December numbers:
- Personal:
- Gross monthly W2 pay: $5,375
- Net monthly W2 pay: $3,387
- Total credit card debt: $24,782 (+$4,484)
- Total other non-mortgage debt: $4,865 (-$3,937)
- Total mortgage debt: $154,608 (-$501)
- Cash/cash equivalents: $14,332 (+$586)
- Total retirement savings: $165,017 (+$3,763)
- Non-Equity Net worth: $-4,907 (+$4,302)
- Total Net Worth: $218,091
- Total Net Worth: $222,393
Still lots of money moving around, and a truly disappointing amount moving out of my pocket. The large increase in credit card debt (and corresponding decrease in other non-mortgage debt) was me moving a large chunk of my HELOC debt onto a 0% offer. Mostly I was doing that to accommodate a big unexpected expense (yes, another one! I know, I was shocked too!) – I needed to replace a portion of the roof at one of my rentals to the tune of about $3,000. At the moment there aren’t any reserves in the real estate business, so that needs to come out of my pocket.
The total mortgage debt going down is just a result of mortgage paydown. There was a delay with the re-appraisal of my new house, and the closing has been pushed back to January. So that’s one more month of interest-only on the HELOC, but at least I found out I locked in a 3.5% 30 year loan. Improvements in cash and retirement are pretty much entirely due to the market.
Given the holiday season this month and some travel expenses in the early half of the year I expect another month or two of challenged finances. My plan is to focus vigorously on collectible sales to make sure I offset as much of the damage as possible, and minimize spending on real estate. It being winter, that last shouldn’t be a huge issue, but we’ll see what breaks in the next month that needs to be fixed. Until then, Happy Holidays everyone! Might take next week off, might not – always in motion is the future!
