hand corner) that will provide a quick reference on our progress.

Thank God for the great month and hopefully we can duplicate it again in May.