Monday, January 21, 2008

Credit Score Dropped

14 points due to the new credit card, not as much of a hit as I had expected. In better news, I'm turning 25 this year and my car insurance dropped a good bit.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Score's Up

Yay, up 7 points, no reason in particular according to ScoreWatch. I have been paying the balance on my credit card twice a month instead of once a month in hopes that a lower balance would help.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Monthly Progress

I thought it would be helpful for my own sake to post my progress toward goals so here we go.

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - 55%
Pay off car - 10.2%
Pay off student loan - 5.6%

I haven't determined a dollar amount for retirement and if I had, I wouldn't track the progress, I don't think. It would be depressing, such a big, daunting number..

Once the emergency fund is sufficiently built, I'll send those dollars to the house down payment fund.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Score's Up

I never got the email from ScoreWatch, seems it disappeared into the black hole. So this change is a couple weeks old. There were no credit alerts so it was probably due to decreased balances on my credit card/store card. It's up to 733.

I opened a second credit card right around then also. I expected the score to drop initially because of the new line and a credit check. So far it hasn't..

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year!

Accomplishments for 2007 -
1. Financial Health Assessment

If you want to call it that.. The point is that now I have a more complete picture of my financial health. I got Quicken and set up all of my assets and liabilities. I was kind of in the dark as to how net worth works and now I have an accurate estimate. I have my credit score. I feel comfortable with my insurance (health, car, renters, disability, life..)

2. Bumped up 401k contribution.

I started at 3% when I got my job and point by point moved to 6%. Yay! My employer will now be contributing 3.5%.

Goals for 2008 -
1. Flesh out my emergency fund.

I currently have about 3 and a half months worth of expenses and some of my reading suggests closer to 6, especially for a singleton. I expect to be here by the end of the new year.

2. Bring net worth out of the red.

I'll be happy if it's at zero by the end of the year..

3. Open Roth IRA.

I met with a financial adviser to open an American Funds account this past year and refused his advice but I've finally come to the conclusion that he was right. So this year I will do that. (Sometimes I just have to come around in my own time, you know?) I have no delusions of fully funding it but something is better than nothing in the eyes of compounding over time and such.