October 2018 Update

I'm a day late, but I haven't forgotten. Before we get into this month's update, let me be honest up front: this month has sucked as far as the market goes. I realize things could be much worse, but still, having a lower net worth than a month ago is just frustrating. Now that I got that off my chest, let's see what the damage is. As of the end of October, my net worth is...

$143,272

Last month, my net worth was $145,552, a difference of -$2,280. Ouch! Putting that negative makes me sad. But I acknowledge things could be a whole lot worse; first-world problems, right?

Still, that's a pretty respectable sum in the grand scheme of things. According to my spreadsheet, I socked away $1,900 not counting my tax-advantaged retirement savings. If I include the contributions to my tax-advantaged account (employer's 401k), I've saved $3,754.32. That's 2 contributions of $927.16. I increased my contribution amount a while back in order to reach the max of $18,500 this year. (Some good news: the IRS has increased the max to 19k for 401k and 6k for IRAs next year. Woo hoo!)

The moral of this story is: I actually did well last month as far as how much money I saved even if it does feel like I didn't save much of anything. The market is always going to be a roller coaster ride, so I know it'll be back up...whenever that is. I will just remain diligent and stick to the same plan, which is shovel as much as I can into my investment and savings accounts.

Some financial notes and highlights from the past month: I had some bogus charges show up on my highest credit card. Luckily, the creditor noticed they were suspicious and denied them. I called and verified they were bogus. However, I noticed yesterday there was a new bogus charge: this one $1,300+. I tried to dispute it, but it's pending so I have to wait until it's no longer pending before I can dispute it. On the plus side, my credit score has gone up another point with TransUnion and Equifax. Just another step closer to having a score over 800.

I was informed that my company's 403b is going to be terminated in December (we've already started using a 401k), so I need to decide what to do with my 403b. My options are: 1) roll it into the 401k 2) roll it into a personal IRA, or 3) have them cut me a check and...do something irresponsible? Clearly, I'm choosing to roll it into my IRA with Vanguard. That way I'm certain the expense ratio will be minimal and I have a better choice of funds to invest in. Now I've just got to figure out which fund to put it in.

That basically sums up my October. Keeping my fingers crossed that my ability to keep my savings rate up continues. If the market drops any more, I may have to stop replenishing my HYSA in order to focus on buying shares while they're discounted. It'll be interesting to see where I stand at year's end.

Net worth for October 2018