April 2018 Update

Spring has finally arrived. Finally! And instead of doing something outside, I'm sitting here writing this update. At least I can still enjoy the great weather with the windows open. Let's not beat around the bush and get to it. At the end of April, my net worth was...

$112,583

Last month, my net worth was $109,147; a difference of $3,436. Not too bad, especially since the market has been showing signs of more volatility lately.

Nothing has really changed with my current strategy of bringing my HYSAs up to a specific level before shifting focus to my brokerage account. Well, nothing except the numbers of my last savings account keep climbing by leaps and bounds. I'm targeting a goal of $13,000 in the last HYSA account. Currently, it's at $9,475, which means I'm $3,525 from the goal. With two paychecks this month, I plan to continue earmarking $1,300 from each check to save. That'll leave me $925 from the goal when June rolls around. I should be able to knock that out with the first check and still have some left over that I can throw into the brokerage account.

That's my plan for the transition and I'm excited about it. I'll have money to front-load my Roth IRA in January, plus my emergency fund will have $15k to get me through several months (perhaps even an entire year) of (dare I say it? *gasp*) unemployment. Hopefully, that money will sit untouched for many years to come.

In the meantime, I've been watching my spending in order to make the $1,300 contributions (sometimes more when I can swing it). I've been relying on my credit cards more lately. I removed my debit card from my wallet and instead added 2 relatively new credit cards in order to build up a history with them. I'm not sure I like that. I removed one of the cards and returned my debit card to my wallet today. I don't think I'm ready to rely solely on credit cards, although it's easier to dispute charges should someone steal my number and make fraudulent purchases.

I try to make it a policy not to post monthly updates while having an outstanding balance on any of my credit cards. As you can see (in the screenshot below), I didn't adhere to that this month. It bothers me to have a balance. However, I'm not behind on any bills nor am I accruing interest. Instead, I'm waiting for those pending purchases to post so I can pay them off.

This is probably one of the more boring updates I've had the honor of writing. The reason? Simply because there isn't much to talk about. This month's saving just wasn't very exciting, even though I did move the needle quite a bit. I've been crunching numbers and planning my transition strategy, which I want to talk about, but I think it'll be more clear at the end of May, so I'm going to save it for then. I'll give you a little hint of what I'm thinking of doing: I'm currently looking at bringing one of the funds in my brokerage up to $10k and then buying a new fund to concentrate on, maybe a long-term tax-exempt bond fund since I have practically 0 bonds now.

Net worth at the end of April 2018