The Amateur Financier

Well, I made a mistake this past one, one that could cost me a pretty penny.  I didn’t pay my American Express bill on time this month.  Unfortunately, with all the trouble I had with getting unemployment benefits, I didn’t schedule a payment for Amex when it closed for December, and didn’t think to double check this month.  I realized my mistake this Saturday (when the payment was due on Thursday), paid the bill, and had the payment credited to my account.

Well, today, I re-checked my account, and I was both charged a fee, and credited an equal amount to my account.  I’m not entirely sure what happened; I was expecting (and prepared to pay) a fee because of my mistake, but perhaps because it was my first time failing to pay on time and because I corrected the situation within two days, they gave me a pass this time.  If so, I’m thankful, and will have to try even harder to prevent this event in the future.

In either event, I’m taking the initiative and setting up automatic payments for my credit cards (and will see if I can do so with my student loans, as well).  I’m also making notes on my net worth table to keep track of which automated payments are scheduled to be paid, so I can add any other payments that are needed.  So, with all that in mind, let’s see where my finances stand this month:

It was a bad week for my investments, which got hammered.  That went a long way to dragging my net worth down, but hopefully the markets will pick back up soon.  Until next week, here’s to an increasing net worth (and no stupid credit card mistakes) for everyone reading!

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