@Lindsey – Yeah, tracking all that is super tricky – and everyone has their own preferences. Some poeple rely on Zillow.com (I don’t) and/or Redfin.com (I don’t there either), and then others like me just move it when they get it appraised or a similar house next door sells. That’s what we did recently with our loss of $15 Gs since it’s “market value” ya know? But as far as monthly increases or decreases, you’d have to use one of those house tracking sites (like the ones I just listed) if you want changes like that. If you’re cool with only once a year, or twice a year, updates though, I’d just leave it alone for now. It’s a personal preference :)

$66k is 12 months expenses, so $5,500 per month? Are your monthly expenses really that high? Like, say the internet stopped working forever, would it still be so much each month? Sorry, I’m just not sure I’m following.

We’re up $2,658.21 this month, which is HUGE for us. It’s mostly due to the “pretend mortgage and bills” and the transferring 50% over our root income, but that’s fine with me. :-)

@Lance @ Money Life and More – I like it that you do them mid-month and against the grain like that :) Now if only you’d post it up for everyone to see! (Maybe you can do %’s or something?)
@Slackerjo – I am. Like every other day :) But I promised the wife we’d have at least 12 mos of expenses in there at all times ($66k) so that stops my hands from poking into the cookie mortgage jar
@Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies – Sorry! If it makes you feel better, it used to be at 6.875% until we refinanced? :) And we *barely* got that refi in too as real estate was just about to crumble all over the place, man…
@Stephanie – Hey, sometimes you can’t avoid loans, ya know? I can tell you that whenever we get this new car I’m sure as heck getting one! I like having my cash reserves on hand and don’t mind paying a little interest for borrowed cash. Donald Trump says leveraged debt is good ;) Not that a car is that *good*, but you get the point.
@Financial Samurai – Nah, cuz I won’t actually *feel it* until it’s completely paid off anyways. I’d prefer to throw it against the 2nd mortgage to be honest with you so I can see it dwindle and then watch it go bye-bye :) Will be nice to finally meet you in person btw at FINCON – see you soon!
@Financial Independence – Thanks so much :) But where I am, you can be too my friend. I started with $0.00 a handful of years back and only applied myself really (and hustled my ass off) to get here. Anything’s possible if you throw your heart into it!
@SavvyFinancialLatina – We wanna move to another state just for a change – I’m not good at living in places more than a few years (military blood in me) and the wife hasn’t left the state much herself. So we’ll see where we end up going later! RE: “unmanaged” – just means I bought the funds that was recommended to me in the beginning, and then I don’t touch them. Whereas the other IRAS have the USAA team always monitoring the funds that the money’s invested in, and will make the necessary changes as time goes on. If something bad happens – let’s say, with gold – and one of my unmanaged funds is invested in it, then I’m screwed cuz I don’t see it and don’t act on anything. Wheras the managed funds people will see it and make the changes for me :)
@Joey – Haha… Let me know if you ever go down that route ;) I swear I’m not, but who knows what the wife will convince me of later… I def. think we need an SUV though also because of my thrift store and storage unit auction love – which I’m about to start testing out :) Gotta have room for all my treasures! Appreciate you stopping by and reading (and commenting) too – thanks man. Have a great weekend over there.
@Joe @ Retire By 40 – You guys are always doing okay :)
@juliemae – Awww thanks! And yes – you can TOTALLY do it! Especially if you’ve done it once :) You just need to re-energize yourself and come up with that next game plan. Check around my site, and others in my blogroll, for more motivation to keep on going too – you’re gonna be great!
@Debtkiller – Hey, better to get motivated now than later, right? It took me 25 years to finally wake up :)
@DebtsnTaxes – But do they hold my yard sale antiques? ;)
@Cherleen @ My Personal Finance Journey – It sure feels like it on months like these :) Hope things are doing well on your side too!
@Ryan @ Budgetable – Haha… those are included, don’t you worry ;) Although my REAL old coins from the 1800s and early 1900s aren’t, but that’ll come next month.