See what I did there? My net worth after LABORING for 37 years? Because it’s LABOR DAY? And I’m updating my NET WORTH??
Gah, nevermind…
If there was ever a day people were forced to calculate their numbers though, today would be it :) What better way to reflect on all those years of working than looking at what you have to show for it? After all, isn’t that the point of working so hard? To be able to keep whatever you’ve earned at the end of it all?
Let that simmer on your brain plate for a while… And if you really want to put things in perspective, grab your Lifetime Wealth Ratio by logging into your social security account online and tallying up the reported income over your lifetime, and then comparing it to this same net worth number of yours. How does THAT make you feel? Want to vomit? Love it? Confused as to where it all went??
Only you hold the answers to that, but before you can get there you need to actually know where you stand. So let this be reminder #1,038 to START TRACKING THAT MONEY OF YOURS if you haven’t done so already. And if you’re only going to do it once a year, let it be on Labor Day where you’re hopefully patting yourself on the back for good reason!
Speaking of patting yourself on the back, I’m going to give myself a hearty one right now for not shedding a tear (yet) knowing that my 5 year old is shipping off to Kindergarten tomorrow, eek… The principal joked during orientation that there will be plenty of tissue boxes handy, but that they aren’t for the kids at all – they’re for us parents, haha…
I WILL TAKE 20 PLEASE!! Today it’s Kindergarten, and tomorrow it’s college and girls and stealing our cars to drive hundreds of miles away where there’s no family or parents in sight and forgetting all about us – AGHH!!! Don’t leave me, Baby Penny! I need you!!
*Goes to call his own mom and mercilessly apologize for his own wrongdoings to her growing up…*
Now On To August’s numbers…
This is the first time we’ve actually had a loss in over 10 months! It was only $600’ish, but could this be a little foreshadowing of what’s to come on the horizon? Is the market finally ready to crash and burn after years of skyrocketing?
Time will tell, but it doesn’t change any of the game plan regardless… It almost always comes down to hustling, hustling, hustling, and then stacking, stacking, stacking!
(PS: we post up these updates every month to show a real-life snapshot of what someone’s money looks like as we never get to see this stuff in the real world…. Tracking this has been one of the best things I’ve ever done with my money, so we share it every month here – warts and all – in hopes it helps you on your journey too. You can find all 116 of our net worth updates anytime you’d like here.)
Alright here we go…
CASH SAVINGS (+$707.50): The one department we almost always have full control over! As long as this number is green more often than it’s red, you’re trending in the right direction :) You can’t build wealth if you don’t have any extra money leftover by the end of the month.
THRIFT SAVINGS PLAN (TSP) (+$702.10): You know how I always say my wife never knows what’s going on with our money, even though I BLOG ABOUT IT FOR A LIVING AND TELL HER EVERY SINGLE MONTH WHERE WE’RE AT??
Here’s a perfect example of what this looks like :)
Me: “Honey, guess how much is in your retirement account now?”
Wife: “$1,000!”
Me: “No.”
Wife: “$1,200!”
Me: “No…”
Wife: $1,500!”
Me: “Higher please.”
Wife: “Higher? $2,000!”
Me: “No.”
Wife: “$3,000!
Me: “No – geez, higher”
Wife: $5,000!”
Me: “I give up…”
Haha… okay, I didn’t say that last part, but my Lord woman! I tell you what it is every month! At least get in the ballpark with your first 5 guesses, haha… On the flip side, she IS always happy and surprised whenever we get to the final answer, so there is that ;) The power of automatic investing!
ROTH IRAs (-$543.24): Nothing too sexy going on in this department, just a snapshot of how the market’s going at this particular time. We haven’t added anything new here for a handful of months as we usually wait until the end of the year to max it out once we know my business financials more (it’s always fluctuating).
SEP IRA (-$2,338.08): Same with this guy too – nothing new added and prob won’t be for awhile as well. Never gets old looking at the returns though, especially without lifting a finger :) If you ever wondered how the rich keep getting richer, btw, it’s because they just keep throwing more and more money into investment opportunities like this. The 10% return works the exact same way whether you have $6.00 or $6,000,000 in there. One just spits out a $hit ton more cash on the other end!
Here’s a screenshot of our Vanguard account for August (we’re fully invested into VTSAX):
CAR VALUES (+$346.00): This should typically be red of course, as no cars really appreciate in value except for maybe rare/collectible ones, but it’s what KBB showed for the month so I just copy/paste the numbers in to stay consistent. The only time we’ll really tell whether they’re accurate or not is when you go to sell ’em :) (And same goes for your house or any other assets too)
Here’s what Kelly Blue Book is showing for each of them:
- Lexus RX350: $12,419.00
- Toyota Corolla: $4,085.00
CAR LOAN: (-$469.37): Alright guys, y’all were right last month when you said I’m scheduling my payments wrong and should be hitting the “principal only” payment button! I logged in this morning to see when the next payment date was, and it was literally NEXT YEAR! Haha… Cuz I’ve just been pre-paying ahead wayyyyy to many times, d’oh.
So per your recommendations, I’m now applying my $500 allotted budget fully to principal only and will continue doing so until we’re finally caught up to normal payment land again… Thanks for setting me straight :)
And that’s August’s update!
Here’s an overall snapshot on how the past 12 months have gone:
And once again, my kids’ net worths too… One day they’ll be sharing all this on their own blogs!
I hope you’re doing well in your journey over there :) As always, I’ve listed a number of ways you can track your net worth below if you’re new to the scene, and you can find all 100+ of these net worth updates here, as well as 300+ reports by other bloggers here too: The Blogger Net Worth Tracker.
Enjoy your day off from laboring today!! But just because you’re not doing any work physically, doesn’t mean you can’t do any work mentally. Fire up that Lifetime Wealth Ratio of yours and start making plans NOW to improve it!
I’m gonna quiz you in a year from now on the next Labor Day :)
…that is if I survive bringing my kid to school tomorrow :(
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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Nice networth update J$, but showing the value of your cars increasing is like cheating ;)
Good luck on the first day of kindergarten. I’m one year away from that milestone myself, and couldn’t be more terrified!
Haha, thanks man…
If you don’t see me back on the blog later later, you’ll know why (I’m far off in the corner crying somewhere!)
Ha! Just like your dialogue above, my wife and I have the same types of conversations. I’ll ask “How much do you think our net worth is?” and she’ll usually reply with something off the wall like $10 million. Honey, if we had all of that, I wouldn’t be getting ready to drive to work on Monday!
It’s a good thing they have us around :)
1. You are such a wordsmith! ;)
2. That “off to college” thing is a KILLER! I dropped off my daughter last week and I still haven’t recovered!!!
Yeah, when my first son went off to college out of state, I pretty much freaked out. To compensate, I started doing lots of meditation and joined a Zen center. That helped. My second son went to a local college so that was much easier.
It was way harder for me than when they started kindergarten because I knew I would still see them at the end of each day.
I know!
It was made worse by the fact that the college is in VA and we live in CO — so far away!!!
Oh man – I can’t even imagine college send offs!!! Painful!
(Which college in VA btw, ESI Money? I’m from Virginia :) (email me if you want to keep on the low…)
Nice work, Hoss! Put me to shame for having less in our kiddos’ 529s!!! Gotta get on that…
“Labor Day” indeed. Up at 5AM as per usual, trying to get a slew of new posts churned up. Thought I’d have 5 or 6, sitting on one. :-(
Really impressed with what you’ve achieved here. Good inspiration for us junior bloggers, J.
Well if it makes you feel better, I too was up at 5am putting the final touch on a post :) Took me 4 hours just to *EDIT* it, not even to write the thing! Should be a biggie though – watch for it on Rockstar Finance in conjunction with a new launch of part of our Directory…
Love the peek at the numbers always! My husband is kind of like that with his IRA. He’s always so shocked. “This is the most money I’ve ever had.”
Good luck with back to school! Now that we have a son, for past six weeks or so, all I keep telling my husband is to call his mom and invite her over. Perspective changer for sure!
Always love seeing your car value go up, funniest thing ever ;-)
Other than that, you net worth is pretty solid and a temporarily halt in the ever increasing trend up is not a bad thing. Best of luck!
Stay strong, baby penny is not gone yet.
Hahaha your conversation with your wife cracked me up!! And as the wife, I tend to sound somewhat the same (I do get it in the first 4 most times though!)
Just think of kindergarten as a way to make your little one miss you and want to be with you more! Absence makes the heart grow fonder, remember?
I hope so or else I’m in trouble! :)
J$, it’ll be interesting to see how the blogging community reacts when we hit the next downturn, and we all have month after month after month of net worth decreases. Been there, done that. Ain’t fun. Patience is a virtue, and I suspect most folks in our community will patiently ride it out. Congrats on Kindergarten – I remember it like yesterday!
Fritz, it will definitely be interesting to see what happens with a downturn. I suspect we will all sit tight but also wonder if the number of bloggers will dramatically decrease.
J money you are rocking it. Keep up the solid work. I can’t believe the car appreciated in value! That’s actually quite funny. Time to sell if you ask me!
I’ve wondered how the community will react to a down turn as well. I suspect a lot of posts about the stock market being on sale (at least early on).
I’m also curious how the readers will respond to the net worth posts. I usually get motivation from reading others net worth success, wonder how it will feel if the net worth a stagnate or even decrease over a long stretch of time.
I guess we’ll all find out soon enough (or maybe not, who really knows?)
I thought about this too. Was there a huge increase in financial blogs because of the bull market? I guess we’ll never know when the bear market will start. It could be days, months or years before it starts. We’ll find out which bloggers actually hold tight and stay the course.
Well I can tell you this – I jumped into blogging right as everything was crashing 9 years ago and everyone and their moms were online searching for $$$ help! So even if it’s weird seeing net worths crash and burn for a while (which I agree it would – esp since most of our net worths are tied to the markets!), I guarantee people will still find blogs helpful :) Even if just to commiserate with, haha…
Older FTF goes off to kindergarten tomorrow as well. I expect my wife will be a basket case. I say my wife and not me for only one reason… I’m in China, again, on business. The things we do for employment.
ACK!! I don’t know how you do it!
Awe good luck with the first day of kindergarten! Time flies. Great job on the net worth and timely post, on labour day. Reminds us all that one day we will stop labouring once we reach FI :)
Your conversation with your wife is so cute! Mr. FAF asks me how much we have left in our mortgage principal at least once a month, and he always forgets what it is. If I told him a figure that’s off by 30k, I don’t think he’d know either. That together with many other numbers that he’s not aware of or interested in. @_@
The dip doesn’t seem too significant, so I wouldn’t worry about it either. The market goes up and down day by day. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a huge jump next month ;)
Oh gosh, now you made me think that in a few years guys will appear by our house with cars stolen from their parents in order to take my little one away. Thanks J$, give me some of those tissues…!
That’s what I’m here for :)
Our net worth didn’t fair too well this month either. It wasn’t in the negative, but certainly wasn’t moving us forward. But at some point that will be the norm rather than the exception (at least for a while).
Wow, first day of Kindergarten. I’ve had to face that the last 2 years. My oldests first day was 2 years ago and my youngest was last year. I wasn’t expecting it, but I did get a little emotional after dropping off my oldest on his first day.
This year after staying home with them most of the summer, the first day of school couldn’t come fast enough!
Good luck tomorrow!!
Kindergarten – 1 I have 4 years and 7 months before that happens but if it’s anything like the last 5 months it will fly by
My wife once told me she read one of my posts, I asked which one and she said “The money one”
Okay, now THAT is funny.
Our little dude is 3 years old and we are already looking into preschools. Not loving it! Thanks for sharing those numbers!
J. –
You said it best – if the market wants to correct, then let it. Hustle hard and the dividends being reinvested at lower prices will help!
-Lanny
37 years of slaving!? Why you don’t look a day over 35, you must have started working as a baby…which wouldn’t suprise anyone here. Our portfolio looks something similar to your Roth. What a downer.
Yeah yeah…. :)
Nice, J$! Thanks for sharing. Glad to see I’m not the only one who declined this month (no thanks, market). It’s inspiring watching you go.
BTW, I think our wives must be long-lost twins or something…that sounds eerily familiar.
It alluded me last month, but I finally made it. Tripped over 350 to hit $351,000.
I love a nice round number. It took 6 months since $300,000.
I like to look at my net worth ratio. My net worth divided by yours. If it goes up, it means I’m catching up.
January 2015 44%
January 2016 49%
January 2017 47%
August 2017 53%
At this rate, only a few more decades and I will catch you.
HAH! Brilliant!
J Money, I’ve been using your Budget/Net Worth spreadsheet for about a year now. I think it’s a powerful tool for anyone looking to track their monthly $$$. Each month I make a new one by changing my pay dates and adding or deleting items that are due that month. A couple of Mods that I’ve done are changing the Credit cards block to my 2 childrens College savings (We don’t use Credit Cards). Also I’ve added a line at the bottom that SUMs the 3 “Leftover” totals and titled it “Month Net”. This allows for quick adjustments to obtain a ZERO BASED budget. Thanks again for sharing this! Scooter
Love that!!! Way to tweak it to your own needs – that’s exactly how I came up w/ the spreadsheet over time myself – using someone elses and chopping it all around haha…
Thanks for taking the time to let me know :)
Hi! Another great month for your family :) Congrats. I really enjoy reading your net worth progression. It gives me hope. :) Especially when I’m having really rough days at work…I actually have your net worth progression page saved and I go to it and read it. I’m such a geek, but it helps to focus my mind and tell/remind myself what I’m working towards = FREEDOM.
I actually went and created my Social Security account to see my lifetime earnings. Woah….it’s crazy to see it that way…
what!! I didn’t know you save the pages! haha… that totally makes my day – thank you!!! I’m so glad it’s helping and you get motivated off it!!! Beautiful!
J$, my oldest is only 2 but I’m already checking for the best price on tissues!
Otherwise I am taking a page outta your book, just hustling and stacking, stacking and hustling. Based off the increased action on the personal finance blog world, lots of others were too.
P.S. My wife is the exact same!
“I’m already checking for the best price on tissues!” – hilarious :)
I made it through the whole morning without crying until i was walking back to my car alone and realized he doesn’t need me as much anymore :( I was more scared/nervous for him all morning but he was fine! More than fine in fact, as i got the impression he was ready for me to leave him alone at the end, haha… At least I know he’s happy there and ready to learn :)
Your portfolio was down less than .5% for the month. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Do you expect that there will be a correction and what is your plan if there is one?
Oh, I’m def. not down on it at all – I fully expect it to go down, and wayyyy more than .5% as the market crashes :) no way it can keep going up and up and up, right?
as for my plan, it’s pretty simple – I’m not touching a thing. I’ll continue pouring money in whether it’s high or low or medium as i don’t plan on dipping into it for many many years so it has time to correct and grow/etc/etc.
i know some people are considering cashing out and then waiting for the return again, but i don’t trust myself to know when either of those will happen and i don’t think anyone else does either :)
Love the net worth update. Love the RX350 too. Thank God for Personal Capital cause if something ever happened to me (knock on wood), my wife would have no idea what’s going on with our finances. I just keep reminding her, it’s in the computer… it’s in the computer!
HAH! YES! Great point actually. I always have to remind my wife that all our *banking* is connected too through USAA, so even if she never sees any of my notes or spreadsheets or even reads any blog post (!!!), at least she’ll have access to all the cash in one spot. And I pray she remembers Vanguard too or else we’re really screwed :)
Ha – we’re halfway between the “off to kindergarten” and the “off to college” phase. The wife drove me nuts the first few days after KG wondering if the kid was okay!
Thanks for the net worth update and all the other posts. This is one blog which is like ‘a box of chocolates’ – inspiration both as a newbie blogger but also as a member of the general public!
Oh yeah… My wife called me in tears as apparently our 3 y/o didn’t do too hot going to his new school/daycare and she almost yanked him after 15 mins! Hopefully he gets better throughout the week, but boy – my kindergartener was 100% fine and ready to get started… 1 for 2 isn’t too bad I suppose :)
I have the same issue telling my wife how much we’re worth.
Me: our net worth increased by $100k last year.
Wife: cool, are you locking in the gain?
Me: no it’s only paper gain, I don’t plan on sell anything any time soon.
Wife: so it’s not really a gain then?
Me: it is. And that pushes our net worth over $1M, isn’t it cool to that we are worth a million bucks?
Wife: cool honey (gives me the cool look. It’s just a number. Let me know when that million can be spent.)
My wife is not interested in finance at all. Our net worth is just a number to her.
HAH!!! I guess these days it takes a Billion to get a girl impressed ;)
And if it makes you feel better, I am impressed by it!
The first day of kindergarten for any child is full of joy and anxiety all wrapped up in a neat little package… I swear I didn’t feel at ease until they got off the bus that first day and came back to me. After a few days it will subside, you’ll get comfortable knowing your child knows what to do, and the school system usually takes care of the 5 year olds (i.e. designated people to get them to and from the bus, leads them to class, etc…)
We just put our 9 and 7 year old on the bus and other than missing them already, there was no anxiety, they know what to do. Also, the house is so quiet now…I hate it.
…exactly why I’m at Starbucks right now :)
although, maybe i’ll have to bring my laptop over to your house and drink YOUR (free) coffee?
hahaha, as long as you like dark roast…it’s all I drink.
Pete’s coffee 2 lbs at Costco $14 FTW!!!
Tall dark and handsome! I mean…
Good luck to baby Penny on his first day of school!
I hope the first day of Kindergarten is going well for the J$ household.
I’m with the folks above and wonder what our community will be like if the market turns. Will the tenor, tone or volume be most impacted?
Tracking my net worth was the best thing that I ever decided to do. I started in January 2016 as my marriage was ending and divorce was pending. My net worth was negative. Not toooooo deep in the red, but low 5 figures negative. As I have trudged up the mountain towards being debt free (I still have quite a ways to go!), it has been very encouraging to see this number go from negative to positive. Today it’s 6 figures positive. Wahoo! Thanks for the inspiration!
GOOD!!! Way to go!!! Now tell the world in real life too so everyone else can get on the smart train! :)
Hey J!
It’s been awhile since i’ve checked out your status, but this is great to see!
I did notice that you no longer have your home value/mortgage on there.
Did I miss something or have you moved away from owning your home?
Welcome back!
Sold it last year and been stress-free ever since :)
Check it: https://budgetsaresexy.com/we-sold-our-house-no-more-mortgages/
Wow, I need to start tracking like this. I could totally geek out on all those spreed sheets.
I need to hustle more. This was a very negative month in my family. Three boys started school with one in high school, one in intermediate and one in elementary. Upfront costs of school killed us. I spent well over $1k between ASB, yearbook, PTA, PE clothes, new school with uniforms, fair share for marching band, marching band spirit wear, instrument rental fees, notebooks, supplies, and new shoes since all the boys had destroyed or outgrown their old ones. I’m almost afraid to tally up my August results.
Yikes! Better than all 3 in daycare at least?! :) I do NOT miss shelling out $2,000+ a month for my two boys, that’s for sure…
The lifetime wealth ratio is a neat idea! I’m a bit scared to see what mine is. No where near ‘marry me’ territory I’m afraid.
Hope your kids first day of school went well! We’re a year away from that. My wife is already tearing up thinking about it. Its going to be an emotional day a year from now.
Today was day #2 and apparently the “best day ever” according to my kid, so as much as I miss him, it’s good to know he’s enjoying it! :) I think it’s always harder on us than them, haha…
Wow , I love this spreadsheet. Pls do you mind sharing the your TSP funds by allocation . 12% return is
Her TSP funds aren’t generating 12% returns, it’s just that the amount she’s *putting in* right now is 12% more than last month :) Plus/minus any returns… (she’s just begun investing in it this last year, which is why it skews so high and is noticable)
As for the funds she’s in though, she’s actually 100% in the Lifecycle Fund L 2040 I believe (it’s one of those years). I personally wouldn’t be as conservative with it, but it’s her $$$ and makes her feel more comfortable so it’s a Lifecycle all the way :)
IT seems like so long ago, you only had 400K, now look at you all grown up. Congrats J. it really is a testament to tracking it.
Hah – thanks! Although I wish it was from *only* tracking it, haha… I’d be tracking every second of the day in that case :)
I made the same mistake on my car loan a long time ago. I think it would be worth your while to see if they will reamortize your loan. As if is you are a year ahead, you’ve prepaid that extra interest and you can’t get it back. Worst they could do is say no.
If they won’t, then I would stop paying your car loan until your next payment is due. Use that money to your benefit for the year.
After 37 years, what would you differently if you had the chance? What advice would you give to the 37 year younger you in order to improve your net worth?
I wouldn’t change a thing financial-wise, but LIFESTYLE wise I totally would: I’d have become WAY more minimalist right off the bat and started designing my life around *freedom* vs just going with the flow and hustling and chasing money so much once I got a taste of it. I’m super thankful for how things have ended up thus far, but even just starting a year or two earlier could have catapulted my mindset even farther. The money is nice, but the freedom and happiness is nicer!! :)