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.
I just wish we could share the amazing progress made toward huge life goals this month, but you will have to wait a while longer on that! In the meantime, our net worth increased modestly in July and August, primarily because we adjusted rental property assessments down.
| Account | Last Month | Balance | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Checking | $15,785.16 | $7,367.27 | -$8,417.89 |
| Business Checking | $1,033.87 | $1,042.13 | $8.26 |
| Real Estate Operating Account | $4,602.26 | $1,905.71 | -$2,696.55 |
| Real Estate Cash Flow Account | $99.50 | $99.56 | $0.06 |
| Credit Cards | -$15,146.00 | -$7,244.12 | $7,901.88 |
| Retirement - HSA | $2,769.74 | $3,599.83 | $830.09 |
| Retirement - After Tax | $35,547.50 | $36,269.37 | $721.87 |
| Retirement - 401(k) | $162,249.19 | $173,639.93 | $11,390.74 |
| Retirement - Roth IRA | $10,366.37 | $10,576.88 | $210.51 |
| Asset - Home | $500,000.00 | $500,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Asset - Rental 1 | $46,327.00 | $46,327.00 | $0.00 |
| Asset - Rental 2 | $75,000.00 | $72,000.00 | -$3,000.00 |
| Asset - Rental 3 | $95,436.00 | $85,000.00 | -$10,436.00 |
| Asset - Cryptocurrency | $17,823.77 | $26,283.56 | $8,459.79 |
| Mortgage - Home | -$376,929.41 | -$374,745.68 | $2,183.73 |
| Mortgage - Rental 1 | -$43,647.07 | -$43,458.11 | $188.96 |
| Mortgage - Rental 2 | -$47,243.90 | -$47,037.45 | $206.45 |
| Mortgage - Rental 3 | -$57,006.36 | -$57,000.36 | $6.00 |
| Student Loan 1 | -$20,388.26 | -$20,098.35 | $289.91 |
| Student Loan 2 | -$12,673.83 | -$12,493.62 | $180.21 |
| Student Loan 3 | -$3,326.47 | -$3,127.24 | $199.23 |
| Net Worth | $390,688.57 | $398,906.31 | $8,217.74 |
In our August 2017 financial statement, our net worth increased by 2.10%!
We’ve got something seriously big up our sleeves, but we are still around six months from revealing it. As part of our preparation, we’ve had to seriously re-engineer our net worth, so you should expect to see money move between categories in the coming couple of months. I want to be honest in saying that our safe monthly withdrawal rate will probably go down as a result of some of the changes we’re planning… but our quality of life and personal satisfaction is going to go up.
Way up.
The past two months were actually pretty productive, but to give an accurate measure of our net worth, I had to adjust our rental property prices down, and that meant missing the $400K net worth mark by the teensiest of possible margins. The good news is that after this correction, we should be back to regular, larger net worth increases next month.
Our goal remains to hit $450K net worth by the end of the year, and the $500K stretch goal is looking a little unrealistic at this point. So, we’re now hoping to hit $500-550K in net worth by April 1st of next year. We’ll see what happens!
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 months of July and August, I earned the following:
- $100 from Personal Capital affiliate payments
- $76.09 in Google Ad revenue
The blog continues to be slightly profitable, and I continue to turn down all sorts of sketchy sounding sponsorship and paid post offers that come in. Making money isn’t the goal of the blog… though obviously it’s nice when it happens!
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 $8,217.74 the past two months. If we can increase out net worth by about $13,000 per month for the rest of the year, we’ll just barely hit the $450,000 net worth goal we’ve set for ourselves. It’ll be challenging with Baby Vagabond on the way and the costs associated with it, but it’s definitely doable.
With equity and bond accounts totaling $224,086.01 at the end of August, a 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate would allow us to take out $746.95 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: $1,732.95 (+$43.84 since Last Report)
% to Goal: 34.65% (+0.87% 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.