Net Worth Challenge

I should have mentioned earlier that our Roth IRA accounts have been maxed out ($4,000 in contributions to each account) for the year.  Back in June I made the final contributions to both of our accounts, much ahead of schedule.  I had expected to put in equal amounts of contributions each month for the entire year — but I guess I became a little trigger happy.
Of course, the accelerated contributions may be paying off because of the tremendous performance of the stock market.  If everything related to the market continues smoothly for the remainder of 2007, this move will have paid off.

After reading several other personal finance blogs, I feel like I dodged a bullet in June. Many of my fellow bloggers reported net worth losses or simply break-even numbers. I feel lucky to be reporting a gain of $6,181.91 for the month; an increase of 3.54% to our net worth. It was business as usual for my wife and I during the month. I’m not reporting a drastic increase in expenses — and there is no increase in income during June.

Now July will be a slightly different story. I reported in my last post that I received a nice raise at work! I was hoping for a modest raise of 5% that would out-pace the rate of inflation, but I was given much, much more. While unexpected, the extra income will certainly be welcome. It didn’t take effect in June, but I will see the increase in my July paycheck. As a result, I went ahead and made an update to our 2007 financial goals, upping our end-of-year net worth goal.

I’m anxious to see how July will pan out.  But for now, here is the June 2007 update: