| The last of my major credit card debt should be vanquished by paying off the remaining home improvement items this month. I'm pretty sure that era is over, as I've already committed to no longer spending over $750 on any one house item as long as I live here. Retirement has dropped a bit thanks to Congress making the stock markets freak out. The Zillow algorithm continues to fluctuate wildly, so I'll leave the home value as is for now.
One better piece of good news is that I've acquired my first raise since I've been at the new employment. A 5% increase (retroactive to July 1) provides a little more breathing room. I've also been subbing on the piano between 4 different churches just about every weekend (someone always needs to take a vacation). This has also helped to build up assets and soften the blow of the credit card payments. If I can keep at this pace for the remainder of the year, I just may be on track to break the $70,000/year mark. Oh wouldn't that be marvelous?
Despite the salary increase, I'm not going to change budget figures for the remainder of the year, although I do plan on getting a new phone with unlimited data (thereby increasing my phone bill an extra $10/month) by this Fall. I've had the current phone for over 4 years and I'm badly behind in this awesome technology we have all around us.
Also trying to get my housewarming parties out of the way for the summer (I need several to cover all my friends) but they can cost $100-200 each, and I can only have so many before my instinctual finance-laden conscience kicks me in the backside telling me to knock it off.
And of course, there's a roadtrip coming up in September, but I've already got cash earmarked away for that.
Gotta get that net worth going in the right direction again... |