March 2017 – $107,176.04 – Net Worth Update (+$2,196.45)6 min read

I feel like each month moves faster than the last! March has taken it's run and we are now through our first quarter of the year! How are you doing on your 2017 goals and resolutions? My update should be up next week for my March check in! We had a lot of fun this past month.

Fun things we did in March

I got to do a fun 3 hour conference called the Parent Challenge, where I got to see radio personality's Kendra and John Smiley talk. I ended up buying three of their books and am almost through the first one already! They had some great ideas on parenting for my kiddos and we are working through them!

The Parent Challenge: A Seminar for Equipping Parent's for Today's GenerationJohn and Kendra Smiley talking on stage

We had a wide range of weather here, which is usual for us. We were able to get out and play at the parks as well as go sledding one day. Although the snow didn't last, I was happy to get to use the sled that we got the girls for Christmas!

The girls on their sled they got for Christmas

They were happy to play out in the snow since we were waiting to use our new sled!

I got to give my first financial talk to the local chapter of the Rising Tide Society. This month, their meeting was on "Budgeting and Financial Freedom". It was great getting to meet some new small business owners and talk more about finances with them.

Finally, we got to go on our first of four family vacations this year! I actually made a video about it and did a post detailing our budget for the trip and gave some tips here. Here's the video, in case you wanted to see the highlight reel instead:

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 to really try to explain what happened over the last month that moved the needle for our family.

Second, I'm hoping to inspire and motivate others to reach 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?

March had no negative numbers at all! We saw investments eek out some growth, cash grew a little, even our cars held steady this month! Overall, we had a fantastic month despite all of our activity. Part of it was getting back our tax refund to help prop our cash value up since we did do some extra spending this month.

Net Worth - March 2017

March by the numbers

March's numbers

 Assets

  • Home Value - $160,000 - Holding on to this number since our appraisal was done before our refinance (August 2014).  Roof update: we have finally contracted with a roofer and are getting our roof done for about $8,200. We haven't had to write the check yet, but will hopefully get this accomplished in April.
  • Roth 403b -  More growth! Had a nice bump that the company put some extra in for years of service as an extra contribution, so that helped move this number up higher! Love that extra money!
  • Traditional and Roth IRA's - Barely eek'd out a positive here. We put $45 a month into this account to help it grow since we've cancelled Sling and Netflix this year.
  • Auto Value - I don't get how my cars are worth more this month, but whatever, I'm sure it will go down again next month... For now, I'll take it.
  • Cash Money - This month we saw an increase. Here's the run down:
    • Sinking Funds took an $2400 hit due to paying for some work reimbursable dinners my wife will get back in April, medical visits, and paying our 6 month premium for auto insurance. I did talk to my insurance agent this round and ended up getting some savings as well as possibly getting a back credit for having our term life insurance bundled. We will see how it pans out.
    • Groceries weren't as bad as last month, but we were over by $90. We only ate out twice, which would have brought it down almost to even, but we are barely scraping by here right now. I will definitely be going out and buying more meal planning options to get us caught up for April.
    • Medical expenses were a pretty big whammy this month, coming in at almost $500. We have cash flowed it and are moving forward though. Still need to start funding my sinking fund for this expense category though. Maybe April?
    • We spent a little over $400 on our first vacation this year and came in just over budget, but should be good with the changes we've made to our additional vacation budget! You can read all about it here.
  • Emergency Fund Savings - No news is good news here. Just added almost another $14 in interest into our account this past month. We will be diving into this pretty soon as we are going to be getting our roof fixed soon.

Liabilities

Home Mortgage - We keep seeing small chunks eat into this mortgage. We continue to just make the minimum payments, but with only having a 20 year mortgage, this moves down pretty quickly. This past month, our principal just topped $425! When we started, this number was only about $380, so that's extra money going towards our mortgage each month! I love seeing the principle grow each month to take out bigger chunks or our mortgage. Looking forward to the day we get to start putting extra money away towards this paying it down even faster.

YTD Net Worth Growth

January 1st, 2017 : $102,049.03

March 1st, 2017 : $107,176.04

Total Growth YTD : $5,127.01 (5.02%)

Last Year's Growth: $18,336.16 (21.88%)

Take Away for the Month

March has been a stellar month even though it was mainly our tax refund keeping us in positive territory. Thanks for reading and letting me know how you are doing, it means a lot to me! I love doing these updates because they really force me to look into our spending and talk it over so that we actually understand more about it on a monthly basis. It seems so freeing!

How did your March go? Were you as busy as us? The weather should be even nicer next month!

Here are some of our articles that were posted throughout March in case you missed them.

2017 Goals: February Accountability Check In

February is the shortest month of the year, yet it’s still easy to not keep those resolutions. This year, I’m checking in monthly about my goals to become more accountable.

Are you ready to finally take control of your finances? Let my budgeting spreadsheets help!

Just fill out the form below and I'll send you the link to get the same exact budgeting spreadsheets that I use each month!

Included in the workbook:

monthly-budget-worksheet-screenshots

  • Monthly budget form
  • Breakdown of savings form (for your sinking funds)
  • Overview of your financial plan

I've been using these same forms since August 2011 and have grown my family's net worth 500% tracking our money using these forms!

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Steven Goodwin

Owner/Blogger/Consultant at MyFamilyOnABudget
Steve Goodwin, a stay-at-home dad of two girls is passionate about finances and is helping others just like you get out of debt and build wealth handling money God's way. His goal is to inspire people like you to gain control of their finances by destroying debt and building wealth using their cash flow.
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14 Comments

  1. Nice job Steve! These are great for accountability and organizational purposes! Keep up the great work!

    • Thanks Kyle! I’m enjoying posting them as well as all the great feedback I’m getting from others about how I’m managing my finances!

      Hoping that I’m inspiring as well!

  2. Nice gains, Steve! Keep it up!
    Daniel Palmer recently posted…Debt Creep and Debt SpiralsMy Profile

    • Thanks. I think next months update will be a doozy since we will most likely be paying for our roof! Can’t have a complete straight line every month though can we!

  3. HECK YES!!!

    The big accounts a great, but it’s also cool to see the little accounts grow by $30 and $90 because they all add up.

    Crazy how several small streams can grow into something really big so fast!

    But I guess that’s what it’s all about. Steady growth over a period of time and the next thing you know it’s turned into something really big.
    derek recently posted…Track and Grow Your Net Worth (April challenge!)My Profile

    • That’s the beauty of having multiple streams of income isn’t it! Can’t wait to start adding more streams in the future! I love watching the power of little decisions over longer periods of time really build up to something awesome!

      That’s why I post the chart since 2010 every month. A new line gets added, telling the story!

  4. Great job in March Steve! Looks like your savings combined with this market are really propelling you forward. Those medical expenses can really knock you out of whack!

    • Yeah medical expenses can be a killer if we’re not careful! I think in April we’ll finally setup a sinking fund to offset this a little vs just paying it as it comes in…

  5. Looks like you continued to rock and roll in March with your net worth heading in the right direction. While I don’t post my net worth on my blog I do share my passive income earned via dividends and March was a great month for me with a record amount coming in. Always, nice to read how others are doing and how they’re doing it.
    DivHut recently posted…Dividend Income Update March 2017My Profile

  6. I just got here from DollarHabits. It seems that your net worth is growing pretty smoothly. Keep up the good work!

    • Hey Troy, welcome! Cody has a fantastic site and back story! I’m glad you decided to stick around and I hope you continue to visit and become part of our community! I’ll be checking out your site as well and seeing what I can help spread the word about!

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