We passed the net worth milestone of $300,000. Yeehaw!! We passed our last net worth milestone of $290,000 all the way back in June.
Our net worth is currently $301,079.30. I will update our chart on the left at the end of the month.
Based on my estimates, we should hit our next net worth milestone of $310,000 by April.
January was an okay income month and another larger than budgeted expense month (see spreadsheet screenshot).
Our total income in December was $7,183.63. In addition to my wife’s paychecks, she received an $800 auto allowance and a $100 company reimbursement for internet service. We received $250 in preschool reimbursement, $90 selling items on Craigslist, and earned $4.89 in interest income from our online savings account.
In January, we spent a total of $9,746.39. Some of our larger non-standard expenses were $685 for 6 months term life insurance (wife and I), $635 for 6 months auto insurance (2 cars), $485.11 for clothing, and $156.1for vacation. We let our nanny go mid-month, so there was reduced spending in that area.
Next month should be a good income month with my wife receiving her 34% raise and a quarterly bonus of approximately $15K.
Overall
January was a down month for our net worth. It decreased $5,286.35, to a total of $290,840.03 (see spreadsheet screenshot). Not an awesome start to the year, but not the end of the world either. My wife just received a huge promotion so we’ll catch up in February.
Retirement Accounts
Our retirement accounts are comprised of my wife’s 401(k), our Roth IRAs and our Traditional IRAs. My wife’s company matches up to 3% of her 401(K) contribution and deposits the sum once a year on January 1st (it is 100% vested when deposited). We contributed $242.50 to my wife’s 401(k) and saw the total balance of our retirement accounts decrease $2,885.95 over last month to $136,137.68. In January, my wife also received her 3% company match ($1,012.52) for 2014.
Brokerage Account
Currently, our brokerage account consists of one stock (my wife’s company) that has continued to decline as of late. Our balance is $810.15 on a $2,000.00 in initial investment.
Cash & Savings Accounts
Cash and savings accounts consists of a small sum of cash at home and our online savings account balance. It does not include our checking account balance that we use to pay our bills each month. This month, due to a number of large annual bills, we had a decrease of $3,322.53 to our cash and savings bringing the total to $5,884.77.
College Savings Accounts
Our kids have 529 Plans through Vanguard. We contributed $0 to our son’s 529 Plan and it decreased $494.68 over last month to a total balance of $10,854.55. We contributed $0 to our daughter’s 529 Plan and it decreased $163.75 over last month to a total balance of $3,509.57.
Home
We use the $489K purchase price that we paid in January 2012 for our home value. Current comps in the area are ~$650K. The current balance on our mortgage loan is $368,136.26. We paid $100 extra to mortgage principal this month.
Cars
“Car 1” is a 2011 SUV with 53K miles and “Car 3” is a 2004 SUV with 99K miles. We no longer own a “Car 2”. When calculating our net worth, we depreciate the vehicles 1% per month. Car 1 has a current loan balance of $25,323.76 and Car 3 is paid off.
Credit Card Balance
The $5,651.31 credit card balance is from a new HVAC that we installed in September 2014. It is 0% for two years. We expect to pay this off in February once my wife receives her quarterly bonus.
February is going to be a huge month for my wife’s career. She had an amazing quarter (as usual) and should receive a quarterly bonus of ~$15K gross. She will also be receiving a trip for two to Cancun for winning the President’s Award.
If that wasn’t enough, she also is being promoted to management and will now have a team of sales reps that report to her. Her salary will increase from $97,000 to $130,000 and her quarterly bonus for hitting goal will increase from $9,000 to $12,500 (she earns more if she exceeds the goal). Furthermore, they are giving her 15,000 more stock options (they already gave her 20,000).
I am so proud of my wife and can’t believe how much success she has had in her career and at such a young age (30 years old). It is truly a blessing and well deserved because she works so hard.
I love reviewing our numbers to see how we got to where we are. This screenshot is shows our net worth progress by month for 2014. Some highlights from include:
Happy New Year! The beginning of a new year brings the opportunity to set new financial goals. We had good success reaching most of our 2014 goals and hope to reach the five goals below by the end of 2015.
1) Pass our 2016 Net Worth Goal 1 year early Since we already passed our 2015 net worth goal of $296K (1 year early), we will shoot for hitting our 2016 net worth goal of $343K. I am not currently working this might a tough one.
2) Pay off credit card balance of $5,767.31 We charged a new HVAC system (~$6,400) to a 0% credit card in September and the remaining balance is $5,767.31. The 0% offer is good for 2 years, but we would like to get eliminate this debt in 2015.
3) Pay $3,000 extra towards mortgage principal We paid $1,200 total in extra mortgage principal payments in 2014 and would like to try to more than double that to a total of $3,000 in 2015. That is an average of $250/month in extra payments.
4) Contribute $4,000 to 529 Plans ($2,000 for each child) I feel like we have gotten off to a good start with saving for our kid’s college and want to keep up the pace. Our kids are young, so the more we can contribute now, the longer it will have time to grow. Our 3-year-old currently has a balance of $11,349.23 and 7-month-old has a balance of $3,673.32. In 2014, we contributed $3,365 to our daughter’s 529 and $965 to our son’s 529. We would like to contribute $2,000 to each of their 529 Plans in 2015.
5) Building savings account balance to $15,000 In previous years, I set a goal of reaching $20K in savings, but we repeatedly fail to get there. I hate lowering the bar, but I think we need a target that is more doable. I’m hoping that by reaching $15K in savings in 2015, we can get to $20K in 2016.
At the beginning of every year, we set goals that we hope to reach by the end of the year. Below are the goals that we set for ourselves in early 2014 along with our results in achieving them.
1) Increase net worth to $251,900 – SUCCESS
At the start of 2014, we were less than $7K from reaching our 2014 net worth goal of $252K. Reaching it was almost a certainty, but I was still surprised when we blew past it in February, reaching a net worth of $274K that month.
2) Pass our 2015 Net Worth Goal 1 year early – SUCCESS
We are roughly 1 year ahead of our net worth goal targets, so it made sense to attempt to pass our 2015 net worth goal ($296K) one year early. It came down to the buzzer but we hit the goal. Actually, we passed our 2015 net worth goal briefly back in August, but lost ground shortly thereafter. It wasn’t until the last week of December that we passed our 2015 net worth goal again and ended the year with a net worth of $296,126.38.
3) Building savings account balance to $20,000 – FAIL
Every year that we attempt to reach the goal of$20k in savings, we fail. Sad and frustrating. We ended 2014 with $9,207.30 in savings. On a positive note, when I quit my job in September, we only had $7,720 in savings, so at least we haven’t had to dip into it yet.
4) Pay off Car 3 – SUCCESS
We started 2014 with a $12K balance on our “Car 3” auto loan (monthly payments of $307.21). We paid the vehicle off in February, thanks to a large quarterly bonus that my wife received.
5) Open 529 Plan for new baby – SUCCESS
We believe strongly in saving for our kid’s college and were happy to be able to reach this goal. Our daughter’s 529 Plan account was opened in June (1 month after her birth) with a initial deposit of $3K. Her 529 balance is now $3,673.32, not too shabby for a 8-month-old.
I will post our goals for 2015 shortly.
December was an okay income month and a larger than expected expense month (see spreadsheet screenshot).
Our total income in December was $7,331.52. In addition to my wife’s paycheck, she received an $800 auto allowance and a $100 company reimbursement for internet service. We received $68.90 in cash back rewards, $130 in gifts for our kids 529 Plans, and earned $5.49 in interest income from our online savings account.
In December, we spent a total of $9,256.64 (nearly $2K more than our income). Some of our larger non-standard expenses were $535 in gifts, $458.22 for vacation, and $960.50 in household items.
Next month should be a good income month with my wife receiving a quarterly bonus of approximately $15K.
With the new year approaching, I decided to change the format of our monthly net worth updates. The spreadsheet layout will stay the same for easy comparison to previous months, but the detail in the blog post will change. I am replacing my typical “What Worked”, “What Didn’t Work”, and “Next Month” sections with more detailed information on each line item on the spreadsheet.
Overall
Overall, December was an okay month for our net worth. It increased $2,376.30, to a total of $296,126.38 (see spreadsheet screenshot). It might not be a huge increase, but it was enough to get us past our 2015 net worth goal of $296K one year ahead of schedule!
Retirement Accounts
Our retirement accounts are comprised of my wife’s 401(k), our Roth IRAs and our Traditional IRAs. My wife’s company matches up to 3% of her 401(K) contribution and deposits the sum once a year on January 1st (it is 100% vested when deposited). In December, we contributed $242.50 to my wife’s 401(k) and saw the total balance of our retirement accounts increase $1,001.86 over last month to $139,023.63.
Cash & Savings Accounts
Cash and savings accounts consists of a small sum of cash at home and our online savings account balance. It does not include our checking account balance that we use to pay our bills each month. This month, we had a tiny increase of $54.60 to our cash and savings bringing the total to $9,207.30.
College Savings Accounts
Our kids have 529 Plans through Vanguard. We contributed $165 to our son’s 529 Plan and it increased $314.84 over last month to a total balance of $11,349.23. We also contributed $165 to our daughter’s 529 Plan and it increased $216.25 over last month to a total balance of $3,673.32.
Home
We use the $489K purchase price that we paid in January 2012 for our home value. Current comps in the area are ~$650K. The current balance on our mortgage loan is $368,895.17. We paid $100 extra to mortgage principal this month.
Cars
“Car 1” is a 2011 SUV with 53K miles and “Car 3” is a 2004 SUV with 99K miles. We no longer own a “Car 2”. When calculating our net worth, we depreciate the vehicles 1% per month. Car 1 has a current loan balance of $25,652.15 and Car 3 is paid off.
Credit Card Balance
The $5,767.31 credit card balance is from a new HVAC that we installed in September 2014. It is 0% for two years.
I was inspired by a number of recent posts on various blogs about selling extra “stuff” on craigslist. J. Money at Budgets Are Sexy turned a few interesting items into cash this month including Shakespeare books and a sword. Yes, a real sword!
We have TONS of things that we no longer use (baby stuff), barely use (wireless keyboard), or have never use (huge vase). So, I took a few nice photos, wrote some compelling ads, and posted 10+ items on craigslist.
Guess what I heard. Crickets. Very quiet crickets. I reposted the ads this morning and…even more crickets.
I know what you’re thinking, “he overpriced the items”. Heck yeah I overpriced the items! Lol! Most of the people that I have sold to on craigslist offer a lower price and being the sucker that I am, I accept. So, I’ve learned to price my items a bit high. Guess I’m getting what I deserve. Next time I repost, I plan to include a note explaining that the prices have been reduced. This technique generally works on me at the mall, so I’ll give it a try.
What’s your craigslist strategy? Do you start with a high price like me? Do you go with a low price to sell quickly? Or, maybe some other technique that helps turn your trash (nice trash) into someone’s treasure. Help me!