Well hello October!
What did you do with September, and can I have her back?
(I feel like September is a girl, yeah? And October a guy? Ever wonder such things? Or why a blog about money would even bring up such a thing when it clearly has nothing to do with finances? (Ever wonder why you continue to read this blog??))
So yeah โ a new month, yay! Never will there be another October of 2016, nor will you be any younger :) On the plus side, all that hard work youโve been doing should be paying off like gangbusters! Compounding is a mother, and in a perfect world each month should be trending upโฆ
Unless youโre name is J. Money, whoโs managed to still lose cash even though his wife got a new full-time job. I can assure you I have plenty of good excuses for this, but knowing 78% of you will just call me out on it, Iโll save us the trouble and admit I suck. Though trust me, if you thought my jokes about giving each month a sex were bad, youโd really have a field day with some of these ad deals I turned down! So really, I do it all for youโฆ (youโre welcome).
On the positive side, we did activate a pretty cool new feature that the govโt offers! Itโs called Dependent Care FSA, part of the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS), and it allows you to siphon out money for daycare PRE-TAX, saving you a solid 30% or so depending on your tax situation. The max you can put in is only $5,000 per calendar year, but that alone saves you a couple of Gโs so we jacked it up as high as we could and will then max it out at the beginning of 2017 as wellโฆ Itโs a little disconcerting seeing your paycheck at only $650 when you make $53,000/year, but hey โ itโs the mental price tag you pay to save thousands of dollars :)
If youโre a federal employee โ and have daycare bills the size of your mortgage โ look into it! (UPDATE: As many commenters have mentioned below, this dependent care FSA is actually open to others outside of the govโt too! Iโm not sure if all employers offer it or only some, but check with your HR and see if youโre interested :) Hereโs a great article on it by Investopedia: The Benefits Of A Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account)
And now to the breakdown of how the entire month of September went downโฆ
Itโs pretty exciting. #NoItsNot
Septemberโs Net Worth Changes:
CASH SAVINGS (-$1,393.76): Turned down business, didnโt find new business, took 2 year old to emergency room (heโs fine! just a lot of blood from an epic fall/lip biting!), and pretty much miscalculated quarterly taxesโฆ See โ no excuses :)
BROKERAGE (+$18.58): SWEET!! Time to retire yโall! (Or just keep doing a whole lot of nothing and letting Acorns round up all my purchases to invest in a separate investment portfolio for meโฆ Up to $515 now in a year and a half.)
THRIFT SAVINGS PLAN (TSP) (+$414.30): This one actually IS exciting! More than double the amount in there from last month, and the wife keeps funneling it in! Sure it was only opened up last month, but hey โ doubling your investments is doubling your investments :)
(Sheโs 100% in Lifecycle 2040 which aims to โachieve a high level of growth with a low emphasis on preservation of assets.โ Not as aggressive as I personally like (the C and S stock indexes are my faves), but hey โ itโs her money. And all the funds TSP offers are pretty damn good w/ low fees.)
ROTH IRAs (+$114.79): Over $100,000 invested and pretty much broke even! Thatโs hard to do!
SEP IRA (+$621.36): But do you know whatโs even harder? Having $400,000 invested and breaking even :) Although not if all the $$ is pretty much in the exact same fund (VTSAX), hahaโฆ (the wifeโs IRA money โ $25k โ is invested a bit differently, but still spread out enough that the flat markets kept it relatively flat as well).
Hereโs how these investments have fared over the past couple of years since moving to Vanguard:
(These are *returns* btw, not total amounts invested)
CAR VALUES (-$179.00): Nothing too amazing here! Cars doing what theyโre supposed to do over the yearsโฆ Even luxury cars :) Here are the KBB values on both of ours:
- Lexus: $13,985.00
- Toyota: $4,122.00
(Been four months now without FrankenCaddy, can you believe it??)
CAR LOAN: (-$207.47): I stopped rounding up the payments to $500 each month until I get my cash flow back under controlโฆ I tend to get stubborn with changing gears once I set my mind to things, but Iโm trying to get smarter in my old age and understand that you have to change your strategy as life itself changes. Even if it feels weird!
Hereโs a look at how the entire last year has gone:
A pretty precipitous dip earlier in the year (we offloaded our house), but outside of that just gradually humming alongโฆ And same goes with our kidsโ net worths too (you know we have to track that :)):
And thatโs Miss September! (Sheโs totally single)
How did your month go? Are you ready for the pumpkins and leaves and cool crisp air? Are you ready to disclose your sexy numbers for all the world to see too?
Shaun from Road To A Tesla put out a call for everyone to do it on Facebook last month, and although I love the idea of complete transparency among communities, something tells me itโs much easier to do so around a group of like-minded people than your ex-lovers and classmates.
Though happy to watch you experiment? :)
As always, you can gawk at over 200 other bloggersโ net worths we feature on the Rockstar Finance Net Worth Tracker, or even take a trip back through time and scan 100 of my own previous reports listed here over the yearsโฆ
No shortage of numbers around these parts!
PS: If youโre just getting started in your journey, here are a few good resources to help track your money. Doesnโt 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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Glad to hear your 2 year old is ok! I bet that was scary.
Is the pre tax dependent care a government only program because I know we are allowed to take pretax money for daycare up to $5k too.
Thanks for the update J$, keep working hard. And glad you are looking out for us and turning down those sketchy ads! :)
I think youโre right!
Saw a bunch of other people commenting about it not being a govโt only thing too, so googled and sure enough seems like itโs not restricted to just federal workers :)
Hereโs a good post on it:
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/09/dependent-care-fsa.asp
Iโm not sure if itโs something ALL employers offer, or just some, but either way pretty cool itโs open to many people! (And just updated the article above โ so big thanks everyone!)
Weโve had our share of trips to the ER, never fun. Glad your son is okay.
September always feels like a big transition month, back to school, weather begins to change, holidays loom. Iโm looking forward to October.
Do you miss FrankenCaddy?
I do :(
I love the Lexus too โ more every day, actually โ but if I hadnโt needed to get rid of it I totally would still be rolling around in itโฆ Just wish it was more safer/dependable for the kids! Gotta put them first, always.
Sorry to hear about the emergency, glad everything is okay though.
I see mostly all green numbers, except for the savings โ which is fine in my book.
Nice job J, I bet your next monthโs update is going to be a big one!
Tristan
Dependent care Fra is not government only. We have 1 as well. Applicable to day care if both parents work up to age 12. Also usable for other care expenses for a dependent to allow you to work, look for work, or go to school if you have a dependent. Tax free if used correctly but use it or lose it. We have use it the last 4 yrs but my wife is going stay at home so itโs something we are giving up.
I have been using a dependent care FSA for the last 4 years. Its awesome! The only part that stinks is, it isnโt enough to cover all my day care expenses and counts against your dependent care deduction on your taxes. But the tax savings is still much better than the pathetic dependent care deduction anyways.
Love to hear this guys! And that itโs open to more than just federal employees!
I was just looking into the FSA dependent care last week, child care costs are shocking but that will take a little off the top mentally. Between child care and health insurance one of our pay checks is going to drop significantly.
I am with ya on September being a girl
I know โ kids are crazy expensive :(
Glad to hear your kid is ok! My 3 year old (just turned 3) has been to the ER more than my other 3 kids combined! Nice on the TSP! I split mine C, S, I โ 40/40/20.
So scary, right???
We were about to head out to a party when it happened, and after we got him all glued up (apparently they use super glue instead of stitches with face cuts??) our boy still wanted to go to the event, hahaโฆ So we went! And he got mad attention :)
I should track my net worth. Before I stop your heart, let me clarify. We know what is in all of our accounts, and we do add them up at least quarterly. But right now, it is like someone is turning our savings account upside down with grad school tuition. My husband just finished his. Iโm a few months into mine. And my husband is starting more classes. Maybe when the hemorrhaging stops. Right now, I think it would be too easy to get discouraged. And I get a little obsessive over numbers. Like that one time I checked my Vanguard account six times a day. Yeahโฆonly one time ;)
Hahaโฆ
Itโs all good :) You gotta do what you gotta do, and at least you know yourself well! As long as you have a pulse on it all youโll be fine.. Itโs not like youโre not a personal finance blogger or anything and wonโt be holding yourself accountable :)
Thatโs great about the FSA Dependent Care Act. Child care can be outrageously expensive and itโs unfortunate how that can really hinder parentsโ careers. I hope this helps a lot of people!
You could have been doing the dependent care thing all along. Its not just for federal workersโฆ I am assuming you are set up as an S-corp, which you should be or you are paying more than your fair share in taxes. Part of the deal with that is you can give yourself dependent care reimbursement as a fringe benefit and not have to put it in a use or lose FSA. I pay for my sons pre-K like this, just write a check straight from my business account. I think I technically have to claim it as income but then its written off. Whatever it is the accountant pre approved it so Iโm good. I get why you are doing it through your wifeโs job though, with her job you donโt have the option of just leaving that money in a business account.
I had no idea until today that this even existed! I donโt have an S-Corp (though itโs been on my list forever to look into) but very cool to see how youโre using it. Amazing what you can learn (or not even know about??) until you put it out there. So thanks, man.
Your accountant should have suggested it. I would seriously think about hiring a different one if they did not. Some are fine with just an LLC, which you can make work too. I hope to God you are not a regular C-corp or sole proprietor, if you are you have probably left tens of thousands of dollars on the table. I pay about $2400 a year for everything including payroll. While I could do it myself I just donโt think the time I would spend on it annually would be a good ROI.
My accountant has mentioned S-Corp over the years, but when I first went self-employed 5+ ago the LLC seemed to make more sense at the time. It probably doesnโt anymore from what Iโm hearing, but weโll find out sooner than later when I actually spend the time to look into it :)
Broke $50k net worth finally at 26! Hopefully the market can get itself together so compounding can start doing its job!
Nice!! You were two years ahead of me from arriving at my first $50k :) I got lucky w/ the market crashing all around us to help me push over it, but ya never know whatโs around the corner these daysโฆ The trick is having a plan in place to take advantage of it all โ so sounds like youโre on the right track!
The FSA for dependent care is an awesome way to save some money for us folks with little ones. I use the one for health care also, but I do put that much in because itโs hard to determine how much weโll have in those expenses, and we usually donโt have a lot. I used to have the TSP account when I worked for the Fedsโฆcanโt beat those low feesโฆeven lower than Vanguard!! Are you counting the matching in the net worth or only her contributions?
Yeah! I heard you can still use it once youโre gone too โ is that what you do or did you roll it over into your new account?
I am including the match in these reports. I just log into her account and copy/paste it over. I guess technically itโs not hers yet until the vesting occurs, but whateverโฆ If she leaves and itโs lost weโll just take the hit on that report :)
I left my money in the TSP and never rolled it over. Canโt beat the low fees in the TSP!
Smart man! I wonder if youโre able to roll over your current one into it later, once you leave?
Thanks! Iโm not sure but I donโt think you can do that. I still work in government (state government), and the options in my 457 plan are pretty good too so Iโm good. Plenty of Vanguard options and I get Admiral shares!
Wait. You still have a car loan? With your kind of savings, you should be able to pay that off rather quickly. What gives?
I suppose if the interest rate is 0%, then thatโs fineโฆbut I you might want to kill off the loans on depreciating assets to improve your financial situation. Just saying! :)
These kinds of savings? $3,200?? Hahaโฆ
Donโt think thatโs enough to clear $18,000 unfortunately :) My cash flow right now is the lowest its been in years, so need to get that pumped up again before I go around paying off chunks of money like thatโฆ
But itโs all good. I donโt mind paying a few extra dollars until we can clear it all โ itโs only temporary.
They got a new to them Lexus. Heh heh.
Good job with everything else. We did okay in September. Our cash flow as negative, but our net worth went up due to book keeping. I updated our property prices and added business value to our net worth. Is that cheating? :)
Only you know if itโs cheating or not :)
I kinda wanna include my blogโs value in it once just to see how much it rises (though you can never calculate it fully since itโs so different), but also donโt want to jinx anything hahaโฆ So one day itโll just explode out of the blue and then everyone will know what happened โ It sold! Hahaโฆ โStealth wealthโ as Financial Samurai says.
Please donโt sell J$.
The site is nothing without the man!
I once(twice) thought about selling DGI, and am glad I didnโt. The price on sites is very low. If you know websites, you should open a self directed IRA and just buy blogs ;-) If everything is the same, after two years you would have just doubled your money
Iโm past the whole buying up blogs game (had 12 at one time!), but I def. wonโt be dipping out without a nice valuation :) And even then Iโll still stay on to keep writing for a while, so you wonโt be able to get rid of me that fast!
My net worth sucked in September, and its all the marketโs fault. We had those 2 days early in September where the market went down 2-3% each day, and then more minor declines at the end of the month. A week ago, I was on track to hit almost +$10,000. Thursday, I was on track to hit +$7,000. When the dust settled Saturday morning, I was +$4,000. The stock market giveth, and the stock market taketh away.
+$4,000 is a normal month for me, although much better than last monthโs +$2000. I was expecting it to be higher than normal because of s few things.
If you get paid every 2 weeks, twice a year you get a third paycheck in a month, and September was it. My budget is based on two paychecks a month, so extra money. It went straight to mortgage principle, doing that 5 year plan, yo.
And last month I forecasted that my spending would the lowest ever, and I did it. $90 less in September than August.
So, I could have hit $275,000 by the end of the month if the market cooperated, and Ingot up to $272,000 during the month, but I finished at $269,000, up from $265,000 last month.
Maybe the markets will make up for it in October.
I really enjoy being able to share this information in a non-judgmental forum. You canโt really talk about your net worth with other people, and my girlfriend listens patiently, and is excited for me, but doesnโt really understand financial stuff.
Haha yeah dude โ youโre in good hands here! We love this stuff :)
Killer plan with sending the extra payments straight to the mortgage like that. Would be amazing to have no house payments after 5 years!! Beautiful!
People ask me how I have the discipline to pay extra on my mortgage. The secret is that I know what day I get my 2 extra paychecks, my tax refund, and my yearly performance pay. Before I get out of bed, I use my phone to transfer the money to the mortgage.
No chance of me spending it on something, and no way to undo it and get the money back. Alea iacta est, as the Romans say.
I love it, man.
Not a horrible month for you, but a down month. Guess that means youโll be settled in next month and raring for that up month even more! Emergency room visits can always take the bite out of any month real quickly!
Great news on the FSA man! Glad you are taking advantage of that! Letโs make it a great October!
Are you from the Phoenix, Arizona Goodwinโs?
Weโve had those trips to the ER so many times! Those little incidents always seem to happen on the weekends or evenings when you canโt get to the doctors office. Glad your son was okay (and no stitches!? How nice!)!
September was up for us, but gains were minimal here too. I found myself rather disappointed, but then I looked back at January and realized weโve done pretty decent this year, so far. Itโs the big picture that really matters.
Hell yeah โ all about the overall trends vs specific months.
September is totally female. (In fact I knew a girl in high school named September!).
Always love the networth updates even when there is little change! Actually the fact that there was little change this month made it more intriguing to me! Iโm getting close to the $70k mark and Iโm stoked about it!
Oooh thatโs actually a beautiful name for a girl! I like that!
(and even more so that youโre enjoying these updates even when theyโre tame :) Congrats on almost hitting $70k! You gotta cross that before you can get to $700k!)
I work for a private company and have been using both the HSA savings account and Dependent Care account. These are both available to private employees depending upon whether or not your company offers it. (Iโm sure there are workarounds for the self employed).
These are terrific. If you are in a 35% brackets thatโs $3500 or so extra in my pocket! Some paperwork is involved. Your receipts for dependent care are scrutinized a little more. You need to show information such as the employee ID number, dates of service, childโs name etc on the receipt. Also if you donโt use all the dependent care then you loose it that year. So underestimate if you arenโt sure what your expenses will be.
That should read employer ID number. (EIN). Tax number for the daycare, Church, etc.
Totallyโฆ we just submitted our receipts today to see how the process goes, so fingers crossed we did it all right :) Unfortunately even with maxing out these last 3 months of the year here we donโt have to worry about not using it up since it costs so dang much :(
That TSP is real sweet. Expenses less than 0.05% if I am correct.
Keep those hungry little mice critters from nibbling away at your hard earned cheese. As long as it is not a stinky Stilton. Your cheese appears to be a nice maturing cheddar. Congrats.
Hahahaโฆ so cheesy, I love it ;)
Sorry you had to take the kid into the emergency room, but I suppose itโs a better reason than most to head to the ER.
September was not a great month for us either, financially, as we had over $1700 in new puppy expenses. :/ But such is life. Iโm trying hard not to freak out about not quite hitting our savings goals on a specific month. Itโs about the trend line, not individual data points.
Oh $hit! I hope its one cute little puppy! :)
(And totally a long term place vs individual one. Not reaching savings goals vs dipping into savings like weโve been doing are two way different things. You guys will be back at it in no time for sure.)
Congrats on the net worth. IT will be only headed up with the wife and her new job. Income and tax savings = DTrump but without the bankruptcies. HAHA. Good job J.
Going to ER is never fun, glad that the 2 year old is OK. Love the TSP increase, holy cow!!!
We did our quarterly net worth check on the weekend, up by a few percent. Pretty exciting stuff.
J! J! J! Guess what! This month, I became totally debt free!!!!!!!!! No credit card debt. No student loans. And no mortgage. (Never had that last one anyway. :p ) And honestly, Iโm gonnaโ try to keep it this way as long as possible. So now all of my money is working for me one way or another via investments, savings, or even credit card rewards/points (donโt worry, always pay โem in full these days). And I have a decent shot of joining the 6-figure club by the end of the year.
I caught the idea of tracking my net worth from this very blog. So thanks a bunch!
YAY!!!!!
Youโve officially earned yourself the โJ$โ label now โ what what! :)
Your savings are about to explode like crazy now โ congrats! Proud of you man!
Thanks J! It means a lot. :D
Just call me โJ$2โ. :p
Sorry to hear about the busted lip man!! -$200 aint too bad. I made some huge moves this past month regarding my net worth which include merging my wifeโs accounts, buying a new rental property and paying off a rehab bill on my new home. :| Rehab was necessary to keep my wife happy!! :)
Overall though I still managed to have a positive month so im extremely pleased with it. Thanks for sharing your latest update bud.
Oh damn, congrats man! You guys are moving and shaking!
Even in a negative month youโre staying over half a million. Pretty good! Iโm still in the negative but getting closer to $0! Wanna trade? We went from -$30,218.74 to -$22,822.76. At least thatโs a plus! Iโm over $7,000 closer to $0! I know youโre jealous. Weโre currently working on kicking our credit card debt by the end of 2016. It feels slow some months but the steady work will pay off (pun intended).
I am jealous because your cash flow is looking mighty fine over there if youโre able to pay off so much so quickly :) Well done!
We hit the big $800k this month. Thereโs a chance, if the bonus and market gods line up, that we will hit $900k this month and the big million next year! Pretty good when I think that 6 years ago, our net worth was still in negative territory.
Canโt wait to be the (10-year-old) Corolla-driving millionaire!
Oh wowwww!!!
Thatโs huge! What line of work are you in if I may ask?
This year rather. Not this month. Now THAT would be amazing!
I was thinking โ12.5% increase in one month? What are they doing? Running guns?โ
Still 12.5% in one quarter is amazing, and thatโs assuming everything you have is investable.
Haha, yeahโฆ secretly hoping he (she?) comes back with โDrug dealerโ :)
I once applied for a position with the IRS just so that i could get the pension and low cost TSP! ;-)
Thankfully it didnโt work out, because my life would have ended up quite different. :D
Hah! Did it not work out because that was your answer when asked why you wanted to work there? :)
As a regular commenter from Maryland I feel compelled this week to say:
GO R-A-V-E-N-S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think you meant, R-E-D-S-K-I-N-S !!!!!! Right?
(Be careful โ you know I have a delete button ;))
Very cool idea on the child care rule to get tax savings on up to $5k. I had not heard that yet โ checking into it now. Iโm also going to read more about selling your house as we are looking into that ourselves and considering renting 100% until we die.
Oh man, Iโve been looooooving renting so farโฆ been doing it for 3+ years even though we just sold the house (we were renting a different house while renting out our original house!) and itโs so much more relaxing. Of course the flip side is you never build equity, but as long as youโre investing in other ways it can work out just the same, if not better. Good luck with your decision!
With all the marketโs gyrations, breaking even isnโt bad.
Good call on the FSA. We maxed out my medical FSA at work and payed for our childโs birth with pre-tax money.
Beautiful! And congrats on the wee one! :)
Hi J. Money,
This is my first visit to your blog. Nice breakdown of your net worth. I was wondering that your house is not listed in the summary until I came to the part where you mention that you sold it.
โMichael
Yup! No more home ownership for me for a whileโฆ
Thanks for stopping by and saying hi :)
How come you didnโt want to be a part of home ownership? Just wondering because this would help build equity rather than throwing money for rent and not see your money again. So, I want to understand your perspective. I just got to your website and I have already enjoyed reading your financial blog. Very informative and beneficial. Keep up the good work!
We tried home ownership and it wasnโt for us :) Felt too restrictive and hated the hassle of all the maintenance and stress it brought. Perhaps weโll try again once weโre more settled, but for now weโre enjoying the freedom of renting and very much donโt consider it โthrowing money away.โ Contrary to popular belief, owning a home isnโt exactly the best โinvestmentโ โ http://jlcollinsnh.com/2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrible-investment/
I am officially half way through monitoring my net worth weekly for a year. I have seen a 2.39% increase in these six months. Thank you again for inspiring me to get serious about sharing my numbers. Hopefully the next six months are even better at getting me closer to zero.
Beautiful!
J money,
I have enjoyed reading your blog in the dark for years. Youโve inspired me to keep a budget and make it work. I love seeing your net worth updates going up and up and up. Thanks for the encouragement throughout the years. Keep up the good work, hustle on
Way to go, Pegster!!
So glad youโve been enjoying the blog for that long โ love it :)
Great net worth updated! Itโs inspiring to see how consistent youโve been all these years!
Longest thing Iโve ever kept up in the history of my life :)