For the First Time in the History of This Blog, Our Net Worth Decreased

Today I repeated the same that that I do every month. I plug in our assets and liabilities into my NetWorth IQ profile and hit save and then see how much our net worth has increas…

You can only imagine how I stared at the computer screen when I saw that it decreased this time around. It decreased by $860 to be exact. Don’t get me wrong, I knew there would be rough patches on this journey and I can name a few right off bat. I always hoped we could make some sort of progress with the net worth. I guess April proved to be too formidable a foe. Reduced income and increased expenses are a bad combination and when I post our income and expense report you will see what I mean. I’m hoping to get that posted in a more timely manner this month.

I guess I’m not really upset or angry that our net worth decreased. I am trying to liken how I feel to something that you can relate with but I can’t. It’s a very odd feeling that probably is exaggerated due to me being quite tired right now.

In any case, feel free to check out the total extent of our debt at my NetWorth IQ profile. For a little pick-me-up, I decided to see how much we have reduced our total debt since February of 2006 (I only track the credit card debt on here):

TOTAL DEBT

February 2006: $105,468
April 2007: $86,243

We paid off $19,225!

Yes, that was a good pick-me-up. I’m glad I did it.

Now I’m getting some sleep

Posted by Tricia on May 3, 2007 at 10:53 PM in Net Worth | 12 Comments »
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Flexo responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 12:05 am
These things happen, and I’m sure you know a decrease one month doesn’t mean you’re on the wrong path… And you have great success to celebrate as the debt continues to disappear!

I’m glad you’re getting some much needed sleep after your stressful week. I could use some as well!
jean responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 3:28 am
You should feel GREAT about the progress you have made. Positive energy creates more positive energy! Keep it going!!!!
Matt responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I’ve had those bumps come up myself but I haven’t made nearly as much progress to getting out of debt and attaining any real wealth. You should be proud of your success and not let it derail your progress or discourage you.
AKB responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 8:29 am
April hit me for a loop too but if I ground myslef i May, hopefuly by August, I’ll feel like I am doing some good. Check out my progress…

AKB
danielle responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Also, I noticed that a few hundred dollars disappeared from the credit card debt at the top of this page. Congrats on that. Set small goals- maybe first, set the goal to get through this rough patch, and then the next goal can be to break 20k.
Good luck
Seth responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 9:46 am
The reason your Net Worth went down this month is because you paid your taxes, which you have owed for a while now. So technically it was a debt that wasn’t accounted for in your Net Worth. If they had been all along then this month your Net Worth would have increased just like all the other months by the elimination of your taxes debt! Keep up the good work!!
Tricia responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 9:55 am
danielle – yes, it did go down a little

Seth – excellent point!
Jen responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
You are attacking your debt the way you’re supposed to take off a band-aid: hard and fast. Of course it hurts, but let’s face it, you are nearing the 20K mark. There’s no arguing with those kind of results!! I’d hate to come off as uncouth but…you kick ass! Remember that!
James responded:
Posted: May 4th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Yeah, I’m with the other commenters. Some months are down months like that, but as long as you stay focused, you’ll eventually meet your goals!
DCSmith responded:
Posted: May 5th, 2007 at 11:06 am
I think the feeling is disappointment.

You’re not angry because there’s really nobody to be angry at. It’s not regret because you’ve done nothing you could do differently. You know it has to be this way, nothing really went “wrong” due to a mistake or something, you just wish it didn’t have to be that way. You’re disappointed.

The thing is, this is one of those secrets of staying financially responsible. When you live based on how much more available credit you have, you really have nothing to lose because you don’t have much effort put into gettng that money. It’s just a few more bucks in minimum payment from a paycheck you don’t even have yet. But when you’ve worked your @ss off to get some coin in the bank and then you have to spend it (especially on fun stuff like medical bills and taxes), you’re disappointed that the balance has gone down instead of up.

That disappointment is a very fine filter that any purchase, or worse (shudder) recurring cost, has to pass through before the debit card comes out. It’s really a good tool to have around.

So my vote is for disappointment. At least that’s what I’m feeling after just authorizing my mechanic to go ahead with $1700 in car repairs.
Blogging Away Debt » Blog Archive » April 2007 - Definitely Not the Best Month We’ve Had responded:
Posted: May 21st, 2007 at 11:11 pm
[...] was a rough month. It was the first month since starting this blog that our net worth decreased. By looking at the bottom line of this report, you can see why. We spent more than we [...]
Blogging Away Debt » Blog Archive » Net Worth Update - Up $257.00 responded:
Posted: June 2nd, 2007 at 11:38 pm
[...] a huge increase in our net worth this month, but at least it’s not a decrease like last [...]