Student loans: -$77,240.66 ($405.22)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0
Mortgage: -$132,430.62 ($256.12)
Total Debt: -$209,671.28 ($661.34)
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($7203.80)
So this month ALL of the interest is paid off on the student loans! Yay!
I've made a pumpkin spice porter beer for Turkey day. Yay and Yum!
We have been putting together a list of items for the baby registry and it's exhausting trying to do research on everything, determining something that is safe, looks appealing, of high quality and at a reasonable price. And then of course trying to answer the question: Does baby really need this? I think (hope) so. Take for instance crib bumpers, they are cute and are supposed to prevent baby from bumping his head against the crib slats, only problem: They are also a suffocation hazard and their use (even the ones that claim to be breathable) is not recommended...
On another note, I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!
Showing posts with label net debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label net debt. Show all posts
Monday, November 18, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Net Debt - October 2013
Student loans: -$77,645.88 ($1,484.51)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$132,686.74 ($255.09)
Total Debt: -$210,332.62 ($1,739.38)
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($6,542.46)
Great news! For my two student loans, Aspire and Discover, all of the interest will be paid off by the end of next month! There is currently around $350 of interest left, and we pay more than that each month for sure. Soon we will have to change gears and begin to pay the highest interest to get it paid off as quickly as possible.
The mortgage is slowly going down - one monthly payment at a time. We've been getting a lot of flyers from our mortgage company to refinance, so I'm not sure if it'll help pay down much faster, I'd like to investigate just to be sure. The wife doesn't like the idea of paying more closing costs though...
Likewise, next year will probably be a wild roller coaster for us as we will be adding another human to the household: Healthcare expenses (i.e. dependent coverage), childcare costs ($1k easy per month), and reduced income due to maternity/paternity leave will make things interesting to say the least. We will have to look at our budgets and discuss priorities, but we will make it work :).
However I'd like to share a couple of websites that I have found recently that might save you some green. For today, lets start with www.greentoe.com. This website lets you put a bid on a popular item at retail stores to get a great deal. They sell TV's, laptops, baby gear, etc.. I personally haven't purchased anything from them, but was intrigued by the concept. I will let you know when I know more!
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$132,686.74 ($255.09)
Total Debt: -$210,332.62 ($1,739.38)
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($6,542.46)
Great news! For my two student loans, Aspire and Discover, all of the interest will be paid off by the end of next month! There is currently around $350 of interest left, and we pay more than that each month for sure. Soon we will have to change gears and begin to pay the highest interest to get it paid off as quickly as possible.
The mortgage is slowly going down - one monthly payment at a time. We've been getting a lot of flyers from our mortgage company to refinance, so I'm not sure if it'll help pay down much faster, I'd like to investigate just to be sure. The wife doesn't like the idea of paying more closing costs though...
Likewise, next year will probably be a wild roller coaster for us as we will be adding another human to the household: Healthcare expenses (i.e. dependent coverage), childcare costs ($1k easy per month), and reduced income due to maternity/paternity leave will make things interesting to say the least. We will have to look at our budgets and discuss priorities, but we will make it work :).
However I'd like to share a couple of websites that I have found recently that might save you some green. For today, lets start with www.greentoe.com. This website lets you put a bid on a popular item at retail stores to get a great deal. They sell TV's, laptops, baby gear, etc.. I personally haven't purchased anything from them, but was intrigued by the concept. I will let you know when I know more!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Net Debt - Sept 2013
Student loans: -$79,130.39 ($565.43)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$132,941.83 ($507.18)
Total Debt: -$212,072.22 ($1,072.61)
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($4,802.86)
A nice website I just recently discovered is the Chase Home Value Estimator, I know I don't typically post values of assets, but it is nice to some degree because while your value of the home may be an overestimate (like mine was apparently but only $3,635), you can see what a bank might value your home for. I know this
doesn't affect our "net debt" but it does affect our net worth and if you are interested in refinancing your home and the sort.
Also, I realized that we HAVEN'T been paying one of my student loans, so now we are catching up on the student loan payments. This isn't a critical piece of news as my loans are in deferment, but it is important to us to try to get them as low as possible before they go into repayment. So, you'll likely see some better trends in our debt going down soon, like this month!
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$132,941.83 ($507.18)
Total Debt: -$212,072.22 ($1,072.61)
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($4,802.86)
A nice website I just recently discovered is the Chase Home Value Estimator, I know I don't typically post values of assets, but it is nice to some degree because while your value of the home may be an overestimate (like mine was apparently but only $3,635), you can see what a bank might value your home for. I know this
doesn't affect our "net debt" but it does affect our net worth and if you are interested in refinancing your home and the sort.
Also, I realized that we HAVEN'T been paying one of my student loans, so now we are catching up on the student loan payments. This isn't a critical piece of news as my loans are in deferment, but it is important to us to try to get them as low as possible before they go into repayment. So, you'll likely see some better trends in our debt going down soon, like this month!
Monday, July 8, 2013
Net Debt - June 2013
Student loans: -$79,695.82 ($259.96)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$133,449.01 ($252.097)
Total Debt: -$213,144.83
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($3,730.25)
This past month was my birthday, and as such, I didn't receive much, but the biggest and probably best gift was honestly a gift from my wife, $500 to knock down student loans. It's a little depressing to know that we applied so much to the student loans (over $600 monthly, and this past month over $1k) and still only made such a marginal difference, however, I suppose a chip at a time helps it go down.
So far of the 2 federal loans I have, one of them is down to the principle and the other is close. Hopefully, if they can adjust how I apply my payments, it'll be down to the principle as well within the next 3 or 4 months (making my goal of paying the actual principle down by 2014). However, my private loans, while we were hoping to have the interest all paid off before the year is over, currently it looks like it might go over by 3 months (Feb or March of 2014...Miscalculation? I honestly don't know) unless I can compensate for it somehow (maybe my end-of-year bonus will go towards it, who knows). I would really like for 2014 to be a year to knock down the principle payments, hopefully that dream of mine will still come true, but we've had and will continue to have some medical expenditures that we didn't quite anticipate.
Other than that, life is good here. We are doing some small upgrades to the house. We just ordered a new fan for the guest room which I'll install this month sometime. In August we have a big dental expense, and in September, we'll probably FINALLY buy that flooring and hopefully install it as well. Perhaps in October we'll finally get a new couch as well as the one we have currently is a bit small, but that's sort of in the air and not an absolute necessity.
Also, I'm being good to myself by biking about 5 miles a day on most days with my exercise bike. It helps that while I'm doing this, I'm also reading on my kindle. I don't know about you, but this is the best kind of relaxing for me! Relaxes the mind, burns off the stress of the day, and helps keep the tonnage off. I'm also feeling a little confident about my C++ programming, but I'm still in the beginning stages and learning a lot. Until next month!
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$133,449.01 ($252.097)
Total Debt: -$213,144.83
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($3,730.25)
This past month was my birthday, and as such, I didn't receive much, but the biggest and probably best gift was honestly a gift from my wife, $500 to knock down student loans. It's a little depressing to know that we applied so much to the student loans (over $600 monthly, and this past month over $1k) and still only made such a marginal difference, however, I suppose a chip at a time helps it go down.
So far of the 2 federal loans I have, one of them is down to the principle and the other is close. Hopefully, if they can adjust how I apply my payments, it'll be down to the principle as well within the next 3 or 4 months (making my goal of paying the actual principle down by 2014). However, my private loans, while we were hoping to have the interest all paid off before the year is over, currently it looks like it might go over by 3 months (Feb or March of 2014...Miscalculation? I honestly don't know) unless I can compensate for it somehow (maybe my end-of-year bonus will go towards it, who knows). I would really like for 2014 to be a year to knock down the principle payments, hopefully that dream of mine will still come true, but we've had and will continue to have some medical expenditures that we didn't quite anticipate.
Other than that, life is good here. We are doing some small upgrades to the house. We just ordered a new fan for the guest room which I'll install this month sometime. In August we have a big dental expense, and in September, we'll probably FINALLY buy that flooring and hopefully install it as well. Perhaps in October we'll finally get a new couch as well as the one we have currently is a bit small, but that's sort of in the air and not an absolute necessity.
Also, I'm being good to myself by biking about 5 miles a day on most days with my exercise bike. It helps that while I'm doing this, I'm also reading on my kindle. I don't know about you, but this is the best kind of relaxing for me! Relaxes the mind, burns off the stress of the day, and helps keep the tonnage off. I'm also feeling a little confident about my C++ programming, but I'm still in the beginning stages and learning a lot. Until next month!
Monday, June 3, 2013
Net Debt - May 2013
Student loans: -$79,955.78 ($1,281.69)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$133,701.10 ($201.25)
Total Debt: -$213,656.88
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($3,218.20)
FINALLY! Mint has updated their tracking software for one of my federal student loans, KSA Servicing. So now, finally, it has correct values. This is the main reason why my debt went down significantly this month, all of those months finally got updated in one fell swoop. Glad to know that it is decreasing.
This past weekend, we were planning to go to Ikea (and we actually did), and although they said that they had flooring in stock and it was not, so we shall have to go again in probably 2+ weeks. Likewise, we were going to try to pick up the couch, and although while we knew they did not have that in stock, we checked out the floor model, and liked it so we will definitely go and purchase it later on.
Also, speaking of home improvements, I installed the Strike Master Pro II to my front door. I'll post a short write-up on that soon as well. But needless to say, it looks great, and I can sleep better knowing that no one can kick in my front door. (Don't worry about my back door, I installed that one a while ago!) Speaking of other home improvements, I also installed tire locks for my car since recently we had some tire theft in the neighborhood. Thieves are so odd, stealing tires or a couple of gallons of gas, just doesn't add up for me.
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$133,701.10 ($201.25)
Total Debt: -$213,656.88
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($3,218.20)
FINALLY! Mint has updated their tracking software for one of my federal student loans, KSA Servicing. So now, finally, it has correct values. This is the main reason why my debt went down significantly this month, all of those months finally got updated in one fell swoop. Glad to know that it is decreasing.
This past weekend, we were planning to go to Ikea (and we actually did), and although they said that they had flooring in stock and it was not, so we shall have to go again in probably 2+ weeks. Likewise, we were going to try to pick up the couch, and although while we knew they did not have that in stock, we checked out the floor model, and liked it so we will definitely go and purchase it later on.
Also, speaking of home improvements, I installed the Strike Master Pro II to my front door. I'll post a short write-up on that soon as well. But needless to say, it looks great, and I can sleep better knowing that no one can kick in my front door. (Don't worry about my back door, I installed that one a while ago!) Speaking of other home improvements, I also installed tire locks for my car since recently we had some tire theft in the neighborhood. Thieves are so odd, stealing tires or a couple of gallons of gas, just doesn't add up for me.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Net Debt - April 2013
Student loans: -$81,237.47 ($885.92)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$133,902.35 ($849.81)
Total Debt: -$215,139.82
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($1,735.26)
Paying down debt is a daunting task, that is for sure, especially seeing these numbers. It has been 4 complete months since the new year has started and so far we have paid off $1,735.26 or about $433 each month.
While we are sticking to the plan and paying down debt, it has its challenges. We put $418 towards one student loan, and $100 towards another each month. Soon, hopefully next month, we'll have the federal subsidized interest of one of the student loans paid off, and then we'll make a little more progress paying down the unsubsidized portion. Note: I really hate how loan companies set up the payment scheme, especially when making extra payments. They always set it up to pay equally across everything and not put it all towards the one that will make you pay it off the fastest. gah!
Due to the student loans we're trying to pay off, we've settled for only paying $250/month to the IRA. The plan is to gradually increase the payment each year until we max out 2 complete IRA's.
On another note, my final exams are now complete and in a few more days my wife will have finished her 6 month probation period at work. These two things make me very happy. ^_^
Our trip to Germany has been booked and is approaching faster than we thought. It will be a great trip, but we still have to make arrangements for someone to take care the kitties. Our trip to NY has been postponed to a little later than desired but still in the plan.
Also, we recently purchased an exercise bike from a friend, which has been a lot of fun. The past few days while I had off from work to study and work on my final exams, I would get up, drop off the wife at work, and come back and bike for 25 minutes or about 6.25 miles. During that time, I'd be checking my other blogs, IM'ing with the wife, etc. very efficient use of time. :-)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$133,902.35 ($849.81)
Total Debt: -$215,139.82
Debt Jan 1, 2013: -$216,875.08 ($1,735.26)
Paying down debt is a daunting task, that is for sure, especially seeing these numbers. It has been 4 complete months since the new year has started and so far we have paid off $1,735.26 or about $433 each month.
While we are sticking to the plan and paying down debt, it has its challenges. We put $418 towards one student loan, and $100 towards another each month. Soon, hopefully next month, we'll have the federal subsidized interest of one of the student loans paid off, and then we'll make a little more progress paying down the unsubsidized portion. Note: I really hate how loan companies set up the payment scheme, especially when making extra payments. They always set it up to pay equally across everything and not put it all towards the one that will make you pay it off the fastest. gah!
Due to the student loans we're trying to pay off, we've settled for only paying $250/month to the IRA. The plan is to gradually increase the payment each year until we max out 2 complete IRA's.
On another note, my final exams are now complete and in a few more days my wife will have finished her 6 month probation period at work. These two things make me very happy. ^_^
Our trip to Germany has been booked and is approaching faster than we thought. It will be a great trip, but we still have to make arrangements for someone to take care the kitties. Our trip to NY has been postponed to a little later than desired but still in the plan.
Also, we recently purchased an exercise bike from a friend, which has been a lot of fun. The past few days while I had off from work to study and work on my final exams, I would get up, drop off the wife at work, and come back and bike for 25 minutes or about 6.25 miles. During that time, I'd be checking my other blogs, IM'ing with the wife, etc. very efficient use of time. :-)
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Net Debt - October 2012
Student loans: -$81,318.21 (-$2,710.61)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$135,393.86 (+$212.22)
Total Debt: -$216712.07 214,213.68 (-2,498.39)
After some further digging around, it seems that one of my student loans have jumped up about $2,700 for no known reason. The only reason I can think of is that I've received a letter stating my loan was sold to another company. I'll have to get back to everyone on this next time around to see if this is the source of the spike. But this is why it's so important to keep on top of your loans and see what's going on with them all!
We're still plugging away putting money away on the student loan, about $100 a month which isn't much right now, but it all helps and I can't wait until the day it is all done and gone!
Last month we were saving for a new garage door opener from amazon, the Chamberlain Whisper Drive Garage Door Opener. And last month, I found a rock thrown at our car while it was parked in the driveway and while I'm sure it was an accident, the dent is small in the side of the car and wasn't seemed to be aimed at a window to steal things, I decided to push forward the savings and do with what we had and I'll try to offset the rest later. So in the few month experiment, we were able to save $164.93 ($124.93 from CC rewards and $40 from surveys). And I'm confident I could have saved maybe an extra $10-20 more if I was more active with the surveys, however, I was overworked and didn't have the time to continue. The end result is that the opener actually cost $248, so we 2/3 of the cost in a relative short period, which isn't too bad I think. In the next week or so I'll install it and we should be good to go!
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Net Debt - September 2012
Student loans: -$78,607.60 (+$37.23)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$135,606.08
Total Debt: -$214,213.68 (+248.61)
I'm not quite sure how or why the student loan has only gone down $37 this month while last month it went down $63 with the same $100, but at least it is going down. :-) The mortgage supposedly went down over $3000, so I think I may not have updated it last time around. I'll take the blame for that, but I double checked by looking at the total debt, and since that only changed by around 250 dollars, highly likely I didn't update it correctly last month for what ever reason. Sorry guys!
There have been some unexpected expenses with the new kitty joining the family and the expensive medical bills that came with him, but things are still getting paid down. My wife and I now have a big plan of trying to pay off all of the interest in my student loans within the next two years (while it's on deferment) and trying to tackle my federal student loans before repayment starts. We're doing this because they are sitting at 6% interest and it'll make retirement that much harder if we have to pay that type of interest for the next 10-20 years.
Just like last month, I'm still saving for a new garage door opener and we now have $136.38 ($106.38 from CC rewards and $30 from surveys). Passed the half way mark and still going. We have had a rash of car break-in's where we live, so we may end up purchasing it earlier than expected. Regarding the surveys, they haven't brought in any more money primarily because I've been super lazy and haven't done any in a long time. But we'll see and I'll try to do some more when I have free time.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Net Debt - Aug 2012
Student loans: -$78,644.83 (+63.08)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$138,817.46 (+210.55)
Total Debt: -$214,462.29 (+273.63)
The past couple of months I've been putting money towards the student loans to try to keep it at bay however, interest is still accruing so while I actually pay $100, it only goes down $63 worth. ::sad face::
However, I look forward to the months ahead and really hope to put a significant dent into the student loans as they are my highest interest loans now. I know my goal is high with getting it down to 75k, but if some things pan out for us (getting a second job in the house - no pressure though!), it should be feasible. Not to mention my tuition for school has just decreased significantly due to policy changes. So some of the money I put towards tuition can now go towards the student loan. ::happy face::
On a side note, I now have $107.41 ($77.41 from credit card rewards, $30 from surveys) towards my amazon experiment which will go towards a new garage door opener. About half way to my goal, I'm guessing by the new year, I'll have a new garage door opener! Patience is a virtue of mine. ::happy face::
Friday, July 13, 2012
Net Debt - July 2013
Student loans: -$78,707.91
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$136,028.01
Total Debt: -$214,735.92
It has been forever since I have last blogged, however, since then I've paid off my car loan debt and now I'm only left with student loan and mortgage. Currently I am paying about $100/mo to pay down the interest and hopefully that will increase in the future! It would be amazing to have my student loans down to 75k before the year is over. I guess we'll see if that's possible and depends a lot on certain things on our side.
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$136,028.01
Total Debt: -$214,735.92
It has been forever since I have last blogged, however, since then I've paid off my car loan debt and now I'm only left with student loan and mortgage. Currently I am paying about $100/mo to pay down the interest and hopefully that will increase in the future! It would be amazing to have my student loans down to 75k before the year is over. I guess we'll see if that's possible and depends a lot on certain things on our side.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Net Debt - Sept. 2011
Student loans: -$77,809.34 (+0)
Car loan: -$2,837.21 (+163.31)
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$138,506.89 (+543.45)
Net debt: -$219,153.44
Car loan: -$2,837.21 (+163.31)
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$138,506.89 (+543.45)
Net debt: -$219,153.44
Monday, August 1, 2011
Net Debt - August 2011
Student loans: -$77,809.34 (+0)
Car loan: -$3,000.52 (+835.97)
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$139,050.34 (+178.20)
Car loan: -$3,000.52 (+835.97)
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$139,050.34 (+178.20)
Net Debt: $219,860.20
About the car loan, if you notice, I'm pushing as hard as I can to have the car loan paid off as quickly as possible and I'm on track to have it paid off by new years. My actual car loan payment is only $172, so I actually paid an additional 4x as much. Although I could probably pay it off completely now, college will be starting soon, so between that and my college tuition bill, and some other bills that we are planning for, that would drop our cash reserves to almost nothing and we would have to start dipping into the emergency fund.
I've also picked up a side gig tutoring! So, at the moment, I have the pleasure of tutoring and making an extra $25 per hour, which I tend to be doing about 3-4 hours a week. So an extra few hundred dollars a month isn't too shabby, and I probably would be wasting that time anyway, so I'm happy at least to be making money from my wasted time. :-) I want to keep a running total of the money made from tutoring, so I'll be keeping a total there and hopefully this will encourage everyone to get a side gig and make some extra money and help pay off that debt faster, save for the future, or what ever you want to do. Of course it wont pay me more than my current job, but at least it definitely compliments it nicely.
About the car loan, if you notice, I'm pushing as hard as I can to have the car loan paid off as quickly as possible and I'm on track to have it paid off by new years. My actual car loan payment is only $172, so I actually paid an additional 4x as much. Although I could probably pay it off completely now, college will be starting soon, so between that and my college tuition bill, and some other bills that we are planning for, that would drop our cash reserves to almost nothing and we would have to start dipping into the emergency fund.
I've also picked up a side gig tutoring! So, at the moment, I have the pleasure of tutoring and making an extra $25 per hour, which I tend to be doing about 3-4 hours a week. So an extra few hundred dollars a month isn't too shabby, and I probably would be wasting that time anyway, so I'm happy at least to be making money from my wasted time. :-) I want to keep a running total of the money made from tutoring, so I'll be keeping a total there and hopefully this will encourage everyone to get a side gig and make some extra money and help pay off that debt faster, save for the future, or what ever you want to do. Of course it wont pay me more than my current job, but at least it definitely compliments it nicely.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Net Debt- July 2011
Student loans: -$77,809.34
Car loan: -$3,836.49
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$139,228.54
Net Debt: $220,874.37
It has been several months since my last net worth update and you'll likely see some dramatic changes that have happened in these numbers. So, let me explain a few things from top-down.
The student loans have been on deferment so I haven't made any payments to those; however, I have another 4 years or so left in school. So I will likely try to pay off at least some of the higher interest loans that are sitting at 6% and of course pay the interest while in deferment so it wont get added into the total again once I graduate.
Next the car loan. I was a naughty boy; I got into an accident and it was my fault and sadly, I totaled my beautiful car. Although I was starting to save for a new car, I didn't have enough saved at the time to purchase a car, hence the car loan. The car we did purchase though, I did extensive research into in regards to recalls, overall cost of ownership, mpg, etc. and will hopefully last a long time and save us some substantial money (over the life of the car) as the previous car was a gas guzzler. Likewise, you can see the loan amount is small, I'm hoping to have it completely paid for by the end of this year. Once it has been paid for, I will begin the process of saving for another car, hopefully save $12,000 or more and get a reliable car when needed.
Lastly, we purchased a home! Yay! We love our home and the mortgage principle and interest is actually less than the rent, however because we only did 3.5% down, we have a larger monthly than our rent due to the taxes, escrow and insurance along with all of the other prepay things. :-(
I am a bit disappointed with myself because we didn't pay 20% down, but I'm not sure when we would be able to save 20%. The home we purchased, as you can see wasn't an overly expensive home, and we plan on living here for AT LEAST another 5 year or so until my wife and I both finish our Ph.D.'s. Afterwards, we are hoping that we'll both be able to find a job locally, however, we are prepared, if necessary to sell and move.
However, I don't care much because we now have the freedom of doing what we want in our home. It is an energy star home (I'm too green not to go energy star) so our utilities seem to be staying around the same even though there is a lot more space in the home than the apartment. We've also retrofitted in water saving devices into the home like the aerators and shower heads which you can see all of those things in my previous post on how to save money, water, and the environment. Likewise, because it is my own home I can do a lot more car repairs and maintenance at home saving us additional money!
Car loan: -$3,836.49
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$139,228.54
Net Debt: $220,874.37
It has been several months since my last net worth update and you'll likely see some dramatic changes that have happened in these numbers. So, let me explain a few things from top-down.
The student loans have been on deferment so I haven't made any payments to those; however, I have another 4 years or so left in school. So I will likely try to pay off at least some of the higher interest loans that are sitting at 6% and of course pay the interest while in deferment so it wont get added into the total again once I graduate.
Next the car loan. I was a naughty boy; I got into an accident and it was my fault and sadly, I totaled my beautiful car. Although I was starting to save for a new car, I didn't have enough saved at the time to purchase a car, hence the car loan. The car we did purchase though, I did extensive research into in regards to recalls, overall cost of ownership, mpg, etc. and will hopefully last a long time and save us some substantial money (over the life of the car) as the previous car was a gas guzzler. Likewise, you can see the loan amount is small, I'm hoping to have it completely paid for by the end of this year. Once it has been paid for, I will begin the process of saving for another car, hopefully save $12,000 or more and get a reliable car when needed.
Lastly, we purchased a home! Yay! We love our home and the mortgage principle and interest is actually less than the rent, however because we only did 3.5% down, we have a larger monthly than our rent due to the taxes, escrow and insurance along with all of the other prepay things. :-(
I am a bit disappointed with myself because we didn't pay 20% down, but I'm not sure when we would be able to save 20%. The home we purchased, as you can see wasn't an overly expensive home, and we plan on living here for AT LEAST another 5 year or so until my wife and I both finish our Ph.D.'s. Afterwards, we are hoping that we'll both be able to find a job locally, however, we are prepared, if necessary to sell and move.
However, I don't care much because we now have the freedom of doing what we want in our home. It is an energy star home (I'm too green not to go energy star) so our utilities seem to be staying around the same even though there is a lot more space in the home than the apartment. We've also retrofitted in water saving devices into the home like the aerators and shower heads which you can see all of those things in my previous post on how to save money, water, and the environment. Likewise, because it is my own home I can do a lot more car repairs and maintenance at home saving us additional money!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Net debt - August 2010
Student loans: -$80,880.95 (+551.43)
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$80,880.95
I'll give up on my Alexa rating for now. It's a bit depressing to see it continually worsen. Anyway, as of late, I've been reading a few financial books, right now next to my nightstand is "Smart Couples Finish Rich" by David Bach and "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas Stannley and William Danko. I'm also trying to write up a review for "The Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach as well. I can't express my sorrow for being so lame on this blog lately. It's been amazing how busy I've been. But here's some good news!
I still have an colossal amount of debt, however it's been a pretty linear paying everything off and if I keep up, in under 6 years I should break even in my debt. I've also set up a few goals for myself. This coming Spring I will become a PhD student (assuming the university accepts me) and with that in mind, my job may be slightly more risky since they don't necessarily support it 100%. As such, I'm saving up 6 months of expenses and also trying to save up for a car. My current car has been a little bit erratic with not accepting gas (what kind of car doesn't like gasoline!?!?), idling gone wrong (cleaned the throttle body and that helped but still acts up), and much more. Ideally, I'll have enough saved to pay outright when the time comes. Otherwise, I'll keep that money for other big expenses that come along without dipping into the e-fund.
Other than that, things are going great! Work has been keeping me busy, but I'm still able to read and get some things done outside of work. We had a great time with some friends recently. Invited them over for a big Asian night. We made sushi and meso soup, they brought over dumplings and bubble tea. A great time for a cheap time with friends. After the fact I was thinking it would have been really great to watch bad kungfu movies, but we actually only played card games.
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$80,880.95
I'll give up on my Alexa rating for now. It's a bit depressing to see it continually worsen. Anyway, as of late, I've been reading a few financial books, right now next to my nightstand is "Smart Couples Finish Rich" by David Bach and "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas Stannley and William Danko. I'm also trying to write up a review for "The Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach as well. I can't express my sorrow for being so lame on this blog lately. It's been amazing how busy I've been. But here's some good news!
I still have an colossal amount of debt, however it's been a pretty linear paying everything off and if I keep up, in under 6 years I should break even in my debt. I've also set up a few goals for myself. This coming Spring I will become a PhD student (assuming the university accepts me) and with that in mind, my job may be slightly more risky since they don't necessarily support it 100%. As such, I'm saving up 6 months of expenses and also trying to save up for a car. My current car has been a little bit erratic with not accepting gas (what kind of car doesn't like gasoline!?!?), idling gone wrong (cleaned the throttle body and that helped but still acts up), and much more. Ideally, I'll have enough saved to pay outright when the time comes. Otherwise, I'll keep that money for other big expenses that come along without dipping into the e-fund.
Other than that, things are going great! Work has been keeping me busy, but I'm still able to read and get some things done outside of work. We had a great time with some friends recently. Invited them over for a big Asian night. We made sushi and meso soup, they brought over dumplings and bubble tea. A great time for a cheap time with friends. After the fact I was thinking it would have been really great to watch bad kungfu movies, but we actually only played card games.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Net debt - July 2010
Student loans: -$81,432.38 (+739.57)
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$81,432.38
Alexa ranking: 5,333,428 (-63,107)
So my Alexa ranking went up a little bit (probably because I haven't been very active blogging) but the past month has been filled with doctors appointments, studying for my GRE exam, and similarly wrapping things up for PhD school.
I expect the next month to have a few more blogs than the past month. But as a general summery of the past month: Financially, I've looked into IRA's and 403(b), figured out a plan to pay off one of my student loans while I'm in PhD school, and looked to see if I could save a few bunch on internet (looks like Time Warner Cable is the cheapest). I've also looked at replacement cars in case something bad happens to mine. Work has been treating me well, I'll be talking to my boss about my salary increase as he and I discussed earlier. And at home it's great as usual, found some great recipes in a new cookbook (Vegetariana: A Rich Harvest of Wit, Lore, and Recipes
) that we've been using. It also has some great quotes and factoids!
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$81,432.38
Alexa ranking: 5,333,428 (-63,107)
So my Alexa ranking went up a little bit (probably because I haven't been very active blogging) but the past month has been filled with doctors appointments, studying for my GRE exam, and similarly wrapping things up for PhD school.
I expect the next month to have a few more blogs than the past month. But as a general summery of the past month: Financially, I've looked into IRA's and 403(b), figured out a plan to pay off one of my student loans while I'm in PhD school, and looked to see if I could save a few bunch on internet (looks like Time Warner Cable is the cheapest). I've also looked at replacement cars in case something bad happens to mine. Work has been treating me well, I'll be talking to my boss about my salary increase as he and I discussed earlier. And at home it's great as usual, found some great recipes in a new cookbook (Vegetariana: A Rich Harvest of Wit, Lore, and Recipes
) that we've been using. It also has some great quotes and factoids!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Net debt - June 2010
Student loans: -$82,171.95 (+397.19)
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$82,171.95
Alexa ranking: 5,270,321
Gah, so my networth didn't break the mark I wanted to this month of 70k, but there's good reason! This past month there were many large purchases, one was the my fiancee's wedding band, a years worth of unlimited world via skype, parts for my car so it's finally fully functional, and my years worth of insurance (both auto and renters). So although I didn't make it this month, I'm sure I will coming months.
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$82,171.95
Alexa ranking: 5,270,321
Gah, so my networth didn't break the mark I wanted to this month of 70k, but there's good reason! This past month there were many large purchases, one was the my fiancee's wedding band, a years worth of unlimited world via skype, parts for my car so it's finally fully functional, and my years worth of insurance (both auto and renters). So although I didn't make it this month, I'm sure I will coming months.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Net debt- May 2010
Student loans: -$82,569.14
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$82,569.14
Alexa ranking: 12,675,786
Yes, I still have 82.6k worth of student loan debt, but it's getting chipped away one day at a time and I'm making a tremendous amount of payments each month usually putting in more than one payments worth each month. Which will hopefully save me a ton of money.
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$82,569.14
Alexa ranking: 12,675,786
Yes, I still have 82.6k worth of student loan debt, but it's getting chipped away one day at a time and I'm making a tremendous amount of payments each month usually putting in more than one payments worth each month. Which will hopefully save me a ton of money.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Net debt - April 4, 2010
Student loans: -$83,259.83
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$83,259.83
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$83,259.83
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Net debt - Feb 27, 2010
So as of Feb 27, 2010, this is my financial situation:
Student loans: -$84,026.74
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$84,026.74
A note about the above finances. The student loans are at a weighted rate of around 6% ($32,241.50) for my government loans, and around 3% ($51,785.24) for my private loans.
How's your net worth going? I hope it's going up!
Student loans: -$84,026.74
Car loan: $0.
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Net debt: -$84,026.74
A note about the above finances. The student loans are at a weighted rate of around 6% ($32,241.50) for my government loans, and around 3% ($51,785.24) for my private loans.
How's your net worth going? I hope it's going up!
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