Monthly Money Check-in: Dec '12

Hi! I'm covered in the powder of my home-made Christmas presents. This year it occurred to me in September that I always wish I'd started thinking about the holidays in September. I actually did it this year. I started on a craft project for a personalized gift for everyone. And I am, as I wanted, staying pretty steady on my "short-term funds".

This is way better than last year when I backslid nearly $2,000 over the holidays before pulling back out. (See the U-shaped blemish above.)

A few important things happened this month:
1. The foreclosure started on my house. This is fine; it's been coming for a while. When that goes through, my Net Worth should be about $4,000, instead of -$50,000. Looking forward to that. 

2. I started listening to Dave Ramsey, a financial talk radio host. I listen to Dave's podcast every day on my way home from work. He went through bankruptcy early in life, and what he learned is mostly common sense, which, as he says, isn't very common these days.

He has these Baby Steps. 
The First: Start a mini emergency fund of $1,000. I just accomplished that this month!
Second: Pay off ALL DEBT besides the house. I had been ok with just carrying my student loan debt, but Dave says that out of 400 richest people in the world, 70% interviewed said that the most important key to wealth is to get out of debt and stay out of debt. So, $13,233 is the figure I'm looking to pay off in the next year. After baby step 2, people are invited to call into his show and do the "Debt-Free Scream," which I hope to do in 2013. 
Third: After paying off all debt Dave calls for the 3-6 month emergency fund. 

There are more steps, but this is a good starting point. I don't do everything Dave says. For example, contributing %15 to a 401(k) is step 4, but I'm so scared of being elderly and poor that I'm doing that now.

Let's take a look see:

We're in the -$40,000s. Woo hoo! I gained $2,341 over last month, however about half of that was the worth of my house, which is fittin' to be a moot point. 

Net worth is on the up and up!

 

And my retirement fund has reached an increase of $10,000. I've saved $10,000, that's crazy!

 

The bad news, I just saw, is that OMG I spent $400 on restaurants in November.  I can honestly say that probably wont get much better on my vacation this month. Lock-down starts in January.

I'm going into the Holidays feeling good!