Net worth update: April 30, 2008

Savings / Checking : $ 68,000     Last Month : $ 78,000
Illiquid assets    : $      0     Last Month : $      0
Taxable Investments: $252,000     Last Month : $226,000
Retirement Accounts: $219,000     Last Month : $218,000
Credit card debts  : $ -5,000     Last Month : $-11,000
Combined Net Worth : $534,000     Last Month : $511,000

Well it was a pretty good month. That big jump in our taxable investments was me adding another $10,000 in funds into Zecco combined with some great comebacks on a few of our stocks, and my wife's scheduled ESPP purchase. That ESPP money is basically in limbo until the purchase occurs. I suppose that could be listed in Illiquid assets, but I'm not going to check her paystub right? Hmmm... You can track my stock purchases on two portfolio sites I use: Cake Financial and Icarra.

Our rent is increasing by 8%. Our apartment in San Francisco is not eligible for rent control since it was built after 1979. That means a little less savings each month, but I think I can get around that by contributing to pre-tax 401k rather than after-tax Roth(k). I'll have to think about that. I'm currently contributing 10% to pre-tax, and 5% after-tax. By going to a full 15% pre-tax, I think I could regain the rent increase. Still, more to calculate.

The housing market is still looking pretty poor. Patrick.net is pretty much all doom and gloom. There's a web site trying to petition against the housing bailout at AngryRenter.com. It will be interesting to see whether that's successful or not.

Net worth update: March 31, 2008

Savings / Checking : $ 78,000
Illiquid assets    : $      0
Taxable Investments: $226,000
Retirement Accounts: $218,000
Credit card debts  : $-11,000

Looks like our Net Worth is right around $511,000! The credit card debt is due to a big vacation we're taking in April so expect a reduction in our savings / checking next month. I'm estimating another $2500 extra for vacation spending while we're on the trip.

My Cake Portfolio is only a fraction of my investments and retirement accounts. They don't yet support direct mutual fund accounts. I also haven't included my Scottrade IRA account yet either. When I feel more comfortable publishing that, I will.

I'm tempted to put more of our Savings into stocks in anticipation of the next bull market wave, but I'm still hesitant as the current situation still looks bleak. We're looking into buying a house/condo/townhome within the next 12-18 months, so we probably will keep our cash in cash, and try to save as much as we can.

I'm hoping housing prices continue to trend downward over the next year, and perhaps lenders will be okay with a 10% down payment without a second mortgage. Who knows? I'm even thinking of buying a firearm and stocking up on durable goods and rations. Hahaha.

Mint.com and our net worth: $370,000

After looking for online tools for managing my finances, I found mint.com and loaded a bunch of my accounts. I was surprised that they even support Dodge & Cox, our largest taxable investment account, as well as our local credit union. Apparently they use Yodlee as their backend to access your accounts. I'm still leery about providing the username/password information though.

After loading up all our credit cards, savings, checking, and investment accounts our total net worth is around $370,000. We don't have a house, so no difficult calculations on principal and current value. We do plan on buying a home, but that's another story.

Mint.com is does the job of aggregating finances together on a single site. It does not keep track of individual investment positions, just the total value of your investment accounts. It takes recent purchases and finds possible alternatives, like our Wells Fargo checking account could be making more money if it were instead an Etrade Max Checking account. Or our credit card could be getting a lower interest rate.

We can set up budgets for particular spending categories like Entertainment, Grocery, Gas, Restaurants, and Shopping to begin with and starts with a default budget based on the past transaction history. We can set up E-mail or SMS alerts based on certain criteria such as large purchases, low bank balances, if there are any Fees charged on your accounts.

Update 3/26/2008:
I haven't added everything in Mint.com so our current net worth is probably a lowball figure. Current estimates bring it to around $450,000. Current 401k plans and Employee Stock Purchase Plans add at least another $80,000 to the $370,000 quoted in the title.