July is well on its way to being a very busy, very exciting month for me, and it’s barely even started.  Here are a few of the things waiting in the wings this month:

• I’m starting graduate school in the fall, which means putting my job hunt aside for the moment (at least, until I know how much time, if any, I’ll be able to devote to working, after taking care of school work and possible work study)
• My fiancee’s grandmother and uncle are coming out to visit us (and my future mother in law) this month, so we’ve been in a whirlwind attempt to clean and have everything spotless by the time they arrive.  It’s Spring Cleaning multiplied by twenty around here lately.
• Speaking of my fiancee, this month is our anniversary.  We can’t remember whether it’s the 17th or the 19th of this month (which probably tells you more than you need to know about both of our memories, as well as how much importance we prescribe to a particular date).  In either event, we’ll have to find some way of celebrating when the middle of the month rolls around.
• Last, but far from least, July brings with it the Fourth of July, an always fun time to be an American. This year, the fourth also has the added pleasure of being when the first stage of the Yakezie challenge ends.  I’ve managed to meet my first goal (although sadly, my secondary goal of leveraging my blog to achieve global domination has yet to be met), so we’ll have to see what stage two of this challenge will bring.

All in all, a pretty busy looking month.  With all that going on, it’s almost hard to focus on my finances; still, I know I need to keep an eye on them to keep everything under control. So, here’s how my finances look this month:

Not too much to report.  I had to rollover my 401(k) from my last job to a traditional IRA (which I kept at Fidelity in their Freedom Fund), but unless you look pretty closely, you might not even see that.  My mony market fund at Vanguard was closed for insufficient funds.  And my Alexa ranking has decreased (well, gone up, but since I’m trying to reach a lowered rand, going up is bad).  An interesting month last month; next month promises to be even more interesting.

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Wow, it’s June already?  May went by way too quickly, I’m still trying my best to get caught up with blogging, housework and my personal life (what little there is of it, there seems).  It didn’t help that May started with my fiancee working her cute butt off with the pending end of school and ended with me working thirty hours a week or so at Wal-Mart, mostly lifting heavy things for the bulk of the shift.  It barely seems like I barely had time to think about my blog, let alone write anything.   (Let’s not even get started on how little time I’ve had to browse the various blogs I follow, including my fellow Yakezie; I’m basically a month behind at this point…)

Anyway, enough complaining about how busy life is getting; busy is pretty much the modern American’s natural state of being, from the age of twelve on.  (Or possibly even younger, if what I keep hearing about schools overloading the little whippersnappers is accurate.)  No sense complaining, particularly when I’ve brought most of my busy-ness on myself.  Just have to keep plugging away, doing what I can and trying to do even more.  And on that note, onto the main attraction, my finances as of this month:

May was pretty rough, investment-wise.  Now, I try to console myself with the fact that most of my investments are for retirement, and therefore, the day to day (or month to month, as the case may be) variations of the value don’t really matter.  Still, there’s something about ‘losing’ over two thousand dollars in a month that hurts a bit.  Add in a high month of credit card expenses (although, we (that is, me and my fiancee) have agreed to cut down the credit card usage for the foreseeable future, so that should help on that part of my net worth.)  Here’s hoping that June turns out better!

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Well, April has come and gone, and good riddance!  Far too many April showers for my taste, to say nothing about the fact that many of them were snow showers… Still, it would have been nice to have a bit more time last month; I’m not entirely sure why, but it seemed even busier than most months lately.

This month has just been insane.  Between the vacation at the start of the month (which was great fun, but did throw me off) to how busy Sondra has been with the end of the semester coming up quickly, it’s just been a month that was much busier in the non-blogging world than I’ve been in quite a while.  I’ve finally managed to get caught up within the past few days, but still, it’s nearly the end of the month; I should have been done with all this by now.  Here’s hoping that May is less hectic and more relaxing.

All of that out of the way, let’s get into the financial details for April:

Not too much to tell; my investments are up a bit, my debts are down quite a bit (hopefully, they’ll be even lower if I can keep my spending in check), and my net worth is slowly climbing up.  If I can keep this up, soon my finances will be in great shape.  (Although, if I can’t find some kind of job, my money supply will take a major hit in a few months when my unemployment benefits run out.)  So, good news, overall.

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Another month, another collection of bills, investment statements, and other pieces of financial information to go through.  Of course, since this month happens to be tax month, there’s also numerous earning statements, W-2s, and 1099 forms to go through and organize.  I managed to finish my taxes late Saturday night (a wild time, I’ll have you know), so as of Monday, my taxes for 2009 will be complete.  (I never felt like getting my taxes done by the beginning of April was cutting it close before I started following personal finance blogs and reading tips to complete your taxes being posted in February; now, I feel like a slacker.)

My fiancee Sondra and I have also just returned from a trip to Philadelphia and visiting with my extended family, so I’ve got stories galore just waiting to be shared.  (Consider that a tease for tomorrow.)  First, though, it’s been a month since I shared my updated net worth, so let’s get right to the main event:

As is often the case, the results are sort of mixed.  My investments are up across the board, a reflection of the generally good economic conditions as of late.  My savings are up, as well, although my debts are up even higher (in no small part due to expenses related to the aforementioned trip), making my Available Funds a net loss for the month.  The rest of April is going to have to be a big month for cutting down my spending and possibly increasing my alternative income streams.

I get to finish on a high note, at least; my Alexa Ranking has decreased by more than 50% in this past month; if I can keep up this kind of growth, I’ll zoom right past the 200,000 mark and have a good chance to reach 100,000 (or perhaps even 50,000) by the July 4th deadline.  It just goes to show what a little hard work can accomplish.

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Wow, February went by fast, didn’t it?  I suppose this is to be expected, since it is the shortest month, but dang, twenty-eight days never seemed to move so quickly.  It’s probably a sign that I’m getting old; when I was younger, it seemed to take forever for each day to go by, let alone an entire month.

I suppose this is part of growing older, partially because it puts time into perspective, and partially because we inevitably get busier.  Yes, the carefree days of youth are long since past, and even when I’m between jobs, there is inevitably so much to be done.  In fact, it seems like I’m even busier now; looking for jobs is nearly a full-time job itself, to say nothing of trying to keep my blog running, doing chores around the house (I’m the official dishwasher and dog walker at home, among other things) and doing other hobbies.  Pretty soon, the whole day is gone.  Plus, apparently the day is literally getting shorter; NASA notes that the recent earthquake in Chile actually shifted the Earth’s axis, shortening the day.

Alas, such is life, I suppose.  We have to adapt to whatever life throws our way, even shorter days and more work to be crammed into them.  With that out of the way, let’s get to the real fun; it’s time to go over how my financial situation has changed in the last month:

Money-wise, February was pretty good; I increased my net worth a bit, decreased my outstanding debt a little (although, since I pay off my credit cards each month, this means I spent nearly as much in February as I did in January, when I spent more than I was planning to spend), and my investments did alright overall.

You’ll also notice an interesting addition on the bottom of my net worth chart.  Since I joined the Financial Samurai Alexa Challenge last month, I thought it might be fun (and informative) to start keeping track of my Alexa ranking right along with my net worth.  In the course of a month (actually, less than a month; the starting number was taken on February 5th, and of course, February is the shortest month) my ranking jumped up more than 100,000 ranks, putting my humble little blog solidly in the top half-million websites IN THE WORLD!

Most incredibly, more than half of the gain occurred over this past weekend; I went from 515,000 on Friday to 480,000 on Saturday to 460,000 on Sunday.  I’m not sure what exactly what made this weekend so special, although my post on death taxes brought out more responses than I usually see.  A few more weekends like that, and I’ll make my goal of 200,000 by July 4th easily.  Banzai!

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Well, it’s the end of January  already.  Funny, I’m still having trouble remembering to put ‘2010′ on my checks rather than ‘2009′, and already the new year is more than 1/12th over.  Is there anyway we can, as a society, call a redo and turn the clocks back to January 1st?  I can’t be the only one who could use a whole new January just to get their act together.

Well, I suppose getting a replay on the year is very unlikely.  I’ll just have to keep moving ahead, trying to get my finances in shape as best I can as I travel forward in time.  While this year certainly gotten off to the best start, I have faith that things will improve in the near future.  Call it optimism, call it faith, call it pure hope, but I have the feeling that February’s going to be a good month.  If not, I’ll have to redouble my efforts into my time machine project.

Alright, enough of my optimism; it’s time to look at my finances:

So, not one of my best weeks; with the end of the month coming up, I’ve been spending quite a bit to cover various bills, which did not make the American Express happy.  Add in investments falling (in spite of adding over four hundred dollars to my Roth IRA, my account showed a net loss this week), and it’s been a rough week.  Still, my optimism remains intact.  Come on February; I’m ready for a new month to come!

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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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One of the things that happens when you lose your job is that you start to consider the next step you take in your life.  You think about what you really want to do, and whether you are on the path to achieve your goals.  You ask questions about where you wish to be in life and what you want to do in the future.

After doing much of this sort of soul searching, I’ve decided that I should go back to grad school and get my Master’s degree (and possibly a Ph.D., eventually).  Besides opening more doors to me in my field (in biochemistry and similar fields, I’ve noticed that an advanced degree can easily substitute for experience when applying for a job), it’s also a major requirement for becoming a professor, which is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a long time (ever since I noticed a fondness for teaching when helping my classmates during my undergraduate career).

In order to do this, I need to get into graduate school, and to do that, my first step is going to be studying for and taking the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).  So, if am not around quite as much on everyone else’s blog in the following few weeks, don’t think that I’ve gone off a partyin’; more likely, I’m spending my spare time studying up on the GRE.  But for now, let’s get onto the fun of going over my finances (I can hear the joy in your voice at the thought):

Not too much to report; I’ve settled my investment shifting in my Roth account, so now I’ll be able to just track my progress.  After reading some of the commentary from Financial Samurai, I’ve decided against converting my 401(k) to a Roth; instead, I think I’ll just roll it over to a traditional IRA, and try to diversify my retirement accounts a bit (it’s good to be prepared for whatever tax changes the future might bring).  I need to cut down on my spending even more; but other than that, not too much wrong with this picture, I’m happy to say.

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Sorry to quote David Bowie, but is seemed pertinent to my net worth update this week.  With the coming of the new year, I’ve been doing what I can to get my finances better organized.  As with any type of major clean up project, though, things are going to get messier before they get cleaner.

Take my investments, for example.  I’m currently in the process of selling some funds and buying others in my Roth in order to get my allocation to my desired levels.  I’m also trying to roll over my 401(k) into my Roth, although going from a pre-tax account to a post-tax account always involves quite a bit of paperwork (as well as plenty of money in taxes).  Hopefully, by the end of the month (or by the end of February, at the latest), I’ll have everything consolidated and close to my desired allocations.  Until then, it’s going to be a bit of a mess with my investment portfolio.

My savings accuounts is a much different (and happier) story.  As you might tell from the two thousand plus dollar increase to my savings, I have gotten my unemployment benefits paid out, as well as past benefits, which have swelled my accounts.  For the first time since I lost my job, I’m not worried about meeting my bills, and have enough money to start building my emergency fund back up and continue my investment plans.  It’s always nice to have some breathing room.

Spending is an uglier picture, although it’s not as bad as it might seem.  I’ve spent quite a lot on my American Express this last week, but many of the expenses are one time things (books for me, books for Sondra, gifts for my mother and her sister) or were things that I put on my card but was compensated for with cash (spending on groceries that Sondra and I split, for example).  As a result, while I added much more to my card than I was planning, I’m pretty confident I’ll be more frugal in the near future.

Anyway, enough about my budget, let’s get to the meat of my personal finances:

Overall, not too bad; a nice boost to my net worth, one that I hope I can maintain over the next several months.  But I’m happy for now.

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I discovered something good and uplifting yesterday when I called to check on my unemployment filling status.  Apparently, while I wasn’t looking, I was approved to receive unemployment benefits!  It’s not a cure all for my current lack of employment; I only have six months worth of benefits before I stop receiving any money, and even during those six months, I’m getting less than I would from working full time at my previous position.  But still, it gives me several months where I don’t have to worry about tapping my investments or spending absolutely nothing in order to make ends meet.

All of that said, however, my new good fortune is not reflected in this week’s net worth update; the earliest I think I will get the money is on Monday.  I’m trying not to count my chickens before they hatch, as far as unemployment benefits are concerned, since this whole ordeal has taught me that forces beyond my control can drastically affect how much I can get in terms of benefits.  Better to treat it as money I’m likely to get rather than money I already have.  On that cheery note, let’s go to the tape to see where exactly my finances stand:

So, not too bad; I managed to keep my spending to a minimum (helped by a storm that’s kept me home-bound most of this week), and my investments didn’t do half bad.  If I can keep my spending low, I should be able to start putting money away again when (or if) I start to get unemployment benefits again, which will be a nice change from recent days.

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I have a problem.  It seems that the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Bureau is in the process of reviewing my claim to verify if it is legitimate.  While I remain confident that I will be getting unemployment benefits in the not too distant future, this is proving to be a bit of sticky situation, as I am not receiving any benefits during the review period (and may not receive anything, if they decide I’m ineligible).  I have been spending money as if the money I would be getting from unemployment was already in my account, not bothering to cut my spending to be more in line with my significantly reduced earnings.

In a nutshell, I’m running out of money.  My liquid savings are rapidly being depleted, as I dip further and further into the money I have in order to cover things like credit card bills, rent and regular spending.  While technically this is the whole point for this saved money (most of the cash I’ve been using had been explicitly set aside as my emergency fund), my spending has been much higher during the past two months than it really should have been, even taking the holiday season into account.  I will do everything in my power to cut down my spending, but unfortunately I have to deal with my spending over the past two months without the money I was expecting to receive.

This week’s report is surprisingly upbeat, given all of what I’ve just told you; in the next few weeks, as various bills and other expenses come due, the red ink will start to spread.  (Unless, of course, the issues with unemployment get resolved soon and in my favor, in which case I’ll have a lot more breathing room to get my financial boat in order.)  With that understood, let’s go to the table:

I realize that all of this not the sort of thing you expect (or hope) to hear from someone writing a personal finance blog, but I felt it was important to point out where I currently stand, financially.  Hopefully, if nothing else, there can be a learning experience from my troubles, and I can serve as an object lesson about what NOT to do when you are awaiting unemployment benefits.  In any event, thanks for reading, and I hope I can keep providing interesting, solid information here on the Amateur Financier.  Thanks for reading!

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Well, well, well, it’s nearly the end of the year, and that means it’s time to start planning for next year.  As part of getting my finances and my blog ready for the coming new year, I’m in the process of making some changes.  That includes here on the Amateur Financier.

Some of the first changes I’m making are on my net worth statements, like the very one you’re reading through now.  I’ve added two rows of data that should help to clarify my current financial standing.  First, I’ve added a ‘Total Investments’ row to my investment list (look at the bottom of the first box below).  Both my retirement accounts and non-retirement accounts are quite similar in how I treat them (that is, I don’t intend to pull any money out of them until I reach retirement), so why not look at them in aggregate?

The second addition is ‘Available Funds’, which is my saving minus my debts.  Basically, if I cashed out all my savings accounts and used the proceeds to pay off my current debts, the ‘Available Funds’ total is my remaining cash (or currently, how much more I would still owe).  If I can get that value positive, it’d be the functional equivalent of getting out of debt (to my mind, at least).  You can call it my net worth, if you choose want to completely discount the value of my investments.  Now, let’s see where exactly I stand financially:

Well, in a word, crud.  Unfortunately, all the shopping I’ve had to do in the past week, as well as things like eating out, has really, really blown my budget out of the water this month.  I’ll have to do my best to keep my spending in check in the new year, as well as specifically saving for Christmas (and possibly a major trip sometime in the summer, as we did this year).  Definitely something I need to improve on in the future.

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It’s been a hard week for The Amateur Financier.  Besides spending the middle of the week as sick as a dog (and having to make the six hour trek across Pennsylvania twice), I’ve also discovered that I had to refile for benefits from the Pennsylvania unemployment system.  Not to get into all of the details in this post, but the short version is that it’s been a year since I was downsized from my job in 2008, and they were still paying me from that filing with the check they sent me two weeks ago.  Unfortunately, now I’m stuck dealing with bureaucracy as the most expensive holiday of the year rapidly approaches.

There’s a lesson or two to be learned from all this: don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.  I had been assuming that I would get a biweekly check of seven hundred some dollars, and planned my saving (and more importantly, spending) accordingly.  Now that there’s been a change in my situation, I need to change what I’m doing and try to spend much less.  The other lesson is that the government can be fickle; even when you are owed money, there are any number of rules and regulations that you can run into which will affect how much you get, and when it makes it into your hands.  Until you actually have the money in your hands, being sure to check on and follow up on government action is vital.

Anyway, enough of my travails with the Pennsylvania unemployment system; let’s see how my net worth is doing without the expected boost from an unemployment check:

Not too bad; my investments and savings stayed mostly flat, and it’s only spending that really knocked my net worth down.  Luckily, though, I should be able to keep my spending more under control in the near (and distant) future.  Until, that is, I have kids…*cue money flying away.*

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Ah, the Christmas shopping season.  I enjoy shopping to find the perfect gift for other people, although having to make up a list of things that I want is less enjoyable.  Ever since I started making money on my own, I’ve just been able to buy whatever I wanted to without having to ask.  It makes it troublesome to have to sit down, come up with an list, and try to get other people to get things for me.

So, now I need to figure out what I should add to my list of potential Christmas presents.  I’ll have to find something that will be useful, fairly inexpensive, and easy to find during this Christmas rush.  Frankly, I don’t know what to suggest to my friends and family.  Maybe I’ll just comb through my Amazon wish list for some books I’ve hankering to read.  Then, it’s back to shopping for other people!

On that note, let’s see how much expenses look, so I know how much I have available to spend:

Not too bad; my net worth declined, but it was also the start of the month, which means rent time.  Frankly, if it weren’t for a stock market that’s still going strong, I wouldn’t be doing as good as I am right now. I’m pretty happy about the way things are going right now, financially, which is always a good place to be.

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Ah, the days after Thanksgiving, when it is practically traditional that you spend the whole time unconscious and trying to digest the food you were devouring on Thursday in between football games and uncomfortable talks with family members you only see once a year.  (Or is that just my Thanksgiving?)  Anyway, hopefully everyone had a good, relaxing holiday, because it’s back to work on Monday for everyone who still has a job!

Speaking of jobs (and my lack thereof), my big news this weekend is that I’m getting unemployment again!  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather be working and getting paid than collecting unemployment (and not just because unemployment only covers a fraction of what I was earning, even after all the taxes I paid on my income were taken into account), but it’s a nice safety net to have available.  It also means that I don’t have to worry quite so much about making ends meet for next few months, which is especially helpful given the forthcoming holiday season.  So, all in all, some pretty good news for me on that front.

Let’s see where my finances stand, given this new source of temporary income:

Not too much to report; I put more money into my Roth IRA which did a good job of off setting the recent downturn.  Getting money deposited into my checking account did my net worth a world of good, and hopefully I’ll continue to make progress in growing my net worth.  (I’ll reach you some day, one million dollar net worth!)

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I made a somewhat unexpected discovery last night: one of the radio stations near me has begun playing Christmas music.  Not just the occasional song or interesting hymn, mind you, but a constant, non-stop barrage of songs.  In the short time I was listening, I heard holiday songs I’ve never even heard mentioned before.  Seriously, am I the only person who never heard Dominick the Donkey before?

Now don’t get me wrong, I like Christmas music as much as the next festive minded Christian, but there’s a time and place for everything.  If you can’t wait until after Thanksgiving to unleash the full force of Christmas songs, I think there’s something wrong with the world.  To make things worse, I believe this same station was just asking people to go online to tell them when to begin playing Christmas songs.  Which means there is at least a slim majority of their listeners (or the portion of their listeners willing to express their opinions online) who WANTED Christmas music 24/7 to start in the middle of November.  I’m a little horrified at the thought.

Alright, enough of my yammering about Christmas music; it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of net worth.

Not a terribly pretty picture; some Christmas spending (yes, even though I complain about Christmas music, I’ll still shop for Christmas presents whenever I can) and paying of various bills ate up quite a lot of my reserves, and without a regular salary, it’s been a rough weekly.  Hopefully, next week will be more fruitful and productive.

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It’s been nearly a week since I was let go from my job, and it’s still less than fun thinking about the whole situation.  I’m working on getting everything squared away, from getting health insurance that isn’t tied to my job to filing for unemployment benefits.  It always amazes me how much there is in being unemployed, even before you get down to searching for another job.

Now, of course, I’ve got to start looking at my net worth with an eye towards lasting through a potentially long period of unemployment.  I think I’m in pretty decent shape.  I have over four thousand in savings, which should last three, maybe four months if I keep a tight lid on my spending (as I intend to do), much more if I end up getting a decent amount of unemployment benefits.  My debt is relatively under control; I have only $1400 in credit card debt (which includes as yet unpaid balances from October and new spending in November) and student loan debt with minimum payments of less than one hundred dollars each month.  My investments are doing pretty well, and even though I might not be able to contribute to my Roth IRA for a while, I’ve already gotten a pretty good leap on most of my peers in that area.

So, I’m in pretty good shape for a guy who just lost his job.  Hopefully, I’ll be back on my feet before too long, making money and taking names.  Or just making money, I’m not that picky

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Alright, it’s been a while since I’ve done this, but I’ve decided to restart posting my net worth on a weekly basis.  Besides being something I’ve been tracking on my own, it’s always good to add a bit more incentive by ensuring that my finances get the widest possible scrutiny.  My last update was back in May, when I was more than $5000 poorer than I am today.  Amazing what a new job, frugal living, and favorable investment climate can do for a man’s wealth.  You’ll notice that I’ve tried to simplify the layout to make it easier to follow and dividing the investments into retirement and non-retirement accounts (since they are two different ‘baskets’ of funds, intended for different uses).  Hopefully, it also looks a bit neater, as well.

This week, there’s a little good news and a little bad news.  My investments are up, which is good, but I’ve spent more than usual due to my fiancee’s birthday earlier last week, which is less good.  (The spending more than usual part, not the fiancee’s birthday part, which was excellent.)  Ah, well; I have very little planned for the rest of the month that will cause me to spend money, so a little bit more now won’t really hurt me.  Plus, my income this month is much more than I will need to spend, so let the savings (and investing) roll!

So, all told, I’ve got over ten thousand dollars to my name that isn’t already being claimed by one of my creditors.  Not bad, I have to say.

• Net Worth Update - November 2007
• Net Worth Update - January 2008
• Net Worth Update - May 2008
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• A Brief Net Worth Update