August 2015 – $69,466 – Net Worth Update (+$357.96)4 min read

What Happened

August had it's ups and downs for sure! We finally funded our 6 month emergency fund early this month, woo hoo! We saw a roller coaster ride in the stock market. However, we're riding it out and investing just as normal. Actually, this could be a great time for us! Even though we had a doozy in the stock market this month, we ended up in positive territory. This was due to our emergency fund savings and our mortgage principal being reduced.

Net Worth - August 2015

Assets

• Home Value - $160,000 - Holding on to this number since our appraisal was done before our refinance (August 2014). We are now a year in. After redoing our basement, I might look into getting our home appraised again in the spring to update this number, but I don't put much emphasis on this.
• 401k - The market decided to take a little dip this past month, but should be coming back. I ran my numbers on Sunday, so they could be a little off based on what the markets decide to do on Monday. We are not concerned, we are actually kind of happy that it is down as it means our money that we are putting in starting this month (5% of the Mrs. pay) to a Roth 403b!
• IRA - Same thing as the 401k here, it is just reflecting the market. However, I did finally pull the trigger and started the process of moving my funds out of my Chase Roth IRA to a self directed Roth IRA with Vanguard. I am looking forward to putting it into a fund that doesn't have the front-load on the fund and has a much lower expense ratio.
• Auto Value - Same value according to Mint.com
• Cash Money - Nothing really to report here. Cash flow is good. Have a little less than last month due to how expenses are going out. Sinking funds are fully funded and are doing well.
• Savings - This was where our big win came in! We have finished our 6 month emergency fund this month! Yay! It's so nice to basically be done with this step. However, we did get socked with our escrow analysis and were under funding it. We had to fork over the extra $650 to bring it current. This was due to our property taxes going up and changing my auto/home insurance provider. So, my home payment ended up going up by about $30/month for the next year. On the plus side, even with getting started investing, we were able to get all but $275~ back into the savings. We will be back to the fully funded level as of the first paycheck next month.

Liabilities

• Home Mortgage - Another $395 knocked off of principal! Love seeing that steady growth of principal being knocked off each month. This is $2.13 more that went to principal this month then last month. We will be over $400 a month in principal soon enough! Same message as last month, steady progress towards our goal! I do love that we are now under the $145k mark! Love seeing this grow! Comparing to January's principal payment, this is now paying off over $10.50 a month more than then.

Take Away for the Month

Another month in the books. Kind of mixed about the decline of the stock market, but that is the roller coaster that we signed up for and as long as we don't jump off, we will be fine. I'm looking forward to starting to manage the investments a little more hands on with Vanguard. Also, very happy to be done funding the emergency fund as well. All in all, a good month that will hopefully see some nice growth with the stock market uptick (hopefully) next month. At least now we are on our way to putting a better portion of our money into investments each month going forward.

How did your month end up? Are you investing more with the market that we are experiencing? Did your net worth grow more in August?