March numbers:
- Personal:
- Gross monthly W2 pay: $5,375
- Net monthly W2 pay: $3,616
- Total credit card debt: $25,872 (+166)
- Total other non-mortgage debt: $10,036 (+574)
- Total mortgage debt: $155,188 (-$832)
- Cash/cash equivalents: $4,727 (-10,967)
- Total retirement savings: $118,391 (-$57,019)
- Non-Equity Net worth: $-67,978 (-$67,895)
- Total Net Worth: $217,322
Like everyone else, I was afraid of looking at this and let’s face it: almost $68,000 is a lot to have lost in the last few weeks. Other than selling some things (at a loss) to move money from my brokerage to fund my Roth IRA, though, I haven’t sold anything permanently. I still have the same number of shares – they’re just worth a whole ton of money less. So, we’ll see. If the economy as a whole recovers relatively quickly I should be fine. Depressing as hell in the meantime.
For analysis of the month there are some bright spots (if you can believe it). I still have a job and I’m working from home. I’m high risk so that’s critical, though of course I’m hoping to know more in the next month or so. The prevalence and severity in my area are going to be key to relative survivability, and I hope everyone worldwide can stay home until we know enough to make them safe. I’ve checked in with my tenants to see if they’re still healthy and employed and if they’ll need to workout something on their rent. So far (fingers crossed) everyone is good, so at least I won’t be struggling to cover rents. Given the depletion of my contingency fund this past winter that would be very difficult to do. You’ll note my cash balance went down precipitously – that’s because I drained it to fully fund my 2019 Roth and partially fund my 2020 Roth. In hindsight my timing on that was…poor.
All in all, it is what it is. Just as I am physically, I’m going to be hunkered down economically, working on spending as little and saving as much as possible while making sure I’m hopefully paying my contractor enough to keep him afloat.
Luck to us all, friends.
