Are We Sure January Isn't The Cruelest Month?

First, the assets side. My retirement accounts lost nearly 7% in January. I knew it would be ugly, and all month long I deliberately avoided looking at my account balances. That didn't stop it from feeling like a sucker punch. Oof.

It's a sad, sad story on the debts side of the equation, too. I had to do some very expensive work on the house at the end of December, so I've got about $8,000 hanging out on a 0% APR card. I do have the money to pay off that balance. I could deflate my emergency fund to pay it off, but five more months of $8k at 3.5% or whatever HSBC is paying out now seems a far sight better than $8k at 0%. Plus, I think I would have a really hard time seeing the balance of my emergency fund crash like that if I were to yank the money out now. Yes, it's a mind trick, just like all the other mind tricks we play on ourselves to keep from becoming complacent as we make progress. But psychology is a huge part of this process, and I need to respect that.

All told, my net worth dropped by 16.36% in January. Again, oof. I know I'm fine, that Shiner and I are doing what we need to be doing. We have a plan, and we're following it. We aren't doing anything stupid, and we're doing a number of things that are pretty smart. But this is just ugly.