Financial Update
Around April of this year, I decided that I was entirely over having debt. I wanted out - I was tired of these seemingly endless monthly obligations that we costing me money in the form of interest. Loans are so transparent in that way. Once you have that monthly payment, you don't think about what chunk is the money you borrowed and how much are you paying the bank to borrow that money. I decided that while we are still childless and have extra income, it is the time to pay this stuff off. I also started tracking it on NetWorth a few months ago. In case you are curious, here is my page.
The latest update is that we have paid off another $1285. Savings is up $2330. I was putting larger sums toward debt, but since the plumbing fiasco and now the kitchen addition, I am squirreling away more, and paying down a bit less. The 50K mark in our savings kind of a psychological barrier for me - I see that as a really comfortable emergency fund. It keeps my worry-wart tendencies at bay, so paying out a large chunk of it for the addition is going to hurt and cause much agita. The house and stock market continue to drag our net worth down each month. I am taking the Zillow estimate for our house, which I think is fairly accurate. We contribute 13% of our income to 401K, and 8% of that is matched by our employers, so 21%. Even with those parameters, our retirement accounts still decreased in value(!).
How anyone can argue our economy is in good shape, is beyond me. A local shopping center close to our house looks like a ghost town with nearly half the retail spaces empty (they've closed in the last 4 or 5 months). The Linens 'n Things in the next town over, which has only been open since 2005, is closing and apparently the national chain declared bankruptcy in May.
I am sure ready for the current "economic downturn" to right itself back up. So far, it's been almost a year of "downturn". Hopefully we are nearing an end.
The latest update is that we have paid off another $1285. Savings is up $2330. I was putting larger sums toward debt, but since the plumbing fiasco and now the kitchen addition, I am squirreling away more, and paying down a bit less. The 50K mark in our savings kind of a psychological barrier for me - I see that as a really comfortable emergency fund. It keeps my worry-wart tendencies at bay, so paying out a large chunk of it for the addition is going to hurt and cause much agita. The house and stock market continue to drag our net worth down each month. I am taking the Zillow estimate for our house, which I think is fairly accurate. We contribute 13% of our income to 401K, and 8% of that is matched by our employers, so 21%. Even with those parameters, our retirement accounts still decreased in value(!).
How anyone can argue our economy is in good shape, is beyond me. A local shopping center close to our house looks like a ghost town with nearly half the retail spaces empty (they've closed in the last 4 or 5 months). The Linens 'n Things in the next town over, which has only been open since 2005, is closing and apparently the national chain declared bankruptcy in May.
I am sure ready for the current "economic downturn" to right itself back up. So far, it's been almost a year of "downturn". Hopefully we are nearing an end.
It feels like it is getting better...at least looking at gas prices...and the most recent hurricane stayed away from the rigs in the gulf...gotta think long term...those numbers will definitely look better over a 10 year span instead of a 10 month span...not having consumer debt is key...and you are doing great!
ReplyDelete