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Net Worth Update March 2014

I selfishly come back to this site a day or two after a new month to update and share my net worth growth (or loss).  Why is it selfish? I don’t think readers other than the few who, have taken a vested interest in my success, get a whole lot out of these net worth posts.  Notwithstanding net worth posts force me to account for the previous month and refocus on goals and objectives.

My Short Term Financial Goals

To keep myself focused I provide myself with short term $5,000 savings/investing goals.  I say “short term” but really they stay alive as long they need to until I complete each objective on the list.  Not every item makes it way to my net worth growth.  For example, my vacation fund, son’s 529 and home improvement fund are not found on my balance sheet.

These goals were created in January of this year so I am 60 days deep.  I am hoping to finish up 1 and 2 this month and then shift the money that was being saved there to my dividend fund until I hit $2,000 (and then to the next one on the list and so on).

  1. Save $500 to emergency fund –35% to 78%
  2. Save $750 to Vacation Fund – 70% to 86%
  3. Save $2,000 to Dividend Fund – 10% to 32.75%
  4. Save $500 to Son’s 529 – 5% to 10%
  5. Save $750 to Traditional IRA – 3.33% to 6.67%
  6. Save  $500 to home improvement fund – 30% to 59%

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.  For example, the above house improvement fund is not included, but the funds I have saved (plus some) will be converting the house from oil to gas soon (see my calculations behind converting from oil to gas).
  • My 401(k) – Just keep throwing part of my paycheck at my 401(k) even though I sort of hate my 401k.  I recently timed the market on this account and not sure what to do currently.  Specifically, for a few months I put my contributions directly into cash and sold out of some broad market positions.  I deployed that cash a month or so back before the market had a ridiculous run from mind 15,000 to the current highs of 16,300.  It feels like I should move the contributions back into cash and not sell like I did last time.
  • Random Non-Qualified Investment Accounts
  • 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 empire hut.  Like always, I updated my dividend champion watch list.  For the first time, a few months back, I made the proactive move of selling a dividend champion that is overvalued.  It seems that the particular stock I sold has come down in price making me feel even better.
  • 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%).  Last year (I bought the house in Jan of 2013) I just used my purchase price – think I am going to do it for 2014 again.
  • My Traditional IRA – Have been trading using my covered call strategy, but I have waived the white flag on the strategy and just finished up betting against my first stock.  This account is going to be pure passive by the end of the year hopefully.  I started to actively trade this account lol.

My Liabilities

  • My Mortgage – Every so often I think about putting money towards the mortgage but I always back off.
  • Law School debt – While I recently paid off the much smaller of the loans I have a while before this category makes any significant moves.
  • Credit Card debt!

My Net Worth Growth

  • From February 2014 to March 2014 my net worth increased 2.74%
  • Year to date I am up 2.09%

How was your month?

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2 COMMENTS

    • I have almost no Emerging Market exposure. My 401K doesn’t offer a fund; may have to pick some up in my traditional IRA. Thank you for the reminder!

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