I finally parted ways with my old job. Emotionally, leaving that job has been a huge relief. It literally took a few weeks for the stress to completely leave my body.
I took three weeks off before starting my new job, which has been a very, smooth transition for me. The biggest adjustment that I’ve had to make so far has been going from a weekly pay schedule to a bi-weekly pay schedule.
Now that things have settled, I wanted to get back to focusing on this blog and the reason I even started writing it—which is to show that significant wealth can be built from scratch in a relatively short period of time and to chronicle the building of my net worth with the hope of others joining me on the journey.
Again, for the sole purpose of this blog, I opened all new accounts and started with a zero balance in each (meaning no settlements, no bonuses and no inheritance), just the money I personally make week to week.
The current balance in each account represents eight months of automatic savings and investing. The only exception to this is the Treasury Direct I-bond account, which is about 18 months old.
Just so we are all on the same page, here is a quick review of my finances:
- August 2016 marked two years of being miserable at my job, which led to a day of reckoning. Feeling stuck I decided to really focus on my finances, which should have been my focus all along.
- By February 2017, I managed to pay off two of three very large credit card bills that I had carried for more than three years.
- April 2017, the Chase credit card that was paid in-full in February now had a balance again. It’s not from anything reckless. I used a $4,000 balance transfer check to max out my Traditional IRA. This resulted in a tax bill lowered by nearly $7,000, leaving me with an IRS balance of $2,109 to pay by October 5, 2017.
- June 2017, the balance on my Chase credit card is once again at zero. I’m now back to paying off one last large credit card bill ($11,600). This bill will take some time to pay off along with the $2,109 that I owe the IRS.
Below is the first of my monthly net worth updates. The report will grow and evolve right along with my finances.
June 2017
Assets:
Betterment: $3,330
Fidelity IRA: $5,750
BOA cash: $3,050
Amex cash: $1,051
Stocks: $1,595 (SBUX, PEG, BOA)
I-bonds: $4,900
Liabilities:
Credit card: $11,487
IRS: $2,109
