2018 Cash Back Rewards Wrap Up, Miscellaneous Stuff, and Foreshadowing

I know I've been away for a bit and I missed posting a net worth update for December. My only excuse is it was the holidays and we went on a road trip (which I did manage to blog about). Today, I'm going to write about a couple of little things that are too small for individual blogs posts. Look at this as the blog equivalent of petit fours, or perhaps a few amuse-bouches, if you will.

Cash Back Rewards For 2018

In October, I posted my cash back rewards for the year to date - $1,026.66. At the time, there were three months left in the year, so I went back to see what my year-end number turned out to be.

I added almost another $400 exactly to finish the year with $1,425.63 in cash back rewards. That's over fourteen hundred dollars that credit card companies gave me simply for using their cards. To put that in perspective, that's like getting one free car payment on my Tesla.

Card Card Interest Charges For 2018

How much did that money cost me or, in other words, how much credit card interest did I pay in 2018?

I'd like to say zero, but I actually paid $2.14 in interest. This was only because I entered a date incorrectly on my bill pay app and missed a due date by a couple of days one month. Missing a perfect record of no interest charges pissed me off. At least I wasn't also hit with a late fee.

Stock Market Volatility

Although I was not able to post a December net worth post, I have been following my net worth. As most people know, the stock market has been incredibly volatile since last September. Take a look at how that has translated to the value of my brokerage accounts:

Click to embiggen

That chart is just my brokerage accounts, not my total net worth and the first big drop in September was when I withdrew money to buy my Tesla. But look at the fluctuations after that, especially compared to before. Crazy! It's even crazier when you realize I add money to these accounts every week, yet I still saw some serious declines. So yes.. You really need to take a long term view when investing in the stock market.

What's Coming Up?

There is a good chance I will have some exciting news in February. Let me just say that it started with a trip to the mall. Stay tuned!