Every month, I give a bit of detail on how my net worth did the prior month. This post will detail how I did in September 2007.
Woo hoo! What a month for the market! (Or maybe I should say "what a few days for the market.") I go on vacation and the stock market takes off. Good stuff all the way around!
In September 2007, the S&P 500 went up 3.58% during the month. My net worth was up 3.04% for the month and is now up 9.72% so far for 2007. I'm on track to be up 12.97% for the year if it keeps going at this rate. For the year, the S&P 500 is up 7.67%, so I'm doing fairly well.
A few things to add:
- My net worth did worse than the market this month because I continued to take the value of my house down in Quicken (so it more accurately reflects the home's true worth.) I'm doing this through December to even out the drop. So far, I've taken $15,000 off my home's value and I currently have it in Quicken at or below what I could get out of it (after selling costs) if I do decide to sell.
- In addition, I have a good amount in cash now (earning roughly 5%) that will serve as a nice downpayment in case we find a new house we like. Needless to say, it's earning below my average and thus drags down my overall performance.
- My quest to make over $500 on my Blue Cash from American Express card this year continues to go well. Through August of this year (the last month reported), I've earned $289.86 on charges of $18,041 while at this time last year I had earned $170.84 on charges of $11,219. Our vacation to Disney as well as the new road bike I bought this year have accounted for the extra charges and thus the over $100 extra I've earned so far. We'll see if I can keep it up.
BTW, I've applied for the Chase Freedom Cash Visa Card (now with $50 bonus offer as of this writing) to make even more next year using my hybrid credit card strategy.
I like the Freedom Card. I don't spend enough to make the Blue Cash card worthwhile.
Posted by: rocketc | October 05, 2007 at 01:01 PM