I have been talking about refinancing for the better part of the year! Literally. It has been a very frustrating process, and one that is/was likely unavoidable given how The Wife and I operate our personal finances and to a larger extent, our taxes. The details aren’t all that important, but needless to say we aren’t your ordinary W2 couple.

Once it is off my plate (hopefully next week), I plan on taking the following moves:

  • Paying off a ton of debt – this one sort of happens concurrently as it is needed for me to close. Unfortunately this debt is not going to positively impact next month’s net worth statement as it will be done with cash already marked as an asset.
  • Upgrading my American Express due to an offer of 75,000 points (which basically pays for the years plus some);
  • Moving some funds from Wife’s business to cover some future expenses (travel next year and some home repair).
  • Increasing my 401(k) contribution. I am going to be saving about $500/mo in housing expenses so I am going to increase my 401(k) contribution $200/mo to automatically capture it.
  • Refinancing my student loans – I just received an email about shaving a point on my small law school debt balance. Going to see if this is real.

Feelings prior to Calculating: I normally write this section prior to calculating but that didn’t happen this time around since I am very late with this post (not really accountable to anyone or any readers, but I that is why I keep this site – to keep myself accountable…to myself)

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. 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.
  • 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.

My Net Worth Change

  • Month over month my net worth increased 1.22%
  • Since starting AA my net worth has increased by approximately $124,000.

I’ll always take a point month over month! Next month will be very interesting since closing costs will be rolled into the new mortgage.

Net Worth

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