January 2018 – $128,345.32 – Net Worth Update (-$747.59)7 min read

January has been an interesting start to 2018. We are seeing our first net worth report this month, and it came in negative. However, as I'll explain below, I'm excited for why! I hope your 2018 is off to a fantastic start and this will be the year that you take control of your finances. If you are looking to try something new, perhaps you should consider my budgeting spreadsheets to do your monthly budget. Check out the bottom of this post or in the right hand column to get access today and take control of your finances this year!

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?

After the exemplary past couple of months, we have had another awesome month in the markets. Our investment accounts grew 5.7% this month, which is awesome!

However, we also decided to take the plunge and invest into a business that I've been consulting for over the past couple of years. So, with our investment, we put out more money than our net worth grew this month. We are very excited for this opportunity and will be using the monthly returns to fund our children's college funds going forward. 

Since we will be having this monthly money trickling in monthly, we opened up 529 college funds for each of our girls and made our first contributions in January. I'm really looking forward to watching these accounts grow as the earnings come in. By my projections, it should take roughly 3 years to get our investment back (that's assuming no growth in the company and earnings paid out not moving up). So, we are in good shape and are looking forward to this partnership and business venture!

Net Worth - January 2018

 Assets

Home Value

$176,959 - My mortgage company is starting to track our home value on it's website, so I'll be updating my numbers based on what they say. I think this valuation is fair considering other sources. We haven't updated our numbers since we refinanced in May last year.  Zillow is now showing that my home is worth as $188,022 but it changes all the time, so I'm holding back on that.

Work Roth 403b

The account continues to grow at a nice rate. I love that in less than two years, we've already accumulated over $17,000 in this account, all because of payroll deductions! It's so powerful and we don't even really miss the money! I would highly recommend working to get to a point where you are able to contribute to your work sponsored plan, especially if your company matches up to a certain point.

Traditional and Roth IRA's

It's crazy seeing our IRA's growing by about as much as our 403b here, although our 403b is where all of our contributions are made at. We were able to add on quite a bit more this month. 

Kids Brokerage

This account has done well this month. They have me excited to watch the accounts climb over the month. Although we didn't contribute to this account this month, it still added on a nice chunk of change, clocking in at $42. This is especially awesome considering that this money was only making about $0.30 a month in the savings account it was in previously. We won't add to this account every month, but when the girls get money for gifts and such, we add it here. 

Eventually, we believe that this account will fund the purchase of their first vehicles or at least give them a nice chunk to go towards it. 

Brokerage Account

Our individual stocks eeked out a small 1% gain this month. We are long on these and reinvest our dividends. There is no real new to report on this account. 

Auto Value

Last month we were up, and this month we came back down... 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

We spent and spent this month, it looks like. Here's how our bigger expenses played out:

• Sinking Funds only took an $1,130 hit! There was nothing that was super high compared to other costs, just a bit of money going out in more categories than usual. 
• Groceries were high this month at $856 of our $625 budget. OUCH! Of that, only $89 of it was from fast food and eating out. We are very well set to get through most of this month though. I'm hoping to be well under budget to offset the costs. 
• Medical came in at $218 this month. Not quite as high as last month, but still more than our $50 a month we put away for this to help offset the costs.

Emergency Fund Savings

We ended up using our extra paycheck to balance out our sinking funds that were overspent in 2017. We were able to add about $600 to the account this month. We are currently 61.16% funded back towards our 6 month emergency fund. Getting this funded in 2018 is going to be a big goal. 

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

Almost $620 gone from our principal balance this past month! Plus, since we refinanced last year, we've been paying $17.71 in PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) each month. According to our mortgage company, we are finally under the 80% loan to value with this payment, so we are hoping it will drop off with our next payment! 

YTD Net Worth Growth

January 1st, 2018 : $129,092.91

February 1st, 2018 : $128,345.32

Total Growth YTD : -$747.59 (0%)

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

Take Away for the Month

2018 is off to a negative start by the numbers, but with the extra money coming in because of the investment, we are hoping to make it positive going forward! We are excited for the growth we are anticipating this year and are looking forward to the ride! I hope your January was off to a great start and you are ready to tackle February!