SUMMARY

April 2004 is a month with lots of major finance events, most noteably my refinancing and 2003 tax filing. My net worth grew 1.6% to end the month at $144,626, dragged by the one-time refinancing closing cost of around $1,800. At this level, I will need another 146 months to retire in my Month-to-Retire metric.

MONTH-END BALANCE SHEET

(See definition of balance sheet line items here.)

INCOME STATEMENT

Total operating expense is $5,971 for the month. Other than the one-time refinancing charge of $1,834, my expense control continue to be tight and I am engaging in a number of initiatives to further cut my operating cost (here and here).

BALANCE SHEET

Balance sheet change is quite significant for the month:

1) Tax liability went lower because of my 2003 tax payment of $1,269.
2) Receivable greatly increased due to the fact that the refinancing closing process required me to prepay the whole year's property tax.
3) Saving dropped a lot due to refinancing closing cost and paying whole year's property tax.
4) Investment wise, my stock option account went up thanks to slight increase inMSFT stock price, offsetting that is the drop in my after-tax investment account, which was hit hard by the volatile nature of OCA.

INVESTMENTS

See detailed discussion here. Also starting inMay, I will contribute more to 401(k) account.

IMPORTANT PERSONAL FINANCE ISSUES

Currently I am expecting a quiet month for May in terms of personal financing management.