Mid-year Financial Report Card
Wow, is it July already. 2009 has been flying by and it’s time to take assess financial behavior. At the beginning of the year, I had goals of trying to relax about the state of the markets, recording my spending and savings more carefully, and continuing to save every month. My net worth is up about 9% from the end of last year, although it is still down in double digits from the peak. Here’s how things stand at mid-year:
Keeping spending under control: Grade B+, generally the spending has been under control and totally across all categories, on budget. There are two areas that I do enjoy spending money that seem to be a little excessive: books and eating out. For the books, I keep telling myself to use the public library more and buy only books that I will read multiple times or really want to own, and it seems that I really want to own a lot of them. The second area that was over spent was eating out. Although we eat out less often than last year, it’s still been tempting to go out more than intended and have been on average $30 over budget each month. Interestingly, several times after going out recently, I’ve felt that the food was really unhealthy and that I would much rather have delicious home cooking. I’ll try to remind myself of this when the temptation hits.
Regular savings and investment: Grade A-, even when the markets were in near free-fall in February, I still saved and invested funds as planned. It helps that much of the saving and investment is automated each month, and that this is not the first major market downturn that I’ve been through.
Being calm despite market turmoil: Grade C, even though I’ve exercised reasonable discipline in saving and investing, I still find the volatility of the market disconcerting. In particular, I am not pleased with the performance of some of my investments in REITS or dividend yield funds. In addition, the rise in cost of living for things like health insurance premiums is distressing. I need to do more work here (on trying to remain calm) in the 2nd half of this year.
Expanding alternative income opportunities: Grade B-/C+, I’ve made some progress here especially in learning about additional opportunities, but frankly, I feel like any forward progress has been offset by declines in dividend yields and passive income. Will emphasize this area more in the 2nd half as well.
Please share your mid-year reflections.
