April’s Numbers

As of May 6 , 2014, we are $438,339.52 in debt (that includes the mortgage).  Without the mortgage, we’re at $22,544.49 in debt.  This includes student loans and an auto loan.  We currently have $1,030,065.49 in assets (including our house).  Our retirement accounts are at $370,706.34.  Our Net Worth is $591,725.97 (includes house and mortgage), up from $589,763.53 last month (0.33% increase).

This  month was relatively flat in the investment area.  We went up by our contributions, and that’s it (1.33%).  Our assets went down again – our estimated house value (through Zillow) dropped as well as using some of our savings to pay off debt.  I suspect the house value will increase a bit as the spring/summer selling season goes on – there are about 5 houses for sale in our neighborhood, none of which are our model though (one of the largest in the neighborhood).

I decided to strategically reduce our emergency fund to pay off more of the student loans.  The 6.55% loan has a balance of about $2,300, and will be paid off in July (at the latest).  We reduced our e-fund from 5k to 3k, so we still have quite a bit should Murphy pay a visit.  The plan is to pump up our e-fund to 3 months of expenses after paying off the student loans (and maxing my 401k contribution), then split what’s left between bringing it up to 6 months and investing.  At 5k it would cover our minimum expenses for a month if both of us lost our jobs at the same time (which is unlikely), *and* we use YNAB’s rule 4 to live on last month’s income, so we have a built in one month buffer/e-fund there as well.

We’re still up 5.30% in net worth since the beginning of the year, and I think we’ll be able to hit our goal of 650k this year – especially if we keep contributing as we plan to.  If the markets take a dive, we’ll be out of luck, but that’s gambling for you!

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

• Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
• Chase (4.99% for life): $ 0.00 
• Student loans (aggregated 4.21%):  $4,944.49 (-3,282.14)
• Car loan (0%): $17,600 (-490.00)
• Mortgage (4.125%): $ 415,795.03 (-705.01)

Total paid off in April: $4,477.17

March’s Numbers

As of April 7 , 2014, we are $442,816.67 in debt (that includes the mortgage).  Without the mortgage, we’re at $26,316.63 in debt.  This includes student loans and an auto loan.  We currently have $1,032,580.20 in assets (including our house).  Our retirement accounts are at $365,835.09.  Our Net Worth is $589,763.53 (includes house and mortgage), up from $589,707.81 last month – barely (0.51% increase).

This  month was relatively flat in the investment area.  We went up by about our contributions, and that’s it.  Our assets went down – mostly our estimated house value (through Zillow).  I updated our vehicle values, and they seem to keep increasing (just by a little, but huh?).  I suspect that they will eventually decrease, but they’re Toyota and Honda, both manufacturers which tend to hold their value pretty well.  I’m not sure Dad’s 14 year old Accord will change value much at all anymore.

Dad’s new paycheck deduction is leading to us contributing just over $3200/mth to our investments.  Later this year, we’ll be increasing my contribution higher, so I suspect that we’ll beat our estimated contributions for 2014 rather handily.  Fingers crossed!

I earned some money selling on craigslist this month – $350 for three things – and finally got my old Cobalt Flux dance pads out of the house.  Next on the list is some furniture in the TV room.

Technically, our mortgage payment is decreasing next month as well (less escrow), and since I send a fixed rounded amount to the bank, we’ll end up paying about $15 more on the mortgage principal every month.  Next year, I should get a handy “rebate” from our escrow analysis since I lowered our insurance payment and that new estimate was not included in the analysis.

I’m getting very excited to pay off the larger (higher interest) of the two student loans remaining.  When I come across “extra”, I’ve been trying to put it towards the loans.

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

• Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
• Chase (4.99% for life): $ 0.00 
• Student loans (aggregated 5.32%):  $8,226.63 (-1,068.13)
• Car loan (0%): $18,090 (-490.00)
• Mortgage (4.125%): $ 416,500.04 (-680.74)

Total paid off in March: $2,238.87

February’s Numbers

As of March 6 , 2014, we are $445,055.54 in debt (that includes the mortgage).  Without the mortgage, we’re at $27,841.81 in debt.  This includes student loans and an auto loan.  We currently have $1,034,763.35 in assets (including our house).  Our retirement accounts are at $363,981.50.  Our Net Worth is $589,707.81 (includes house and mortgage), up from $571,497.88 last month (3.19% increase).

Thanks to J Money, we’re listed on the Ultimate List of Blogger Net Worth.  I was surprised that we were as high on the list as we are, but we live in a very high cost of living area, and all of our numbers reflect that.  Do I wish we had as high of a net worth without our house?  Sure, but our house is a significant chunk of our assets.  If you count the mortgage, but not the house, we have a net worth of -$33,292.24.  As our house can be sold, or we can borrow against it, we have some access to the equity in our house.  In our area, just having more than 20% of your house in equity is a pretty big accomplishment (we have 33% using our last official appraisal, which is probably on the low side since it was over two years ago).

My 401(k) contribution hasn’t made its way into the account yet, so I have money “floating” around the ether until it’s deposited – have I mentioned before that I’m not a huge fan of my 401(k) plan?

Dad’s new withholding rate starts on the next paycheck, so we’ll see what it does to our cash flow.  I expect to have $2-300 less per paycheck, but I won’t know for sure until the 14th.  But, it will increase our investment accounts at a much faster rate.

The markets improved in February, with our investments increasing by 5.85% this month.  They’re up 4.94% since the beginning of the year.  I’m hoping for a modest 15% increase this year (remember, our investments increase from both the market and from our contributions), bringing us closer to our early retirement goal.

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

• Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
• Chase (4.99% for life): $ 0.00 
• Student loans (aggregated 5.32%):  $9,294.76 (-882.14)
• Car loan (0%): $18,580 (-490.00)
• Mortgage (4.125%): $ 417,180.78 (-678.41)

Total paid off in February: $2,050.55

January’s Numbers

As of February 7 , 2014, we are $447,106.09 in debt (that includes the mortgage).  Without the mortgage, we’re at $29,246.90 in debt.  This includes student loans and an auto loan.  We currently have $1,018,603.97 in assets (including our house).  Our retirement accounts are at $343,855.36.  Our Net Worth is $571,497.88 (includes house and mortgage), up from $561,939.69 last month (1.70% increase).

We paid off one of the three student loans this month, with two more to go.  We owe taxes (based on the documents we have so far and estimates on the others, I don’t have all of the paperwork yet), so I put aside $1k to handle those in February – it’s not unexpected, it happens every year.  I don’t expect the estimated amount to change significantly, I’m pretty good at doing the estimating based on end-of-year statements.  It still eats into our payoff schedule.  I’m hoping that we’ll be able to pay off the last two student loans in June and July – and forward looking numbers indicate that it’s very possible, but if something large comes up, we could miss.  I can’t wait until those are paid off!

I updated our car values from KBB into our assets, and they both went up (huh?).  Not by much, but that’s a bit odd – I use “very good” for the 1.5 year old RAV4, and “Fair” for the 14 year old Accord – which runs perfectly, it just has some scratches and dings on it.  A house down the street from us is on the market for almost $600,000: it’s much smaller than ours, and at the end of a pipestem, so Zillow’s estimate of our house at ~$633k is probably pretty accurate, but I don’t know what that house will ultimately sell for.  Most of our net worth increase is from our house, and I suspect Zillow’s prices will continue to go up through the spring and summer, it’s a “hot” time to sell in our neighborhood.  There are already about 4 “coming soon” signs as I walk through the neighborhood.

The stock market overall had a not so stellar month, but we did OK relatively.  Mostly because of our contributions.  I upped my contribution to 6% total (1% into the Roth 401(k)).  We *always* get an obscene amount back from our state taxes, and so I adjusted my withholding for the state and it pretty much made up the difference, so I didn’t notice much in my take home paycheck.  Dad on the other hand needs to change his federal withholding since we always seem to owe the feds a significant chunk.  Between state and federal taxes, we are pretty close to even, but we fall into the married with similar high incomes withdrawal trap and so we never have the correct amount taken out of our paychecks.

Dual high incomes sounds nice until it comes time to do taxes. Then it’s a PITA because there’s always an assumption that one spouse makes a lot more than the other – you can see it mostly in phaseout limitations – 200k AGI for a single, 250k for married.  At least it’s no longer in the tax tables – married filing jointly is pretty much double what single is in almost all cases.  I used to contribute to a Roth – until we were married, and all of a sudden I couldn’t any more yet my income didn’t change significantly.  Overall though, I’ll take the higher incomes!

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

• Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
• Chase (4.99% for life): $ 0.00 
• Student loans (aggregated 5.32%):  $10,176.90 (-2,323.83)
• Car loan (0%): $19,070 (-490.00)
• Mortgage (4.125%): $ 417,859.19 (-676.09)

Total paid off in January: $3,489.92

December’s Numbers

As of January 6, 2014, we are $450,453.74 in debt (that includes the mortgage).  Without the mortgage, we’re at $31,918.46 in debt.  This includes student loans and an auto loan.  We currently have $1,012,394.70 in assets (including our house).  Our retirement accounts are at $348,080.08.  Our Net Worth is $561,940.96 (includes house and mortgage), up from $538,555.92 last month (4.34% increase).

We topped $1 million in assets before the end of the year (thank you stock market!), so I guess I can call that goal completed – even if it was down to the wire.

Our investments increased 31.38% over the course of 2013 – a good portion of that was contributions, so we have no secrets for timing the stock market.  Our net worth increased 28.38%, with a lot of thanks to the stock market.  We did pay down just shy of $30k ($29,996.34) of debt principal this year, so that helps with increasing the net worth.

We paid off the last credit card.  All we have left now is student loans and our car loan.  Our current plan is to aggressively pay off the student loans (expected about June-July) and then contribute towards our retirement accounts before throwing everything else to the car loan.  The student loans are broken up into three loans, one (very small one) at 2.15% and the others at 6.55%.  January is a three paycheck month for Dad, so that extra paycheck is going towards a ~$2,300 loan at 6.55%, completely paying it off. I just have to (impatiently) wait until after the January auto-debit clears to get a final payoff number to schedule the payment.

Daughter Person is “graduating” to the next room at daycare, and starting next week, our tuition will drop almost $20/week – giving us anywhere from $80-$100 extra in the budget every month.  She’s been hanging out in that room for the last few weeks when there are too many kids in her room, so I think she’ll do just fine during the transition.

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

• Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
• Chase (4.99% for life): $ 0.00 (-1,992.53)
• Student loans (aggregated 6.55%):  $12,500.73 (-142.27)
• Car loan (0%): $19,560 (-490.00)
• Mortgage (4.125%): $ 418,535.28 (-673.77)

Total paid off in December: $3,298.57

November’s Numbers

As of December 6, 2013, we are $453,754.87 in debt (that includes the mortgage).  Without the mortgage, we’re at $34,545.82 in debt.  This includes a credit card, student loans, and an auto loan.  We currently have $992,308.23 in assets (including our house).  Our retirement accounts are at $337,687.88.  Our Net Worth is $538,553.36 (includes house and mortgage), up from $522,143.05 last month (3.14% increase).

I’ve paid our contractor for the painting and gutters – sort of. The check was sent off by the bank mid-November, but it’s not been cashed yet, so the slightly over $7k is still sitting in my checking account until it’s cashed.

Our retirement accounts are up despite the last few days of a down market.  I did like seeing those balances topping 345k though.  They’re up 1.38% from last month, not as great of an increase as the last few months, but still respectable.  And they are 31.38% more than January of this year – granted that includes contributions as well, but it’s still nice to see that number increase.

We might top $1mil in assets before the end of the year, and that will be pretty neat – a “millionaire” by at least one measure.

Dad got a bonus that we applied to our Chase card this month, so we got a nice boost there. I may or may not get a bonus, depending on how my company has done this year – I’m not expecting one, but it’d be a very nice surprise if it happened.

We’re on track to have all of our non-mortgage debt paid off at the end of 2014, but we will no longer be paying interest to anyone but the mortgage company starting about June – our car loan is 0%. This may trigger us to pump more money into our company retirement accounts and emergency fund before slaying that last debt.  It’s something that Dad and I have to discuss – go with the math of getting a better return – or the emotional “win” of getting rid of all non-mortgage debt?

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

• Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
• Chase (4.99% for life): $ 1,992.53 (-1,982.85)
• Student loans (aggregated 6.55%):  $12,643.00 (-139.71)
• Car loan (0%): $20,050 (-490.00)
• Mortgage (4.125%): $ 419,209.05 (-671.46)

Total paid off in November: $3,284.02

October’s Numbers

As of November 6, 2013, we are $457,037.59 in debt (that includes the mortgage).  Without the mortgage, we’re at $37,157.08 in debt.  This includes a credit card, student loans, and an auto loan.  We currently have $979181.94 in assets (including our house).  Our retirement accounts are at $333,083.66.  Our Net Worth is $522,144.35 (includes house and mortgage), up from $511,373.74 last month (2.11% increase).

Our gutters and exterior painting are finally done!  The house looks great and the gutters have worked well during the last little rain we had.  The contractor hasn’t given us our invoice yet, so the money is still sitting in our checking account collecting piddly interest.  I called him yesterday and he expects the invoice to go out at the end of this week. I’d rather just pay him and not have it hanging over our heads, but we don’t know how much wood he used, so we only have the estimate to go off of.

My 401(k) contribution and match haven’t made it to my account yet, so there is about $1000 floating around in the ether and not accounted for yet.  By law the money has to be in my account by the 15th, but until then, the payroll company can earn interest on it (and everyone else’s).  I didn’t know that until we started using this payroll company, previously the money was in my SIMPLE IRA about the same time as my paycheck was in my checking account.

My student loan processor hasn’t auto debited my account yet, so I have no idea what the interest will be for last month other than an educated guess.  I don’t particularly like the processor though, for multiple reasons, and I’m using it as a reason to pay the loans off faster.

We’re taking a long weekend later this month to take Daughter Person to a Day Out with Thomas – she’ll get to ride a real steam train (Strasburg, PA) that’s dressed up as Thomas the Tank Engine (her current favorite character).  We’re going to spend the weekend in Lancaster and show her some of the PA/Amish countryside as well.  We’ll be spending some money on a hotel, and some extra gas and eating out, but it’s all been accounted for in the budget.

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

• Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
• Chase (4.99% for life): $ 3,975.38 (-481.66)
• Student loans (aggregated 6.55%):  $12,787.32 (no change, the auto debit hasn’t happened yet)
• Car loan (0%): $20,540 (-490.00)
• Mortgage (4.125%): $ 419,880.51 (-669.16)

Total paid off in October: $1,640.82