If you follow the endless financial news, you might have heard that the stock market ended August on a sour note. My investments suffered like those of many investors around the world. The only investment I’ve been adding to for the last few months has been my 401(k) at regular intervals. I’ve been holding off investing otherwise, and any extra income has been sitting in cash accounts.

July will mark the seventh anniversary of Consumerism Commentary. These seven years I’ve been tracking my finances online to keep myself accountable for my financial decisions. In 2003, there was no such thing as a “personal finance blog community;” this arose out of the desire of a few of us to track our finances in a blog format and discuss money issues. There was certainly a lot of discussion of money on the internet at that time, but very little had the personal touch of a blog.

About a decade ago, I realized that I needed to track my spending down to the dollar, if not to the penny, to get a grip on my financial condition. It was the start of a long journey for me, one which saw me get out of credit card debt, start earning money, and getting my life in gear overall. I also started blogging about my finances to keep myself accountable.

The first quarter of 2010 has ended as fast as it began. In observing my personal finances as I have done for the past ten years or so, and publicly on Consumerism Commentary for the last seven years, I’ve put together my monthly balance sheet. This is a list of my account balances, including savings accounts, checking accounts, and credit cards.

Entering the second month of the year, the new decade is officially underway. It’s time to peek into my bank accounts and investments to see how I’m doing so far. But first, I should take a quick look at the goals and resolutions I set for myself this year.