Chasing Dollars

Seeing as this is the first net worth update I'll post, bear with me as I figure out how I want to style these reports. (For now, I'm simply generating a net worth report from Quicken, saving that report as an image, editing it out to remove some personally identifiable information, and then uploading it to the blog along with this post.)

Without further ado, here's what's happening for March:

Some commentary and highlights:

• My fiance deposited $335 in our joint checking account to cover groceries and dining out from March 25-April 25 (her pay period is monthly). We may need more as we're entertaining out-of-town guests who will be visiting us to attend a wedding shower being thrown for us in the next couple of weeks.
• I am currently close to $3,000 in my emergency fund at my credit union (at a 4.0% APY). I want to get this to $12,000 before I feel comfortable, so I'm 25% of the way there. I'd like to reach that particular savings goal by August 1, 2006.
• I opened up an HSBC savings account and deposited $25 in it to obtain the $25 cash bonus they were offering this month–an instant 100% return on my investment. I'll leave that there for now. After I reach $12,000 in my emergency fund, I would like to have an equal amount in the HSBC account, which will take some building.
• I don't carry any revolving debt on any of the credit cards except the Bank of America card, which I pay about $500 a month toward. The US Airways Mastercard's credit line is currently tied up in a 0% cash advance I took in late January to fund a new business operation I'm starting.
• The personal loan is accuring interest at a rather high rate, but it was a 12-month loan and I'm five payments into it. I may leave it be for now and continue making payments, as it will be completely satisfied in December.

What to expect for next month:

• At the beginning of each quarter I generally receive rather large checks from a couple of clients to cover my portion of sales of some products. I'm looking forward to receiving this in the next week or so. The business will receive the income and I'll immediately distribute it to myself.
• We have a ton of wedding expenses coming up. I owe $5,000 around the 20th-25th of April to our travel agent for the final part of our honeymoon. I also found out it will cost of $640 for the both of us to get the vaccinations we need to travel to our honeymoon destination. My advice: don't get married. <g>
• I don't want to dip into savings for anything in April, which probably means I won't be able to contribute anything to savings. It's just not going to work.

I'll shed some light on more individual parts of this financial picture in upcoming posts.

Update: I've created an account over at NetworthIQ.  You can find me at http://www.networthiq.com/people/chasingdollars.  This is the first month for which I've entered data, so the chart isn't yet all that meaningful.  But that will change!