I can’t believe it’s March already. I turn 30 this month. As if it’s a sign of things to come, Kevin Pollack won’t be coming to my birthday event because—so he says—the movie he’s filming has been delayed. Yes, a bunch of friends and I were planning to see the actor/comedian perform at The Stress Factory but he has been replaced by Greg Fitzsimmons.
Now for what you’ve been waiting for: my end-of-month financial update for February. Read on to see my account balances.
Here are some things I’ve observed. First, I don’t like how my checking account balance has been decreasing. The good news is that I will be receiving three paychecks this month, in addition to a raise (a hardly significant raise, that is) and a bonus. The bad news (for my checking account) is that I will be deferring an additional 2% of my salary to my 401(k). Coincidentally, that percentage matches my raise.
My business account: wow! I guess February was a good month, but where did that money come from? Perhaps my income statement will shed some light on that.
Lackluster market performance in the last few days hurt the value of my investments. That’s a non-issue—I’ll just keep investing.
Although I pay my credit card balance off every month, it happens to be high at the moment. I needed adequate work clothes, and I found some great prices at Kohl’s. I pay just about all of my expenses with the credit card because I’m awarded cash back for every purchase. Three cheers for Citibank Platinum Dividend Select!
I received a reimbursement for one class from my company. I transferred that money directly to my student loan at the highest rate (4.7%).
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9:40 pm (reply)
Hey there! Congratulations on your success! That’s a significant increase over last February. I do have a question though…how did you make that financial statement into a picture? I’ve tried to copy and paste stuff from a spreadsheet to, say, photoshop and it wasn’t too successful. Please let me know, thanks!
9:49 pm (reply)
Looks good to me! If your net worth went up 2.4% every month, you’d be doing very, very well.
BTW, don’t fret 30, Junior. ;-)
9:58 pm (reply)
I turn 30 in 2 months – let me know if you have any tips to share on how to survive this depressing milestone :-).
10:03 pm (reply)
Thanks for the comments! Tim – I select the cells in Excel and paste directly into Photoshop. Then I “Save for Web” as a 128-bit dithered GIF.
4:00 am (reply)
Flexo, I will see 30 in a month too!
With regard to the student loan payback, with the attractive money market yields flowing around, do you really want to pay back the student loan? (My assumption is you can get deduction for your student loan interest.)
8:25 am (reply)
I’m taking a pretty slow approach to paying back the student loan, especially the one at 2.4% interest since my money is making more than that (even after taxes) in savings accouts. Nevertheless, I don’t want to be holding on to loans for years and years, even if the rates are favorable.
5:13 pm (reply)
Congrats on a solid month. You’ve been included in the February Bloggers’ Net Worth Index at http://www.moneysmartz.com/weblog.