September 2010 - Net Worth

The Stats:

Net Worth: (29,288 [Up $4,966 from last month!])

Assets: $39,062.63

Cash - $13,433.53

Retirement - $25,629.10

Debt: $68,351.09

Student Loans - $68,112.61

Credit Card - $238.48

Debt Overview:

I was able to payoff $1,064.92 of principal of student loan debt this month. Credit card debt is paid off each month as normal.

Asset Overview:

Investment accounts increased $2,575.43 a sizable sum, to $25,629.10. This increase was due to a nice run in the market and normal payroll deposits into my 401(k) and small deposit to a Roth IRA.

Cash increased $1,899.20 to $13,433.53. This increase was due to normal savings patterns as well as minor proceeds from a small sales of goods. 

Why I like mint.com

What is Mint besides a refreshing flavor?

Mint.com is another in a long line of personal budgeting tools similar to wesabe.com and yodlee.com that allows you to see your whole financial life in one place.  Whether it’s checking, savings, credit cards, CD's, 429 accounts, investments, retirement accounts or many other personal finance accounts, Mint.com is your one stop shop to manage them all.  

Why is Mint.com better?

Like Wesabe and Yodlee Mint is free. This is a huge plus over Quicken's traditional software. Intuit, which owns Quicken, recently purchased Mint for those who are concerned about security. Mint.com is the simplest to use with the best visuals and self controlled analytics.  It categorizes everything for you, every day.  You can name the categories yourself, and rename whenever you want so if you’re not happy with the default options Mint.com has set up for you, it is flexible.  

You are able to slice and dice your data. Anything from assets and net worth to how your spending matches up to someone in Chicago or Boston. The best functional use is the budgeting feature. It is amazing how much those little purchases add up to something substantial. I have turned many friends onto Mint.com and all have received it enthusiastically. This is the Web 2.0  application  that I will do all my net worth tracking with and suggest you do the same. I also highly endorse the iPhone app (download here) and understand the android app is of similar quality. 

Don't trust me? Here is what Consumer Reports thinks.

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August 2010 - Net Worth

The Stats:

Net Worth: (34,254) [Up $2,862!)

Assets: 34,588.00

Cash - $11,543

Retirement - $23,035

Debt: $68,842.00

Student Loans - $69,177.53

Credit Card - $335.53

Debt overview:

I pay my credit card off each cycle so I ignore the number in my own head. Truthfully, I am amazing compulsive paying my card more so than actually spending with it. I will typically come home after a large purchase and setup an online payment immediately to avoid falling into the credit card trap. My student loan balance decreased $2,678.07 for the month thus far with a large payment still uncleared.

Assets overview:

Well.... let's say not that great of a month for saving. I ended up down slightly overall. The market pulled back, and I just ended up a bit more cash. I did not save as much as I normally would have because of student loan payments, a vacation, a expensive visitor (I have to take out my Mother when she visits, right?) costs for two weddings, and truthfully having a bit too much fun in the summer. On the plus side is that I get paid on Friday so the low total is somewhat due to timing, and I sold some of my unneeded possessions and still will receive a security deposit. I expect to have an extra 1.5k next month. I feel comfortable with my cash reserves so I may payoff a student loan with a rate @ 6.125%. There is no way I can comfortably invest the money and get that return. Not to mention paying off the loan will open up around $260 in month cash flow, or I can target some of my adjustable rate private loans.

Get your credit score for free (No seriously) - Credit Karma Review

The site is called Credit Karma. Yes, it is actually free. No, you will not need to sign up only to cancel an account. The site gives you your TransUnion score. The site attempts to make money by selling products to users based upon the individual's profile. Don't believe me? Ask the Wall Street Journal what they think.

As banks continue to reign in credit your score become of critical importance to receive a superior financing rate. If you were to purchase a 500k home in Chicago a excellent score would saved you $174,000 dollars in interest over the life of the loan. You can try your own calculation here.

Now back to Credit Karma. You cannot beat price. The only barrier is that you will need to give personal data and trust the company with it, however you probably do the same thing when getting a credit card for a free t-shirt at a ballpark. Between the scorecard (shown below) and the credit simulator this site is a winner.

In addition to giving you your score there is a 'scorecard' that ranks you against your peers. 

July 2010 - Net Worth

The Stats:

Networth: (37,638.24) - Sigh.....

Assets: $34,542.48

Cash - $11,276.29

Retirement - $23,266

Debt: $72,180.72

Student Loans - $71,978.02

Credit Card - $202.70

It is amazing how fast student loans can add up. I recently finished my Master's degree while working so I was lucky to have my employer pay a good portion of the tab. Still, I am paying about $450 dollars every two weeks. The payment is slightly higher then my obligations. I am considering being more aggressive if I receive a solid merit increase at the beginning of next year.

I know that no matter how secure my job seems, it never truly is, thus the attempt to stockpile cash. I put away about 5k in a Roth IRA last year. I consider this a part of my emergency fund. I now have a solid 11k in cash residing in high-yield savings accounts. I should be able to increase this by about 3k in the next couple months due to the return of a security deposit and no rent next month!

Join me on my journey to become debt free and switch the red to black.

Hello World!

The purpose of this blog is to track my journey climbing out of my mountain of student loan debt with my tips and tricks learned along the way.

So who am I? The deets:

Age: 28

Sex: Male

Job: Employee at an major US bank

Salary: about 80k +/- 5k due to bonus fluctuation

Resides: Major East Coast City

I plan to use Mint.com to track my spending, income, and investments (yes I have a little saved too!)

I save enough to get the full match at work. I use the Roth 401(k) option and am lucky to have a 6% dollar for dollar match.

My other savings are in online bank accounts in the form of cash and a small amount in a Roth IRA.