What up, what up!
Onto net worth update #62! How crazy is that?? One day you’re shooting for $100,000, and the next – 5 years later – $400,000. At least it’s all trending UP! Haha… this blog may may not have lasted as long had it not ;)
But seriously, if you haven’t been tracking your money at all, today’s the day to start. Even if it’s something as simple as:
“Here’s what I have in my bank accounts right now: $______, and here’s my total debts: $______.”
And then come back again next month and do the same – it’ll take you like 2.5 minutes, it’s easy. (That’s what she said??)
As for my own trackings these days, looks like we inched up another few thousand dollars but have also continued to bleed a little cash in the process. Which unfortunately I’m afraid will continue to do so over the next two months with yesterday’s news on the horizon. But at least it’s all FUN changes in the air! Much better to be going towards an adventure than to something boring :)
Here’s how last month broke down:
MONSTER CASH (-$521.72): When I first started looking at this two weeks ago I thought we’d be F’d for the month, but a few awesome deals came through and saved the day – even though it doesn’t look like it from the numbers :) Life works awesomely sometimes!
529 College Savings (+$55.44): A nice boost to Baby’s pot there, with no additional infusion from his parents this month.
IRA: SEP (+$859.83): The market was on our side here too, this month!
IRA: ROTH(s) (+$566.31): As well as with this section…
IRA: TRADITIONAL(s) (+$1,400.12): And also this one. You can tell that the more money you have in these accounts, the more of an increase occurs too. Though unfortunately the opposite is true too ;) (When the market crashes, so does more of your money!)
Here’s an update from our almost 2 year old IRA Test now. I got an email about when I was going to write a follow up on it since it’s been forever – which I will at some point – but so far neither inspiration, nor analysis, has hit me yet. One day!
- IRA #1 (NOT Managed): $69,865.87 **Leader for over a year
- IRA #2 (Managed, USAA funds): $65,905.02
- IRA #3 (Managed, ALL funds): $66,550.33
AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (+$259.00): I’ve given up trying to figure out why it goes up so much every few months. I guess my cadillac is just *so* hot right now that it defies all reason ;) With it’s cracked paint and all even, woot!
- Pimp Daddy Caddy: $2,160.00
- Gas Ticklin’ Toyota: $7,814.00
HOME VALUE (Realtor) ($0.00): Nothing much to report on here – still at $285,000 down from the $360,000 we once paid or it many many years ago, ugh…
MORTGAGES (-$635.80): A nice chunk knocked away, but a far cry from our $2,000 we were doing month in and month out. As you can imagine though, all extra payments are on hold until our move is over and we’re back to “normalcy” again. We’ll be needing that extra money like a champ.
Here’s how our two mortgages currently break down:
- 1st Mortgage: $279,466.04 – 30 year conventional @ 5.5%
- 2nd Mortgage: $29,683.35 – Maxed out HELOC @ a variable 2.8%
And that’s that for April. Nothing too crazy on either side of the equation, but sometimes you need that to calm down those other months that get ya :)
How did you guys fare this last month? Anything cool to report? I’m off to do some more packing around these here parts… Not the most exciting thing to do in the world, but at least I get to flex my minimalism muscles more! We’ll see if I can put my money where my mouth is ;)
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PS: Don’t forget to start tracking your money if you aren’t already!! You’ll hit month #62 in no time too – and hopefully have more than me when you get there! (Here’s the budget template I use if it helps – with a Net Worth section built in. Feel free to tweak to your own liking…)
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 job increasing your net worth. Hopefully, next month will be good to you as well.
Congrats, those are nice numbers! Mine are in the same range and it’s nice to see them trending upwards. I don’t look at mine every month though, I shoot for an annual target in growth and then at the end of the year I calculate where it landed. I might start doing them every 6 months though, just for grins,.
You have more patience than I :) I get all giddy wondering what they’re looking like every few weeks!
Also good to see! Congrats!
I don’t think you could have picked a better five-year window to have tracked a stock portfolio :)
haha, indeed ;) though not so much the housing window, ugh.
Last month we bought a house and it didn’t drop our net worth as much as we thought. Only a tiny dip that we should be able to overcome in the next couple months hopefully. Silly fees!
That’s not bad at all! Way to go, man :)
Nice increase. Our net worth has been increasing by a decent amount every month since I’ve been aggressively attacking my student loans :)
I bet your happiness is increasing by a decent amount too!
A few questions:
– You have a lot of cash, and more mortgage than your house is worth. Have you thought of applying some cash on the mortgage?
– Was the Heloc taken out for your IRA contribution? I am surprised you were allowed given the high debt ratio mortgage. That wouldn’t have flown in Canada.
– My first thought on seeing the title of this article was ‘why isn’t he retried already?’ I see that debt repayment is a big priority before that can happen.
1) Yup, every single day! And I do: https://budgetsaresexy.com/2011/09/mortgage-payoff-plan/
2) From my IRA contribution? Nah, it was all a part of buying our house 5+ years ago. 80% came from the 1st mortgage and the remaining 20% from the HELOC. With zero money down – it was crazy back then here, and we wonder why the market crashed!
3) That would be nice :) Unfortunately you’re right though – too much mortgage debt right now as well as our monthly living expenses. They’re a lot more streamlined than before, but we’ve got a ways to go until they’re at a level I’m comfortable at – especially if we’re considering retiring early.
Good questions.
Because of following your blog regularly over the past few months (I wish I had started way back when I met you at BlissDom a few years ago), I’ve finally turned my net worth around. I’ve started budgeting out my paychecks and trying to put money in to savings again. So yeah, I’m just saying “thank you” for being so out there with how you do things and the logic behind it. :)
AWWWW YAYY!!!! That is awesome, Julie! Way to go!! And thanks for all the kind words too – really means a lot :) I’m glad these updates are helping people.
Looks like you had another great month, congrats! You’re definitely being smart by piling up cash while you go through a major transition. Good luck with everything.
thanks man. it’s not in my nature to just sit on it like we are right now, but in a few weeks it’ll start disappearing in no time, haha… the cons to moving homes ;)
Green is good. =). Keep it up and baby money will appreciate it someday when he inherits a small fortune.
Unless we retire early ;)
Great month! We are chugging away at our savings. It’s a fast increase since we don’t have any debt now.
I bet it is!! WAY TO GO!!
I’ve been describing April as a sideways month, neither really up note down. That said, on Friday (which technically want April), we paid off the last of our car loan!
Congrats man!
Are your IRAs listed twice? Looks like they are listed once under their own line item and then aggregated on “IRA Traditionals”
Nope – we have three different types of IRAs going actually:
1) SEP IRA – instead of a 401(k) as I’m self-employed
2) Roth IRA – one for me and one for my wife
3) Traditional IRA – my rolled over 401(k)
Nice Updated!
I only started tracking at the beginning of this year and am loving it!! Our networth has gone from 17K to 30K in five months :)
Hot dogs! That’s quite an increase indeed!
The real estate market is doing even better in my neck of the woods, so my home value went up, along with investments. I’ve started dabbling in Lending Club.com now that I have enough in my emergency fund and retirement. Down in cash, though, since my 12-year old was hit by a truck – high deductible health insurance means I’m out $10,000 in deductibles and copays for the surgery, hospital, etc. Luckily I have it! Yay, financial prudence! Anyway, net worth increased for me $23,361 during the month of April.
What?? Your 12 y/o was hit by a truck? How horrible!! Is he/she doing okay?? Man that’s scary… the money part too, yes, but wow – didn’t see that one coming.
He’s ok – hobbling around on a walker and being home-schooled. The truck snapped his femur in half and fractured his kneecap. Emergency surgery, titanium rod, a few days in the hospital. Another surgery in 6 months, then we’ll see if he’s done. The other driver (and witnesses backed this) was 100% at fault but was carrying the minimum insurance, which won’t even touch his medical bills. Thank goodness I have insurance to cover the rest.
So to all those bike riders out there – wear your helmet! He would have died (hit by an F350!) if he hadn’t been wearing his – it doesn’t matter if you ride perfectly, you have to worry about the other people out there on the road.
Woahhhhh that is insane. SO GOOD he had that helmet on, jeez!!! He’ll never forget that one :) Same with having insurance! Glad he’s on the mend over there, you threw me for a loop! Haha…
Nice! Last month our net worth went down a bit, mostly because I let our budget get a little out of hand. It’s all good though, since we’re starting again this month even more determined than before!
You’re allowed to slip every now and then – I do it all the time :)
WOW! Man, you’re close to being a millionaire.
Between the housing market being on a tear, the stock market’s nice little increase, and selling some stock through espp, we’re up 18k this month. We’re at $373k, which is amazing because when I started tracking in June of ’10 (thanks to you), we were only $12,000.
I know, you are killing it!
Wow! It’s pretty inspiring to see your move from around 60k in 2008 to shooting toward $400k just 5 years later! That’s impressive. A lot of times you see numbers out there and it’s easy to think that’s so much money, I couldn’t realistically get there. But you’re blogging along the way, showing how it can be done.
Reading this blog inspired me to start calculating my net worth each month. It’s been an eye opening exercise. Hopefully I’ll find myself shooting for $400k in the future too.
Good man! We all start out at the same place, you’ll get there eventually if you hustle hard :) Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing it a bit *too* much since my social life has started slacking, haha… but hey, we do our best!
Very Impressive! I am at a stand still right now, but it was an expected stand still. I’ll get the money moving in the right direction before too long. Congrats to you and all you have accomplished!
Thanks Alexa! I was just on your blog for like 20 mins – so interesting!! Crazy at times, haha, but def. interesting :) Good for you for putting it all out there and letting people know it’s okay to talk about out loud! You’re so strong!!
I may have missed it in the past, but have you tried to ReFi the main mortgage? There are new programs out there even for underwater mortgages. Just a thought, because rates are in the 3’s :)
I know, I think about it every week :) Sadly we don’t qualify though as we already refi’d a cple years ago which now prevents us from the new programs out there. And we’re too underwater to just do it normally too – here was my last idea I was mulling over:
https://budgetsaresexy.com/2013/01/my-new-refinancing-plan-brilliant-or-stupid/
And here is what we ended up deciding to do:
https://budgetsaresexy.com/2013/03/bye-bye-american-refinance-plan/
Very impressive work you’ve put in! Love the emphasis on staying true to feedback loops and honesty with yourself.
I just did our monthly net worth update and we had a great month, up 4% even after taking a hit for paying for a new roof. The gains were largely because of the great returns in the market.
Well damn, way to go!
We are up about 1% last month. The stock market did really well and that gave us a big boost. I haven’t update my properties value yet though.
When tracking my net worth I personally omit my car because I like to focus only on assets. I don’t include any of my other valuable possessions either – only bank accounts and investments. But to each their own, I guess. Good luck with your wealth accumulation!
That’s a good way to do it too :) I only put things I can sell fairly easily in the “property” department, like the cars and house.
If you own a home, do you include that in it? If not, do you just have the mortgage in your net worth or do you omit that too? It’s hard (for me) to leave all that out when it’s such a big part of the equation.
I would include your primary residence (and obviously any investment real estate) and their associated mortgages. You do make a valid point about including property which is fairly easy to sell (such as a car), but it’s been hard for me to draw the line on what should be included and what’s not.
I guess personally it’s a motivational trick to include less on my net worth – it makes me want to work that much harder. Additionally, it helps me focus on acquiring income-producing or appreciating assets, instead of basic material possessions.
Oh yeah, you got that right. income-producing assets are key!! I’ve got to be better about going down that route too… Although I do have some, they’re just online… which aren’t included in my numbers, now that I think of it… hmmm.. probably best to keep out since it’s never secure, haha…
I’m actually surprised you don’t list your business as an asset. Valuation may be a bit tricky, but it’s definitely worth a lot.
Yeah, maybe one day I’ll sit down and run the numbers and start including it… Kinda like separating out business with pleasure, but we’ll see :)