November numbers:
- Personal:
- Gross monthly W2 pay: $5,375 (no change)
- Net monthly W2 pay: $3,470 (+$195)
- Total credit card debt: $33,712 (+$9,101)
- Total other non-mortgage debt: $1,460 (-$8,367)
- Total mortgage debt: $148,439 (-$858)
- Cash/cash equivalents: $9,912 (+$891)
- Total retirement savings: $173,811 (+$23,817)
- Non-Equity Net worth: $113 (+$18,395)
- Total Net Worth: $285,413
Another short-ish update as this one is late as well (updating the previous month in the trailing month is not a good look and I’m making it a goal to do better in 2021). So what happened this month? Lots, apparently.
Credit card and non-mortgage debt flip-flopped pretty much. I started moderating spending in October and the slowdown was reflected in November with the exception of a $900 truck repair. Luckily that is payable out of the real estate business (as that ‘owns’ the truck) so it won’t have a permanent negative effect on my outstanding debt. Still to land is a ~$700 contractor repair bill which is being paid in December. The flip-flop is the result of moving the HELOC balance (at 5.25%) to a credit card with a 0% rate offer at a cost of 3%. Not ideal, but still saves me 2.25% on that pile of money, spreads out the payoff period, and allows me to keep my real estate contingency fund building just in case.
The other big number is in retirement – this is due to some changes I made during the crisis and accidental market timing that worked wildly in my favor. I’ve talked about NLY, a REIT I invest in (here, here, and here) and I basically tripled down on that investing philosophy while the market was tanking. For NLY I bought about seven 1,000 share blocks from February through July at share prices ranging from $5.48 up to $10.06 with a cash weighted cost/share of $7.91 – NLY is currently at 8.32. As another REIT dividend income play I bought 2,000 shares of Chimera Investment Corporation (CIM) at a cash weighted cost/share of $8.29 – CIM is currently at $10.88. In addition over that time NLY dividends bought about 780 shares at a weighted cost/share of $7.14 and CIM dividends bought 71 shares at $8.41. So lucky timing on a risky play paid off for me. Not something plan-on-able, but a nice bonus.
Next update will hopefully be before the holiday and I’m hoping to finish my emergency fund series before (or slightly after) the new year begins. Stay safe everyone!
