In addition to our paychecks, my wife received a $75 reimbursement from her company for internet and cell phone and we earned a $50 cash back Citi credit card reward.
Not too much to say about our expenses. They were in line with our budget and no large unexpected bills came in. All and all, a good month.
August looks like it will shape up to be similar to July.
What Worked
We contributed $1,313 to our retirement accounts and saw them increase a whopping $6,251.46.
What Didn’t Work
We didn’t contributing $1,000 to our savings this month as planned. My wife and I gave ourselves some extra fun money instead. We’ll get back on track with the savings account contributions next month.
Next Month
Who knows? Hopefully the market keeps going up and the economy strengthens. Haha.
I really have been neglecting this blog, but at least I'm still updating our net worth each month! Unfortunatley, our net worth decreased $1,240.46 from last month, to a total of $86,695.38 (click on spreadsheet below).
What Worked
$1,000 was also automatically deposited into savings account this month from my wife’s paychecks.
What Didn’t Work
We contributed $1,719.50 to our retirement accounts (401k & Roth IRAs), and saw them increase $2,015.01. We’re falling a little behind on our Roth IRA contributions. Since my Wife’s company does not have a 401(k) plan, our goal is to max out our Roth IRA’s. We’re half way through the year and have only contributed $1,250 each ($2,500 total) to our Roth IRAs. We need to pick up the pace to reach the $5,000 individual maximum contribution.
Next Month
The markets a little crazy right now, so I won’t even bother to guess at next month.
We slide back quite a bit in May. Our net worth decreased $4,254.95 from last month, to a total of $86,660.75 (click on spreadsheet below).
What Worked
My Wife received a $1,884.50 gross ($1,055.71 net) quarterly bonus from old job. She also set-up $500/paycheck to be directly deposited into our savings account. So, our savings jumped $1,000 this month.
What Didn’t Work
Almost everything went down this month.
Next Month
I hate to be negative, but I’m forecasting another net worth decrease for us next month. I will be receiving an extra (3rd) paycheck, but that will be used to pay $1,906.90 in annual insurance premiums (auto and rental) that are due by June 25th. In addition, we have a number of smaller bills next month that add up to one big bill.
April was a surprisingly good income month and a reasonable expense month.
For my wife having been laid off at the end of March, April was a great income month. Of course her new job that she started mid-month really helped – her 1st paycheck was prorated for 2 weeks and 32 extra hours. She received $905.00 in unemployment and a $1,457.99 severance check from her old job. In addition, we earned $88.98 in credit card cash back rewards.
Our expenses in April were a little more than we budget, but low compared to our huge expense total last month. Our expenses this month totaled $5,460.47. Large expenses included $366.59 for misc items for our new (used) 4x4 and $197.09 in “extra” gas for the new 4x4.
May should be a good month. It will be the first full month of paychecks from my wife’s new company, my 2.5% salary increase will kick in, and a final unemployment check for my wife should arrive.
