I’m not sure how it happens so fast these days, but already another month is in the books. We’ve had a few interesting events on the financial front this month, as our quasi-balance sheets shows:
| Apr30′06 | May31′06 | Change | |
| Assets | |||
| Liquid Assets | |||
| Checking | $41.89 | $93.09 | $51.20 |
| Cash | 420.00 | 90.00 | (330.00) |
| ING Orange Savings | 1,050.74 | 1,356.13 | 305.39 |
| HSBC Savings | 1,003.22 | 1,007.11 | 3.89 |
| Total Liquid | $2,515.85 | $2,546.33 | ($30.48) |
| Semi-Liquid Assets | |||
| Firstrade ROTH | $185.10 | $157.64 | ($27.46) |
| Firstrade SIMPLE | 3,603.90 | 4,488.56 | 884.66 |
| Wife’s 457 | 29,998.20 | 28,788.37 | (1,209.83) |
| Wife’s Rollover IRA | 13,583.66 | 13,067.80 | (515.86) |
| Total Semi-Liquid | $47,370.86 | $46,502.37 | ($868.49) |
| Illiquid Assets | |||
| Our Home | $54,000.00 | $54,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Our Vehicles | 5,750.00 | 5,750.00 | 0.00 |
| Gifted Property | 0.00 | 45,000.00 | 45,000.00 |
| Total Illiquid | $59,750.00 | $104,750.00 | $45,000.00 |
| TOTAL Assets | $109,636.71 | $153,798.70 | $44,161.99 |
| Liabilities | |||
| Credit Card Debts | |||
| Chase | $8,268.57 | $7,983.09 | ($285.48) |
| American Express | 2,000.00 | 0.00 | (2,000.00) |
| MBNA | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Total Credit Cards | $10,268.57 | $7,983.09 | ($2,285.48) |
| Other Debts | |||
| Home Mortgage | $39,829.83 | $39,786.78 | ($43.05) |
| Low Energy Loan | 0.00 | 17,440.52 | 17,440.52 |
| Line of Credit | 0.00 | 50.00 | 50.00 |
| Total Other Debts | $39,829.83 | $57,277.30 | $17,447.47 |
| TOTAL Liabilities | $50,098.40 | $65,260.39 | $15,161.99 |
| NET WORTH | $59,538.31 | $88,538.31 | $29,000.00 |
As always, a few notes:
- Another big asset makes an appearance – gifted property worth approximately $45,000 (appraisers estimate, not mine). My father recently deeded to us a piece of property he owned, essentially out of the blue. Apparently I am now the owner of several acres of prime Minnesota farm land. I feel reasonably guilty accepting it, as he’s been nothing but generous my entire life, and I have certainly had my periods of not being the easiest child to raise – at least he received a definite tax advantage for this particular gift of property, or I would have flat out refused on principle even though he is an extremely successful businessman wanting to help out his son. And I will likely feel even more guilty when we eventually sell it, but he made it crystal clear that there was absolutely no need to hold onto the property unless we really wanted it – “it’s just dirt, use it as you will.” I don’t plan to farm, and have no desire to be a farmland landlord (especially a long-distance landlord), so right now I’m using it as collateral on my renovation loan & line of credit. When I sell the land in the (hopefully!) not-to-distant future, I’ll use the proceeds to cover the loan/credit line. Any excess will go towards paying down any other debts. Grateful does not come close to covering it…
- As I said in a previous post, several of our renovations qualified for a low interest energy loan. Quite a bit of progress on those renovations have been going on, which makes for a very chaotic home right now!
- Earlier this month, we opened up a fairly substantial line of credit on the gifted property at a decent rate (Prime – .5%, adjusting yearly). The $50 in it right now was for an fee I didn’t cover at signing as I left my wallet and checkbook at home accidentally.
- My retirement investments (like most people’s) have tanked this month. The net increase in my SIMPLE account is there only because a few months worth of contributions were recently deposited. C’est la vie. Those investments are sitting for quite some time yet, and I have confidence in the long-term prospects of our capitalist system.
- On the debt reduction side of things, adios AMEX! That last $2,000 sure felt nice to zero out. Chase beware – you’re next!
What will next month bring? Who knows… stay tuned for the next exciting episode! 
[tags]personal finance,report card,assets,liabilities,property,gift,investments,credit cards[/tags]
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Wow, that’s a nice gift! Congrats on the good month.
Cool. How many acres? And it’s only valued at $45K?
Having lived in cities and suburbs for most of my life, I didn’t how inexpensive “non-metropolitan” land could be? My dream of buying a few acres in Northern Illinois and replanting it with native prairie species may not be so far-fetched after all.
Yeah, it was an insanely nice gift. I’m still floored by it!
It’s a just-slightly-over 20 acres of land (what exactly my father was doing with 20 acres of MN farmland is something I’m going to have to ask him about later!). So at an assessed $2250 an acre compared to non-metropolitan land, I’m sure it seems insanely cheap.
Go ask a farmer though, he’ll tell you how expensive land really is…
and how it’s not raining enough…
or how it’s raining too much…
or how prices are too high (when they’re buying)…
or how prices are too low (when they’re selling)…
Sorry, off on a tangent, just having a laugh with one of my farmer clients who just left!
Yeah. What was your dad doing with this land?
And … what are you planning to do with it?
I’ll check with him, just out of curiousity – seems a pretty odd off-the-cuff investment, but he definitely does a few interesting with his money!
Me, I’m planning to do nothing with it for the time being (too many other things going on right now) besides using it as collateral for that loan & line of credit. It’s almost certainly too late to rent it out for use as farmland this year, especially in Minnesota! But like I said, I’m not all that interested in being a landlord right now, so I plan on putting it up for sale in the not-too-distant future.
it was a nice gift.it is an assessed $2250 an acre compared to non-metropolitan land, I’m sure it seems insanely cheap.
It is informative and useful. Nice gift too. Congrats!
Nice gift…Congrats!!!
We should be very careful about the gifted property because it creates lot of problem..Paying tax is also high in case of the gifted property..
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