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Another month down in 2010, so it’s time for me to run the numbers and check out our net worth for September. It's been a great month for us even if our net worth barely budged.
Our Spending Habits in September
As you see from the graph, housing was a big expense this month. We went ahead and paid down our mortgage with the tax credit we received. We had waited until we had the car situation resolved. I'll share the numbers below, but it was nice to pay off a chunk of our mortgage.
Checking & Savings 
As you probably figured, because we paid $8,000 towards the mortgage, our joint checking account balance is much smaller than last month's balance. We believe it'll be consistent for the rest of the year as we don't have any major expenses coming up.
Our joint savings is doing well; we contributed a bit for our emergency fund. It's been growing each month as we're acculmating interest with ING.
ING Direct may not have the highest rates of savings right now, but they have better than average interest rates compared to many banks. We’ve had solid customer service from them. Right now they are offering 1% cash back on Electric Orange card debit purchases of $50 or less until November 30, 2010.
Auto Property
The new car seems to be doing well, my husband appreciates the great gas mileage. It looks ot be a solid car and I hope it stays with us for a few years. That'll give us time to fill up the car replacement fund so I can get another car eventually. My VW is doing fine, but as it's getting older, I've notice an increase on repairs. Nothing major now, but I'd rather start depositing money before I need it.
In case you’re wondering how I got the vehicles' values, I used Kelly Blue Book. We no longer have car loans, so they are assets on our books. Every quarter I’ll update them to account for depreciation.
Retirement Accounts
Right now, my husband automatically has his 401(k)contributions deposited to get his company’s match. I have a Roth IRA that I’m contributing on my end.
House and Mortgage
this was by far the biggest change since last month. We sent in the $8,000 we had gotten for the first time home buyer's tax credit. According to the mortgage calculator, the $8,000 will have saved us $23,456.89 of interest payments. It's cut 3 years and about 11 months off of the length of our mortgage.
I mentioned before that keeping a mortgage just for the interest deduction is crazy. You’re just sending over more money to your mortgage company instead of paying a fraction of the amount in taxes. The numbers don’t add up.
Here’s where we stand today with the mortgage:
- Total Loan Amount: $113,417.65
- Interest Rate: 5.00%
- Loan Term: 30 years, fixed rate
If we continue to pay an additional $150/month, we're looking at paying off the 30 year mortgage off in 18 years and 2 months! That's for a total savings of $60,768.76 in interest!
Student Loans
Like the past few months, we’re chugging along with the student loan payments. Payments have been automated so it’s been relatively easy to keep up with them; we just confirm payments have been made each month.
Monthly Summary
After tallying up all the accounts, I’m happy to report we’re growing our net worth, even it's ever so slightly.
Net Worth (as of September 30th, 2010): $38,844.14 (+300.55)
No big plans yet, we're discussing 2011 plans, believe or not. We're looking at a reach goal for next year and we're trying to set up income streams to meet it.
Your Net Worth Update
How are you doing with your finances? How are you doing in 2010 so far?
Photo Credit: Jeff Keen