steady she goes

When I first started reading about personal finance as a young pup (aka fresh out of college), one of the things that seemed to echo throughout was the importance of saving. Sure, investment gains are great, but a big key to growing wealth was to save.

Circumstances (low income, student loans, bad spending habits) prevented me from saving much in the first half of my post-college life, but since (ironically) I've moved back in with the parents, my net worth has skyrocketed. A lot of it has to do with gains in investments made possible with savings, but primarily, I attribute the rise to socking more money away.

So here's a quick update (from approx. the beginning of the year through June), again, because I'm in such a good mood due to the market.

• My net worth has risen about 87%.
• My brokerage account has jumped 131%, mostly due to my participation in my company's ESPP program.
• My 401(k) has gone up over 90%, thanks to my contributing 15% of my salary and my company's match.
• My Roth IRA went up 24% (it'd be almost 40% if you factor in July's goings-on).

Though the month is only halfway over, my net worth has already grown 8.6% since the end of June. Usually, the growth is due to savings but this month has been special. This month, the growth's been mainly due to Baidu.

Let's hope earnings are good come July 25. ;)

net worth update

Last year, I paid off the last of my student loans and went debt-free for the first time. This year, I decided to better track my net worth than in the past. Previously, I'd keep one "current" column on my spreadsheet, and while it was great in providing a snapshot of where I was at that moment, it didn't do me much good in terms of seeing my trends.

Unfortunately, I neglected to really get serious about tracking my net worth until a few days into this new year. Therefore, the best I can estimate is that my net worth at the end of 2006 was roughly $35k. Going forward, however, I'll be tracking changes in my assets (stocks, retirement, etc.) and liabilities (mostly credit card debt). Since January ended yesterday, I realized my net worth gained 19%. I won't have true apples to apples comparisons until I can look at February's end amount vs. January's, but I thought 19% is a pretty good jump!

So what's the goal I'm shooting for? Well, I'd like to someday buy a place in Manhattan. Nothing too pricey or big (so of course, you can't get something big without it being pricey), but some place I can feel comfortable in. I don't know if its realistic to shoot for that in two years' time, but we'll see.

Update: Most of the net worth gain came from savings. Not having to pay for rent does wonders for the bottom line. Of course, I'm glad that my investments did decent during the month as well, but the primary driver was increased savings.