Shay’s Blog

It has been a while since I have posted a financial update. I am happy with the financial progress I have made in 2006. My assets increased by $52,157.93 while my liabilities decreased by $9,776.00 which increased my net work by $61,933.93. I hope to maintain this trend year over year, but it will be hard the first quarter of 2007. The reason for this difficulty will be hard was I was working contract for the first four months of last year. During that time, I had to work a lot of hours which directly increased my income. This year I am permanent so I do not get paid any extra for working more.

I am going to have to be very disciplined about saving this year too due to the fact that the new operating that I am getting transferred to on January 1, 2007 has a 9% 401K contribution limit. This makes it hard since I am not edible for a Roth IRA contribution. I will have to increase my after-tax savings.

December is a rough tax month for me since I pay my property taxes this month. This payment put my tax spending as a percentage of my expenses at 68.07%. To give you a reference point, my tax spending was 38.1% last month. Wow! In Texas there is no state income tax, but pretty hefty property taxes. I save money every month and then pay them in December.

My goal next year is to reduce my liabilities by $10,000 and increase my assets by $60,000. I hope the market maintains its upward progress. I am thinking about shifting more of investments from domestic to international. The US seems to lessoning its world market leadership. Of course, the dollar is currently very weak against the Euro. If it strengthens, then my international investment will lose money due to currency shifts. I am currently have 19% invested in international equities. I will post when I make up my mind.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website