OK, so it’s maybe been just a little while since I up updated. 
Let’s just say a few personal things came up that took me off this particular task for awhile. In the end, things worked out just fine. But for some time there, this site was nowhere near the top of my priorities list and we’ll just have to leave it, for now at the very least.
How about a not-as-brief-as-it-started update as to where this particular family stands as of today, this last day of 2005:
| Assets/Liabilities | As of 12/31/05 | ||
| Assets | |||
| Liquid Assets | |||
| Checking | $133.24 | ||
| Cash | 4,000.00 | ||
| ING Orange Savings | 207.46 | ||
| HSBC Savings | 1,000.00 | ||
| Semi-Liquid Assets | |||
| Firstrade ROTH | $139.11 | ||
| Firstrade SIMPLE | 2,661.28 | ||
| Wife’s 457 | 27,615.78 | ||
| Wife’s Rollover IRA | 12,512.33 | ||
| Illiquid Assets | |||
| Our Home | $54,000.00 | ||
| Our Vehicles (appx. KBB) | 6,000.00 | ||
| TOTAL Assets | $108,269.20 | ||
| Liabilities | |||
| Credit Card Debts | |||
| Chase | $8,991.47 | ||
| American Express | 8,008.85 | ||
| MBNA | 0.00 | ||
| Total Credit Cards | $17,000.32 | ||
| Other Debts | |||
| Home Mortgage | $40,000.00 | ||
| TOTAL Liabilities | $57,000.32 | ||
| NET WORTH | $51,268.88 | ||
A few things of note since the last time I checked in:
- shortly after the July 1st yearly interest payout, we rolled over the wife’s non-vested Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) account monies into a traditional IRA; I’d like to do the same with her choice-limited 457 plan, but like I said before, other aspects of life got in my way.
- our hospital bills have been entirely paid off, and are thus removed from the listing.
- in the interest of science (ok, not really; how about in the interest of, say, more complete information?), I added the Blue Book value of our cars to our assets. I realize to some this is somehow controversial, so much so that there are those who somehow consider a vehicle a liability. However, as someone with a touch of accounting in my background, it seems patently ridiculous to consider paid off vehicles as liabilities, so I’m going to respectfully ignore those people…
- if you happen to be playing along, you’ll notice that a big asset, along with an associated big liability, got added to the statement since my last update. Earlier this month we signed on a nice little house on an acreage. Not nearly as small as the price would indicate, but no 4,500+ square foot, 6bdrm/4.5bath behemouth either. Like I said in a much earlier post, we’re living in a fairly rural area so real estate prices aren’t insane here like in some quarters, but we also got a ridiculously good deal. That said, that particular liability will most definitely become larger in the next few months (and should, if I am being thorough, show an accompanying asset value increase, but I haven’t decided quite how I’ll go about that for the moment) as a few fairly costly renovations get going to really make the place liveable in a modern world (ala some electrical/kitchen/bathroom updates really need to be done). In the end we’ll still end up spending substantially less than a similarly outfitted home in the area, and it will be to our specs rather than the previous owners, so I’m not particularly bothered by taking on a bit more debt in this area. (Oh, did I mention we’re still renting until the renovations are mostly complete? No? Well, we are – and with the thought of the combination of a fearless 21-month-old who enjoys nothing more than getting into absolutely everything and the power tools & chaos that is heavy renovation, it’s worth every penny’s in piece of mind IMO! It’s only money… )
- despite my best intentions, the credit card balances are still not paid off. Honestly, I had no expection that they would be entirely paid off at this point anyway, so I’m not too disappointed. I had wanted them paid off more than they have been, however. Other aspects of life intruded (sorry, I know I keep offhandedly mentioning something that I won’t likely be discussing anytime soon; I’ll try to avoid it in the future), then the incredible opportunity with the house was dropped in our lap and we decided to avail ourselves of it (whose downpayment would have likely went to take care of a large chunk of these debts – it still was the correct choice IMO), and here we are. Those balances are, notwithstanding, almost $2,250 smaller than they were the last update, and the balances are sitting at 3.99% (on Chase, fixed for the life of the current debt) & 0% (on AMEX until October).
- yes, that cash amount is correct, and no, that’s not in a savings account. That’s a pile of 40 $100 bills in cold hard cash (a XMas bonus) sitting in a neat stack next to the keyboard here while I decide what to do with it. We have a few appliances that need buying, as well as some other new home minutiae that need taking care of, so I’m not counting on the bonus being all that helpful in debt reduction, but I’m hoping that at least a few out of that stack can find their way in that direction.
So there we have you caught up on us, at least as far as a few financial numbers are concerned. In the grand scheme of things, being a little behind on the ol’ debt repayment plan, while marginally disappointing, doesn’t keep me from getting a good night of sleep like it might have in the past. In the last six months, we’ve managed to put aside somewhere in the neighborhood of $15,000+ without major disruption to the way we live. The decision to put that money towards a large, life-enhancing asset rather than the debt bothers me only inasmuch as it would have been nice to have somehow done both… 
Oh, before I forget: Have a happy & safe New Years Eve!
And my first pre-new years new years resolution? Post more than once every six months! 
[tags]personal finance, money, mortgage, new years, debt[/tags]
