January Net Worth Update (+$1,782)

We were able to eke out a small gain in January largely thanks to a small bonus I received at work. The markets were painful to experience this month and I am just happy we were able to end the month on a positive note.

Assets	Dec-07	Jan-08	Change	%
Cash & Savings	$ 80,747.86	$ 91,332.24	$ 10,584.38	13.11%
Taxable Brokerage Accts	$ 77,884.78	$ 77,341.48	$ (543.30)	-0.70%
Roth IRAs	$ 39,792.82	$ 39,378.55	$ (414.27)	-1.04%
Pre-tax Retirement Accts	$ 153,126.90	$ 151,809.40	$ (1,317.50)	-0.86%
Stock Options	$ 11,800.00	$ 11,008.00	$ (792.00)	-6.71%
ESPP	$ 33,523.76	$ 34,052.60	$ 528.84	1.58%
House #1 - Rental	$ 160,000.00	$ 160,000.00	$ -
House #2 - Rental	$ 128,225.00	$ 128,225.00	$ -
House #3 - Primary	$ 116,500.00	$ 116,500.00
Receivable (Payable)			$ -
Other Assets	$ -	$ -	$ -
Total Assets	$ 801,601.12	$ 809,647.27	$ 8,046.15	1.00%
Liabilities
Credit Card Balances	$ (9,487.01)	$ (16,325.26)	$ (6,838.25)	72.08%
House #1 Mortgages	$ (114,805.75)	$ (114,612.83)	$ 192.92	-0.17%
House #2 Mortgages	$ (102,172.18)	$ (102,067.51)	$ 104.67	-0.10%
House #3 Mortgages	$ (109,058.34)	$ (109,058.34)	$ -	0.00%
Rental Deposits	$ (6,447.00)	$ (6,447.00)	$ -	0.00%
Additional Tax Liability	$ (4,130.00)	$ (3,852.80)	$ 277.20	-6.71%
Other Liabilities			$ -
Total Liabilities	$ (346,100.28)	$ (352,363.74)	$ (6,263.46)	1.81%
$2million Goal Progress*	$ 448,059.18	$ 449,841.87	$ 1,782.69	0.40%
Net Worth	$ 455,500.84	$ 457,283.53	$ 1,782.69	0.39%

Highlights for January

All credit card debt (except current month's purchases) is in the form of 0% APR balance transfers earning interest in my savings accounts.
I paid off my last 0% balance transfer card last month. Given the uncertainty of what my wife & I will be doing given the 2nd half of this year I think I will go ahead and take advantage of another 0% balance transfer until we know more about whether we are going to buy a new house or not. If so I will then look at paying off the 0% BT early to shore up my credit score if needed.
My wife and I read Smart Couple Finish Rich to facilitate finance discussions we need to have.
• My wife and I have been thinking about how much we should spend on our new home based on our financial goals.

Additional Stock Investments January (Outside of 401k & ESPP):

$25 in ConocoPhillips DRIP
$100 in USG DRIP
$400 in my Vanguard Roth IRA
$400 in my wife's T Rowe Price Roth IRA
$50 in Pfizer DRIP
$3500 in Wachovia via Vanguard Brokerage
$135 in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index ETF via Vanguard Brokerage

You can see my previous monthly net worth updates here.

Related in Net Worth Archive:

May 2012 Net Worth Update (-$28,098) (Jun 10, 2012) Highlights for MayWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. Our properties are listed on our...

April 2012 Net Worth Update (+$2,763) (May 09, 2012) Highlights for AprilWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. We received $1,000+ in rewards cash...

March 2012 Net Worth Update (+$22,032) (Apr 11, 2012) Highlights for MarchWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. We are close to earning ~$1,000...

Comments (10)

Can you elaborate on how you increased your NW in a month when markets fell sharply? Your brokerage and retirement accounts barely edged south. Did additional purchases/deposits offset declines? I am invested mainly in low-cost index funds amd contribute regularly, yet my NW was off more like 3-4% in Januray.

Posted by Financial Expat | February 7, 2008 11:12 AM

Frequent visitor to your post... Quick question with drastic market in January (4% and more)how is it possible most of your portfolio only lost 1%??? In addition with the market over 15% lower than recent highs how is that not reflected in this spreadsheet? Based on your previous posts I don't believe your monthly investments are even a fraction of what it would take to offset and end positive?

Posted by Question... | February 7, 2008 7:27 PM

2mil - I can't remember if you've ever disclosed what your blogging revenue is from all your ad sources? If you haven't, would you? If you have, would you direct me to that post?

Posted by eem | February 8, 2008 6:52 PM

Are the drips what you placed into the stock or is it the reinvestment of the actually dividend?

Posted by garrett | February 9, 2008 1:25 PM

Financial Expat & frequent visitor,
Not sure if I can answer the questions completly but let me see if I can offer some insight:
for example Roth IRAs -- above we noted we contributed a combined $800 to our Roth IRAs this month, but our roth IRAs still ost a little over 1% - so we really saw a drop of over 3%, offset by contributions.
As for retirement accounts and taxable accounts I think the same is applicable - I made significant investments in both that offet the declines seen in the market.

A small portion of this is probably the result of our investment allocation. Here is the latest snapshot of my taxable invesments.

Posted by 2million | February 10, 2008 3:52 AM

My question is like Garrett(above). From who &/or how, did you get into the DRIP's you mentioned? I know how thru stock purchase plans from work, but what are other ways?

Posted by Mike | February 10, 2008 3:33 PM

Mike/Garret,
See this drip investing web site for more info on DRIPs. Also see this post on investing in DRIPs. Let me know if this is not the info you are looking for.

Posted by 2million | February 11, 2008 4:32 AM

Bonus in January? I am curious what companies give as a bonus in January...i thought bonuses were more of a year end type of thing...too traditional in thinking?

Also, what are your thoughts about the market right now...lot of people seem to be running to savings accounts and leaving stock behind at the moment. What is your strategy here?

Posted by Anonymous | February 12, 2008 10:07 AM

Maybe bonus is a miswording -- it was really an award for some patent work I did.

Posted by 2million | February 12, 2008 7:14 PM

Hi 2million, nice blog. I'm wondering why/how you have so much in cash savings? Are you saving up for a big payment or do you like having that much cash available? Just curious.

Posted by The Impecunious Investor | February 26, 2008 4:46 PM