Keeping it real - September 2005

As much as I hated to do it, I sat down this morning to figure out our net worth for this month. I knew last month was expensive, you know, wedding and all, and I had not done a good job keeping track of expenses.

All I can say is holy heck, we hit $100,000!!! We not just hit it, we soared past (ok, I'm excited, allow me to exaggerate a bit). Granted, we were helped by a couple thousand dollars in wedding gifts, but we also managed to make a lot of progress on our own. I adjusted the final numbers down $1,000 due to some expenses that have not yet hit our accounts but should be shortly. Here's the report...

Net Worth as of 9/2/2005

Assets

Cash Accounts	43,753.10
House and vehicles	181,700.00
Investment and Retirement Accounts	81,224.37
Total Assets	306,677.47

Liabilities

Credit Cards (0% BT)	37,801.49
Tax liabilities and personal loans	6,475.00
Mortgage loans	160,411.59
Total Liabilities	204,688.08

Net Worth	101,989.39
Change since August	6,300
Increase	6.59%

I have to say that I'm very proud of us. We are just a couple of 26-year-old newlyweds (today's our 1 week anniversary!) that have regular jobs and regular lives. We haven't inherited any money, nor had the benefit of any financial windfalls, but I think we are doing well for ourselves. We just live below our means and started saving early.

Writing this blog has helped me a lot. In the last nine months we've made a lot of progress, partly because I know I owe myself, and a few readers, an explanation at the end of the month if I don't do well. We've had ups and downs, lots of uncertainty, and a couple of stagnant months, but I think it really is getting easier.