The State of My Finances – 02/2015

Wow, two months in a row where I haven’t posted this early on in the month. In fairness to me, my girlfriend spent her spring break here, and we wanted to do a lot of things together. Haven’t had much time to write for the blog. Don’t you worry, I’ll be posting more often now. As it is, I have two stock analyses close to being ready. But let’s get back to the topic at hand. Here’s the state of my finances – 02/2015.

Net Worth

• Taxable portfolios (includes cash in money market accounts): $63,503.75
• Tax-deferred portfolios (my IRA; includes cash in money market accounts): $40,130.38
• 401(k) (includes employer match): $19,941.37
• Hard assets/commodities: $2,968.00
  • Listed at purchase price, not appraised value
• Cash and cash equivalents: $14,898.92
• Debt: - $0.00

Total Net Worth: $141,442.42

This is a 4.03% increase from the last time I calculated my net worth, which was $135,959.10 at the end of December 2014. 4536.71

Income/Expenses

• Rent: $975.00
• Bills: $358.62
  • Includes: cell phone, electric, gas, cable, and my FAST Graphs subscription
• Car maintenance: $133.55
• Gas: $32.50
• Groceries: $164.89
• Medical expenses: $113.44
• Discretionary expenses: $234.49
  • Valentine’s Day gift: $64.80
  • Everything else: $169.69

I saved 55.64% of my income this month.

Thoughts:

For net worth, my only real spike was in my 401(k) balance. I got my yearly employer contribution, which was nice. I am not fully vested into it until the end of my year 5, but since I don’t intend to leave before then, I am counting it all anyway. If I leave, I’ll deal with it then. Another spike was in my cash balance. Like I mentioned, my tax balance is high, so gotta keep saving for that. On the positive side, I officially have enough to pay my taxes! That means two things. First, I can finally start making new investments with new cash. Though they will not be the size I used to make. I need an emergency fund, dontcha know. Second, my net worth will plummet next month, as that cash will be withdrawn to pay taxes. Oh well, shouldn’t happen again.

For income/expenses, this was not a bad month either. I got a small bonus this month, which was nice. Regarding my bills, I had to renew a membership that I completely forgot about. Didn’t cost much, but it’s there. Any my energy bill, while high, finally seems to be on a downtrend. Is spring finally coming to Wisconsin?! My car had some repairs, and that’s not over yet. There’s something wrong with my transmission, and a part needs to be replaced, so I suspect that will come due this coming month. My medical costs were more due to me recategorizing certain expenses (like haircuts) rather than anything serious. Something that I’m really proud of is my eating out expenses were nil! I didn’t eat out once! Saved money, but damn do I want Taco Bell.

As always, a pretty satisfactory month. No problems either way.

Disclosure: None. My Income/Expenses and Net Worth archive pages have been updated accordingly. Image source is available here.

Tags: income-expenses, net-worth, update