The Weight of Money

Today marks the one year anniversary of The Weight of Money. It has been exciting, eye-opening, and excruciatingly honest. This is the perfect time to take a look at the past year of honest, accountable financial decisions.

First, the numbers:

• I have written 170 posts and received 228 comments from my fabulous readers.
• Net Worth: My first net worth posting in May 2006 totaled -$17,627.18. One year later, our net worth is $900. Positive net worth in just one year; I didn’t think it could happen.
• Debt Reduction: When I started this site, the partner was working to pay down credit card debt and we’ve paid off $10,640.84 in the past year.
• Savings: We started putting money into a joint savings account in October 2006. At this point, we’ve managed to save a total of $7,288.88. The Home Savings meter has been updated to reflect this progress.
• Retirement: We committed to increasing our retirement contributions (from $0) and have invested $6,900 so far. The contributions have been fairly minimal, considering our retirement needs, yet are steadily increasing.

Now, for the personal elements of the past year:

• We were married at a perfectly personalized celebration in July 2006, paid in full with cash.

• While we were planning the wedding and I was finishing my degree, we began our housing adventure that continues today.
• The partner and I combined finances in October 2006 and discovered that there is no room for “I” in joint finances.
• Post graduation, I discovered that a new job is full of financial considerations and less-obvious costs.
• In December, I made the difficult decision to leave a job that completely meshed with my ideals and professional aspirations when it conflicted with what matters most. I’ve since taken a position full of uncertainty that is less rewarding than the last.
• I’ve continually considered ways to bring in additional income and have since found steady sewing work.

The year to come:

• This site has had a couple of advertising requests and I’ll continue to consider the option of including non-intrusive ads. However, the requests/offers received so far have been for companies that conflict with responsible personal finance.
• I will continue to start conversations about money and hope that more people will feel comfortable facing their finances when they realize that others are in the same boat.
• We will (hopefully) buy our first house and make it our home. Moving will further accent the weight of money if we must liquidate more large machines and as we move those that remain to their new home.
• We will further consider expanding our family.
• We will continue to live intentionally and increase our frugality/cheapness (and be proud of it too).

Thank you to my readers and your many comments. I’ve learned a great deal this past year and look forward to continuing this journey with your support and feedback.

Note: The writer/pseudo-grammarian in me feels the need to clarify the constant shift between “I” and “we” in this and other posts. While I am the sole writer for The Weight of Money, most of the financial elements discussed here are based on joint decisions. To continue striving to truly make our finances a cooperative effort and avoid the feeling of sole-ownership over an issue, I try to use “we” where appropriate.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 8:20 am and is filed under general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.