january-08-nw One of my favorite sayings is this - “If you don’t know where you are, how can you know where you’re going?”  That saying applies in personal finance too.  How can you have all kinds of lofty financial goals, when you don’t really know where you stand right now today?  That’s why I do monthly net worth updates, including this installment for January 2008.  For my fourth installment of net worth updates, I’ll stick to my usual plan of breaking down the numbers, and looking at each main category individually.  For a chart, click on the image to your left for a full-size view.

Liquid Assets

After a dip into the negative in December, my liquid assets are back in the black, and just over two thousand dollars. Far off from where they need to be, but back in the black is a big step.

My Cars

The new year was not kind to the book values of both my cars.  My car inequity situation worsened by over one thousand dollars.  Instead of getting closer to -$10,000, I’m getting further away.  Patience is the key here.  Eventually I may double up on payments, but now’s not the time for that.  The

My House

My home is finally on Zillow.com.  However, Zillow didn’t have the square footage, number of bedrooms or bathrooms - practically no information at all.  The Zestimate was for just $187,000.  Comparable sized homes in my neighborhoods with the correct info have Zestimates in the $230k+ range.  Until Zillow updates their info ( I requested a change ), I’ll stick with the more accurate VA appraisal.  In this light, my equity increased slightly to $17,151.62 this month.  Not that I plan on making use of it any time soon.

Retirement

The stock market’s volatility has shown in my retirement accounts.  I actually ended the month about 3% down compared with December, and that’s even taking into account my contributions for the mouth.  Not a good month.  On the bright side, the purchases that I did make came at a discount, so I bought more shares.

Overall

After all the numbers were tabulated, my net worth increased by $826.60, for a 5% gain.  If I could manage a 5% gain every month indefinitely, things would be grand indeed.  Such a large monthly gain is only possible because of my small overall net worth ( $17439.18 ).  I feel like I have more money though, because my liquid assets are positive.  That makes such a large mental difference.  Most of my losses were on paper, and can turn around in a heartbeat.  January’s gone, and February is here.  I’m ready for it - are you?

Note:  It looks like I fixed a slight error on my December numbers.  I guess things weren’t quite as bad as they looked in December, though they were still ugly.

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