In order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month. This month’s is a little delayed since I was hiking at the beginning of the month.
My net worth as of today (5/13/2016) is as follows.
Assets
Cash – $4029
IRA – $22,677.65
Roth IRA – $9865.33
Car/Stuff – $5000
Liabilities
Student Loan – $128,165.88
Net Worth = $-86,593.90
***Update*** After I posted this I discovered the net worth total was incorrect. The post has been updated to reflect the correct amount.
My net worth improved about $350 in April. That isn’t much, but at least it was an improvement. (actually after correcting my math my net worth did decrease a little in April) Since I was hiking and didn’t make much I thought I might have a net worth decrease for the month.
Although I didn’t have much income for the month my cash position increased quite a bit. A lot of that was due to selling quite a few low or no profit items on Amazon FBA. Those items didn’t result in much income, but since they were purchased in previous months they increased April’s cash flow.
The big negative continues to be my student loan. The loan accrued another $791.58 in interest since last month’s post. It appears that I’m being charged interest on my entire balance although it is my understanding that I should only be charged interest on the original principal amount. I will have to contact them and see if I can clarify this.
As I’ve stated before this massive student loan makes it difficult for me to get ahead financially. I’d like to get this refinanced, but that will be difficult to do until I have steady employment and consistent income. I need to do something soon since I’m basically throwing away $700 a month.
I’ve been using Personal Capital (aff link) to help track my net worth. It keeps track of all of my financial accounts and my student loan making it pretty easy to calculate my net worth each month. It is free to sign up. If you would like to sign up I’d appreciate you using my link.