January 2015 Net Worth Update (-$20,867)




Highlights for January

  • We have earned approx $3,000 (in gift cards, points, and miles) through 6 credit card signup bonuses last year. Our credit scores are still hovering around 800, but since we have no plans to utilize our credit for other financing anytime soon, we are making a little money off our credit scores by taking advantage of these promotional opportunities.We are not spending extra, but focusing our spending on these new cards to earn the bonuses.
  • Our properties are listed on our balance sheet based on their cost basis, not current market value. We have done this during the the real estate market highs and lows. I believe real estate is too illiquid to list based on recent sale transactions.
  • Our expenses were up significantly in January namely due to Christmas spending overhang. A large portion of this was ~$1,600 in giftcards (with promotional discounts) we purchased for ourselves since we knew we would use them in the next several months. The biggest spend was the 10% of Target giftcards during Black Friday since we do the majority of our food shopping @ SuperTarget.
  • We filed an homeowner's insurance claim late last year for hail damage to our roof. In January we had a new roof put on and paid $500 out of pocket to the contractor for a ~$8,600 roof.
  • I was on business trips for approximately half of January. Our family expenses are now ticking up when I'm traveling more whereas previously we were saving a bit of money. This primarily due to my wife having to take care of 2 young kids on her own with less help. I also had about $500 in reimbursed travel expense in Jan that under my new employer take a bit longer to get reimbursed than before (approx 1.5 months vs 2 weeks).
  • I made an additional investment of ~$2,100 in Genworth which contributed to our cash reduction but otherwise was a quiet investment month. I haven't spent enough time recently on keeping up with our overall finances (including our investments) and its beginning to show.
  • Im still trying to understand why our networth dropped $20k in January. Obviously the US markets being down ~4% was a major part of that, but Im guessing also our account totals at the end of January may have been off a bit - we will see if February brings a bit of balance. If not I'm concerned that I'm not paying close enough attention to our cash flows.
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A personal finance weblog of my journey to reach my goal of $2 million + the value of my primary residence.
Current Net Worth: $1,938,393

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