Another look at my NetworthIQ chart

Back in October, I posted a review of the first six months' worth of data from my NetworthIQ profile. With my March results added to the list, I now have twelve month-end snapshots on file with NetworthIQ. Here's my current chart:

I thought I'd follow up my earlier review with a look at the changes in my finances since the end of September.

• October - Ms. Loonie and I took a road trip with friends, and I hosted a bachelor party, both of which put a dent in liquid savings and revolving debt paydown. However, overall debt reduction led to a 14% increase in net worth.


• November - A three-pay month helped to build up a cushion of savings, and stay on top of debt reduction, while market volatility ate away at my retirement savings in spite of continued bi-weekly contributions. In the end, net worth grew by 12%.


• December - Bring on the holidays! My first-ever cash-only Christmas drained my liquid savings, but debt reduction kept me on track. Net result: 7% growth.


• January - My year-end bonus came in this month, so retirement savings saw a bump, as I deferred a big chunk of the incentive into my RRSP. I also moved the bulk of my ULOC balance onto a 0% credit card. Markets dove in January, but I ended up with a 20% increase in net worth.


• February - The market staged a late-February comeback, which bolstered my retirement savings. Good movement on debt reduction gave me a 7% net worth boost.


• March - The markets held on by their fingernails this month, so most of the 6% growth in March was due to debt reduction.

Overall, my net worth has increased by 85% since September 30, finally breaking the $40,000 mark. A couple of things stand out from this analysis:

• I continue to see large percentage growth, although not as high as in my first few months. This is more or less common sense: as my net worth increases, a $2,000 increase in a given month becomes less and less significant in percentage terms. However, I'm still at the point where I'm growing by about 10% each month, which is very encouraging.


• "Special" spending takes its toll. As I saw before, vacations, special "night out" activities, and holiday shopping can really put a dent in my cash savings. However, this can be looked at as a good thing, since I'm managing to pay for these things with money I've saved, rather than relying exclusively on credit. That's a big change from where I was a year ago.


• You have to love those three-pay months. Being on a bi-weekly pay schedule, there are two months a year where I get three paycheques. This has proven to be an absolute godsend in accelerating my savings and debt reduction. This year, May and October are three-pay months, and I'm really looking forward to them.

In addition to the dollar growth in my net worth, I've seen a number of positive changes in behaviour that are really helping me to turn my financial ship around. Almost a year into this financial revolution, I'm ecstatic to see such consistent forward progress.

Bring on the next six months!

Goals for April 2008

On the first business day of every month, I post my update for the previous month's progress, and set goals for the month to come.

Here are my goals for April:

• Reduce my revolving debt to $21,250 (currently at $21,841.86) - At my usual rate of payment, this should be pretty much where I come out. If I reach this goal, it will put me at 23% of my total revolving debt paid off. Note: I'm expecting a tax refund this year, but I don't know when I'll receive it, so I'm not counting on my refund to meet this goal. Any lump-sum payments that I make from my tax refund will be ignored when I determine whether I hit my April debt reduction target.


• Grow my Emergency Fund to $1,310 (currently at $1,283.16) - All I'm looking for here is to keep up my bi-weekly $10 contributions, with a little gravy.


• Update my Equifax credit file with my correct postal code - Equifax has an incorrect digit in my postal code, so this should be a fairly simple thing to change (famous last words). By April 30, I aim to have this one error fixed.


• Walk to and from work every day, and work out at least three times a week - I'm really on a push to get in shape, and with spring upon us, I think I'll be able to meet this easily.


• Lose 4 pounds - I actually lost 7 pounds in March, so if I continue regular cardio exercise (walking, running, and playing squash) as well as picking up my strength training, I'm guessing the trade-off between fat loss and muscle gain should come in at about 4 pounds.


• Blog 30 times in April - With tax season wrapping up this month, I have a feeling there will be plenty to write about. One post per day shouldn't be a problem.


• Bring my lunch to work every day in April - There's not a lot of new or exciting stuff in the goals above; they're mostly repetitions of previous months' goals, so I thought I'd try something new. Similar to Krystal's February-March Lunch Challenge, my goal is not to spend any money on food at work during the month of April. We get free coffee at work, so this basically amounts to not snacking during the work day on anything I haven't brought from home. Let's see how it goes...

That list should make for a productive month.

March update

March has come and gone, which brings us to April Fool's Day, and all the associated shenanigans that flood the internet every April 1^st. Apologies for this morning's lame attempt at humour, and thanks to Brian Biggs at BBspot for his creation, Esenam Ayele. Be sure to remember to take any financial "advice" you received this morning with the appropriate grain of salt.

Let's look at how I did with my March goals:

• Reduce my revolving debt to $21,800 - I missed this one by $41.86. Costco continues to be a thorn in the side of my grocery budget, repeatedly forcing me well above my allotted amount for food. We were actually pretty circumspect this month with respect to eating out, but I wasn't quite able to meet the $21,800 mark. Still, this month I crossed both the 20% mark and the $22,000 mark, so I definitely made some headway.


• Grow my Emergency Fund to $1,280 - Once again, I hit this target without relying on interest. Once interest had posted to all my accounts, my Emergency Fund stood at $1,283.16. One change this month is that $200 of this money is now in the form of around-the-house emergency cash, tucked away in a safe hiding spot.


• Walk to and from work every day, and work out at least three times a week - I came close to this one, but didn't quite make it. I had three days where I needed to take the TTC to work (due to tardiness), and I only averaged just over two workouts per week. However, I've started running again the last couple of weeks, so that should help this goal in the future.


• Lose 4 pounds - Given that I missed the mark on the walking/workout goal above, I was sure I had missed this one as well. However, when I weighed myself this morning (for the first time in a while), I was shocked to see that I currently weigh in at 207lbs. That's 20% of my weight loss goal for the year! 207lbs puts me at a BMI of 27.3, which is down from my start of 28.0 in February. This unexpected success is a great motivator to keep this up in the months to come. Look for my weekly weigh-ins to resume next Wednesday.


• Blog 31 times in March - For the first time in 2008, I missed my target post count: only 27 posts for the month of March. Still, that comes to 0.87 posts per day (or 1.29 posts per weekday, since I rarely post on weekends). Room for improvement, but still not a bad result.

Now, on to my month-end update:

Assets:
Online Savings - $1,897.43
Self-Directed RSP - $43,271.32
Employer Group RSP - $4,039.04

Debts:
Credit Cards - $16,575.74
Line of Credit - $5,266.12
Student Loans - $28,466.94

Net Investable Assets: ($1,101.01)
Net Liquid Assets: ($48,411.37)

There wasn't a lot of movement this month. My liquid savings dropped slightly, and my retirement savings once again grew by less than my monthly contributions. My investable assets increased by $374.65, and my debts decreased by $1,061.60.

Overall, my net investable and net liquid assets increased by $1,436.25 and $1,039.97, respectively. My NetworthIQ profile has also been updated (including loose cash, home, car and mortgage), showing that my net worth finally cracked $40,000 this month. A nice little milestone to cap off the month.

Sell the blog: pay off the debt

I've seen lots written about different ways to monetize a blog, but other than a single text ad sale, I haven't had much luck with generating passive income from Loonies And Sense. Yesterday, however, I found a link to a tool to calculate the value of a blog, based on its Technorati authority. A quick URL submission, and here's what I saw:

My blog is worth $23,710.68.
How much is your blog worth?

Nearly $24,000 for my little blog? It sounded too good to be true. However, some quick Googling showed me that this was not out of line for a blog with a decent number of posts. This amount would more than wipe out my revolving debt, so who am I to turn up my nose at such a sure thing? The only task that remained was to find a buyer.

I wasn't sure how easy it would be to track down someone with $23,710.68 to burn and a penchant for blogging, so I hit the social networks with my proposed sale. After less than half an hour of making my pitch, I received an offer for more than double my asking price. Needless to say, I accepted; I would have been a fool not to. The buyer is a Nigerian philanthropist, and once my cheque for $15,000 is deposited into his bank account, he'll be wiring me the agreed-upon purchase price of $65,000, for a cool $50,000 profit. I can't wait!

Starting next week, your host here at Loonies And Sense will be Mr. Esenam Ayele. He has a wealth of personal finance tips and tricks, and I'm sure you'll enjoy what he has to say. I just need to take care of some April business before I hand over the reins.

Earth Hour in the Loonie household

Saturday evening, Toronto observed Earth Hour. There were lots of events in the city to commemorate the widespread turning off of lights between 8:00 and 9:00, but Ms. Loonie and I had a fairly laid-back plan for the evening. We joined a friend of ours whose condo has a nice city view, and from 7:30 until 9:30, we munched on a buffet of crackers, cheese and fresh vegetables, and watched the changes in the lighting of the downtown skyline.

Since darkness had not fallen completely by the beginning of the hour, the effect of lights turning off at 8:00 was far less dramatic than the effect of lights turning back on after 9:00. Still, it was a nice quiet evening in a cozy, candlelit environment, with good food and good company. In fact, when the lights started coming back on at the end of the hour, we decided to keep ours off for the rest of the evening (although we did cheat a bit by checking the March Madness results on TV).

I'm not sure how much Earth Hour actually accomplishes, aside from raising awareness and giving participants a warm fuzzy feeling, but I've certainly spent less pleasant Saturday nights, and I think we'll be making this a tradition.

TransUnion finally reports for duty

I requested my credit report from the three Canadian credit bureaus on February 7. This was my first time ever obtaining my report, and I opted for the free version, which must be requested offline, as opposed to the version available online for a fee. For Equifax and Experian (aka Northern Credit Bureaus), I was able to send my request by fax. TransUnion, however, does not list a fax number, so I had to mail my request to their Consumer Relations Centre in Hamilton. In all three cases, the request consisted of a form filled out with my personal information, as well as photocopies of two pieces of identification.

Equifax and Experian both responded promptly, and I had these two reports by the end of February. Equifax has an incorrect digit in my postal code, but other than that, the information in both reports is 100% correct. All trade lines listed are actual credit accounts that I recognize, and each line has the correct age, limit, balance and status. I was relieved to see no evidence of any identity theft. However, as March rolled along, I became increasingly uneasy at the lack of response from TransUnion.

Well, come Friday March 28, I finally received my credit report from TransUnion. The "file pull" date listed on the report was March 24, so it seems to have taken them 40 days, or just under six weeks, to fulfill my request, assuming four business days' delivery time at either end of the transaction.

As unimpressed as I am with TransUnion's turnaround time, it was interesting to note the differences in the content of the three reports. Equifax and Experian seemed pretty similar in the number and type of trades that they listed, while there were a number of accounts that were absent from the TransUnion report.

I think I'll still make a point of requesting all three reports once a year, but next time I'll make sure I send my TransUnion request by registered mail. It's just too unnerving having all my personal information floating out there for over a month with no idea of whether it's reached its destination.

That was a close one.

As many of you know, I've had some issues in the past few months with overengineering my finances. At times feel like a financial Icarus, flying too close to the sun on wings of automated transfers. I've been burned twice by my financial fiddling, once when I forgot how many free withdrawals I was allowed in a month, and once when my auto insurer charged me $0.01 more than they said they would.

Well, yesterday I had a close call with ING. Due to Friday being a holiday, last Thursday's Freedom Amount contribution didn't clear until this morning (there's a five-business-day hold on deposits). When I checked my ING balances yesterday afternoon, I saw that my monthly donation to Jazz.FM91 had just come out of my "Giving" account, leaving me with a balance of $81.75, $80 of which was still on hold.

I have to admit I don't know the NSF rules at ING, but I can only assume that the outcome would not have made me happy. I'm a little unnerved that I only avoided the sordid details by $1.75.

Paid Twice has a post today on the pros and cons of automated finances, which really hit home for me after yesterday's close encounter.

"Frugal" and "fun" activity: clean up your computer system

As part of a general aim to get more organized (technically one of my 2008 goals), I decided last week that I should clean up my home computer system. I've been running a dual-boot system (Windows 2000 and Ubuntu) for a number of years, and as always seems to happen, the computer has become rather cluttered. I always keep my computer relatively spyware- and virus-free, but there's inevitably some junk that builds up over time.

Well, enough is finally enough, so on Monday afternoon, I logged into Windows and started the process of formatting the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system. I have an old copy of Windows 2000 Professional, and there is no limit to the number of times I can reinstall this, so out of somewhat sentimental reasons, I still want to keep this OS alive. In addition, I wanted to reinstall my copy of Windows XP, which hasn't been used since the computer on which it was installed kicked the bucket a year ago. Finally, the plan is to add Ubuntu 7.10 to the mix, for a triple-boot system.

I hit a few snags in the installation process, but after a day or so of tinkering, I have Windows 2000 and XP peacefully coexisting. Tonight I'll add Ubuntu to the computer, and start the process of sharing my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles between the three operating system. I also want to take a stab at running Windows seamlessly in my Ubuntu session using virtualization software.

Personally, despite the frustration and hundred or so reboots, I find this sort of spring cleaning a lot of fun. Ms. Loonie shakes her head as I stare at my blue screen of life, but I love the idea of having a well-organized, freshly installed and up-to-date computer system. There's also the matter of actually using my copy of XP, which has been collecting dust for over a year.

When you combine breathing new life into my existing computer, with getting benefit out of an OS I've paid for, while continuing to use a free OS, and I think this counts as a pretty frugal activity.

I simply prefer not to think of the dollar value that I've spent during the installation process.

Hi There - New Member Here

Hi - Karrel from Tampa here. Just found ScrapGirls and have been busy using their "stuff" creating layouts for a Shutterfly book that I am doing about my Saturday at Canaveral National Seashore with my 6 year old granddaughter Kaitlyn to get her 11th Jr. Ranger Badge. I recently completed one about my 4 year old granddaughter Hope's time at BibbidiBobbidi Salon at the Castle in Disney World - it was both our birthdays. After we had dinner with Cinderella & Prince Charming! I love Shutterfly books, esp. as you can add your digital layouts and the print BEAUTIFULLY. (BTW I don't work for them or anything.) OK what else, I drive an 08 Jet Stream Blue Corvette Convertible. I have 9 grandchildren, 7 children, 6 Yorkies, 1 husband, work full time running a 2 attorney & me office and doing all the grunt work for them. My favorite cities are Key West, New Orleans & Tampa. I LOVE to travel & take pictures. Have about 100,000 pix of both types. Trying to get all the hard copy pictures scanned in but holy canoli that is a chore. Also, I do genealogy and love that too. Use to read but ran out of time for that. Addicted to Fox & Friends and the news. My favorite TV shows are Idol, My Name is Earl, Life, New Amsterdam, anything that makes me laugh, I love to go see comedians, we are seeing Larry the Cable Guy again on 5/16. Just saw Ron White (again) in Feb. And Frank Caliento ("John Madden") in March. OK, that is a lot but if you really would like to know more about me just go to the following:

http://www.jactree.com
http://jactree.blogspot.com/
http://flickr.com/photos/karrelbuck/
http://www.myspace.com/karrelbuck

or Google "karrelbuck" or "karrel"

My companies are Another Peace of My Mind, The Jacaranda Tree, Skuttlebutt Designs and Karrel (all registered in Florida), the are about finding self awareness and peacefulness, Quilting, Fabric Art Personalized, Jeans and clothing and Digital Designs. I am also trying to get back into web designing and will be posting a VLOG SOON!

I am looking forward to knowing you all and seeing your wonderful work. I will post something tonight.

(IT) Project Manager - Emerging Markets - London

Rate: £700-£1k/Day   Location: City Of London   

Emerging Markets Project Manager required by large Investment Bank, based in London, to be involved in a large programme to integrate various Front Office business areas. The role requires an experienced project manager who understands the Investment Banking front to back process and to be responsible for technical gap analysis and delivery of a number of key initiatives to build new platforms, change existing business process and drive through on and offshore markets into the product areas of FX and Interest Rate Derivatives. The ideal candidate will need proven experience of delivery in a Front Office Environment, an ability to understand front to back trade flow and assimilate complex system architectures as well as having experience of managing dependencies and deliveries across business lines and an awareness of pricing and risk management.

Rate:£700-£1k/DayType:ContractLocation:City Of LondonCountry:EnglandContact:Sean BergerAdvertiser:iKas InternationalEmail:Sean.Berger.CFB45.04FF7@mail.jobserve.comReference:JS/SB205520