2010 End of Year Update

This has been one crazy year. The good news is that we are well on our way to killing off the credit card debt. The bad news is that we had to use up some retirement savings to get there. That is the problem with only having one income, and it is something I want to remedy this year. I did some calculations and found that either we were going to end up increasing our debt or start from scratch and build up our retirement accounts again. I opted for the latter because it would be less of a strain on us emotionally and we would save money in the long run. We were getting ourselves into a bad cycle if we did not cut this off.

So, here is where we stand from the beginning of the blog:

As you can see, 60% of that difference is due to the estimated loss in value of our cars. The rest is because of less income really. We have tried to really keep expenses low, but we have had some unexpected medical costs.

For 2011, I already stated our goals here. The key really is to get our retirement accounts back up and to finish off that auto loan. I have been considered looking into a home refinance to know the mortgage down a few years, while still maintaining our current payment level. That will now be until I feel the home value is up to a safe level.

Mid December 2010 Update

It has been some time since my last update. I have been super busy and not had much free time to think about a post. Lots of stuff happening between work and home. We have made a big decision to use some of our retirement savings to level our debt. I know that this is number 1 on the list of things not to do financially, but with our situation (one income, mounting debt payments, chronically sick child), we felt this absolutely necessary.

Doing this is actually saving us money now, since we don't have a that 6% finance charge every month anymore. It is one less expense that we don't have to account for. Also, we are not having to set aside $380+ towards debt payment. It eases our monthly overage quite a bit, almost putting us in the black when we get some extra income in.

So with that said, here is our latest new worth statement.

So we see that our retirement accounts have taken a hit, but we have the up-tick in savings. Half of those savings will go towards finishing off the remaining credit card debt as well as another outstanding one. From here, we will see where our tax return and next years bonus put us. I would like to eliminate the auto loan next. Also, we hope to bring in some extra income with some ideas that I will go into later.

Net Worth Update: Ugly May

Here is my first net worth update. It just happens to be on the end of a bad month for the stock market.

The auto category comprises 2 cars, one which is paid out right. We plan to keep both fo many, many years.

As you can see, I paid off quite a bit this month on the credit cards. I am not sure how much I a can keep that up.

The taxable accounts comprise emergency funds and some misc savings.