Welcome to my September 2020 financial progress!

If you are new here, every month, I post the progress I’ve made on paying off my student loans and on my savings. I’ve done this since I first started paying down my loans in July 2017 and it has been so worth it.

I do this to hold myself accountable and to share my progress with others who are also facing debt payments of their own.

Debt paid this month: $880.77

Debt remaining: $48,762.97

I house every month’s debt progress from the very beginning here if you want to check out the progress so far.

Updates for This Month

I think I’m probably going to sound like a broken record now. But just as it has been since March 2020, I have only made the minimum payments to my private loan while making no payments to my federal loans thanks to the COVID-19 deferment. This will likely continue to be my strategy till the end of 2020 as I work to beef up my savings account.

Despite a rather lackluster debt update, September was actually a pretty significant month. A lot of changes are coming but that’s for a future post when I’m more certain of my life situation that’s starting in October.

September Budget

Fixed Spending

Nothing much here, just the usual expenses. I live at home but pay rent to my parents and am also paying back my personal loan to them at $500/month.

Other than that, my cell phone bill and Netflix make up the rest of my fixed spending.

Variable Spending

Gas – Under-budget. I foresee this to continue being under-budget for the rest of the year as a perk of the upcoming change in my life that I will talk about in a very near future post.

Entertainment/dining out – Over budget as I’ve unfortunately gotten a lot more takeouts this month.

Groceries – Over-budget. Had an alcohol night with some friends that proved to be quite spendy.

Shopping – As I have started running again, I finally caved and bought my first ever pair of expensive running shoes that felt heavenly to my feet. I’ve never spent over $100 on shoes before so it was definitely a first for me.

Miscellaneous

Eyeglasses – Went to my eye appointment and got a new pair of glasses. As I do look at screens a lot I opted to get the blue light protection which cost more hence the out of pocket charge I had to pay despite the insurance coverage. I do tend to keep my glasses for over two years at a time so I think the added costs will be worth it for my eyes.

Savings

Nothing new this month. Just the usual $1,000 straight to my savings account. I have officially maxed out my 401k and Roth IRA for this year! As for why I’ve decided to max out my 401k early, it is related to the upcoming news that will be up on a future post.

I know I’m sounding super mysterious about this upcoming news, but it’s really because I just don’t know if it’s going to be a positive or negative impact in my life yet so I’m waiting it out before I write my thoughts on it.

Quarter 3 Net Worth Update

How time flies! Yes, it is that time of the month already. It’s time for my quarterly net worth update. I don’t know if I’ll keep doing this net worth update next year but since one of my main goals of 2020 was to hit $100k net worth, I am really keeping a close track on it this year.

So, did I make it? Unfortunately not. 

Quarter 3 Net Worth: $96,649

90-Day Change: +$26,736

I finished out quarter 3 with $96,649 net worth. So close to that elusive $100k, yet still feels so far.

I’ve only been averaging a 32-hour work week this whole month. That was not my choice, since I’m a workaholic that would’ve loved to work 40 hours and make more money. It’s just how working in retail is sometimes and not having enough hours to go around. That definitely contributed to not hitting my $100k goal.

My net worth increased by $26,736 this quarter and year to date, I saw an increase of $73,282. It’s definitely less than the gains that I made last quarter when the stock market was in the midst of a recovery, but I’m still very appreciative of any gains when I compare that to the market loss from this year’s first quarter.

Hopefully I can finish the last quarter strong. It would be really nice to not only hit a $100k net worth but also to get a $100k net worth gain by the end of the year. Is that asking for too much? Oh well, a girl can dream.