Monthly Net Worth Update

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Hey guys, here's my very first monthly net worth update.

I always love it when I see other bloggers either post updates on their net worth, monthly income from their blogs or both! Without it, I wouldn't have had the confidence to give this whole blog thing a try. They really motivated me to give this a shot and see what happens regardless of the end result. What's the worst that could really happen? Get published? Sounds good to me.

It's only been a short while since I started the blog, but I've come a long way from where I began.

Even better, I've certainly made significant strides concerning my finances and net worth from when I just started reading about investing and prioritizing saving back in the beginning of 2015. It always feels great to look back at what I've accomplished financially relatively speaking since then. I literally started with $7k when I first got serious about this.

Side note: The $7k was leftover from the savings my parents had for my college tuition. They opened a brokerage account in my name a little over 8 years ago, my freshman year in college. They were generous enough to let me keep the remaining amount as long as I moved it to a Roth IRA for retirement.

Okay so, that was back in October of 2014 when I first started paying attention to my net worth. This was when I finally got my first salaried job, literally 2 years and 5 months after I graduated from school!

I want these updates to show you that you don't have to have everything immediately figured out. I literally went almost 2 and a half years without saving anything or having a clue what I was going to do. And now, I'm working in one of the most expensive cities in the country. So it's definitely possible to save enough even if you start a little later from loans or whatever your situation might be. There's always a way to figure it out if you want it badly enough.

Related posts:

January 25th, 2018 Net Worth: $114,848.39

Here's a monthly breakdown of what I have to date in my Roth 401k at work, my Roth IRA and in my traditional brokerage account which both this and my Roth IRA are together with the same firm:

Roth 401k: $35,684.57
Roth IRA: $29,586.50
Brokerage Account: $49,577.32

Every month after this, I'll provide the percentage increase/decrease for each account, each month. Now don't think I've literally saved this amount on my own doing. Some of this was also a result of compound interest from the bull market we're currently in. My total unrealized gains from my accounts have definitely helped out. I also pay my credit cards every month, so there is no debt outstanding from them.

Unrealized Gains:

Roth 401k: N/A (data isn't provided from my current job and from the two job switches transferring what I had in my previous two 401k accounts)

Roth IRA: $7,426.50

Brokerage Account: $10,224.73

So at the very least, if I hadn't invested and only saved, I would've had $17,651.23 (and some extra from my job 401k) less than I do now. That's 15% of my total net worth! Save and invest guys! I promise, future you will thank younger you that you didn't always go to happy hour.

Here's a snapshot of my brokerage account and Roth IRA portfolio value since the beginning of 2009:

You'll see there was a huge drop in my portfolio in the middle of 2011. This was because my parents used the money to pay off a portion of my college tuition at that time. Because of this, my portfolio dropped from $46,665 to $14,617 to $7,800. I was devastated. Just kidding. I didn't even know this existed. I had no idea what this even was.

So for the next almost 3 years while I had no job, the amount remained relatively flat. The net investment increased by almost $6k over two years, while the total portfolio value increased from $7,800 to a solid $17,357. The minor bump between Q1,14 and the next line was when I had a part-time job and my dad made me save some money, but I had no idea it was going there. Right before Q4,14 was when I started to get serious about saving, because October 2014 was when I started my first salaried job. It was $35k, I was so pumped you have no idea.

Granted, I know how fortunate I am to be put in that position before I even started saving and investing myself, but to give myself credit, if I hadn't started reading books on investing on my own time, there's no way I would've been able to be where I am now. I read Tony Robbins' Money Master the Game in two and a half weeks, spending almost 2 and a half hours each weeknight reading it. And it's a monster 689 pages and I'm a slow reader!

Because of this, I was able to educate myself and take my money in my own hands and grow it into the net worth it's at now.

Here are some stats of how it's doing right now as of January 25, 2018:

Last 3 Months:

Beginning Value: $72,542.29
Net Contribution: $500
Change in Value: $5,983.85
Ending Value: $79,026.14
Portfolio Return: 8.23%

Year to Date:

Beginning Value: $75,676.84
Net Contribution: $500
Change in Value: $2,849.30
Ending Value: $79,026.14
Portfolio Return: 3.75%

One Year:

Beginning Value: $47,337.01
Net Contribution: $16,133
Change in Value: $15,556.13
Ending Value: $79,026.14
Portfolio Return: 27.89%

Three Years:

Beginning Value: $26,594.73
Net Contribution: $29,264.98
Change in Value: $23,166.44
Ending Value: $79,026.14
Portfolio Return: 15.26%

Five Years:

Beginning Value: $11,021.41
Net Contribution: $43,264.99
Change in Value: $24,739.74
Ending Value: $79.026.14
Portfolio Return: 12.02%

So as you can see, this is and will always be a work in progress. But I want to provide a monthly update to make myself stick with my values and make sure I don't stray off course. I think comparing my net contribution month to month will definitely motivate me to save as much as I can. It'll be like a little contest with myself. And of course, most importantly, I want to show you all how insanely simple it is to do this. It's really not as complicated as it's made out to be. The hardest part is getting started. Once you begin to take your financial matters into your own hands and get the ball rolling, it gets much, much easier. I hope this motivates you to start taking charge of your financials instead of leaving it to someone else.

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