I write this update on the night of my son’s 4th birthday. It is almost unbelievable to me that I have a 4 year old! I know it such a cliche statement, but it is incredible how fast time flies. I almost remember writing the post welcoming him to this world. I know there is nothing I can do to slow it down, but milestones like this remind me why I behave the way I do financially. Every dollar not spent on garbage is another dollar that can be used to build financial freedom. The milestones I have watched over the past year with my boy are awe inspiring, and it is painful when he realizes I am going back to work every Monday. While I spend far less than most of those in my life, I am not anywhere as extreme as I wish I would be/could be.
Consumer Debt Repayment
As I stated over the past few months I accumulated consumer debt for the first time in years. I have the liquidity to pay it all off but choose not to because truth be told I value liquidity way too much. First step was create the following step by step outline for myself. I then chose to call an audible and more or less ignore my own outline.
- In September I paid off $1,689.
- In October I was actually -$422 even with adjustments made for the “found” account.
- November was another negative moth at $588 – however, most of this will be gone by the time I pay off my revolving AMEX (but not attacking that much principal in the other accounts).
When I decided to take charge of this part of my financial life I said that if I wasn’t hitting $1,000/mo in the right direction I would force myself to sell something that is going to hurt, namely a piece of my dividend investment portfolio. I have yet to pull this trigger for the exact reason I said I would. Pain (in the very first world sense of the world). I have two positions I am thinking about liquidating, but then I remember that I really do believe in the underlying business and am I going to look back and kick myself.
I haven’t quite figured out to do with this problem.
Calculating my Net Worth
My Assets
- My Cash Savings Accounts – I only really count my emergency savings since everything else is ear marked to be spent elsewhere. This amount is lower than what I would like to be. I am hoping to move it up to a comfortable level with my bonus at the end of the year.
- My 401(k) – Just keep throwing part of my paycheck at my 401(k) even though I sort of hate my 401k. For the past few months I have been buying and selling within this account…I just posted my actual returns from this pure market timing technique.
- Random Non-Qualified Investment Accounts – This thing has TUMBLED but I am proud to announce I am DONE with gambling on penny stocks. My gambling will be kept to casinos (and some of my holdings in my investment club).
- Wife’s Non-Qualified Account – In this monthly post for the past few years I would lump this in with the random qualified accounts, but this is not how I kept my records. So I have partitioned it out for future posts, and recaptured some Disney stock which was in a UTMA account for The Wife despite her being 34 years old. The “recapture” created a noticeable big bump. In addition to her $DIS stock she owns 2 broad based index funds.
- The Wife’s Roth IRA – This account only holds to 2 funds. An index fund of the market and a dividend paying fund.
- My Dividend Investment Portfolio – Easily my favorite part of my financial
empirehut. - Home Value – A lot of bloggers seem to stress over home value. In my old place I just rounded to a number that I thought I’d sell for (I was off by less than 1%). I am just going to keep using my purchase price for at least the next year or two.
- My Traditional IRA – I started to actively trade this account lol. Not proud. I just made the financial confession that I was speculating in some really shitty stocks. I am done with it – and will roll out when I can.
My Liabilities
- My Mortgage – Every so often I think about putting money towards the mortgage but I always back off.
- Law School debt – A while back I paid off the much smaller of the loans I have a while before this category makes any significant moves.
- Credit Card debt – As mentioned above the goal is to reduce it by a net $1,000 per month.
My Net Worth Growth
- From November 2014 to December 2014 my net worth increased 4.81%
- Year to date I am up 9.87%
Even without the recapture of the Disney Stock the net worth would be positive, but at a much more normal 2%.
Wow – what a great month – almost half your annual growth in one month! Yay November!! 🙂
Happy Birthday to your son. Its awesome that he is also your inspiration to financial freedom! Way to go!
Yesterday, we launched our 2015 savings challenge and I think it may be something of interest to you regarding your net worth goals.
I would love for you to join the community and come and achieve your goals together with all of us. Head on over and check us out, or fire me an email if you have any questions.
Have a great week,
Graham (moneystepper)
Sounds like you are building a great community! Good luck, I know it will change a lot of lives if you have the numbers.
LOL! I can remember when that kid was born, and I’d swear it was yesterday! 😀
Nice growth pattern there. I tend to discount the giant steps forward that occur over a month or two, or even over a quarter. What goes up (etc.)…in my experience, an investment windfall usually comes under the heading of easy-come, easy-go.
But this year has been amazingly good for me, too. So good, come to think of it, that I’m sitting here thinking I should go out TODAY and buy the much-needed new car, before the market drops.
“But this year has been amazingly good for me, too. So good, come to think of it, that I’m sitting here thinking I should go out TODAY and buy the much-needed new car, before the market drops.”
Ha, it is only a gain if you sell right?!