I had a rare missed calc in August. I was lucky enough to be away with my entire family on a cruise, and by the time I got back the market had a dip, and I had some extra debt so I wasn’t entirely excited about the prospect of putting it down on “paper.” Again, this month I found myself in the exact same situation. Debt is piling up and I was recently assigned 500 shares of Dollar General with another 2 outstanding contracts and 5 contracts of Dollar Tree that I am trying to manage.

DLTR looks very similar.

But then I thought to myself, that absolutely no one reads this site, so if I can’t be honest here and man up to look at my family’s spreadsheet I am doing something wrong….and if I am being honest with myself I did do something wrong. I set up guardrails for myself years ago to try and avoid these inevitable blow-ups (i.e. limit the carnage that happens every few years) when trading this particular style. I ignored those guard rails and now I am pissed at myself.

When I get out of this mess I will adjust accordingly.

Thoughts Before Updating my Spreadsheet: This is likely going to be a bad, bad month (see above).

Calculating my Net Worth

My Family’s Assets

While I have several asset categories, I don’t think they are particularly complicated.

  • Cash Equivalents – A few months ago I calculated how much cash I would like to have on hand, and I am woefully short of that. This is going to be a massive grind to get me to my desired number, but I am up for it!
  • My Trading Account – This one account is both where I invest in my dividend growth companies and risky speculative option trades.  Early this year I decided how I am going to handle the account in 2024, which I then updated recently. This is the account I was talking about above! Unless there is a massive move, this is going to take a really, really long time to unwind from.
  • My 401(k) – My 401(k) has some terrible investment options that have ridiculous fees, but I get a match so I have to participate. I recently increased my contributions, and I am hoping to do so one more time before the end of the year.
  • My Traditional IRA – Just some companies that have caught my attention at some point or another. I wrote last month, “I think in Q1 I’d like to take a more intentional approach to this account.” I failed in Q1, but I won’t fail in Q2. I reviewed and updated the account.
  • The Wife’s Roth IRA – Again, some companies that have caught my attention at some point or another. I wrote last month, “I think in Q1 I’d like to take a more intentional approach to this account.” I failed in Q1, but I won’t fail in Q2. I reviewed and updated the account.
  • The Wife’s SEP IRA – The Wife was talking to my father in law a few years back who told her that she should have a SEP IRA, and since she is funding it with business proceeds, I was not going to argue. We were contributing $100/week to the account, but that has stopped since her business is really on the decline.
  • Crypto Currency – This account was basically started for FOMO purposes. It is a shitty reason, but it is mine nonetheless. I don’t pay much attention to the crypto market and will probably continue to ignore the account.
  • Life Insurance Cash Surrender Value – As described I own a number of permanent, cash value whole life insurance policies. Since the cash is accessible I include it in my net worth statement. This money is also accessible via a loan against the cash value. I have plenty of posts about paying it back and then pulling it back out and then paying it back. I don’t think I will start aggressively paying this one back until mid 2025, but we’ll see.
  • Physical Gold – A few years back I decided to start buying physical gold, I am hoping one day to be that crazy guy with a stack of gold I can swim through. Two months ago I wrote, “I’d like to pick up my small purchases this month.” I failed, and I don’t see it happening till after the new year.
  • My Rental Property – Every month I update a spreadsheet I keep for the minority owners of my rental property. 
  • My Main Residence – My Family’s home.

Currently, I do not include my investment club in my net worth.

My Family’s Debt

  • Law School Debt – Refinanced this to 2.6%, a year or so ago. I am aggressively paying this down this year (9% in January, another 10% in Feb and 9% in March) so I can clear out some more cash flow. Finally paid off.
  • Mortgage and Home Debt – I have a mortgage on each home.
  • Consumer Credit Card Debt – I keep going from zero to a shit ton and it is killing me. I am hoping to get rid of most of it, if not all of it in 2024 and get it entirely under control.  I killed the 0% credit cards in March (helping out operation C.R.E.A.M), but my Amex got away from me so I put all of it on a 7% fixed and it will now need to be eliminated, aggressively, now that the law school debt has been retired.

My Net Worth Change

  • Since I don’t have Month over Month from July to September my family’s net worth increased about 1%
  • Year to date my family’s net worth increased by about 16%

Shockingly I am somehow up! I honestly can’t believe it.

Looking at my assets, three things kept me afloat despite my active attempt to fuck it up:

  1. Systematic and non-correlated increases in my real estate. For the past few years I have increased my two property’s value to try and get it a bit closer in line with the market. Instead of doing it in one shot I am doing annual increases of 3% calculated on a monthly basis. Nonetheless, I am still undervaluing the properties, but don’t want a massive jump.
  2. Similarly, those properties have amortizing debt structures (i.e. a mortgage lol).
  3. My 401(k) is just much larger than my trading account so despite my trading account getting destroyed by 401(k) was up for the month all but covering up those losses.

I really want to give some thoughts to Q4 this month.

Net Worth

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