This post is a little delayed due to a trip I took to meet some college friends at Lake George. I just got back yesterday, and I've been catching up ever since. So here it is, our net worth for August: -$5,618: a net increase of $3,547.Now that we are getting closer to the magic number zero, the percentage change is starting to represent less and less of a significant indicator. For example, when the day comes when we have $1 net worth, a gain of $1 to a total of $2 will equal a 100% gain. We will still calculate it as it is fun to track, but +38% is a little misleading. We were very fortunate again and were able to gain over $3,000 this month.
We were a little slack on the alternative income again this month, adding less than $200 for July. Every little bit still helps, but I know we should have been able to do better with a little more effort.
Another recurring issue this month is the negative funding in the fun fund. We manage to stay within the 5% allotment for each month, but haven't been able to recover from the overspending last January. We will really have to cut back to make this a positive fund again.
Here are the details:
We were a little slack on the alternative income again this month, adding less than $200 for July. Every little bit still helps, but I know we should have been able to do better with a little more effort.
Another recurring issue this month is the negative funding in the fun fund. We manage to stay within the 5% allotment for each month, but haven't been able to recover from the overspending last January. We will really have to cut back to make this a positive fund again.
Here are the details:
Investment Update: +8.13% for July ,+17.46 YTD
Alternative Income Update: +$190 July, +$2760 YTD
The full spreadsheets with all the information can be seen here:
- Alternative Income Breakdown - Fully updated as income is earned throughout the month.
- Monthly Budget Breakdown - July Edition
- Full Net Worth breakdown - July Edition
- Where did the money go? A spread sheet we use to track individual expenses, both fixed and variable. Each purchase we make is added. We normally use credit cards so we can update this at the end of the month with all purchases, but if we pay cash for something it is added the same day. You can see the 5% Fun Fund in use here - we budget 5% of all income towards fun purchases.
- Monthly dashboard A spreadsheet that shows how our net worth has changed from month to month. It is also used to record the value of all assets (liquid and illiquid) as well as expenses and the current net worth.
Census
Thanks to your support we have been able to provide over $553 in microloans and charitable donations helping to share some of the many opportunities we have with others who may just need a little boost.
