With another month in the books, it was time to update my net worth to see how I did over the past 30 or so days. I enjoy keeping my spreadsheet updated and sharing those results for me to see for years to come (since no one is reading them anyway).

Feelings prior to calculating: I wrote in February,

I haven’t calculated yet, but when I opened up this window to start writing I have a feeling that February is going to be a bad month mainly because of spending. This month we have done a few ski trips and The Wife leased a new car.

and while I was wrong in February, I don’t think I am going to be wrong this time around. This will be a down month. Some of my riskier investments/bets have taken a large pullback basically erasing all the gains that were pumped up during February. In addition, I feel like spending has been out of control.

Calculating my Net Worth

My Family’s Assets

I will be writing an introductory post about most of the assets below, and update them whenever it seems appropriate.

  • Cash Equivalents – I finally got this number to a comfortable number! It represents about 2 months of my family’s bare minimum run rate. It is also is probably the largest, “oh shit” number I would need access to within a day or two.
  • My Trading Account – This one account is both where I invest in my dividend growth companies and risky speculative option trades.
  • My 401(k) – My 401(k) has some terrible investment options that have ridiculous fees, but since I am getting a match at work I fund it to that match.
  • My Traditional IRA – Just some companies that have caught my attention at some point or another.
  • The Wife’s Roth IRA – Again, some companies that have caught my attention at some point or another.
  • The Wife’s SEP IRA – Brand new account. The Wife was talking to my father in law 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. Just going to be sending $100/week to the account. Plan is to just buy a broad based equity ETF (VOO) and a smaller position in a dividend-focused ETF (NOBL).
  • Crypto Currency – A handful of years ago during the height of the first crypto mania I decided to put a few dollars into BitCoin (literally it was just $1k). It felt like immediately after I made the transfer BTC took a nosedive. At that point, I made the decision just to ignore the account – and it is just back to above even. Upon talking to a buddy about Bitcoin and actually signing into my account for the first time in months/possibly a year, I found out that CoinBase allowed for periodic investments, so I turned them on. I did just $50 a month, figured it was an amount that if the whole thing crashes I am not going to be too pissed, and if it takes off, then at least I’ll have a taste.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 clubs in my net worth.

My Family’s Debt

  • Law School Debt – Overall this account is just not that large anymore, but at 3.5% fixed I just ignore it. I am hoping that President Biden kinda just eliminates it for me.
  • Mortgage and Home Debt – I have a mortgage on each home and a home equity line of credit on the rental property. I have been trying to refinance the home for a few months, but I am running into roadblocks because of my “official” debt to income ratio. It has since fallen off my radar but has to get done sooner than later.
  • Revolving Credit Card Debt – For the most part, The Wife and I pay off our credit cards every month – this was not one of those months! It’ll take me a few weeks to get out of the hole but nothing that is a huge deal.

My Net Worth Change

  • Month over month my net worth increased 1.8%
  • Since starting AA my net worth has increased by approximately $110,000.

I have three big projects for myself in April that I will chronicle on this site:

  1. I need to find a bit of liquidity to finish up my backyard. The Wife and I built a pool late last year, and this year they finished the brick work, but as I write this post I have zero grass and they ripped up my sprinkler system to install the pool. I am quite proud that we were able to do this massive project with NO debt, but it doesn’t look like that is going to be an option with this last little part. I am 90% sure I am going to loan against my cash value life insurance to finish up the project.
  2. I have a ton of little savings, investments and debt repayments happening every single month coming out of my checking account. I need to get a hold of that number and see if it still matches up with goals and objectives. Given priority number #1 above, my guess is that what is happening today is not going to be happening by the end of the month.
  3. I need to get back on the refinancing train.

Net Worth