Saturday, December 27, 2008

A Look Back on 2008

So it's not quite over yet but the thoughts have been swirling inside my head. Happy holidays y'all! (If anyone is reading..)

It was a great year, both financially speaking and in my life overall.

My net worth increased (out of the red, yay!!) just shy of $10,000. That is unreal to me. I sort of forgot that just a year ago it was in the red. Especially since it is so stagnant lately.

I paid off 8% of my car loan and 3.5% of my student loan. Hm, not so impressive.

I fleshed out my 6 months expenses emergency fund and started on my house down payment fund. Very happy about this. I expected things to move much more slowly.

My credit history/scores are healthy despite two new accounts.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Cars and Houses

Wow, I realized I hadn't checked my car's value since last month so I went to Kelley Blue Book. It dropped $1800+ since the beginning of November. And that's for Excellent condition, which it isn't, because someone rear-ended me lightly and I had the bumper repainted on her dollar. I know, if I could do that over, I wouldn't. While my premium didn't directly go up, I realize this ultimate increases the costs for everyone. So anyway, I'm really glad I put 33% down when I bought it because if not, I'd probably be upside down now. And this is a loan at 3.95%. On a car that holds its value slightly better than most.

In great news, I got pre-approved for a mortgage through my local credit union. If I actually find a house I plan to try a broker to make sure I'm getting the best rates but I wanted to make sure I could at least get a loan to begin with. Yay! Now the hard part. There's this very cute little house about 4 miles from work. I like it, and I can picture myself living there. But I really wanted to be in the neighboring city. And it's really small. Probably good sized for me but probably hard to sell years down the road. But possibly a good rental unit at that point. Part of me hopes someone buys it quickly so I don't have to think about this house anymore. The other part of me hopes it stays on the market for a few more months so the sellers will be motivated to drop the price and I can swoop in for a deal.

It is stressful to be so excited. It shows on my face, too. The acne products deal with this and I don't do make-up.. :/