<< Make Mine Freedom Real Time with Ron Paul >>
Personal Finance Update: June 2007
It has been a very chaotic month here on Tralfamadore. An unexpected ear infection set me back about $600 (like 40 million of you, I have no health insurance). Then, as soon as I started feeling better, the IRS started demanding money from me. On top of that, my house is quickly falling apart: the air conditioner is trash, the yard is a total mess, the sprinkler system refuses to cooperate and, for reasons unknown to anyone but herself, the dog has decided to eat one of our ancient screen doors.
On the plus side, I was able to land a few decent-sized projects this week, so my income for June and July looks pretty secure. The life of a freelancer is often feast or famine, and after a few hungry years it is starting to look like the tides are turning. The timing is oddly poetic; after months of drought, Florida is now awash under the first tropical storm of the season. Prose aside, here are the numbers:
The Good:
We saved our target $380. I also added an additional $2,000 to savings this month, as I explained here.
The Bad:
We exceeded our target debt payment of $1,525, and reduced our bad debt by 6.65%.
AMEX: paid $1,000, owe $15,409.30
VISA: paid $500, owe $9,569.40
Car: paid $215, owe $5,878.57
Total Bad Debt: $30,857, down $2,198 from last month.
The Ugly:
Student Loans: paid minimums, owe $27,956.28
The Mortgage: paid an extra $272 towards principal, owe $273,420.07
According to Zillow, my house is worth about $266k. This means that we are currently “upside down”; we owe $7,000 more than the house is worth. Not the end of the world, but not exactly a great position either.
Other than that, what can I say? In the immortal words of George W. Bush I must continue to stay the course, and keep following my master plan to victory.
Hungry for more?
