Ooooooooeeeee July was a massive month for getting some of my goals out of the way! Absolutely pumped.

  1. After mentioning it 8 months ago, I finally refinanced my house (from 3.85% down to 2.75% 30yr fixed). I also got a favorable appraisal so I was able to drop PMI. The move will save me about $600/mo!
  2. In an effort to capture some of that money before life style inflation kicks in, I upped my 401(k) contributions another $200/mo. Still not maxing out, but north of my employer match so I am good with that.
  3. Since I was no longer of fearful of screwing up my credit I was able to refinance the remaing balance on my law school loans. I honestly couldn’t believe how easy it was to use Earnest. Took me about an hour or so, and I went from 15 years left down to 6, and a 3.5% interest rate down to 2.6%! All in all it saved me about $100/mo, but way more important is the drop in years.
  4. Again, since I wasn’t worried about hits to the credit report I was able to jump on an American Express offer to upgrade to a gold card and get 75,000 miles.

Feelings prior to Calculating: Pretty sure this is going to be a down month. Despite all the good I was able to do, the cost of refinancing is pretty crazy in New York. Seems like an industry and a slice of the government that could use a good kick in the ass to get into 2021!

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 a little bit above the 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. These values now have a loan against the cash.
  • 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. Refinanced at 2.6%, going to ignore the account for a while.
  • Mortgage and Home Debt – I have a mortgage on each home and a home equity line of credit on the rental property.
  • Revolving Credit Card Debt – Carry a small balance which I will probably get rid of this month or next month when the refinance goes through. For the first time, in a long time, I can say I have zero credit card debt.

My Net Worth Change

  • Month over month my net worth decreased 1.08%.
  • Since starting AA my net worth has increased by approximately $117,000.

Yup, those closing costs hurt, but I know it is a great move for my family.

Net Worth

Tagged in: