Not quite 2005, but I’m going on vacation on Friday, so here is my monthly snapshot:

My net worth increased by $3006 since last month’s snapshot, which is pretty nice but a little skewed since I get paid bi-weekly and I got 3 paychecks this month. My non-retirement funds now total $25,411, an increase of $2045. Not bad considering since this includes my holiday damage. More analysis on these results later…

After setting my Short-Term Goal for this month, I am now setting my Mid-Term Goal. As I have mentioned, I plan to buy a house in an area with insane real estate prices for the long term for family reasons. As we are planning to move in mid-2007, that is the target date. $100,000 in non-retirement accounts will be enough for a good-sized downpayment, as well as other incidental costs.

Let’s check on the current status – If I contribute $14,000 to my wife and I’s Roth IRA in January for 2004/2005, my net worth will look like:

Non-retirement: $23,366
Retirement:        $32,384

Thus, I am 23% to my goal, with 2.5 years remaining. That means my required savings and earnings pace will have to amount to $2555/month. That’s going to be tough, the stock and bond markets will hopefully help me out. If I assume a certain earnings rate, then my monthly savings amount may be more reasonable. I will have to consult my economics-trained friends! My other option is to put less into retirement.

Whew, I am glad this week is over. And I just lost my whole entry just now, so here goes retyping it: As in work, it’s good to have a target to work towards. First, I will assign myself short-term monthly goals, due at the end of each month. Since my initial goal this month was to start this blog (done already on 12/6), my new goal will be to decide on an asset allocation strategy for my non-retirement and retirement dough. Here is my current asset allocation for my 401k:

That is, the breakdown between different asset-types is 40% Large-Cap stocks, 20% Mid-Cap stocks, 20% International Stocks, and 20% Bonds. This breakdown was based loosely on a bunch of different websites such as MSN MoneyCentral, CNN Money, and SmartMoney, but I think I can do more research and get a more solid answer.

Ok, my planned “grand opening” for this site is January 1, 2005, since 1/1/05 looked like a nice number, and I just don’t have time to make things nice-lookin’ right now.

But I did want to make a quick snapshot of my current status for historical purposes:

Assets: *= pre-tax
———–
Cash Savings: $54,983
Brokerage (non-retirement) $ 7,808
Roth IRA: $ 2,001
Traditional IRA*: $ 5,383
401k*: $11,000
529: $ 1,097
———————————————
Total: $82,272

Liabilities
————–
Credit Cards: $26,522

Net Worth: $55,750

Don’t worry, most of my credit card debt is in 0% APR accounts, or I pay off the balance every month. More on that later…