I haven’t been posting with much regularity due to poor health. Hopefully in August I’ll do more than one post. But at least July treated me well in the financial sense, which wasn’t a surprise given it was a three-paycheck month. All of my account balances increased:
| Liquid Assets | Jun-17 | Jul-17 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash & Checking | $898 | $1,000 | +$102 |
| Emergency Fund | $3,154 | $3,380 | +$226 |
| Short Term Savings | $850 | $1,125 | +$275 |
| Vanguard Fund | $300 | $500 | +$200 |
| Illiquid Assets | Jun-17 | Jul-17 | Change |
| Brokerage | $450 | $460 | +$10 |
| Savings Bonds | $1,904 | $2,060 | +$156 |
| Retirement | Jun-17 | Jul-17 | Change |
| Roth IRA | $16,117 | $17,367 | +$1,250 |
| Traditional 401K | $23,117 | $26,171 | +$3,054 |
| Net Worth | $46,181 | $52,063 | +$5,882 |
| % Change | 12.7% | ||
I love the months where my net worth increases by 10 percent or more. I know as my net worth increases, 10+ percent increases will be fewer and farther between.
I’m on track to meet my goals for 2017:
| Fund/Goal | Contrib. | Total | Goal | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 401K | $2,214 | $10,636 | $18,000 | 59.1% |
| Roth IRA | $810 | $4,000 | $5,500 | 72.7% |
| Emergency Fund | $455 | $5,440 | $5,500 | 98.9% |
| Vanguard Fund |
$200 | $500 | $3,000 | 16.7% |
| Vacation* | $275 | $1,125 | $1,000 | 112.5% |
I’ve now fully funded my vacation fund. And I’m almost done with the goals directed towards my emergency fund and IRA. I still have a ways to go with the vanguard fund, but I don’t plan to finish that in 2017. I’ll be using the $3,000 to invest in one of vanguard’s mutual funds. I’m not sure which fund. I’m also not sure if the investment will be in my brokerage or Roth account.
It also looks like I may need to come up with additional goals.
July Budget
As far as the budget went, I could have done better. I increased the “Everything Else” category by $100 because of gift purchases.
| Category | Budgeted | Actual | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent | $1,650 | $1,650 | $0 left |
| Fixed Expenses | $100 | $89 | $11 under |
| Medical | $- | $65 | |
| Food | $250 | $201 | $49 under |
| Everything Else | $300 | $453 | $153 over |
| Total | $2,300 | $2,393 | $93 over |
I’m consistently going over budget in the “Everything Else” category. Online shopping continues to be a problem for me. I think a major disconnect lies in my checking account not instantaneously reflecting my credit card purchases. I have a few strategies to at least attempt to meet my budget in August:
- Limit online purchases to two days a week
- Keep track of daily expenses.
- I’ll probably publish this “diary”
- Utilize a daily budget method
- This means limiting my spending to $15/day and rolling the left over balance into subsequent days.
- I will now be setting aside money from my checking accounts at the end of the day so that I can actually see the balance decreasing. I think the visualization should help immensely.
A Tale of Finances 
Well done on your month’s progress. I especially like the increases in the liquid assets. Question for you, why do you consider your Brokerage account as illiquid? I would think you would be able to convert the current value of the account into cash within a week or less and without a significant difference to its current value.
More curious than anything else. Great job, otherwise!
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I intend to use the brokerage account as a retirement vehicle so I don’t have plans to liquidate it any time soon. So I keep it separate for mental purposes with my other “Do not touch” accounts.
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Makes complete sense. It’s amazing how much of a mental game all of this is.
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