Since this website is centered around improving finances, I wanted to use it as a way to track my overall net worth.
Not only that, but posting monthly updates will help keep me accountable for saving, investing, and sticking to my budget.
This content is not meant to brag or gloat about my wealth. In fact, I hope it can inspire others because it shows I started from being heavily in debt with no investments. It will also show that building wealth is not a linear path; some months my net worth will go down and that’s okay.
Not only that, but I’ve got a long way to go. I plan to have a net worth $1 million by 2030. Is that a bit ambitious? Maybe… but if you’re going to dream, you might as well dream big.
Current Net Worth Update: April 2024
Our current assets consist of the following:
- Self-Employment Retirement Account (SEP-IRA)
- Traditional IRA
- Roth IRA
- My Wife Laura’s 401K
- Individual Brokerage Account
- High Yield Savings Accounts
- Silver and Gold
- Cash
- 2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI
Current Liabilities:
- 2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI Auto Loan
Breakdown of total assets and liabilities
- Assets: $70,630.60
- Liabilities: $11,446.53
Although not the worst decline in our net worth (-$1,209.72), it still in unsettling when things go down. These are the times you need to remind yourself that net worth, incomes, and other things in life are cyclical in nature.
This update is also a bit bittersweet: I recently left my full time job as Senior Editor of HotCars. I knew I wouldn’t stay there forever, but losing one of our incomes unexpectedly is certainly a bit uncomfortable. That’s the bitter part.
When things like this happen in my life, i am reminded of a famous quote from the 2006 film, Rocky Balboa
“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. “
rocky balboa (sylvester stallone)
The sweet part of the bittersweet is that I now get to focus on building our websites full time. I can take everything I learned working as an Editor for one of the largest automotive websites in the world, and apply to not only this site, but also my wife’s project, https://itraveltomuseums.com/.
With that said, that’s part of life. Things happen and you need to adapt. Thankfully, we have an emergency fund, and other ways to make money while our websites grow. The universe always takes care of us. That I know for sure. It has happened before. This time will be no different.
Total Net Worth April 2024:$59,184.07
Why Track My Net Worth?
When I started turning around my finances back in 2018, the advice I was given was to pay off debt, then save and invest. Seems simple enough right?
That was all well and good but it didn’t give me a specific goal or a path to achieve. Fast forward to 2020, and I found this website, Budgets Are Sexy, that started tracking their net worth in 2008 and it inspired me to do the same.
It showed the path to building wealth by tracking net worth every month. Now I want to share our journey with you to hopefully inspire you like Budgets Are Sexy did with me many years ago.
What Is Net Worth?
Net worth is a simple formula of subtracting liabilities from assets
For example. If I have $10,000 in the bank and $5,000 in credit card debt, that means my net worth is $5,000
It doesn’t have to be cash but any type of asset such as cryptocurrency, real estate, stocks, bonds, or precious metals like Gold and Silver. Even something like a business could be considered an asset, because it has value.
Liabilities are things that you owe such as credit cards, a mortgage, or other types of debt.
Net Worth Throughout The Years
Net Worth 2024: $60,393.79
- April 2024: $59,184.07 (stocks down and unexpected expenses)
- March 2024: $60,393.79 (paid off taxes)
- February 2024: $55,748.39 (owed taxes)
- January 2024: $57,967.07
Net Worth 2023: $57,814.07
- December 2023: $57,814.07
- November 2023: $54,452.65
- October 2023: $49,176.39
- September 2023: $48,365.74
- August 2023: $48,845.54
- July 2023: $52,068.22
- June 2023: $50,461.29
- May 2023: $42,791.90
- April 2023: $41,402.03
- March 2023: $40,359.02
- February 2023: $39,116.11
- January 2023: $35,957.57
Net Worth 2022: $36,674.18
- December 2022: $36,674.18
- November 2022: $36,613.32
- October 2022: $37,919.70
- September 2022: $33,879.79
- August 2022: $37,139.90
- July 2022: $34,784.70
- June 2022: $32,892.21
- May 2022: $30,742.97
- April 2022: $35,130.44
- March 2022: $36,656.50
- February 2022: $33,518.65
- January 2022: $33,495.99
Net Worth 2021: $32,926.99
- December 2021: $32,926.99
- November 2021: $34,510.88
- October 2021: $32,656.78
- September 2021: $31,609.67
- August 2021: $31,211.74
- July 2021: $25,897.14
- June 2021: $21,308.41
- May 2021: $19,353.87
- April 2021: $17,201.85
- March 2021: $15,580.11
- February 2021: $14,936.75
- January 2021: $14,620.36
Net Worth 2020: $16,283.70
- December 2020: $16,284.70
- November 2020: $15,531.05
- October 2020: $14,883.41
- September 2020: $14,832.38
- August 2020: $14,572.92
- July 2020: $12,318.72
- June 2020: $12,096.06
- May 2020: $8,479.95
- April 2020: $5,440.51
- March 2020: $2,803.46
- February 2020: $2,627.64
- January 2020: $2,270.76
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message directly or leave a comment below. Thanks for visiting!
March 2024 Net Worth Update
To take care of our nearly $5,000 federal tax bill, we decided to sell some of our stocks. This doesn’t affect our retirement account (we have a separate individual account) and it was the most logical solution without having to dip into our savings funds.
Our car also went up slightly in value, and we paid down our auto loan a bit more. Overall, a decent month, but the next steps are to monetize this blog and get a raise through my employer.
Total Net Worth March 2024:$60,393.79
February 2024 Net Worth Update
Unfortunately, we took a bit of a hit this month. Our assets went up by about $2,000 through saving and investing, but I underestimated my self-employment taxes from 2023 by about $5,000.
This reinforces my point that wealth can be an up-and-down journey. The key is not to get too discouraged. The blessing in disguise is that we will now be opening something called a Solo 401K. We calculated that had we made the maximum contributions to that, we would reduced our tax bill by about $3,000.
We also needed a small business account credit card, allowing us to pay our tax bill with that card and receive a sign-up bonus with cashback/travel perks. There’s also 0 % APR for the first 12 months. It’s not ideal and I don’t encourage anyone to take on more debt, but it is allowing us to pay our full tax bill right away and pay it off in the next few months.
Because I underestimated, I will also be adjusting my budget to pay a bit more in taxes each month.
It also lit a fire on me to focus more on this website and less on my freelance writing/editing for other companies. It helps pay the bills, but it builds someone else’s dreams, not mine.
Total Net Worth February 2024:$55,748.39
January 2024 Net Worth Update
Breakdown of total assets and liabilities
- Assets:$70,653.34
- Liabilities:$12,686.27
Thankfully, we paid off all our credit card debt a few years ago. While we still use credit cards to pay our monthly expenses to receive credit card reward points for travel, we are able to do it responsibly. We never keep a balance at the end of the month, and we would otherwise just be wasting travel points that we use if we paid our monthly bills with a debit card.
However, I get the idea of the Dave Ramsey approach of never using credit cards and I respect that. With that in mind, we are looking to pay off our Auto Loan as soon as possible.