Just like in November I did a horrible job of keeping track of my finances. I’ve decided to use a different system in 2020, called pen & paper. I received 3 pay checks and my net worth increased:

Liquid Assets	Start	End	Change
Cash & Checking	$3,800	$3,300	($500)
Emerg. Fund	$8,400	$8,400	+$0
Savings	$2,100	$1,300	($800)
Brokerage	$3,900	$3,900	+$0
HSA	$3,400	$3,700	+$300
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	Change
Home Eq	$34,000	$40,000	+$6,000
401K	$73,100	$75,800	+$2,700
Roth IRA	$33,500	$34,000	+$500
Debt	Start	End	Change
Loans	($3,100)	($3,100)	+$0
Net	$159,100	$167,300	$8,200
% Change	5.2%

The spending amounts below are incorrect and inflated. I bought gifts and the costs were (mostly) split with family members which isn’t accounted for. I have also done a poor job of keeping my sinking funds organized, so the fact that these purchases were actually budgeted for isn’t reflected either. For simplicity, let’s pretend it was a typical month and that none of the aforementioned snafus happened:

Category	Budget	Actual	Diff
(1)Bills & Utilities	$125	$102	$23 under
(2)Food	$300	$311	$11 over
(3)Medical	$-	$475	$-
(4)Misc	$300	$1,066	$766 over
(5)Sinking Funds	$-	$-	$-
Total (1+2+4+5)	$725	$1,479	$754 over
Total + Medical (3)		$1,954	$1,229 over

Based on incorrect assumptions, it was a terrible month in which I went well over budget. In actuality, the overspending was planned and saved for in sinking funds (which is why my net worth statement reflects an $800 decrease in savings). I’ll do better with keeping track of things in 2020. Apologies for a sloppy update for November & December 2019. Happy New Year!