October, 2015 Net Worth: $86,973

Assets

Cash

• Cash/ Savings/ Checking: $41,444
• Certificates of Deposit: $9,540

Personal Investments

• Brokerage Account #1: $23,108
• Brokerage Account #2: $10,398
• Savings Bonds: $2,710

Retirement Accounts

• Roth IRA: $8,063
• 401k: $0

Other

• Vehicle: $1,000

Liabilities

Unsecured Debt

• Credit Cards: $130
• Student Loans: $9,160

The post Update: October 2015, Net Worth “Destination Financial Independence” appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.

Finally, with the help of family, I finally landed a job and although it’s not a job in the industry I went to school for (actually the job doesn’t require a degree, and since I had one it almost ruined my chances of getting this job) it still pays close to $50,000 a year, much more than $9,000 a year I was making at my part-time job.

This job isn’t glamorous and consist of physically hard work, but it has opened the door way to me for many financial opportunities. Thanks to the increase in income from this job I’ve been able to begin paying down my student debt more aggressively and about a week ago set up a 401k account to start contributing to!

Yes! Finally, I’ll have a 401k! One thing I want to point out is that my employer unfortunately doesn’t have a matching program for contributions to a 401k. This is because they provide a pension to employees, but an employee has to be employed there for a minimum of five years before they can begin receiving the pension benefits.

Now that I have finally set up a 401k account I plan on contributing the maximum amount allowed to it each year, which is $18,000 as of 2015 and the IRS just announced that it’ll stay the same in 2016.

The post I Finally Started a 401k! appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.

Here it is, my very first post for this blog! One of the reasons I created this site was to document my net worth every month. I figured by documenting this every month for the whole world to see I will hold myself more accountable for how I save and spend my money. My other intention, is the hopes that my net worth will increase each month and inspire others that they too can reach their financial goals.

I’ve never been a big fan of having to wake up and go to work everyday or having to rely on a job to pay the bills and survive. I recently graduated college this past December, and within the last month started my first full-time job and lets just say I don’t jump out of bed every morning excited about going to work. This encourages me to save more of what I earn so I can someday become financially independent.

So here are the numbers for May…

My net worth this month was $74,822. This is the first time I’ve ever added up all of my assets and liabilities and I was actually surprised to see the net worth as high as it is.

Here’s how I came to this number…

Assets

Cash

Cash/Savings: $44,100

This is high for me. Normally I would have more invested in something with a higher yield, but because I’m saving to eventually buy a house and possibly a newer vehicle in the near future, I have a lot of my assets in cash.

Certificate of Deposit: $9,512

I opened this CD a little over a year ago and it matures in August. I’ll probably move this into higher yielding CD at maturity considering interest rates are a little better now than they were when I opened this.

Investments

Stocks (Brokerage Account): $22,505

My brokerage account consists of individual stocks that I’ve picked myself. I’ve always enjoyed researching and buying shares of publicly traded companies.

Bonds: $2,710

All my bonds are Series EE Savings Bonds.

Retirement

IRA Account: $8,107

My IRA consists of a mix of bond and stock index funds. Now that I’ve graduate college and will be able to work full time, I plan on contributing the max contributions to this every year.

Personal

Automobile: $1000

My car, a beater, is actually valued on KBB at $1,650 but if I had to sell in I really don’t think I could get more than a $1000 for it. I’ve had this car for awhile (since I was 16) and hopefully it’ll last me for awhile longer.

Liabilities

Debt

Credit Cards: $338

This month I racked up $338 on my cards. I pay these off in full every month, I only use credit cards for the rewards I receive from them.

Student Loans: $12,716

I’ve been trying to hammer away at these. When I first graduated college this past December, I had over $17,000 in outstanding student loans. The interest rates are pretty low, the highest one at 4.5%.

I got my first part-time job when I was 16 and since that time I’ve been trying to save as much money as I could. Until this past December I’ve always been a full-time student and believe it or not have never made more than $14,000 a year.

The numbers above are real and they prove that it’s possible to save money no matter how small your salary is. If you can manage to save a portion of each pay check and make smart investment moves you too can be on your way to financial independents.

The post Destination Financial Independents: May 2015, Net Worth appeared first on Drunk on Moolah.