$139, 265 (+1.6%)

My credit card bill was pretty crazy this month because of the trip to Hawaii for BF’s family’s wedding and the textbooks for next term (I bought USED from Amazon.com to be picked up in the US… but the bill was still ridiculous).

I also spent $100 for donations to charities in preparation for year end.  I have yet to calculate how much I have donated in 2011.

I spent $187 on three toner cartridges for my laser printer from Costco.ca (I LOVE MY LASER PRINTER btw).  Pricey, I know, but you wouldn’t believe how many pages I have printed out already.  I’m sure if I had an inkjet printer, I would probably have gone through 10 inkjet changes by now.

I haven’t done anything drastic investments-wise, but am planning again to move some investments/ cash from dividend payouts in my non-registered to my TFSA.

Oh, I got a scholarship from the application I told you guys about a while back (if your’e ever in school, just apply apply apply! You never know if you’re going to get it unless you try).  It is enough for next term’s tuition.  I haven’t included it in my net worth this month because it’s going to be deducted anyway very soon.

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:

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$132,643 (-0.7%)

This networth update is brought to you today by the colour RED.

I must admit, I almost didn’t want to do a net worth update this month because I didn’t want to look at the damage August 4 did on my investment accounts.  Boy was the damage pretty terrible.  I’m still holding strong and haven’t panicked, so that must be a good sign, right?

I haven’t bought any stocks since the beginning of June, but I think I’ll be buying and selling some stocks given the big change in the markets.  I’m thinking of loading up while the prices are low on my dividend investments.

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:
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I got an email from a reader (love emails!) asking me to write a blog post about strategies on how I managed to accumulate a net worth of a relatively large amount for a young-ish aged person (I certainly don’t feel young by any means, but I suppose I still am? I’m in my late 20′s).  She was wondering whether it was primarily from investing, or was it primarily from saving?

Now, according to The Millionaire Next Door, I am not wealthy for my age by any means, and I am actually below average (about $50,000 off).

From my experience, I believe there are three key ways to consistently increase your net worth.  Two of these are part of the financial cleanse series I wrote a while back.  Of course one of the ways is to generate more income.  But if that isn’t possible, here are some other ways to work with what you got

Write down what you spend your money on:

I remember I started writing down what I spent my money on when I was 17.  I had a little note book where I would write every expense down, including lunches out, dinners, the multiple presents I bought for my then loser boyfriend.  At the end of the month, I would tally up the amount I spent that month, and evaluate my purchases.  I would often be surprised at how quickly things add up.  I have been writing down my purchases again recently and am still amazed at how quickly little purchases here and there add up.

The first step is to be aware of where your money is going.  Once you’re aware of where you money is going, you will automatically spend time thinking about where you would WANT your money going.  I realized quickly that buying gifts for my then boyfriend was adding up big time… so then I stopped smothering him with gifts.  Later on, I realized I was spending way too much money eating out and work when I would rather be spending that money elsewhere, so I decided to make my lunches daily and bring it to work.

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$133, 572 (+0.6%)

I’m quite surprised I eeked out in the positive territory this month because it certainly felt pretty rough (again!).  We had to pay the property taxes (hurrah to that!), and I spent about $200 in gifts for birthdays and wedding presents.  I am finally getting to do my budget and categorizing all my spending in different categories (e.g. groceries, gifts, entertainment etc.) and found that this month, a lot of my spending was on gifts.  Perhaps I am being too generous?  Am I spending too much on friends?  Perhaps I need to have fewer friends I get presents for?

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for this month:
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$129172 (+ 1.03%)

Another month has gone by, we’re almost into 1/4 of 2011 already!  I hope everyone is keeping up with their personal finance resolutions.  I usually do my net worth calculation at the same time every month (yes, I actually look FORWARD to this, am I a personal finance geek or what?), but this month it was a little skewed as I was out of town (more on that later this week).  I think I might be a few days off from when I usually do my calculation.  I still haven’t got to including my pension back into the net worth calculations, though.

I also delayed posting this because I was hesitant to include so much information for the world to see.  I hope it benefits you in some way, you can try and learn from my mistakes (and victories, hopefully)…

Okay, so here’s the breakdown for February:

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