Not great, but smoothing out

Calculating this month's net worth wasn't as bad as last month, but things are still a bit rocky. We bought a scooter this month and haven't yet sold a car, so we look like we are in the hole more than we are. We had both cars repaired which helped us to decide which one to sell, and I adjusted their worth up accordingly. We will soon have the a/c in the Volvo repaired, which will set us back about $1,000, but we'll gain that in its value, too.

We've made moves to lighten our lifestyle and it will become apparent the next month or so. Getting rid of our Ford will save us in gas and insurance, plus pay for the scooter. We will save almost $60 a month just in insurance, and probably another $40 in gas, and we will soon see the $350/yr savings from switching to a motorcycle parking permit for my husband's work. Altogether that amounts to a $1,550 savings a year, or $130/month that we can put towards debt or savings.

Even though I want things to go faster, we did raise our net worth by $1,100 this month (yay!). Our debt (other than credit cards from the scooter purchase) went down slightly, and our retirement went up quite a bit as I discovered I had money in a pension account I didn't know about. I'm debating whether to add in the money in my husband's pension account too; I suppose that would be the logical thing to do, but since I don't track it monthly (cannot) then I hate to put it in. It would add another $16,000. It makes us look slightly less irresponsible regarding our retirement if I do that. ;)

I changed my ING account to an automatic withdrawal of $15 twice a month. I'm arranging to rent out our guesthouse weekly in the spring but only have it rented for 10 days at the moment, so I hope I can keep it occupied.

I checked my 457 account and noted that I received a 26% return this last quarter! Wow! Annualized that's 14.8%, which is wayyyyy beyond my expectations. Right now I'm faced with a decision regarding the money in my pension; leave it in at 8% or roll it into my stock-based IRA? It's hard to say. Right now my stocks have only just recovered from the recent dip, but we'd like to buy Google stock. I checked and someone who bought just $400 of IBM stock when they opened would have $1.1 million in shares right now. I know Google is overpriced, but we are looking at this long-term; will they be there in 2040 when I retire? Will they keep innovating ahead of the rest? It's hard to say.

My personal IRA account is really for venture capital; I am invested in two "green" firms that create solar panels and a special kind of optic cable. I just read that green investing is the new "Internet start-up" in Silicon Valley. I never wanted to be cutting edge; I just care about the environment and wanted to invest in that sector, so I'm curious to see how this pans out. Anyway, we'll be discussing whether to accept a no-risk 8% return or whether or not it's worth it to take the risk with the few thousand I have in this state pension system. It's a hard call (if I leave it, I can get $63/month pension when I retire, which is pretty underwhelming, but the interest would turn it into $40,000 which I could withdraw at that time).

So that's this month: more downsizing, an unexpected retirement account, and a move to "turtle" savings rather than "rabbit" savings. Hopefully we can hold steady.