Net Worth Update - March 2017

March 2017 Net Worth Update

While cash flow is more important when it comes to financial independence, it's still good to look at the balance sheet too, which is why I provide these net worth updates.  Since more and more of my net worth is tied to the markets, there's a larger correlation between my net worth and the markets but in the long run as I continue to save and invest the net worth trend should be higher even though short term fluctuations can vary wildly.  As a dividend growth investor I'm not overly concerned with the short-term gyrations as long as the dividend stream remains in tact, but the markets' effect is noticeable.

March finally quieted down after the historic run since Trump's election.  The S&P 500 actually declined ever so slightly by 0.04%.  So the markets didn't do much to help out my net worth.  Nevertheless, those dividend payments of nearly $850 came in handy and actually accounted for nearly 100% of the net worth increase.

For the month our net worth increased $866.65.

Current Assets: $657,476.78
Current Liquid Assets: $228,071.39
Current Liabilities: $181,747.99
Net Worth: $475,728.78

March wasn't quite as fruitful as February in terms of net worth improvement, but we're at least moving in the right direction.  Despite a big start to March, the markets did a whole lot of nothing the rest of the month.  With my income becoming fairly steady we should be able to start counteracting the blah months for the markets, but unfortunately most of my income will start to be funneled towards debt reduction.  It's the right move in the long term, especially since the markets aren't exactly screaming value everywhere, and I can't wait to finally knock this out and get back to regular investing.  As of now I'd ballpark the end of this year at the earliest before we can resume heavy investing of our free cash flow.  Sigh.

For the month our net worth increased 0.18% and YTD we've shown a gain of 1.18%. 

At this time I don't see much reason in paying extra on the mortgage given our relatively low interest rate as well as the tax break on mortgage payments and think we'll come out much further ahead investing the extra cash flow.  So the liabilities side of the net worth equation will be slow moving.  However, once the FI portfolio is able to get to a self-sustaining level of dividends then the plan is to aggressively pay down the mortgage.

As of the end of March we have 24.6% equity in our house based on our purchase price from 2013.  However, according to Zillow our house has increased in value $20k from our purchase price which is a nice bonus, although I keep the purchase price as the value in the net worth equations.  Based on Zillow's estimate the equity in our house is 30.9% thanks to the appreciation.

The following chart shows my assets and liabilities, as well as my net worth, since January 2012.  While I have accurate records for my net worth dating back to July 2010, I didn't keep track of my assets and liabilities on a monthly basis until the start of 2012.

Net Worth History through March 2017

I've started including a % breakdown of our net worth with each monthly update.  The assets are broken down into cash, taxable investments, tax advantaged investments (401k, Traditional & Roth IRAs), house (using our purchase price) and other which covers things like our cars and various collectibles from when I was a kid (they don't really move the needle at all).  

The liabilities are much simpler and fall into either the mortgage or a personal loan that we have.  Although I do need to gather more information on the various medical, funeral and other debts that total around $40k to give a more accurate representation of our liabilities.

Net Worth Breakdown - March 2017

Since I write so much about investigating companies as an investment I figured it'd be fun to see how our balance sheet looks.  As of the end of March our debt to equity ratio is 38% and our debt to total capitalization is 28%.  Not bad, but I'd love to get that debt down to ZERO!

Non-Work Cash Flow

Each month I like to examine the state of our non-work cash flow.  Since our goal is to become financially independent that monthly cash flow has to come from somewhere in order to cover our expenses.  

Truly passive income, dividends and interest, totaled $843.91 during March which was a slight dip from December's $865.95.  *Dividends are from my taxable accounts only.  

Adding in the EBIT earned from blogging/writing added another $494.66 to the monthly non-day job income total.  Total non-day job income for March came to $1,338.57 which is a 28% increase from December.  That's more like it!

I mentioned in January's update that I was setting a goal of reaching $10k in non-day job income with a stretch goal being hitting $11k.  That's not a huge increase over 2016's $9.4k, but I don't expect much in the way of new investments until maybe Q4 of this year.  

Including dividends, interest and blogging income we've generated $2,329.10 of additional income through March.  We're 23% of the way towards our goal of $10k so we're just slightly behind the required pace.

I've updated my Progress page to reflect March's changes.

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How did your net worth fare in March?  Did you have a similar lull with your net worth or did savings help propel you higher?

Please share your thoughts below!

Image courtesy of holohololand on FreeDigitalPhotos.net.