January 2010 Net Worth Update and End of Year Summary

From December 2 to January 1, my net worth increased an average of $51.82 per day, or $1,554.54 overall, to -$55,047.20. This is a 2.82% increase, and results in a projected zero net worth on 9/1/2014.

Despite overspending, December was a very good month. The second best I’ve had since I started tracking my net worth, apparently.

For the year, since I started tracking in May, my net worth has increased $7,879.62, or 14.31%. Not too shabby. I completely paid off three debts (Comcast, old checking account, and my sister), and reduced my total debt $7,913.48, or 12.24%. I began the year with $64,658.34 and ended it with $56,744.86 in debt. I’ve copied the sidebar for the year below, so that I can start it fresh with 2010 numbers. What is most telling is my progress on my 5 year goal of being completely debt free by May 2014. I’ve been averaging a $226.10 reduction in debt per week. Ideally, from the beginning, I’d be averaging $247.83, which means at this moment I need to average $251.24 for the remainder to meet my goal. That’s an extra $25.14/week, or $108.94/month. I’m sure I can handle that, as there are many easy ways to make up that deficit.

• Back on January 1, 2009, I outlined some goals for the year. Indeed, 2009 ended up being a hell of a lot better than 2008, making a little more forward progress than I made backwards progress that year. At the end of January, I moved out of the old apartment and in with my grandfather, who has been far too nice to me this past year. Then a couple of days later, I sunk a ton of money in to my truck.
• In mid-February, I was wrongly charged with harassment by my former neighbor, as well as sued by my landlord for unpaid rent. Debt Sucks was then linked to from one of the Wall Street Journal’s many blogs. I also finally worked out a payment plan with Capital One, which has been going swimmingly.
• I apparently didn’t do much of anything in March. Screw March.
• April was very eventful. I got an interview with my current employer, had my harassment charge dismissed to the tune of $500, and finally got a job.
• May saw me catch up on another account, set a major goal, get yelled at by a lot of people, and dropping the interest on my CapOne account to zero.
• I paid off my first debt in full in June and worked out a payment plan with Ellis College.
• The savings for this lovely computer I’m using right now started in July, and worked out pretty darn well, and then my truck thoroughly crapped out on me.
• Debt Sucks was linked to from the Philadelphia Examiner in August, and then I firmly declared that blog carnivals suck. They probably still do.
• September was another quiet one. Oh well. So was October.
• I reached my computer savings goal in November, and finally got to build it, right before paying off my sister.

In the entire year of 2009, Debt Sucks had 7,053 visits for 12,636 pageviews. Top pages were my articles about Capital One payment plans. Top non-search referrers were Punch Debt in the Face, PFblogs, Sallie’s Niece, and Early Retirement Extreme. Top search keywords were debt sucks, capital one payment plan, mint sucks, debt blog, and debt sucks blog. Top day for visitors was 78 on August 19, and top day for pageviews was February 26, with 255.

I expect good things for 2010.

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