Another month, another net worth update!

For those new to the blog, each month I tally up all my assets and liabilities to figure out my current net worth. This helps me monitor financial progress over time to make sure I’m building wealth and on track to hit my future money goals!

Some months we have gains, sometimes losses, but the important thing is consistency in tracking and incremental investing regardless of ups and downs.

Here are the full details from last month 👇👇👇

Dec 1, 2021 Net Worth: $766,894

November started out strong with the stock market hitting all-time highs… but in the last week of the month things reversed and ended up a few percentage points down. 😭 Our rental duplex valuation made a huge difference this month, bringing a total $18k increase across all assets.

Travel, Gifts, Extra Income, and More Surfboards…

Here are some irregular expenses in November:

• My wife and I took a 4-day trip up to wine country and spent about $1,000 on hotels, eating out and visiting 11 delicious wineries! Mmmm 🍷
• We bought about $450 worth of Christmas and birthday gifts this past month. More to come in December because our shopping isn’t over yet! 🎄
• I finally got a filling replaced at the dentist, which cost $260. 🦷 (Not a bad price for no dental insurance, right? Or is it usually that cheap?)
• I also bought 2 surfboards in November (I have a PROBLEM, people!). They were super cheap though… one was $50 and the other $65. The plan is to ride them for a bit, fix them and maybe resell for a few hundred bucks later. 🤞🏄‍♂️

And we also got some unexpected extra income:

• I booked some extra SEO work for my employer and made a cool $1,425 cash on the side last month. I still find the work fun and hope there’s more I can continue with in December! 👨🏻‍💻
• An unexpected rent collection came in from an old delinquent tenant from 2018. This added $1,100 to our rental income this month (although the roof replacement expenses took most of that away so our reserve account ended up in the negative 😭).

Detailed Account Breakdowns

Cash Accounts (+$2,606): We’re now sitting on ~$21k in cash and this is more than I really want… So the plan for December is to invest some of this money and bring our balance down to about $10k. I’m looking into funding my new sexy solo 401k before the end of year but still need to work out whether we want to do regular or Roth contributions!

Rental Property + Reserve Account (+$23,484): Here is how the rental duplex made us money last month…

$3,075  —  Incoming rent (includes the $1,100 old collection from 2018)

(-$215)  —  Property management fees

(-$141) —  Landscaping, maintenance

(-$661)  —  Mortgage principal + interest

$2,058  —  Total rental gain this month

We also added about $30k in asset value due to a new appraisal, and our roof replacement cost us a few grand due to settling our insurance claim.

BTW — The comparative market analysis for that duplex actually showed a mid-range value of ~$266,225. But after more chats with my real estate agent, we think realistically it would sell for a little less than this. So for now, I’m gonna value the duplex at a $250k market value going forward — I’d rather underestimate the value a bit in these net worth reports than artificially inflate during market highs. :)

Real Estate Syndication (no change): Traditionally, the winter is the slowest period for renters moving into apartments and signing new leases. But since this building is still effectively “full” and demand has been so strong, this doesn’t affect us too much. The next quarterly distribution for this investment should come in February, and I’m expecting the dividend to be $875 at that time (7% annualized return).

IRA – Regular: (-$2,818): This account is invested 100% in FSKAX, which is Fidelity’s Total Stock Market Index Fund. Similar to VTSAX for Vanguard except Fidelity has a slightly lower expense ratio fee.  Anyway, the ~$3k lost in this account last month was because of the stock market dipping.

IRA – Roths: (-$1,126): Same as above, my wife and I have all our Roth money invested in the total stock market index. I’m just happy we’re still above the $100k mark for these Roth accounts — and we get to add some new contributions soon for 2022!

Joint Brokerage Account: (-$3,561): There have been no new contributions to this account for a while. But, we’re still actively trying to sell our remaining rental properties (not tracked in this net worth report) and the proceeds will be invested here! Should be crossing the $300k mark soon as long as there are no major market crashes.

HSA: $4,743 (-$71): No contributions or withdrawals for this account… My wife and I don’t have HDHP plans so we do not qualify right now for contributions.

Breakdown of Liabilities

Rental Property Mortgage: (+$250): I love principal paydown. I almost forget about it each month because the balance lowers so slowly. This mortgage is being paid down by our rental tenants and is slowly building equity for us each month.

Credit Card Balances: (+$19): We hammered the credit card this month, and actually hit the $6k minimum spend for our new Amex Platinum card (YAY for 130,000 reward points!). We pay our balances off every month before any interest is due so that’s why we carry a low balance. :)

My wife and I have no other consumer debts at this time. 😎

How’d your November go? Any fun $$$ numbers to share??

Happy Monday!!

– Joel