I prepared both my calcs and this update a few days late. I was going to skip all together but I did that a few months ago and figured I shouldn’t make it a habit.

Pretty sure this is going to be a negative month, just feels like spending has been out of control, so it becomes a question of whether my long term liability payments along with the market backwind is enough to cover up the bumped short term debt accounts.

Calculating my Net Worth

My Family’s Assets

While I have a number of asset categories, I don’t think they are particularly complicated.

  • Cash Equivalents – Back in the day I would save to my cash accounts weekly. I am not sure if it is because I have decimated them recently or the market is making me very nervous (and I have taken on some put assignments) but a few months ago I decided to start back up weekly deposits into my cash accounts.
  • My Trading Account – This one account is both where I invest in my dividend growth companies and risky speculative option trades.  Easily my favorite asset, despite not being the biggest (by a long shot) – this also currently provides me the most stress. For example:
    • In June I wrote, “During the recent downturn I have been very active with this account rolling puts. The volatility has been crazy. Notwithstanding, I have accumulated too much cash earning zero, so this is going to be the second place I grab some cash for my debt plan.”
    • Only to write in August, “I absolutely killed it here this month. My rolling work has paid off and I was able to get out most of my dicey trades. Sometime in August I will use some of the free cash to pay down debt.”
    • And now I have been assigned a ton of shares in two companies that have been taking a beating. Both are dividend payers, so I will continue to sell covered calls until I can get out. One of the five lots (3 of MMM and 2 of INTC) was called out and I keep selling covered calls.
  • 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. This has been hurt the most, probably because it is completely correlated with the market and is my largest non-real estate holding. Despite a 18 months of contributions my balance is back to 2020 levels! I don’t mind this one as much since I can’t touch it for 19 more years at a minimum.
  • 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 – The Wife was talking to my father in law last year 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. The original plan was to just buy a broad-based equity ETF (VOO) and a smaller position in a dividend-focused ETF (NOBL), but I have taken very small positions in individual companies along with those broad ETFs.
  • Crypto Currency – This account was basically started for FOMO purposes. It is a shitty reason, but it is mine nonetheless. With Crypto down hard this account has basically given back all the gains that once existed. I couldn’t get into the account this month, again, but not sure it matters since the class is down so much YTD.
  • 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. This is another debt item that I would like to retire sooner than later as I am throwing a nice chunk of free cash flow back at it monthly and I would like to have that back. I decided a month or so ago to use some more CSV to pay down credit card debt, so as I sit here I have zero credit card debt and have an aggressive pay back schedule on the life insurance loan.
  • 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. I accidentally deleted my gold amounts a few months back. 4 months ago I wrote, “while I believe I have the right number I need to audit my “vast” reserves” well I didn’t so should do that sometime soon…I have continued to fail myself here.
  • 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 – Refinanced a few months back at 2.6%, probably going to ignore the account for a while. While it would be nice to finish these off I haven’t done so to date.
  • 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 – Zero It’s fucking back (for now).

My Net Worth Change

  • Month over Month I am up 4.8%
  • Year to date my net worth is turned positive but not by much which feels good.

It is a mixture of what I thought – the automatic long term amortization payments and backwind on investment accounts just erase (on paper) the short term debt. Going into 2023 I will be at zero again!

Net Worth

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