My first net worth reveal showed that we were in the hole some -$4432.30. How did the passage of one more month treat us financially?

Net Worth: $619

We’re no longer in the red. We’re +$619. Woo hoo.

This is the magic of compounding interest in action. If you look closely at the numbers, you’ll notice that I added $1218.23 to our debt balances. Due to sheer luck our investments increased $6163.67, which dragged us out of our hole.

A small shift in the stock market could easily move us back to red.

Other questions you may have:

Why are your student loans growing?

Well, we’re on IBR and not currently paying enough each month to cover the growing interest. These are very bad, no good debts that need to be squashed. “Student Loan – D” and “Student Loan (Undergrad) – K” at least are at under 4% interest rates. “Student Loan (Grad) – K,” however, haunts my nightmares. It’s at 6.8% interest. I wanted it 100% dead last year, but life got in the way of me aggressively paying it down.

My, my, that’s a lot of credit cards. Do you need so many?

This actually isn’t even all our credit cards. I added number 8 to this list this month as it had a balance. Between Derek and myself, there’s four or five more credit cards in our possession. Credit isn’t always evil, but it needs to be done right. Our growing credit card balances, or the ones that are remaining flat are actually at 0% interest right now. So, we’re rocking our free loans. I consider myself in bad shape if my savings and checking account balance can’t obliterate all the credit card balances.

Right now, we’re worth $619, but most of that is tied up in retirement accounts with harsh penalties if we raid them early.

There’s $12,692.48 on our credit cards. There’s $11,756.16 available cash in our accounts. Therefore, all is not right in Katrina’s money-land. I’m -$936.32.

What on earth could you be charging on those cards to have such high balances?

All will be revealed in good time.

Thanks for some figures, but really, what are you making a month?

I know this net worth table is only a partial picture to judge my progress and how it may relate to your own situation.  In later posts, I’ll share more about our income and expenses to shed more perspective on the details.

You say “our” sometimes and “my” others. Is this your joint net worth?

Good catch! This is kinda my husband and my joint net worth. I track our major debts together and our major savings. But Derek has some credit cards and a savings and checking account that I only vaguely know of. I don’t track what he spends on it or how much he saves. I know whatever other debts he has he could easily pay by selling a few items he owns, so I don’t factor these items in.

Am I creating more questions than I’m answering? Let me know what you wish you knew and I’ll work more info into future posts.