Another month past and a pretty ordinary month at that.  Here are a few of the highlights.

Taxes – Because of the bonuses I relieved during the first couple months of the year and the requirement to tax them at the highest individual rate possible (35%) I thought I may have paid-in enough taxes.  I ran a projected income to tax calculation and figured I didn’t need any more payroll tax withholding for the rest of the year.  I made the adjustment to my W4 in May claiming “exempt” so my employer would stop withholding.

However, when I took a look at this month’s spending report and saw my taxes still at 6% it made me think.  Although they are no longer withholding for Federal and State income tax purposes, I am still required to have taxes withheld for FICA purposes (Normally just above 7% for employee portion).  I can’t believe that I am still paying 6% of my paycheck towards a program that I will never be able to participate in (that’s a discussion for another post).  There are a lot of people that think if their effective tax rate is zero, they aren’t paying any taxes.  As you can see, this isn’t the case.

Charity – We have been able to keep our giving at just above 10% which has been great considering the current economic conditions.  We’d love to increase this in the future, but with our current situation this is what fits in the budget

It was another pretty standard month when it came to the budget and spending.  After looking at the spending breakdown I realized that we are only living off of 18% of our monthly gross income.  I guess with all things considered that is pretty good.  I have never really looked or thought about it that way.

We have been doing good at keeping our savings over our goal of 15% of our monthly gross income.  The bulk of the savings are actually going into our HSA account in preparation of our baby coming this fall.  We also have my 401(k) contributions with my career.

Another month has passed and I finally feel like our ratios are closer to what we will normally see.  Here are a few of the highlights.

Debt Ratio: This is the first month that we actually have a debt ratio that means anything.  We’ve finally put the house and mortgage on the balance sheet and now we can see that effect on the debt ratio.  A .70 debt ratio basically tells us that 70% of our assets are financed with debt…aka, 70% of our total assets are made up of our home.

Overtime we hope to see this ratio get to zero.  When it reaches zero it will signify we are debt free.  One of the dilemmas that I am now facing is how to value our home on the balance sheet.  I am not sure if I should use the purchase price, the appraisal value, Zillow, our property tax estimations, or perhaps a combination of them all.  I think I will be using the appraised value this month, but I’m sure I’ll be making adjustments in the coming months.

MTD% Networth Growth: I wish I could attribute the double digit networth gain this month to something more than our tax return, but unfortunately, that was it.  We received a massive tax return, including last year’s stimulus money that we now qualify for as well as the the first-time homebuyers credit.  I am a little disappointed that we got such a big tax return because that meant I was basically giving the feds an interest free loan all year long.  I am going to be more cognizant of this during 2009 and try to plan it so my return is no where near 2008 levels.

*For an explanation of my ratios and how they are calculated check out my 3 Financial Ratios posts (Liquidity Ratios, Debt Ratios, Saving Ratios, & Networth Ratios).

Another great month of ratios.  Our liquidity ratios are looking a little healthier than they actually are because our monthly expenses only include a $575 rent payment and absolutely no utility payments.  If we were to actually have real bills I think it would be closer to 6 or 7 months, but still above our goal of 6 months.

Our savings ratios have also been rocking since we have been living in the basement of family.  We are currently trying to save up for a down payment and possibly a second car so it’s nice to have almost half of our income going straight into the bank.