Holy $hit. Now THAT is a net worth update! Haha… WOW. I honestly didn’t see that one coming.
Then again, it’s been such a whirlwind this month that it’s been hard to stop and really let everything soak in.
Between my grandmother sending me $20k from the Heavens above, some of my online projects making a bit more, and the stock market being all schizo these days, it happened to shape up into a great financial month. And did you notice that $2,400 knock-off of mortgage debt?? Ahhh yeahhhh! The hard work is starting to pay off, baby! Literally :)
Can’t complain about anything this month, friends. We’re blessed to be on the right track and pushing forward. Just gotta keep on paying attention and doing our best not to get side tracked or spend-happy! If this were 10 years ago I’d be already at the bar buying rounds for everyone, haha… money can go a lot faster than it’s earned, that’s for sure. Always gotta have an eye on it!
Here’s how October’s Net Worth breaks down:
CASH SAVINGS (+$33,900.58): It doesn’t get any better than that :) Though obviously I’d wish the bulk of it came from somewhere else than my grandparents passing on. But for now we save it securely, and continue thinking about how to best use it in their honor. Since last we talked about it, I’m swaying a bit more towards maxing out some of our retirement accounts for the year – namely my ROTH IRA and SEP IRA. I still kinda want to invest it back into my businesses somehow, but with everything being online and not needing much capital to grow them bigger, I’m thinking that investing in our future-future may prove to be a better route. We’ll see though, not rushing in yet.
EMERGENCY FUND ($0.00): Same ol’ $10,000 as been sitting there for a while now :) No plans on digging in anytime soon… though who ever plans for an emergency to happen, right?
TAX FUND I finally had to take this out of the whole equation… after 6 or so months of including it, I realized it annoyed me more than it did help! Haha… and not because of the big amounts being taken out either ;) I just didn’t see a point in including money anymore that didn’t really belong to me anyways. So rather than include our $6k quarterly taxes in both the liabilities AND asset departments, we’ll just exclude it altogether going forward. As long as I keep accounting for them and paying ’em on time like I’ve been doing, it should be fine. Would you have kept it in here?
IRA: SEP (+$5,462.72): There we go! The market’s coming back!! Or, at least pretending to come back! ;) Every other day it seems to be the end of the world, and then right back to la la land again. I’ll continue playing and riding along though.
IRA: ROTH(s) (+$4,375.55): Same thing here. We haven’t added any money, or taken away any, ourselves for either of our three IRA vehicles yet. It’s all on standby until we get Operation Mortgage Payoff on lock. Or we crack open the grandparents’ fund.
IRA: TRADITIONAL(s) (+$18,655.36): Nothing added ourselves here either. Though this month I’d thought it would be fun to start including the three ways these Traditional IRAs break down — all part of our Ultimate IRA Game! Haha… this is so much more fun than our old dodgy 401(k) account (remember that madness?) We’ll announce the winners each month as time goes on – enjoy!:
- IRA #1 (NOT Managed): $57,917.70
- IRA #2 (Managed, USAA funds): $57,417.97
- IRA #3 (Managed, ALL funds): $57,926.23 **Barely winning!
AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (-$202.00): The wife’s Toyota took a nosedive of $600, and my Caddy somehow came back in style jumping up $400. Go figure? Here’s how those break down:
- Pimp Daddy Caddy: $2,668.00
- Gas Ticklin’ Toyota: $9,470.00
HOME VALUE (Realtor) ($0.00): I came SO CLOSE to asking my realtor about this when I saw him earlier this month, but then changed my mind as I didn’t want to waste his (or anyone else’s) time :( Every time I ask him to price it for us again, he think we’re renting it out or selling it – which we have no plans on doing in the immediate future. So I figured we’ll wait until we get back to it before re-adjusting our value here. Our realtor last set it at $300k a little over a year ago…
MORTGAGES (-$446.44): Month 1 of 120 now completed off our Mortgage Payoff Plan! Haha… and DAMN does that feel good. Though as you saw in our recent post, it may not be as easy as I originally thought ;) Just gotta remember to keep those blinders on and push through all the distractions! Maybe if we schedule in some treats as some of y’all have mentioned, we’ll be able to knock through those milestones even easier? I could get excited for that new fridge or mattress! $10,000 off = 1 house upgrade, perhaps?
- 1st Mortgage: $288,053.23 – 30 year conventional @ 5.5%
- 2nd Mortgage: $59,734.06 – Maxed out HELOC @ a variable 2.8%
A good good month, my friends. I hope yours was a lot better too! Anyone really just KILL IT this month? Anyone take a dive? If you ever need help with anything, or just wanna throw some ideas by us, be sure to drop them in the comments below. We’re all about hooking each other up with the knowledge! And I wanna be on the beach with you celebrating one day :)
Mad love, as always.
PS: If you’re just getting started in your journey, here are a few good resources to help track your money. Doesn’t matter which route you go, just that it ends up sticking!
- The "Budget/Net Worth" spreadsheet - the colorful Excel template I personally use.
- The "Money Snapshot" spreadsheet - a simple Excel template I created for my former $$$ clients
If you're not a spreadsheet guy like me and prefer something more automated (which is fine, whatever gets you to take action!), you can try your hand with a free Empower account instead (formerly Personal Capital)
Empower is a cool tool that connects with your bank & investment accounts to give you an automated way to track your net worth. You'll get a crystal clear picture of how your spending and investments affect your financial goals (early retirement?), and it's super easy to use.
It only takes a couple minutes to set up and you can grab your free account here. They also do a lot of other cool stuff as well which my early retired friend Justin covers in our full review of Empower - check it out here: Why I Use Empower Almost Every Single Day.
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Awesome!!!! That is one MEGA increase :-)
A very good month for you. I would not have kept the quarterly taxes in there. It nets out to zero and is just a hassle.
Way to go J!! Im up ~$8k this month!
Great increase J! We’re up £1k/$1.6k this month so very pleased….I’m always pleased when it goes up!
5k up over here! The markets were very nice and I paid off a credit card, so I’m a pretty happy camper.
@CanadianSaver – Yeah! Pretty shocking! Hope you’re doing well, friend! :) We’ve “known each other” for over 3 years now! Crazy.
@cashflowmantra – You got that right, brotha. I feel so much more CLEAN now – I love it.
@Alex – Nice!! There you go!!
@laura – Haha, amen. One month we’ll see it go up 1.6 Million perhaps? ;)
@Walnut – Way to go homie! Paying off credit cards are no joke – when are we celebrating?! :)
Have you ever thought about investing some of your cash savings outside of your tax-deferred accounts? That cash that could be earning some extra for you!
Try mint.com they have a home value spot that uses an online estimator that updates every week or so. It can be a curse knowing as well, since mine dropped 1.5k
Where is you’re emergency fund at? Don’t see any interest there or do you just move it every month?
We’re up $16k this month. We’re not yet into the six figure net worth but we are the highest we’ve ever been since I started tracking this a year and a half ago. It’s been really nice watching the liabilities column shrink.
WOOOO HOOOOO! That is just awesome, I bet you’re feeling pretty good today. :-) I just posted our Net Worth yesterday and it went down by $1,655.60—ouch.
Hey J. Money, I’m just curious – what site do you use to look up the value of your car? And do you use trade-in value, or private…? I’ve thought about adding my car to my net worth, but I’m never sure which value is most accurate. Which do you recommend?
And by the way, awesome month! You’re putting my new worth to shame!
Hey, A 60K+ month is something to celebrate! We did pretty well this month as well because of the stock market gain. Next month is going to be bad though – property tax time.
Oh man, what I could do with $60k! Congratulations!
While mine pales in comparison to your banner month, it was pretty kick ass too. As of last month I’ve paid off over $18k worth of consumer debt in a year, and my net worth (not counting my above water home) reached just over -$100. It’s going to be a positive networth November baby!
How old are you? I’m only 24 and only just started to look at my long term finances while climbing out of college debt. I hope I can get to where you are someday!
Kat Skull
Good for you!! You deserve it.
@Kat I just started as well. Opening my IRA Friday!! I have made incredible gains in paying off debt and am now switching gears to building up my net worth (as well as decreasing the debt burden)
As Michael Jackson would sing> “You are not alone”!!
So, J$, you’re sending $24k to Uncle Sam every year? Are you just shell shocked from last year? That seems like an awful lot of extra dough. I’m not hatin’, just curious :-)
This is such good news, J – well done. Out of curiosity, though, why don;t you use your cash savings to pay off your second mortgage?
SWEET DEAL!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!
Yahoo!! Congrats on an awesome month!
Great job! What program do u use to calculate your net worth or is it something you created yourself?
H0ly $h1t! J3sus F*ck1ng Chr1$t. Absolutely amazing, my friend! ;)
Hi friends! Thanks for all the support and discussion! Was fun reading through and commenting, as always :) Hope you’re days treated you well!
@Leah – Yup! But right now we prefer keeping a chunk of it in cash cuz it helps us sleep better :) Though, definitely not $80,000 haha… I think $50k is a nice amount. I’ll be investing the other $30k somehow once I figure out what I want to do with my grandparents money.
@Jeff @My Multiple Streams – Mint? Never knew that – that’s interesting. We have our Emergency Fund in a money market account earning a little bit. It’s just mixed in with a lot of our other cash too, so rather than figure out the % it went up and add in the “interest” I just keep it a cool $10Gs. Though I am getting tired of looking at that black area the whole time, haha… I want it green like the rest! :) (PS: Are you going to Blog World this weekend? It’s in LA!! Did I already ask you that? Shoot me an email if you can: j at budgets are sexy dot com)
@Jennifer Lissette – CONGRATS!!! Yes, that IS nice :) and $16k is no joke – that beats out almost all of my other updates, haha… keep killing it!
@Jen @ Master the Art of Saving – Awwww, well we all have those months too, my friend. I think we Lost like $20k last month? Gotta have the downs to have the ups!
@Kelsey @ Zero to One Million Challenge – I use Kelly Blue Book :) Kbb.com — and use the “private seller” option as that’s what we’d do when it’s time to actually sell it. (if you’re a trader-inner, then pick that). Then we mark the conditoin as “good” or “fair” (can’t remember what the middle one is) cuz both are cars are in pretty decent shape. Some people say cars don’t belong in these net worths, but I’m a strong believer that they DO because they’re an asset – whether they depreciate or not. As long as you keep adjusting the value, I see no problem in it. But we all track our worths for different reasons :) Hope this helps!
@retirebyforty – Yikes! Y’all don’t have it taken out or paid for you? You have to do it all at once?? That sucks :( I’m glad we have it auto. taken out every month w/ our mortgage — I don’t even like paying our taxes quarterly! Haha… (I’m cool with the taxes part, we all have to do our share, but I mean the paying in BIG chunks part… not the most fun in the world)
@Cassie – YAY!!!!! How wonderful!! Smooth move w/ the above water home too, next time you’re coming house shopping with us ;) (PS: You still in your Laura Croft suit? ;))
@Kat Skull – You can! I’m 31 now, but I didn’t start paying attention until I was 27 :) So you’re 3 years ahead of me! Go go go!
@Ashley @ Money Talks – Thanks Ashley – hope to see you soon! (You hitting up Blog World this week? If so, call me!)
@Chris C – Haha amen!! And congrats!
@Jerret – Yeah, the first few payments were pretty killer ;) But now I realize that if I’m PAYING a lot, it means I’m MAKING a lot – and that I am totally cool with! Haha… I’ll probably end up paying more this year to be honest with you if some big things hit I’m hoping for… just a new way of doing things, is all.
@Maria Nedeva – Because I LOVE my cash!!! Helps me feel better and knowing I’m on the right track :) I also like knowing I could pay off our 2nd mortgage at any point which is cool. I don’t mind spending the couple thousand to keep it set up that way. I’d much rather have a lot of cash, than no debt and no cash. Plus when you have no debt, you have to go back to storing cash anyways ;) I just prefer the opposite.
@Ms. S – Indeed!!
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Thanks!
@Ann – I use my super duper dorky spreadsheet ;) It’s actually my budget AND net worth tracker all rolled up into one – check it out! (Top one)
@The Happy Homeowner – Thanks! I almost had that exact same reaction, actually ;) We’re pretty similar indeed!
YEA! You are a great model!!!
Holy shit amazing month J! I had a good month but no where near a 60Ker lol that is some people’s entire year
Wow good job! I wish I was doing as good.
Thanks guys :) You all will be here at some point if you keep working your cute little tails off!
I just found your blog so forgive me if someone’s asked this before, but I’m curious about your house calculation in your net worth. I also calculate my net worth a few times a year and always subtract realtor’s fees, which lowers my house value by 5%. Can you explain your house calculation and are you just figuring that the realtor’s fees is an expense that will reduce your savings at the time of sale (I guess in the same way a busted hot water heater would)?
Thanks for stopping by Connie, a very good question indeed! I actually do not include any fees or anything like that at all – whether it be my house or other assets/cars/etc in my Net Worth. For me I just want a good estimate of what all my stuff is *worth* at any given time. Whenever I unload anything, I’ll work in the expenses there and adjust the numbers accordingly :) And as far as HOW I evaluate our house value, I just go straight to the source which is our realtor – though I haven’t updated it quite a while (the cons of doing it this way – I don’t want to keep bothering him unless I know we’re serious about selling/renting).
Does that answer your question? I think as long as you’re getting out of it what you want, you should def. keep running with it :) We all track our Net Worths for different reasons, so if it’s working out nicely for ya right now all the better!
Thanks, J. Yes, that’s a great answer. I would feel much better with a house value 5% higher of course, but my net worth is much lower than yours so there’s less wiggle room should I sell the house. So, I like to have a more real picture of what I would get. I’m so grateful that you’re willing to put yourself out there and share your calculations and totals. We’re all are out here doing it on our own making it up as we go, so it’s really helpful to hear other perspectives on how to budget, track net worth, keep good credit, etc.
Yeah, agreed! It was other bloggers online that motivated ME to put it all out there too (specifically My Money Blog) and it’s been one of my favorite parts of blogging so far over the years. It not only helps ME to stay on track and accountable, but also others as you mention. Glad you like it! :)
I’m a little delayed, but yes, it helps! Thanks! I always wondered what you picked. They give you so many options when you go looking for your car’s value!
haha… hello there, 2 months later ;)