The Amateur Financier

The weather seems to be getting weirder and weirder lately.  You might recall from my Yakezie Carnival introduction that it has been a surprisingly snow-less January.  Well, in one of those odd coincidences that make me think that God is listening to me (and has an odd sense of humor), later that very day we had a snow storm that was so severe, and occurred so suddenly, that I was almost afraid to drive.   But in less than an hour, it had finished, leaving an inch of snow.  That alone would be pretty odd, but then yesterday, a mere two days later, the temperature is up to 60 Farenheit (about 15 Celsius, if all that metric training I had as a biochemistry undergrad is worth anything).  I have been walking my dog without even wearing a jacket and feeling a bit warm while doing so.  It is nuts.

So, it is in a world where the weather seems to be going mad, I find myself looking over my finances, as always, trying to figure out where my monetary situation stands.  It’s always interesting to see where things stand, and of course, it’s hard to determine how to improve your finances unless you know what improvements you need to make.  So, with little more ado, here’s where my finances stand:

So, quite a few changes have occurred in the last thirty-one days.  On the investment side of things, I’ve sold my non-retirement investment in the Vanguard STAR fund, using the money to cut down my credit card debt.  I’ve also put much of my most recent student loan installment toward decreasing my outstanding credit card debt; it seems appropriate, as much of the debt accrued as a result of my needs when joining graduate school.  So, on the plus side, my credit card debt is much lower than before, but my net worth has taken a big hit anyway.  Not the best possible result, but still, it could be worse.

On a much, much, MUCH happier note, my Alexa score is doing significantly better than last month.  (Hosting two carnivals, the aforementioned Yakezie Carnival and the Carnival of Financial Planning, in the space of a few days will do that to you.)  On that note, let’s see how the rest of my resolutions and goals for the year are doing:

Not too shabby; my alternate income, while not nearly as high as last month, still did pretty well, and my charitable giving for the year is actually ahead of the game.  The credit card paydown thing is tricky one; on one hand, I did technically cut down my credit card debt by more than four thousand dollars, on the other hand, I added six thousand dollars to my student loan debt, so it’s not exactly a clean debt elimination.  So, I decided to set a new goal line of sorts: if I can get that Amex debt under nine thousand dollars, I can consider my ‘Repay $5000 in Credit Card Debt’ resolution as complete.

It’s been an interesting year so far, in both weather and my money.  Here’s hoping that the rest of the year continues to be productive and entertaining.

Well, well, well, look at that.  You look away for what seems like only a minute, and when you look back, a whole new year has come around.  It’s practically some sort of conspiracy, designed to age us all before our time!

Or maybe it’s just the natural flow of time, and my increased busy-ness, combined with the natural perspective on time that comes as I age, just makes it seem like time is going steadily faster every year I am alive.  Nah, it’s a grand cosmic conspiracy, I tells ya!

Well, regardless of how the universe is plotting against me, I still need to try my best to be diligent and productive in my life, as well as earn some more cash to support myself.  Let’s see how well I did with that this past December:

In a word, ouch.  In more than one word, my investments didn’t do too shabby (there’s been a decline in my foreign holdings, but my domestic ones aren’t doing half bad), but my savings took a bit of a hit, and I added on much more debt than I had planned getting ready for (and celebrating) the Christmas season.  It’s going to take sot to recover from all that, I’m afraid.  On the plus side, after a few months of rising, I got an early Christmas present in the form of some improving Alexa scores.  On that note, let’s see how my goals for 2011 went in the final month:

Not too shabby.   My alternate income finally surpassed $1000 per month, a personal goal (and resolution) of mine for the year, although keeping it that high in 2012 is going to be tricky.   I fell a little bit short of my charitable giving goals for the year, but still managed to do pretty well in that respect, as well.  It’ll take some effort, but I’ll have to try even harder in the coming year to make myself a better, richer person.

Hard to believe it, but it’s already the end of 2011.  I know I’ve said this several times already, but it’s amazing how quickly this year has been going by.  It seems that almost every time I turn around, another month has gone by.  This might be a sign that I’m getting older; it’s probably not a good thing that I feel so much like an old man when I’m not even 30 yet…

But, my feelings aren’t the subject of this blog entry; instead, it is the time of the month when I take a (closer) look at my financial situation and see where I stand .  With the year approaching its end and the holiday season upon us, it’s more important than ever in the year to have an idea of where my finances stand.  Let’s see just where that is:

A pretty mixed month, overall.  With everything that’s been going on in the world, particularly in Europe, it’s pretty understandable that my investments aren’t as healthy as I would have hoped.  Still, as I write this, there’s some good news coming from the international markets, so perhaps that will change in the near future.

The news on my debts and savings is a bit more complicated; thanks in no small part to (belated) gifts for my birthday (and more than a little financial help from my family), my savings are as healthy as they’ve been in a while.  My credit card debts are also about as high as they’ve been in a while, though, which is definitely less good; a major portion of that is from prepaying my health insurance for the next year.

So, a busy month in my finances, it seems.  (Also pretty busy, although not in a way I would like, there’s my Alexa score, not heading in the direction I would hope.)  Now, let’s see how I’ve done with my side income and donation goals:

Not too shabby with my alternate income (although still pretty far below my goal of $1000 per month), and December should be even better, as I’ve got more than a few advertising agreements that are up for renewal; here’s hoping I can clear $1000 (or more).  My charitable donations kind of fell by the wayside this month, and I’ll have to improve how much I donate in the coming month, which should be pretty easy, as the holiday season is upon us.  Speaking of which, have a happy holiday season!

• June 2011 Net Worth Update
• Net Worth Update - June 2008
• September Net Worth Update–Nominated for a Plutas Edition
• July 2011 Net Worth Update–Great Month Edition
• Net Worth Update - September 2007

Merry All Saints’ Day, Everyone!  Admittedly, it tends not to get the same sort of attention as All Hallows’ Eve, aka Halloween, but you try to compete with a holiday that involves costumes, candy, and other sorts of fun times.  It’s not an easy task.

Of course, All Saint’s Day also marks the start of the month of November, and that means that as with the start of all new months, around here that means it’s time to double check on where my net worth stands.  October was, I will not lie, a pretty rough one, as classes ramp up, research expectations increase, and the semester gets trickier in general.  Now, there were some high points, such as my birthday, but it’s been a pretty rough month.  On that happy note, let’s see where my finances stand:

All in all, not too bad; my investments are doing quite well, which is always a good thing.  My bank accounts are a bit lower than I would like, due in part to paying down some credit card debt, which unfortunately seems to always creep back up (the fact that everything from gasoline to my charitable giving winds up on my credit cards is not helping, of course, but that is life, I suppose).  My net worth is up on virtue of my rising investments, which is nice to see.  The only real bad news is the significantly fallen Alexa ranking; falling back under 200,000 in particular is a bit sad, as I had hoped to stay up there upon getting into the Yakezie.  All the more reason to work extra hard in November to get things back up there.  On the subject of blogging and goals, let’s see where I stand on my goals for the year:

I’m not doing half bad so far; the alternate income is down this month, that much is true, but I already have a few options lined up for November, so I’m not worried.  My charitable donations are right on track (although, I’m likely to look more into giving to charity without giving money in the future, at least until I’ve shored up my own financial state a bit more), so that’s a plus.

All in all, October’s been pretty good to me.  Hopefully I can keep this up, and end the year on a high (net worth) note.  Here’s hoping everyone had a good October, and has a happy November, as well!

• Net Worth Update - August 2007
• Reviewing My Net Worth
• June 2011 Net Worth Update
• Do You Know Your Net Worth?
• Net Worth Update - September 2007