Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

It’s down. But you knew that. I decided to put my dental bill on there as a liability since it’s going to take me several months to pay it off. I sent them $500.00 last week. It’s actually a small ding to the net worth that is offset by my 401k contribution and a recovering stock market. My entire portfolio is up by 9%. That’s pretty crazy if you consider that it’s up 4% because of my contribution. The remaining 5% it’s up is pure market rebound. Of course, I did also have a liquidity event, i.e. dividend reinvestment, on one of the funds.

What’s nice is that I did meet my goal of having $30K in retirement money by the end of 2008. Since I’ve met that goal already, I feel ok with stopping my 401k contributions for the moment.

There’s no way I’m going to meet my total goal of having $60K net worth by the end of the year. I am only focused now on two things:

1) Pay off the entire dental bill by January 1, 2008. This means ~$800.00 a month for the rest of the year. It sucks, but c’est la vie.

2) Reduce my credit card debt. I had a tough goal of $9K in credit card balances for 2007. I know I can’t meet that either, but I would like to nudge my NCN Network graph down again. So I will focus on getting this down under $16K. That might not seem like a lot, but with the Christmas holidays approaching, I have no idea how to pay for planned family vacations other than to dip into my savings. I have pretty much eliminated paying myself first right now. I hate it actually, but to meet goal #1, it had to be done. I’m only saving about $35 a month at the moment. (Considering that I was socking away over $1000 a month at one point, saving less than $50 seems like nothing.)

My family’s been talking about LA/Disneyland for Christmas with the nephews and my parents. My mom would like some new luggage, which is fine with me, but after looking at some of the monster bags out there. I am afraid that she won’t be able to get them into her car without needing some help. Luggage is also crazy expensive, so I’ve been shopping around for a good deal on quality stuff. I don’t want to get her something crappy. I’m being picky, but I think this is one of those areas where value and quality is just as important as price.

Please don’t bug out over the mention of Disneyland. I have a few friends who work for The Rodent and can get discounts for us if we plan properly. What’s also nice is having a frank discussion with my sibling over what to get the babies as presents. I can get them whatever I want and I can spend as little or a much as I want. (I was asking about clothes vs educational toys vs toys vs money.) That’s a relief. I like buying the boys cute things, but I really worry that they won’t have college money with the way things are in the America these days. 15 years is a long time for things to change, but a little extra money at Christmastime for their savings accounts could not hurt.

What’s also nice is that my mom sent a full sweater, shirt and pants outfit for the older nephew’s birthday, and he’s really fixated on the green sweater. He’s starting to exert preferences on his clothing so maybe he’ll like some cute, but frugal clothing I send as presents. I’m really big on Old Navy for kids’ clothing right now. Decent quality and inexpensive. I haven’t been in one in years so I was surprised this summer to find that I could spend about $120 and get two skirts and two dress shirts for work. (But I didn’t. I just *thought* about it.)

ps- I did have a No Spend Day on Saturday. Lunch was provided at my volunteer training gig. My laddie cooked me dinner. And the drink I got at the bar later that night was paid for by my old college friend who was squeezing in a visit with me. As he puts it, “I make enough for three people to live on.” I walked to the training session, rode my motorbike for fun in the parking lot, and drove only to my laddie’s house and to the bar in a series of trips. Not bad.