Updated 12/31/18 Personal Financials and 11/30/18 Comparison

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Hello Everyone! I've been off the page for a week or so enjoying my time off work around the holidays, and came back to see that I've actually gotten a few views on the page! Woo!

I've updated my personal financials for December month end, and wanted to make a post showing the month by month changes in my financial position. See below for a comparison of December vs. November.

Comparison





































As you can see, my investments have taken a hit due to the general decline in the market over the past month. However, I see this as an opportunity to make some purchases in index funds and dividend stocks that are yielding higher than normal (hence the decrease in my cash position over the period). I picked up a few shares of International Paper (IP), which I wrote about in this post, and later in the month I started a small position of dividend aristocrat Automated Data Processing (ADP) in my JP Morgan account during December. Also during the month, I added shares of Vanguard ETFs VTI and VOO into my Traditional IRA. I will update my portfolio in the near future to reflect these recent purchases.

On the debt side, my credit card debt fluctuates from month to month based on my spending, which can change due to travel for work and timing of personal expenses, but it is paid off in full every month so I never pay any interest or fees. I knock $1,000 principal off my home loan every month, so this decrease is one you will see every month. 

All in all, even with the market declines, I was able to increase my net worth ever so slightly since the end of November. As I start the new year, my plan is to stay disciplined and make the rest of my IRA contributions early in the year. Further, as I am entering my busy season at work, it is a great time for me to save money (since I have virtually no free time to do anything) and build a nice cash position. A goal of mine for 2019 is to further diversify into other sources of income outside of dividend yielding stocks, so the plan is to build a sizable cash position so that I can be ready to deploy cash once I've done all my research and decided on a new investment. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and a happy new year! Do you have any exciting goals for 2019? I'd love to hear about them!

- FI Anon

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