(image fixed, it was wrong initially)
About My Credit Card Debt
Newer readers may be alarmed by my high levels of credit card debt. In short, I’m borrowing money for free and keeping it in safe investments while earning me interest. Along with other things, this helps me earn extra side income of thousands of dollars a year. Recently I put up a detailed series of posts on this 0% game. Please check it out first if you have any questions, it should contain answers to most of them.
More Thoughts
Another bullish month in the markets leaves us with almost another $3,000 increase in our investments. I have again separated out my 529 account. This more clearly shows that I still own no individual stocks at this time. Otherwise, we are making the proper progress towards our mid-term goal of $50,000 in non-retirement funds for a house down payment. Our holiday shopping made a little dent in that, but that was within our expectations. I also made an extra $150 with a credit card signup.
I’ve now made a central page where you can track my retirement investment portfolio. It’s open for all to see, and is very low-maintenance. In fact, writing this update is just about the only time I actually look at my portfolio balances besides my annual re-balancing.
Finally, I’ve made another page to show our net worth history. Here you can take a look at how far we have come so far in our journey to financial independence (as well as how far we have to go). Remember, it’s not for comparison, just for curiosity purposes 🙂
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I like the history–I just recently started reading this blog, and it’s interesting to see where you have come from before I started reading.
I’m curious–you noted you were in a PhD program for awhile in your net history post–as I am currently applying to graduate schools, I’m curious to what area you were pursuing? And if anything else swayed you away besides lack of location choice?
Thanks!
I know you have covered it many times, but I just don’t know how you keep that credit card debt. I guess if it works for you, that is all that matters.
Paul – Engineering. It was lots of reasons. My main reason for pursuing it was a love of education, which I still have. But academia is a lot more than just that. I’ve never regretted leaving though, it was definitely the right move for me.
Mike – Ha, it’s not bad at all. I don’t even have that much compared to some other people. Yet another thing I don’t really pay attention to until the first of every month.
How in the world do you manage to save $4,600 in cash in a month? I don’t recall what income range you said you were in, but I don’t recall it being crazy high. I have a decent, well-paying job, and I can’t even save half that in cash each month. I know you’re married, but I thought you were in school?
Is it really YOUR Net worth? or is it you AND your WIFE’s net worth. You should really stay consistent and reflect it accurately….
Can you share with us the job nature of your wife? It looks like she makes a lot of $$$?
Jonathan,
Congrats on a healthy 4.5% increase.
Also, looking at your net worth history I can see that MyMoneyBlog is coming up on its 2 year birthday! Congratulations on that.
As a brand-new PF blogger (been doing this for less than a month), I am very impressed. Yours is definitely one of my “must-read” blogs.
Alex
Wow, another great month. Have you EVER gone under 2% in your net worth increases?
It seems like you have an extraordinary amount of cash in your portfolio. Any particular reason for such a large amount?
It seems you would be better off having at least a small portion of this in a tax efficient mutual fund or munis.
December 2006?
I love seeing this every month.
Now, it would be cool if you could show how much your investments made vs. how much you’re saving.
By my guess it’s looking like you saved $4,600 in the cash-savings? If so, that’s really awesome.
Congrats.
– Bryan
Mike, I think that because of the way Jonathan uses his credit cards the best way to see it is as an investment and not as debt!
Nice blog by the way!
This is the net worth of me and my wife. I’m in school, work part-time at school now, work some freelance, and also this blog makes income. All my cash generates hundreds a month, as well as all the little deals I talk about on this site. I’m pretty busy 😉 I have gone negative one month I think, right after I quit my job.
Cash is for down payment on house in expensive area.
Is it not December 2006? I’m not that wonked out, am I?
The changed amounts in your assets column don’t add up right, it says $5700 but the total should be closer to $7000. I noticed this after thinking how come your net worth didn’t increase more if you had cash savings of $4600 and investment gains of almost $3000.
You’re right hazygrey, after all these comments about saving $4,600 I felt like something was wrong! I had counted the 529 in cash savings by accident and ignored the 529 line below. So the total was right, but the numbers were off when I added the new line in Excel. The cash savings line should be correct now ($3,300 instead of $4,600).
Like last month, I should note that my tax estimates could be way off, being the end of the year now. I am underwitholding on purpose.
4.5% is a pretty decent jump. Considering that you are not exactly raking in the dough from a traditional job, I think it’s going to be amazing to see how much more you can save once you are making good money in a 9 to 5. (That is, of course, if you decide to go down the 9 to 5 path).
You probably don’t want to reveal how much income this blog generate..but damn, it must be good!
Ever since getting married, my money is her money, her money is my money. I use “my” and “our” interchangeably, otherwise I feel like I’m writing as a two-headed beast or something. So all the net worths, portfolios, etc. is all for the two of us. So it includes both our incomes, and both of our expenses. She works full-time and makes a good salary too. I keep her job vague on purpose.
Our net worth would definitely not be as high if it were not for the two of us working towards the same goals.
Re: Wes – “December 2006?”
Jonathan,
I think that Wes is referring to the fact that you are saying those numbers are for December, when really it is for November 1 – 30. When you say “vs last month change”, the chart above is showing the % change from October 31 to November 30.
You may want to re-think the month you use in describing your net worth status. I noticed that most other PF bloggers have just posted their “November” net worth update.
A net worth calculation is defined as a picture of your current financial condition. His picture was taken on the 4th of December, therefore it’s technically a December net worth. It seems people tend to view the net worth statement as a income and expense statement, which is defined as a financial picture for a specified period of time, month, year, etc.
Why keep so much of your assets in cash? Are you maxing out your IRAs? The way I see it, I keep an emergency fund in cash (3-6 mo) and then invest the rest. Am I overlooking something?
JohnL: he keeps his 0% credit card arbitrage in MoneyMarkets (AKA Cash) since they are short term loans and the money needs to be in absolutely safe investments with predictable rates of return.
Subtract the credit card debt from his cash and you have his “real cash”
The other thing is he is saving for a home which again is a short term goal and needs to be in safe investments.