December financial snapshot

Below is a monthly snapshot of our investments, major debts and net worth for December as they compare with the previous month and some thoughts.

[Please note: checking accounts, credit cards without balance transfers and house/car values are excluded from this table for simplicity. The net worth calculation shown is based on our full balance sheet provided on the right which includes these values.]

• December was a very good month for us, but we were not able to pull out another record breaker though. Our net worth gains achieved in November 2006 now stands as the mark to beat going forward. Vanguard’s Target Retirement 2045 (VTIVX), our sole investment of choice, had a return of 1.31% last month and had a 15.98% return for the year.



• We saw a milestone reached - we passed the $150K mark in net worth for the first time. Shortly afterward we paid our property taxes (using funds from our cash reserve held with EmigrantDirect) and found ourselves back under that mark and still remain there for the time being.



• We continued to pay down our second mortgage debt at an accelerated pace and even were able to make an extra mortgage payment before the year ended.



• We paid off the last remnants of student loan #2 by making the final payment to the transferred balance on the Citi Simplicity card.



• We increased our net worth by 2.96% in December by adding another $4,209.84 to the stack.