September Checkup (3 Months Time): Csastor's Personal Finance ...

I'm checking in 3 months after my first entry. I rounded all of the values to the nearest $100.

Savings: Total of $5,900 (-1,500)
General: $2,800 (includes $900 auto insurance premium due in December and $530 monthly auto loan payment, both automatically pulled from that sub-account)
Emergency Funds: $3,100 (CDs ranging from 1.5% to 2.5%)

Retirement: Total of $47,800 (-200)
Taxable: $8,700
Roth IRA: $19,900 ($3,250 invested this year)
401k: $19,200 (40% of match vested; need to roll over this month as I am leaving my job in a week)

Debt: Total of $24,700 (-6,600)
School Loans: $6,600 (6.8% Fixed/ $90 minimum payment)
Auto Loan: $18,100 (0.01% Fixed / $530.36 minimum payment)

Net Worth (from spreadsheet): $47,439.83 (+98.21, +0.21% from June)

Overall I'm a little disappointed in the bottom line number. I worked a three months and I only kept $98?! Oh well. I did go on vacation and knocked $6,600 off my debt. And invested money for retirement. I'm going to call this a win. My goal for the November check-in should be +0.50% or above.

I went on a last minute vacation in August that probably cost around $1,200. Definitely not the greatest move financially, but it will be the last time Im able to go on vacation until around June of 2012. It was the only one Ive taken since June 2009.

Savings decreased by about 1,500. I moved into a new apartment and had to pay a new security deposit of $900, and I should get my security deposit back from the old apartment son for $1,200. Im going to throw that money back into my emergency funds. Those are looking kind of low. I had to liquidate a bit to cover the difference.

The markets have been pretty bad lately, but Ive stayed the course and kept on investing. I put $750 into my Roth IRA and set up a schedule to take out $250 additional twice a month so that Im fully funded at the end of the year. My 401k has been taking out a steady 6% per paycheck, and with the employer match I should have put in about $1,600 over the past 3 months. So I put in a lot of money and the total balance went down. Im not stressed because I know I still have the same number of shares. Things will go up eventually. And I dont have to withdraw this money for over 40 years. Wait, I have to work that long?

I got a tuition reimbursement check for $5,000 from my employer in August. I was going to put $3,500 into loans and use the remainder to pay for the vacation, but I wasnt paying attention. I forgot how long it takes other banks to cash checks, so I wound up thinking I had more money in my checking account than I did and sent an extra student loan payment. So I wound up putting the entire $5,000 to student loans. I guess thats a mistake in my favor.

My new apartment rent is now $300 cheaper. I also now split all utilities in half with the roommate, so it should greatly help my budget. My goal for September is to write down everything I spend and analyze it at month end. I've never been able to track spending for a whole month, so I'm going to try my best. I'll post it for you all to critique!

Source: http://csastor.savingadvice.com/2011/09/02/september-checkup-3-months-time_77078/

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