In August, my net worth decreased by about $8,100 to bring me to a total of $1,049,213.25, again down less than 1% over the previous month.

As mentioned in previous month’s post, I was determining how to best deal with my new car purchase: pay it all off or continue to finance. I ultimately concluded to pay off the car, even though I had a crazy low fixed rate of 2.7%. The main driver for paying it off was to keep my 8 month average cash need threshold low and to enable me to get back to normal levels of investing starting next year. When I ran the numbers after paying off the car and stopping new contributions to taxable brokerages, I could get back to having about $30,000 in the bank by the end of the year.

Taking a look at major financial changes through the end of the year:

• New contributions to taxable brokerages will stop (Roth IRA and 401k will continue).
• Cash in the bank should be around $30,000, giving me an estimated 6-7 months of cash needs.

As always, see the Net Worth Tracker page for a history of my net worth.