April 2018 Net Worth Update – $130,410.14 (+$4,463.27)6 min read

April has come and gone in a flash! We have had too much fun celebrating three birthdays in our family in the latter part of the month. We have made a ton of progress and I can't wait to share it with you below. Let's get started!

Why I post my net worth updates publicly

If this is the first time you've stumbled upon my monthly net worth reports, I would like to explain why I choose to write them. First, I love the accountability they force on me about handling my finances. I'm posting to be transparent and really explain what happened over our month that helped move the needle for our family. Second, I'm hoping to inspire and motivate others to make their financial future better. I wanted to show that our journey is not all straight up success with no bumps in the road. Everyone has setbacks, but we can't let that get us down! We have to keep pressing forward!

What Happened to Our Net Worth This Month?

This month, we have seen growth in almost all of our investment accounts, other than our brokerage account. We were heavily lifted by the valuation from the mortgage company on our house value rising almost 1.5% in a month. Overall, we ended up gaining a little over 3.5% to our numbers. Here's how they broke down:

Net Worth Numbers - April 2018

 Assets

Home Value

$180,424 - The number continued it's upward trend this month.  This number is way below where Zillow is, which is over $193,000. I update this when my mortgage company updates it on their end as I feel it's still a conservative number overall.

Work Roth 403b

We about doubled our growth compared to last month (2.84% to 4.45%). Love seeing our contributions continue to grow this account and work hard for us. We will continue to plug money in here every 2 weeks as we get paid.

Traditional and Roth IRA's

We edged higher with roughly a little more than a 1% gain. It's nice to see it go green after a couple of months in the red, even if it hasn't fully come back from the drops. We are sitting on this money and just letting it work with the magic of time.

Kids Brokerage

We had a nice move upwards this month of almost 2.5%. We are continuing to hold and add as the girls get money for the account from gifts and when we have extra to throw in here.

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Brokerage Account

We had a big pullback this month and the account dropped more than 12%. We are hanging on right now and seeing what the account does in the long run. The dividends paid out on these are over 8% from when we purchased, so our money is still working hard and we are dollar cost averaging in each quarter with the dividend reinvestment into these stocks. The best part about this account is it's small and it's more of a play account to us. It is a very small portion of our overall portfolio. Hopefully, we'll have better numbers to report next month.

Auto Value

A little more value eroded... Just car values doing their things. The best thing here is that they are both paid off and continue to be good running vehicles.

Cash Money 

Our cash position is low this month. I believe that it had to do with how our paychecks fell. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

Here's how our bigger expenses played out:

• Sinking Funds took a $1,068 hit this month. The heaviest hitters this month were medical ($418), gifts (259), and  auto repair ($247).
• Groceries were high this month at $772 of our $625 budget. This month, we spent $167 in dining out. I think it was a decent month, especially compared to last month. We also had to factor in 3 birthday parties where we allow the person to choose whatever they want for dinner and the cost can be a bit higher for the celebration.
• Medical came in at $418 this month. We had a chiropractic visit, an emergency visit (everyone is fine!), and then some bills that we anticipated with our emergency fund last month that we paid at the beginning of this month.

Emergency Fund Savings

Our emergency fund grew since we didn't have to touch the money this month. I'll call that a win for this month. We are currently at a little over 53% funded. We are hoping that with having 3 paychecks in May, we'll be able to make a lot more progress towards getting this knocked out.

Liabilities

Our only liability that we have left is our home mortgage. All student loans, cars, and consumer debt have been paid off. Working to pay down the mortgage, we continue to refinance to shorten the term and lower the interest rate when possible to keep our payment the same. We are a little high on our monthly percentage for housing, roughly 33% of take home pay. This is one reason we're finding it harder to get to the 15% savings towards retirement. Through pay raises, we'll lower that percentage and build back up to get away from it being that high in the future. And, we always have the option to refinance back up to a longer term in the future if things get hairy as well.

Home Mortgage

Yay! We almost crossed the $625 mark on our principal balance this month! Another payment in the books and that much closer to our 15 year payoff.

YTD Net Worth Growth

January 1st, 2018 : $129,092.91

May 1st, 2018 : $130,410.14

Total Growth YTD : $1,317.23 (1.02%)

Last Year's Growth: $27,043.88 (26.50%)

Take Away for the Month

Glad to finally be in the green for the year on our growth. Feels like it was a tough win, but it was a win nonetheless. We are just continuing to follow our plan and work diligently to get there. I think there is a lot to be said for those that can wade through tough times and stay on track, even when the outlook doesn't look all that bright at the moment. Here's to hoping that May goes even better!