Here we are again, another month, another update! So you may wonder, why do I track my Net Worth? For me it is the best method to see if I am on track for reaching financial independence. I am not too worried about market fluctuation, but I am concerned with the long term trend. I like to see how my efforts are compounding over time, but it is good to keep everything in perspective as this is figure is subject to the whims of the stock market. Being the majority of my net worth is going towards reducing debt currently, it is fairly easy to experience growth in my Net Worth as the majority of my free cash every month will be going towards the guaranteed returns of debt reduction.
|
|
July
|
August
|
% Change
|
$ Change
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | $100,000 | $100,000 | 0% | $0 |
| Mortgage | -89,260 | -88,394 | .97% | 866 |
| Vehicles | 12,900 | 12,750 | -1.16% | -150 |
| Car Loan | -10,277 | -10,100 | 1.72% | 177 |
| Cash (Net of Credit Cards) | 8,932 | 8,439 | -5.52% | -493 |
| Brokerage Account | 1,433 | 1,677 | 17% | 244 |
| HSA Account | 2,225 | 2,081 | -6.47% | -144 |
| Pension Cash Value | 2,525 | 2,687 | 6.42% | 162 |
| 401 & 457 | 4,736 | 5,691 | 20.16% | 955 |
| ROTH Accounts | 15,692 | 16,902 | 7.71% | 1,210 |
| Student Loans | -17,902 | -16,641 | 7.04% | 1,261 |
| Total Net Worth | $31,004 | $35,092 | 13.19% | $4,088 |
This month was better than expected because the company that did my roof and siding hasn’t come back yet to get the insurance check or the other half of my deductible. So my cash may seem a little high, but for the most part everything above my emergency levels are spoken for. That said, I still could not resist adding a stock to my ROTH IRA in August. September will probably be a boring month as I will likely pay the remaining $2,500 due on my deductible and pay off that single student at 5.35% interest. Note that not all student loans will be gone. Once that loan is gone I plan on adding in my interest rates by the loans on the table. I am waiting because I am too lazy to recalculate my weighted average % of my student loans as this loan is winding down. Once that is paid off in September, it should be pretty straight forward for several years.
So this is something new I am adding. A nice simple chart showing my net worth over time. Pretty fancy, huh?
How about you, did you make some good progress in August?
Your net worth is definitely on the upswing.. Nice going!
I try to stash a little bit extra into my 401k every chance that I get as well.. It’s a smart move!
Thanks Jefferson! Hard to stash extra bits into the 401(k) being it is all % based. So it needs to be pre-planned on those. That is where the IRA is helpful for bits of stashing.
I don’t know why but my spam filter has it out for you, I need to keep approving your posts.
Great job on your progress! It was business as usual for us last month- we saved/invested/paid down mortgages =)
About the same here Holly! Only anything that I expected to happen didn’t, I don’t know why some companies don’t care about getting money? Odd.
Good job getting further in the black. Once those loans are gone you should take off!
Thanks Jay, I am gaining one month at a time! It is kind of exciting to see a 4k jump in a single month, but August was an extra pay month as well, so that helped.
Great progress, Kipp. 13% increase in net worth is nothing to sneeze at. Keep it up!
R2R
Thanks R2R! Yea 13% jump is very nice! Nothing to complain about, just need to keep working on it every month!
Looking good Kipp. August wasn’t so great, added some back to school expenses and no 2nd income made for a not so great month. Looking forward to September.
I hope your September goes well! I think you mentioned your wife works at a school, for us our teachers get their pay year round so it isn’t too bad. I think it depends where you work though for their options.
Thanks! Not a teacher, just took the summer off to spend time with the kids. So we did not have the benefit of her income over that time.
Ah ok, gotcha. That is nice that you are able to do that. If things go better than expected I want to try to shift to a school year job in the future, summer is really the best time to not work for me anyways! I am not too fond of snow, which you might think is ironic being I live in Michigan.
Nicely done! I saw a $2,000 increase in my net worth so I was pretty happy with that. Love the addition on the chart to the table… lets us see the progress at a glance but also dig into the nitty-gritty if we want to.
Thanks Alicia! $2,000 is very nice! My month looks great mostly because of the extra pays, that added a decent amount towards our Net Worth.
Glad you like the chart. I am doing those in excel right now, I should see how to do it in WordPress sometime in the future. One step at a time
Awesome progress here! August was a standard month for me. We did go on a couple vacations, but they were short. All of our investments went on as usual.
Sounds like you had a good August, nothing wrong with enjoying yourself! Not so standard for me, an extra pay goes a long way! But it is when I pay car insurance as well so I had that going against me :). Yea investments bumped up a little which is always nice.
An increase of $4000 or 13% in a month is very impressive. Good job!
We only track our net worth on a quarterly basis as a way to filter out the noise that may impact our net worth on a monthly basis.
Not a bad idea on Quarterly tracking, I kind of like the monthly update myself. There will be noise whether it is monthly, quarterly or yearly!
That is a big percentage gain. Keep it up man. Its starting to roll!
Yes, a very nice gain percentage wise! I wasn’t blogging back in January, but that was like a 40% gain that month :). It is a bit disproportionate being that my net worth isn’t that high right now.
Very nice bump! I like the new graph too. It really illustrates what a big jump this month was for you.
Thanks Autumn! Yea July didn’t go the smoothest so it really made a huge impact!
Looks like August treated you well! Very nice, keep up the great work! Your student and car loans are slowing declining, all good things.
Thanks Henry! Student loans more quickly than car loan, just yesterday I killed off the one loan. Now that the emergency of debt repayment and buying a stock is over, time to let the cash reserves recover than back into investing!
After September everything will be on standard repayment for a bit. It will be pitiful to see how little principal gets paid on a mortgage without the extra being applied… and it is sad that it is basically 33% higher than it would be because of all my extra payments :).
Good job, keep on truckin’! FI is all about optimizing and then executing. You’ve optimized, now you are executing the plan. Onward to FI!
Oh I think I can optimize a bit more. I need to get equity in my home before a refinance is an option, then I can check into that. I think my interest is a bit high, but need that magic 20%. Still a much better deal than renting. I ran the numbers beforehand and the mortgage is less than rent and some of that is going into equity at least. The great thing is… mortgages end eventually, rent does not!
Nice sharp trend line on your graph. It’s a good way of visually seeing your NW. I’ve been graphing mine for almost 2 years. It really moves exponentially with investment contributions, investment growth and debt paydown. Good start, Kipp!
Hi Deb,
Yes, all three are key (debt pay down, contributions, and growth). The debt pay down compounding should be reflected in my monthly income and expense as I will incur less interest. So I really need to be increasing my savings rate as that decreases otherwise I am actually getting behind!
It is amazing how much progress you can make once you start tracking. Looking good. Some nice returns on the retirement accounts.
Well a decent amount added, contributions through work, $1,000 added to ROTH, and $200 added to brokerage. That always helps!
Looks like you’re moving in the right direction! I don’t track my net worth, but I would assume it’s slowly moving in the right direction.
Well I would hope it is moving in the right direction. As long as you do something, budget or track expenses and see what is going on, you should be good!
Kipp,
Nice jump in the net worth. Gotta love that. Although, it sounds like September will be a bit of a bummer with some cash drains. All in all, however, you’re making steady moves upward.
I don’t track my NW per se, but I can calculate it fairly accurately right off the top of my head. Makes it easy when you don’t have much going on. I like to keep it simple.
Keep up the great work!
Best regards.
Thank you Jason.
September will probably be less than $500 after accounting for the rest of the deductible. But I should still be on track for my goal for the year. It will be tight, I will need to increase my net worth by a little over $3,000 each month from October through December. It should be doable as my cash in lieu of insurance kicks back in October.
Sweet results. I track net-worth rather loosely as deciding auto depreciation and home valuation doesn’t come with a monthly statement. I guess I am little lazy in my early retirement. Anything that generates a statement and I am tracking it. Keep up the progress. It gains its own momentum.
I am just straight-line depreciating my auto. Home I am not adding the current value as I have no plans to sell once I hit FI. Maybe in the future after presently non-existent kids move out, but I won’t be able to use any of the gains until then, so not going to bother tracking it. I know it is worth a bit more since we got it on a short sale, but I am not worried.
Keep that net worth chart going up, up, up!
That is the goal MMD! Though I am sure once I am more weighted in investments I will have the inevitable downturns. But I am not too worried, that means I have done a good job building wealth if it will effect me greatly!
Kipp, Congrats on a great month. 13% increase in networth in a month is wonderful. Keep it going and good luck for September.
DGJ
Thanks DGJ! Looks like you did well with over an 8% increase in your portfolio! If we all get these increases every month all of us would be retired in no time! Although those type of increases are sustainable in reality.