Goal Update: End Of August 2018

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 August, 2018
Current value: $51,680
Change from last Month: +$3,271
Percent of Goal:  Undefined

Events Of Note Last Month:

The big news, of course, was I bought a Tesla! Not sure what I'm going to write about here each month now, besides continuing to track my net worth. As I mentioned before, I'll likely start counting down until the loan is completely paid off. Right now, however, I'm in a bit of a holding pattern. I've placed an order for the car, but I don't have it yet, so there's no loan. I'm posting all the details of the Telsa buying experience, so you can follow along at home.

My savings took a big jump this month because I've adjusted my budget to be as if I already had my car payment. Instead of sending those funds to a loan, I'm making payments into my savings account. I'm also including in this figure the $2,500 deposit I made when I placed my order.

My SQL courses on Udemy generated $70.99 of income. My courses on SkillShare earned $37.32. All my Tesla savings are in cash right now, so no changes in value due to the stock market. I'm less than $100 away from hitting $11,000 in lifetime earnings on Udemy for my online courses. I hit $10,000 last November and next month I should reach $11,000.

You wouldn't know if from looking at the data below, but I've sped up my credit card payments this month in preparation for the car loan application. I typically pay off my credit card in full each week, but I schedule the payment to be made 3 weeks in the future. This gives me the maximum time for my money to stay in my checking account earning (a pitiful amount of) interest before paying off the credit card without getting charged any (insanely high) interest.

This has the side effect of making it look like I always carry a balance when I really don't. Outstanding credit card balances are reported to credit bureaus at the end of each statement cycle. Therefore, this month I'm making payments within days instead of weeks so it appears my outstanding credit card balances will be low when Tesla pulls my credit report for the loan application. I'm not worried about being turned down for the loan - my credit score is over 800 and I'm making a down payment of about 33%, so there is no way I'd be considered a credit risk. I just want to make sure I get the best rate possible on the loan.

Net Worth Update

Our net worth hit another all-time high, rising $36,098 to $912,595. Our investments rose by about $21,000 and our house went up by about $5,000. Getting close to the one million dollar milestone!!

I'm not sure we'll get there this year. I've got the car purchase coming up and we're approaching the holiday season, which is always expensive. On the other hand, in September, my wife will hit the income cap for social security withholding, so her paycheck will see a big increase which will last for the rest of the year. My plan is to funnel that extra income into paying down the car loan. So who knows. The same thing will happen to me, but in December.

I can't say getting to a net worth of one million dollars was ever a stated goal of mine. It just sort of happened as I started to take control of and manage my finances more. You can draw your own lesson from that factoid.

July 2018

August 2018

Our credit card balance went up, but that was due to the electrical work I had done for the Tesla wall charger. I've got the cash to pay for that and it will be paid before this post is published.

I hate that red dot next to the credit card entry. That means Mint was unable to connect to an account to update it. In this case, the account is our Gap card, which right now has a $125 balance on it. (Back to school shopping, don't you know.) That will be paid in two weeks.

I know our net worth will drop next month at least a couple thousand. While researching the resale value of my current car, I noticed that Mint was valuing it much higher than the Kelly Blue Book site does. More on that in my second post today!

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