Happy Fourth of July!

June has come and gone in a flash and with my little free time on this holiday weekend, I wanted to take the chance to update you on my net worth. While things went up significantly this month, I know I can’t expect increases like this for the rest of the year, but it’s still fun to see them on an upward trend!

June 2015 Net Worth: $432,866.16

Here’s the net worth statement for this month:

As you can see in the image above, that’s a total increase from last month of $10,823.90, or a 2.5% increase from last month’s $422,042.26. Also, the Emergency Fund is shown at $50,000, which probably won’t be increasing from this point as I consider that goal complete! Instead, you’ll hopefully start seeing increases in the Vanguard SEP IRA and after that, other yet-to-be-determined accounts that may or may not be taxable. We’ll find out soon. As soon as I figure that out, I’ll be writing posts to keep you all updated.

So, the reason my May net worth percentage change was so big was due in part to our tax refund. This month, however, I was still able to stash over $10k away and I’m pretty damned proud of that.

Another thing you’ll notice is that the home mortgage amount dipped below $500,000, which is an amazing feeling! I mean, it’s still quite a mountain to climb but it feels like we’ve reached the first base camp. Slow and steady gets you to the top of Mount Everest. On the other hand, my taxable brokerage accounts decreased due to the dip at the end of the month, but I just saw it as an opportunity to move more money into VTSAX (in the Vanguard SEP IRA), so no problem there. As always, I’m in it for the long haul.

Overall, June was a great month in terms of overall net worth. Next month probably won’t be as great, but as long as I make forward steps, that’s what counts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Friday!

So while I’m giving regular updates on my Emergency Fund, after reading a few blogs, I figured I could give monthly updates on my net worth as a way to show my progress on the road to Financial Independence. I figured I might as well start with where I left off last month.

May 2015 Net Worth: $422,042.26

Just to catch you up, I started the year off with $379,290.29 for a total increase (so far) of $42,751.97!

Here’s my first net worth statement:

You’ll notice a few things here. For one, my Emergency Fund jumped up from $30,000.00 to over $35,000.00, which is a significant jump and represented reaching 70% of the way to $50,000.00. After this month, you should start seeing bigger increases on the Taxable Brokerage Account  line. Still, there was an increase of $227.35 in that area. Not too bad considering I don’t touch it. The home value is based on the Zillow “Zestimate,” which Mint uses. I realize this may be over or under, depending on the market, but for the sake of projections and updates, I’m just going to go with it. On the other side of things, my mortgage has gone from about $560,000 when it started, to hovering just at the $500,000 mark today. Still a long road ahead, but we’re making progress.

Overall, there was a change of +4.93% in net worth. A big part of that was probably the tax refund we got, which came out to $8,688.00.

Personally, I don’t like how much of my worth is tied up in the real estate market, but from what I gather, it all counts. I suppose I’ll be more on board with the notion once we start investing in more real estate. For now, it just seems like these numbers could plummet with the market and get cut in half. But such is the nature of the beast.

That wraps up the month of May. I plan to release an update like this once a month while keeping the corresponding number updated in the sidebar. I’ve been seeing that in a lot of blogs and I love it for some reason.

Until next time.