This month we decided to try something new and have imported all our accounts to an online free personal finance software provider Mint.com, rather than using our own spreadsheets to calculate net worth. This has saved us a lot of time since we no longer have to go through each account manually. We tried to do this a while back when Mint was new but had some trouble syncing everything we owned. We are happy to report that it looks like some significant improvments have been made and we are quite pleased with the interface.
Here is where we are at the end of November 2009:
FIXED: Unfortunately, some of the compound interest on the student loans was not being imported into our original calculations properly – so our net worth value appears to have declined significantly. (and just when I thought we would make it to the Day Of Zero by the end of the year…)
BUSINESS: We decided against including the business balance sheet in the calculation due mainly for simplicity sake (it was at +$2,100 in October and remains debt free). November was a slow holiday month (December will probably be the similar) for the floor business giving mostly estimates and having only one very small job….It is scary to see how undiversified our income was….Yikes!
OUTLOOK: In addition to using Mint we have also decided to again change and evolve our philosophy on monthly spending and budgets. Our net income was quite sorry for November and there really wasn’t any excuse.
After talking to my grandpa at his 90th birthday party this weekend, we both realized how important it is to take charge and lead and just how stationary and “normal” we were becoming.
I learned that my grandparents never had any debt other than the mortgage on their very first house, which they paid off as quickly as possible. When they were first married they “lived on a shoestring” and often had to make hard choices in their monthly budgets. Talking to my grandpa reinvigorated my goals to get our house and student loans paid off as quickly as possible.
There are many values of the older generations that I would like to implement in my own life: cooking “real food” from scratch (I made my grandpa’s birthday cake), living within your means (we’re working on becoming debt free), and putting family above all else.
Ryan and I had a good heart to heart on the way home from Thanksgiving, and have decided to step up our debt repayment, and implement a more strict budget beginning this month. The goal is to be free from student loans by the end of next year, and free from all debt by the end of the following year. A lofty goal yes, but I am interested to see what will become of us, and our income, as we strive to achieve it.
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