December Net Worth Update (up 1.26% to $915,500)

Ok, so I didn't really get this one out in a timely fashion. It's amazing how the first few weeks of the new year can pull you in so many directions. It has been a heck of a busy new year so far!

Anyway, I'm back and here's the update:

Not a bad month at all to end the year. Overall, my stock gains were up 2.16%, but I used some of these proceeds for other purposes so the gain showing at NetworthIQ is shown a bit lower (see below). Also, my retirement gains were up a meager .69%, given that I moved into some cash early in the month. Following are the details:

1. Investment gains were great, but mostly due to end of year dividends. I racked up around $6000 in dividends and long term capital gains (from mutual funds) in the last two weeks of Dec. Also, I sold about $9000 worth of company stock (@ the 15% capital gains tax rate) and purchased another $5100 in company stock through our quarterly discounted employee stock purchase plan. On the one hand, it's great to have this stock, but on the other hand, it's quite a challenge managing how and when to get out of it.
   
2. As expected, I paid down the mortgage to meet my goal of $170k by the end of 2006. Given that I far exceeded my brokerage account goal for the year, I moved $5k from the brokerage account to realize this goal. To summarize, I've paid down $30k of the principle on my $200k mortgage this year (or 15% of it). Without extra payments, I would only have paid off $5400 (or 2.7%). That a huge accomplishment towards having this baby paid off by retirement in 2011.
   
3. On the Prosper.com front, I have $3000 principle invested into 15 loans, returning an average of 15.89%. All of these loans are current and I'm pretty comfortable with the whole thing so far. It's still more of an experiment for me, so don't expect me to all of the sudden dump $50k in there.

That's it, a pretty basic month.

On final comment I'll throw out there: overall, I'm a little nervous with the market right now. I'm in the camp that says we really need a decent correction at the current levels to be able to go higher. Consolidation in my mind always makes the markets stronger. To this end, I'll continue to hold the cash ($62k in my retirement account) that I have, as well as look to take some profits off the table (around $30k in my brokerage account) to position myself to buy the dip as it materializes. In my mind, it's not if, but when.