Debt and Savings Update 2007 #1

I am trying to decide what format is best for providing financial updates. Between my wife and I, we have three checking accounts, two savings accounts, an investment account, four credit cards, one student loan, one healthcare loan, one miscellaneous debt account, and one car loan. To post the entire list every couple of weeks would take a great deal of time and, frankly, nobody really cares about the specifics.

I thought about posting every detail about our recurring monthly expenses, but instead I will only post information about those if there is a change from the norm. As for balances, I will only post the balances that have changed.

So, here is Debt and Savings Update 2007 #1 - 12/3/2007

Checking - $2,120.99

My Checking (USAA) - $87.45 - Usually right after pay day I have about $100-150 remaining for two weeks worth of personal expenses. I drove to Mass. this past weekend for military training, and with the price of gas it hit hard. I need to drive to CT this coming weekend for more training, and may have to dip into the short-term savings to pay for the gas. I will pick up a couple extra days of pay for the training, so it will not be hard to refund the savings account.

Her Checking (KeyBank) - $89.99 - Again, right after pay day Jen should have $100-200 remaining for the two weeks. However, her friend had a baby shower over the weekend that Jen contributed to both the planning and financing of, which took its toll on the balance. She also bought cat food over the weekend, which actually comes out of the grocery budget, so I'll end up transferring that money back to her checking account once we're done with the grocery shopping. If she is careful with the next two weeks, though, she should be able to make it through.

Billpay Checking (USAA) - $1,943.55 - This is right about where it should be. After all of the scheduled payments, there is about $47 extra in the account. Once I am certain that money is clear, it will go towards the credit cards.

Savings - $450.94

Short Term Savings (USAA) - $300.41 - I moved $50 from the last paycheck into the Short Term Savings account, the low yield account destined to bail us out when we underestimate our expenses between paychecks. The goal is to reach $500, which should be right after the first of the year.

Goal Oriented Savings (ING) - $150.53 - The high yield account will start its automatic funding on 12/14, at $20 per paycheck. Any extra money after expenses will be split between debt snowflakes and goal oriented savings. We still don't have any goals established for this money, but I'm leaning towards a few days of R&R this spring.

Investments - $1,770.12

I have had one investment account, we'll call it "Primary," since my grandmother started it as my graduation present. She continues to add to it for birthdays and gifts for other occasions -- probably the best gift anyone has given me. Starting in November, $50 each month will automatically transfer, to start to build the account so that, one day, it will fund the downpayment on a house. I haven't done the math yet, but $50 per month over five years is $3000 invested, and the fund's 5-year average return is 15.33%. It won't be the entire downpayment, unless I can up the $50/month contribution substantially, but it should take care of some of it.

I recently opened a second investment account at Sharebuilder, and I was planning on using it to diversify my investments a little. There is $100 sitting in their money market account waiting to be invested, but I've been second guessing that move. I think it would make more sense just to send the money from Sharebuilder to the other investment account. Still working on this one.

Credit Cards - $22,297.03

Broken down, it is:
Universal - $8,360.00 @ 1.99% - Paid $136.52 today.
Capital One - $435.00 @ 15.40%
CitiSimplicity - $3,000.00 @ 10.24% - Paid $185.98 today.
USAA - $10,502.03 @ 11.65%

This week, $202.03 is posting to the USAA account, bringing it down to $10,300.00. The balance on the cards continues to drop, though not as fast as I would like it to.

Other Debt - $10,098.68

Student Loan - $4,462.21 (6.97%) - Making the standard payments. ($70.00)

Medical Debt - $5,636.47 (0%) - This is actually a composite of several major accounts, one healthcare finance account and a collection of what started as six medical bills that we are making payments on.

The healthcare finance account was going to pay for Jen to get braces, before she decided that she really didn't need/want them. The balance remains for now, but the orthodontist is supposed to be refunding the money to the creditor soon.

We started with six medical bills last year, totalling $3,995.00, and we've knocked it down to three bills remaining for $2,005.13. We are scheduled to pay $150 monthly, but I usually try to put in a little extra.

12/3/2007 Net Worth - $27,994.99 (-)

Comparison:
10/2007 Net Worth - $30,175.92 (-)


That's my update for now - I'm still working on the format and the "right" amount of information to put with each update.

Until next time,
Jonathan