In order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month.

My net worth as of today (4/4/2016) is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $3145.39
IRA – $22,447.78
Roth IRA – $9832.84
Loan – $0
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Credit Card – $0
Student Loan – $127,374.30

Net Worth = $-86,948.29

My net worth improved a little over $1000 in March.  The improvement was all due to an increase in assets. My liabilities stayed pretty much the same.  Although I paid off the remaining $522 of my credit card balance transfer the monthly interest on my student loan was almost $600 resulting in very little progress in reducing my overall debt total.

This month is also the final month I’ll be receiving payment for the personal loan I made last year. That will be a reduction of $450 a month in cash flow which will make it slightly more difficult to continue to improve my net worth.

Since I will hopefully be hiking the next couple of months I will have a serious reduction in income so I don’t expect to make any progress on paying down my student loan and improving my net worth during that time. Once I’m back from the hike I plan to focus on increasing my income and putting all of my extra money towards my student loan debt.

Last month I wondered whether I should invest in my IRA or use that money to pay down my student loan. I think I’ll likely max out my IRA again. I have until April 15th next year to contribute the money so I don’t have to make up my mind yet.

Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

March was a decent income month. The job income was a big help since it did make up half of my total income. My monthly income would have been a little less than my monthly expenses without the job income. It doesn’t look like there will be any job income this month. My project finished about halfway through the month and the next project I got assigned to was delayed. Since I have my medical procedures next week and I plan to leave on my hike the week after that it won’t be possible to work at the document review job this month.

My FBA income took a big hit in March. There were a lot of returns and a lot of items that sold for very little profit or for a loss. Since I’ll be gone most of this month my FBA income will suffer. I hope I can make at least as much as last month though.

Cash back income continues to be strong due to all the shopping I do for FBA. The $200 bank bonus was a nice boost to my income as well.

Since I’ll be hiking most of the month my income this month will go down.  My goal for the month is to make at least as much as I spend.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for March.

My March expenses were a little higher than I would prefer.  The expenses are reasonable considering they included a trip to the Appalachian Trail in Virginia and back that included three hotel stays and over 2,000 miles of driving. I also paid $225 for six months of car insurance. Taking out those expenses my monthly expenses would be pretty close to my $1000 target.

My health expense was a little high since I had to pay for a doctor visit, labs, and medicine. Unfortunately, my health expense is going to be even higher this month. I getting an EGD and colonoscopy which will cost me over $700 out-of-pocket. That expense should get me close to hitting the deductible on my health insurance.  Once I hit the deductible my only health expense for the rest of the year should be my health insurance.

My food expense was once again too high.  I’d be okay with this level of expense if I was eating healthy. Since I’m eating fast food and junk food this level of expense is too high. Part of the reason for spending lots of money on fast food was due to my trip to the AT and back. I still should have spent a lot less than I did though. This month I am not going to have fast food at all unless I’m with someone else or if I’m hiking the AT.

The travel expense was in part for one night at a hotel. The other two nights were free from credit card rewards. The rest of the travel expense was for booking a flight from KC to Newark to get to the AT. The flight was free with Southwest travel credit, but I had to pay the taxes and fees. Also, I paid a $40 annual fee on a credit card which should get me another free hotel night. It won’t really be free since I had to pay the $40 bucks but I’m sure I’ll get more than $40 value out of the hotel stay.

Other than the $700 for the medical procedures March should be a low expense month. It is hard to predict what my expenses will be when hiking the  AT.  My guess is that they will be low.  I’ll be aiming for $1700 in expenses for the month.

In order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month.

My net worth as of today (3/2/2016) is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $2885.97
IRA – $21,491.86
Roth IRA – $9501.39
Loan – $450
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Credit Card – $522
Student Loan – $126,913.89

Net Worth = $-88,106.67

My net worth improved by about $4000 in February.  The combination of a strong earning month and my stocks rebounding resulted in a nice little boost to my net worth. It is nice to have a net worth in the negative eighty thousands compared rather than the negative ninety thousands.  Well, maybe it isn’t nice, but it is at least an improvement. Maybe I can get my net worth to the negative seventy thousands by the end of the year.

I will finish paying off my credit card balance transfer this week. Then  I will need to decide if I should start paying towards my student loan debt again or if I should fund my IRA first.  I’m not sure if I should be saving for retirement when I have this monster student loan costing me 6.8% interest every month. On the other hand, I’ll already be retirement age or close to it by the time I get the loan paid off which wouldn’t leave me any time to save for retirement.  Should I skip contributing to the IRA until I have the student loan paid off or not?