Friday, November 3, 2017

October 2017 Update

I'm a day or two late with this post, but honestly, I wasn't paying much attention. With the new job, I've just been concentrating on the work and making a good impression. It seems to be paying off. Unlike my last job, my bosses actually show appreciation for my efforts, which, in turn, makes me want to do a good job. As a matter of fact, my immediate boss let me leave early today because he said I was knocking it out of the park. Woohoo! Hopefully that will translate into a raise.

But, that's not what this post is about. It's time to look at my net worth and see whether I'm on track to retire in a few years. So, let's dive in and see how things are going. My net worth at the end of October is...

$83,643

It feels good to be north of 80k again. It's been a while since I was there. Last month, I was sitting at $79,140, which is a difference of $4,503. Not all of that is due to my contributions, but the majority of it is. According to my spreadsheet, my contributions totaled $3,399. I made 2 separate deposits into my HYSA; $1,200 and $1,500. The rest was 403b contributions.

I'm working on building up my HYSAs (my emergency funds) to a certain level before I resume shoveling money into my brokerage account. Right now, I want to bring my Am Ex HYSA to 6k so I can front load my Roth IRA in Janaury at which point I will refill it to the same level. Once the Am Ex account reaches the desired level, I'll focus on my Ally HYSA. I want to bring it to 26k in case I find myself without a job again; I want to be prepared like I was last time.

It shouldn't take too long to bring these accounts up to those limits, although I was pretty much starting from the ground up since I used all of my available cash during my prior unemployment. With this new job, I'll get several bonuses, which are going straight into savings. That should speed up the time line.

As far as expenses go, last month wasn't too bad. I didn't have any huge vehicle repairs like I did in the past since I got rid of my Jeep, the old money pit. However, I ate fast food more than I usually do and I bought a last minute plane ticket for my wife to visit her family due to an emergency. The plane ticket cost me $1,300. Ouch! I put it on my credit card since all my cash was already deposited into my HYSA. Also, I'm working to pay off a line of credit I obtained to purchase some furniture when we first moved in. The balance was around $1,500 with 6 months 0 interest. I'm getting close to the end of the 6 months and need to get it paid off so I don't pay any of the accrued interest. Right now, the balance is around $430. But coupled with the plane ticket, I'm going to have to throw a lot of the next 2 paychecks toward these bills. Not to mention my rent and household expenses are $500 more than they should be because we still haven't sold our previous residence. The good news there is that it's under contract and we're supposed to close on it the middle of this month. So that should go back down to $1,000/mo instead of $1,500/mo.

Another positive note, or two, is that I increased the line of credit on my USAA Signature Visa card from $6,000 to $13,000. I also increased my American Express card's limit from $2,000 to $5,000. So far, the credit agencies are only aware of the Visa increase, which raised my credit score to 753 (Trans Union) and 744 (Equifax). I expect it to gain a few points next month when they learn of the new credit line increase and see that I've paid off the aforementioned balances. Interestingly enough, the year before last, my credit score was in the 500s. So this is quite the surprise that my score has improved as much as it has. I intend to get it into the excellent range and keep it there.

I'm still not at the 100k net worth mark; mainly due to my stretch of unemployment, but hey, life happens. (Thanks, asshole boss, for firing me!) I hope to reach that goal around April. That's what the projected timeline is according to Mint, but sometimes I don't put a lot of faith in Mint. Maybe I can squeak across it before then.

As I review this post before publishing it, I noticed that I mentioned a potential raise with the coming new year. And it made me realize that I probably haven't divulged my income. I know there're a lot of software engineers out there bringing in 6 figures. Sadly, I'm not one of them. I've been doing software development for 20 years and my current salary is the most I've ever made. My salary is $95,000. It's respectable, but it's not one of those ridiculously high salaries seen on Reddit's financial independence. Maybe I'll cross the 6 figure salary mark before I retire. It'll definitely speed up the process...by a little anyway.

Until next time...

Net worth for October 2017. Up, up, and away!!!

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