Would someone please tell me where August went? I think that when you track your finances as closely as I do time goes by a lot faster. And I’m not sure I like living in a realm where the months fly by at quantum speed. Anyway, I hope everyone dug deep this month to pay down debt, save and invest as much as possible.
Before I get to my August net worth update. I’d like to discuss windfalls. I’ve never had a windfall (an unexpected fortune). I don’t play the lottery and I never inherited any real money. Well, there was that one time that I did inherit a little money. Here’s the short of it:
A family member bought bonds for me when I was born. She got ill and decided to cash out the bonds and give me the money from it. She was very good with her money and wanted to make sure I received what she had set up for me all those years ago. As she grew worse, her son took control of finances.
Fast forward, about a year and a half later she died. When I asked her son where the funeral would be held he said, “I don’t think there will be a funeral because she has no money left.” What? She had enough money to bury 10 people! I then called the funeral home and learned what the basics would cost. The costs were the exact amount she gave me plus what I had added to it during the last 18 months. So, I wrote a check to cover her final expenses.
Now, back to windfalls. Windfalls are best when they are enormous. But most windfalls are modest and usually $2,500 or less. The reason I brought up windfalls is because I recently received, a very modest windfall. I was being overcharged for property taxes. It was a bank error in my favor to the tune of $1,770. I couldn’t decide what to do with my new found fortune, so I decided to do some of everything. I put a little in each account, purchased some stocks and paid down credit card debt. And just like that, it was gone.
Perhaps I should have bought myself something cool but I decided to be very responsible with the money and I’m happy to report, I have no regrets. My net worth received a small bump and a couple of weeks later it feels good knowing where every dime of that windfall went. The windfall is currently working hard for me and it will continue to work hard on my behalf in perpetuity, via dividends. Imagine that, I found a way to make my windfall last forever.
Okay, time for the net worth update:
August 2018 Net Worth Update
Assets
Checking $ 27.19
SEP IRA: $ 8, 067.12
IRA: $ 13,227.65
CASH: $ 3,500.02
MM/E Fund: $ 7,450.00
Stocks (taxable) $ 5,952.00
I-bonds: $ 11,400.00
Investing fund: $ 456.67
Business $3,868.12
Vanguard $199.21
Net Worth Total: $54,147.98
Liabilities:
Credit Card: $3,300.00 @ 0% until 12/31/18
- SEP IRA: only put $175 in this month and applied the rest to my CC debt.
- Traditional IRA: received the usual $455 but the market had a good run this month adding an additional $227 in gains
- Cash: is up $200
- The E/Fund: is headed in the right direction received another bump up in the interest rate to 1.80% which gave me double digits in interest for the first time this year
- Stocks (taxable): Purchased a few shares of stock which brought the account close to $6,000.
- Bonds: are up and I’m finally earning over $20/month in interest.
- Ally Investment money: This account remains lower than I’d like and will probably remain low until I pay off the Credit Card in full.
- Business account: is up this month so my spending remains in check.
- Vanguard: This account is new and I opened it just to see if the site is to my liking before and If I decide to leave Fidelity. The $199 balance represents two shares of VYM a high yield dividend ETF.
- Credit Card debt: is down another $900 I used money designated for stocks, the SEP IRA, and some of my windfall to make it happen.
Hey guys, if you stick with it the pennies (copper) turn into dollars (cotton) and when you look up one day you will have built something that you and your family can rely on for generations to come.
