December Net Worth

Here's a *big sigh* for the month of November. What went right, what went wrong.

1. Consumer debt -- up. This is primarily because we bought a new stove and dishwasher. Our old ones just didn't cut it anymore -- oven did not work and dishwasher did not wash. We spent $1600 on new, energy-efficient versions, but we won't see the savings from that anytime soon. We put it on our Sears card in order to take advantage of a 15% off deal, and our rebate check just came two days ago. We should have this paid off by January. As for the others...I used my credit card for a few Christmas gifts. It was very bad of me, but it put me about $75 over what I paid on it this month. So, one good choice, one bad choice.

2. House value -- down. I finally and officially dropped our house value from $218K to $205K. I don't know how accurate this is, but I do know this -- our house was worth $235K in 2005 and dropping any further is really going to start hurting. I had dropped the worth of the house on NetWorthIQ last month, so the net worth totals are different; I didn't do it on the spreadsheet until this month. The spreadsheet hurt more, for some reason.

3. Student loans...up? I'm glad I'm tracking these things, because I noticed an unexplained $200 increase on my Perkins' Loan (actually $318, but my $120 payment hasn't gone through, so I am giving them the benefit of the doubt). Whaaaa? I have auto-debit on this and there should be no problems whatsoever. So why am I $200 in the red all of a sudden? I was close to breaking the $5000 mark and should do it in February or so, so this was a real blow. Add to that the fact that I don't get physical mail from this loan, and there was no amortization schedule available online, and all my red flags are waving. $200 isn't an enormous sum, but hey -- it's still $200!!

4. Investments -- down. I lost heavily on my investments, with a slightly shaky recovery just before I ran this spreadsheet. Had I done it two days ago, it would have been worse. So, my investments were down by quite a bit, which is disheartening.

So around $13,400 of our losses this month were completely out of my control. $1398 of the decrease to our net worth is explained by our appliance purchase; that leaves the last $2.00 to me. So at most we treaded water. We had a lot of expenses come up in November, and I kind of feel that, particularly around the holidays, treading water is a good thing. We bought most of our gifts with cash. We had a flood disaster in our house, and the insurance money from that went to cleanup but there was enough left over to finish sealing our floor and help pay for holiday expenses. I had to have new glasses and contacts, and my son has grown out of nearly every article of clothing he owns.

Side note: For some reason, I had miscalculated investments on NetWorthIQ, so our networth seems to go up (and it does, really; what shows is accurate). This, too, is no fault of ours, and doesn't show the kind of fiscal discipline I am striving for.

Right now we are getting ready for a vacation, and I doubt we will save more in December. In a way, I wish I could just call it off, stay home and save money, except that I really, really want to see everyone we are visiting. So, we are making some financial decisions that are emotional right now -- I want to see my friends and family, even if we can't afford it, for example -- but, as we learned while trying to sell our house, some decisions about money are not just about the numbers. My children need to see their grandparents. We need a break from Tucson. I can never get my husband to take a vacation, so I've got to take the opportunity while I can.

Hopefully we can sell the Volvo to come up with extra cash and to cut expenses. After Christmas, I am keeping my fingers crossed we will be able to rent the guesthouse weekly as planned without a lot of vacancy. Mostly I am just hoping that we can have our financial house in order by summer, when the GI bill money is gone.

I am taking some financial risks; I just hope I don't get burned.