2007 Financial Wrap-Up

I've run the numbers for my financials, and it's exciting! (That's the upside of forgetting to do it on a regular basis-- you get a pleasant surprise at the end-- although I suppose you run the risk that it's an unpleasant surprise...)

Savings: $38,923 (up $8,685 during 2007, or 22.3%)
Retirement: $22,763 (up $6,606 during 2007, or 29.0%)
Debt: $8,305 (down $5,340 during 2007, or 64.3%)
Net worth: $53,381 (up $20,631 during 2007, or 38.6%)

• I was hoping to have the savings number above $40K, but I'll be there soon enough. Instead, I did a lot of debt repayment, and now have paid off the whole $16,000 my parents and I decided I owed them for my student loans (although I may give them more in the future anyway.)
  
• That last $8K of debt was consolidated after I graduated, and this fall I got my rate knocked down 1% after three years of on-time payments, so now I'm paying 1.625%(!). I don't care what anyone says about the benefits of being debt-free; there's no way I'm paying any more than the minimum instead of leaving the extra money in my bank account to earn 5.0% interest a year (and do good for communities and the environment, too-- check it out!)
  
• The balance in my retirement accounts is nearly $23K, but it's probably the equivalent of roughly $20K after taxes ($14K is in Roth IRAs, but $9K is in a 401k and will owe taxes upon withdrawal, which I'm estimating at about 33%.) If that $20K earns 8% returns on average over the next 42 years, I'll have a little more than $500K by the time I'm 68. I've estimated I'd need around $1.6 million-- which means I'm almost 1/3 of the way there, just shy of my 26th birthday!
  
• My gross income was about $50,000 this year-- so I saved about 30% (13% to retirement and 17% in general savings) and put 10% towards debt. I also gave about 5% to charity. In a couple months I'll tell you how much went to taxes (which means the remainder is what I spent on expenses.)
  

All in all, I'm pretty darn pleased. How was your 2007 financially?