According to my Integrity Policy, I want to let you know that this post contains Personal Capital referral links. Personal Capital is a free service. They are looking for high-net worth individuals as possible customers for their financial advisory services, but the expense tracking and retirement planning tools that I recommend are free of charge.

It’s all about the Benjamins. And Jacksons. And Lincolns. And Washingtons.

Thanks largely to one of my rental properties seeing a 10% jump in value, April was a pretty darn good month on the net worth front! The market made some nice gains this month, too, so we continue to plod on towards our safe retirement amount!

In our April 2017 financial statement, our net worth increased by 5.78%!

This month, we mostly buckled down, saved hard, and didn’t overspend. All cylinders were firing, and it showed! The only setback (if you could call it that) this month is that taxes were due, to the tune of about $3,350. On the one hand, it’s a hefty chunk to pay out, but it also indicates that we made money, which isn’t bad! My wife and I filed as a married couple for the first time this year, so the large tax bill was partially due to figuring out our changing tax landscape.

One of our rental properties has been in what I call “Zillow Limbo” for about a year now. To explain, I’ll need to give you insight as to how I value our properties for this net worth report. I look at recent comparable sales every few months, and if the Zillow estimate is within a few percent, I use that value. If the Zillow estimate is drastically higher or lower than similar sales in the area, I use a round number close to the average sale values.

The estimate for one of my rental properties has shown “unavailable” on Zillow for the past year, so I kept the value anchored at around the last Zillow value, waiting for the site to start working again. However, I got tired of waiting, and just adjusted the price of Rental Property 2 to around the value of comparable sales for late 2016. That was a nice $8,760 bump, since duplexes like this are going for around $75,000 now (my purchase price was $65,000 about 18 months ago).

Blog Income

As I mention in my Integrity Policy, I want to make sure I share any and all professional relationships and compensation I make as a part of this blog.

In the month of April, I earned the following:

• $100 from Personal Capital affiliate payments
• $22.10 in Google Ad revenue

The blog made $122.10 this month. A small profit, which is nice. Sure, I don’t make what lots of blogs designed as businesses do, but this blog isn’t meant to be a business. If anything, it’s a motivational tool to keep me focused on our family goals, and it does a great job of that.

If you’re looking to start your own blog or web site, please consider using my referral link for BlueHost. I’ll get a little cash to help pay hosting expenses, and you’ll get a great hosting provider (the same one I use) starting at about $3.95 per month.

Retirement Update

Our net worth is up $20,748.98 this month. Our goal to hit $450K or higher sometime this year (with a stretch goal of $500K) is very much alive, but anything could happen, so it’s best to just take things one day at a time.

With equity and bond accounts totaling $214,065.85 at the end of March, a 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate would allow us to take out $713.55 per month. Our rental properties, after all expenses, vacancies, and short and long term maintenance are considered, produce $986.00 of safe cash flow every month.

Safe Monthly Income:  $1,699.55 (+20.56 since Last Report)

% to Goal: 33.99% (+0.42% since Last Report)

Want to Know How to Track Your Expenses?

It’s really easy. Sign up for a Personal Capital account, which is completely free. It’s how I track my balances across time, and allows me to project all my retirement progress without doing any work at all. As a disclaimer, if you sign up with Personal Capital, this site may get a referral fee depending on the size of your portfolio.