Net Worth Report - End of 12/06

This month's numbers don't look very good. The most important factor was a >5% decline in Intel's stock price, but I also had some large charitable outlays and a large gift to family. Instead of ending the year with an exclamation point and crossing the half-million-dollar mark, I'm actually down $5,000 from last month. C'est la vie. Very strong odds on hitting that mark by the end of February, though.

The new year exposes a discontinuity in my modeling, so take next month's target figure with a grain of salt. On the surface it appears to be a big jump but most of the change is due to the fact that my employer contributes to its profit-sharing plan at the end of January and I'm estimating the size of that contribution.

I have some amusing credit card news. About a month ago I applied for another 0% credit card and used my entire available credit line for a balance transfer. When I called to activate the card they noted that my credit limit only allowed me to transfer a portion of my request. They asked if I wanted to apply for a larger credit limit. Well, sure. I asked for a $20,000 limit but expected to get much less than that. Nope, I got all of it. In an odd coincidence I got a letter in the mail today from Discover saying that they're increasing my credit limit too. I didn't even ask them for it. They even included some lovely 1.9% balance transfer checks. In a third strange turn of events, I've been getting mail and phone solicitations to apply for a business credit card with very generous terms. I told them that I don't run a business; they said that didn't matter and I could apply anyway. (Huh?)

It's like they're encouraging me. I thought I understood this industry. I thought they paid more attention and had data mining tools and could differentiate between customers that will make them a lot of money versus customers that will leech value from incentive programs.

Whatever. It's their dime. If they want to give it to me, I won't complain. But if I worked at a bank, I think I'd be more careful.

You can keep track of other personal finance bloggers at NetWorthIQ. I've updated my entry there.