Personal Balance Sheet, January 2008: Assets +0.13%, Liabilities -0.26%

February 5th, 2008

Filed under: Goals, Personal Balance Sheet

Now that I have my spreadsheet method down, it’s time to start putting these numbers to work. Part of a sound personal finance strategy is to know not only where your money is going (the expense tracking) but also where it’s coming from.

Here’s January’s data:

Assets

Liabilities

Overview

Assets

Overall, we had a good month. I expected our investments to tank and they did. I ended up losing every dollar I put into my 401(k), plus some this month and the Cavewife lost a good amount, too. But it was nice to see that we were able to offset a moderate amount of that loss through interest in our various accounts. Yes, that is bolstered by the $25 sign-up bonus for ING Direct, but it’s still money in my pocket. (On the note of ING Direct, leave a comment if you want a referral code so you can take advantage of the same offer. It will give you the $25 bonus and send me a bonus $10.)

Some of our numbers may look a bit odd on the Asset side, but that is mostly due to the way we manage our money. The Bank Checking account is just a snapshot taken at the end of the day on the end of the month, so I expect this number to move around a lot from month to month. The Bank Savings is more of a staging ground for moving money to different accounts. It’s directly attached to our bank checking, so it makes it easy to siphon money off to savings. Once that account reaches a large enough amount to justify writing a check, we will generally send that money off to Credit Union #1 Savings since it has the best rate of all our accounts, even if it is compounded quarterly. This procedure may change with the addition of the ING Savings account, but we’ll address that when the new rate for CU#1 is posted.

Liabilities

The best news is on our Liabilities management. Our Car Loan is shrinking at a respectable rate now that we’re close to paying it off. Our goal to pay it off by the end of the year may yet come true. Since we held off on paying on the Student Loans for a couple of months, now we’re just paying off interest again. We will soon catch up on this and start making advances on the balance. (Yes, I know that means our balance should have increased since December, but we currently don’t have a way to track that.) The Mortgage and Home Equity both received minimum payments this month, so the gains there were nominal. Once the car loan is paid off, the home equity will be accelerated until our total home debt load reaches 80%. That is the mark at which the credit union will allow for a self-managed tax and insurance escrow; meaning I will get all that money back, manage it how I see fit, and reduce my overall mortgage payment by the escrow payment amount.

Looking Ahead

This month I should find out what kind of raise to expect starting in March, so I will hold off on making a new monthly goal until I know how much more I will be making. But I expect February to hold no surprises (except for purchasing a new washing machine) and the numbers should mimic January. Let’s just hope that the markets decide to turn around, so our investments stop bleeding away!