Finance Travels

With 2 months left to go in the year, I’m happy to report that we’ve reached our 25% net worth increase for 2007 goal!

October was yet another great month in the market for us.  We saw large gains in many of our holdings including VMW, AAPL, and EMC. On the income side, we also saw some one-time gains from an employee bonus.  Liabilities also increased a fair amount, but this is due to a 0% arbitrage game that I’m playing with one of my credit cards at the moment.

The game-plan for the rest of the year is simple:

• A market correction is bound to happen, don’t let it knock the net worth into a negative report.
• Some extra-income will be realized because of some extra work I’ve taken on at the university.
• Enjoy the holidays, but keep it reasonable.  I ordered my Christmas present early – a Mac Mini.  For the kids, keep things sensible and try to remember that at this point in their lives, more value will come from college savings as opposed to another toy that will be forgotten.
• Continue with the energy savings.  The Smart Strip (mentioned earlier) should help on the electricity side.  With the rising cost of gas, limit the number of multiple trips taken into town.
• I’d like to see a $205,000 net worth as of 12/31, but don’t get down on myself if I don’t quite reach it for whatever reason.