Goal Update: End Of December 2017

At the end of each month, I post an update of my goals, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred during the month. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog.

Last updated: End of December, 2017
Current value: $39,379
Change from last Month: +1,829
Percent of Goal:  36.21%

Note that the funds in this account are invested in stock, so there will be fluctuations in value that are outside my control. I never withdraw money from this account, so any dips are purely due to stock price changes.

Looking at the above chart shows I saved just over $10,000 towards the Tesla in 2017. Not bad. But I hope to increase that amount in 2018. More details to come!

Events Of Note Last Month:

My SQL courses on Udemy generated $71.74 of income. Those courses also generated $30.47 on SkillShare.

I sold my virtual currencies and made $473.17 profit.

The cash backed naked puts I sold last month ended up expiring out of the money, which is good. I wrote about this and my overall experience selling naked puts two weeks ago here.

Update On Previous Posts 

In October, I wrote about a company called M1 Finance that offers "pie-based" investing with free portfolio rebalancing. At the time I wrote that, they charged a small, completely reasonable fee for their service. Good news! They are now a completely free service! Read my updated post about them for more details.

Net Worth Update

Our net worth increased by $19,436 this month. You can see our cash reserves took a dip and our credit card balances rose slightly. This was due to holiday expenses. We did a lot of traveling from Washington to Arizona to see family and, of course, also did lots of gift buying. If you look at these monthly figures, it may seem like we are always carrying a credit card balance. We do not. I use a credit card for almost all purchases, but pay it off each week. I wrote a two part series of how to use credit cards responsibly - part one is here and part two is here. I talk about how I use them in part two. (And speaking of credit cards, remember to ask for a credit limit increase this year! It might actually improve your credit score.)

I also moved a 401(k) from an old employer into an IRA. The total value of that was about $85,000. That's why the figures below show the value of my Investments going up a bunch and my Property values dropping. Mint.com couldn't access my old 401(k) provider's website, so I had to enter it manually, which causes Mint to lump it into the Property category. The figure now shows up in the Investments category, where it belongs.

November 2017

December 2017

Here's hoping you have a prosperous and happy 2018!

If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, please drop me a line in the comments section!