Net Worth Update - October 2018

October 2018 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.

The S&P 500 dropped 6.9% in October and my net worth followed suit.

During October my net worth decreased $24,458.86.  Ouch!

Total Assets: $735,351.66
Liquid Assets: $263,752.13
Total Liabilities: $-167,862.14
Net Worth: $567,489.51

October's market sell off stung a bit and 100% led to the decline in net worth.  For the month my net worth declined 4.1% and the YTD gain dropped to just 6.2%

Our main financial target for 2018 is to pay down our non-mortgage debt.  There's a variety of things that just kind of came up as life happened.  Some medical debt, a vehicle, an unexpected new air conditioning for the house.  Nothing out of the ordinary, but burdensome nonetheless.  The air conditioning is gone already; however, we've since changed our priority to stock piling cash now that we're expecting.

At this time it doesn't make much sense to pay 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 October we have 26.9% equity in our house based on our purchase price from 2013.  However, according to Zillow our house has increased in value around $26.6k 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 jumps to 34.9%.

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 October 2018

In order to give you a general idea of the breakdown of net worth I include 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 but I have them in my spreadsheet because I was bored).  

Net Worth Breakdown - October 2018

Since I write so much (or at least try to) about investigating companies as an investment I figured it'd be fun to see how our balance sheet looks.  As of the end of October our debt to equity ratio is 30% and our debt to total capitalization is 23%.  Not bad, but I can't wait to get that debt down to ZERO!

Capital Structure - October 2018

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How did your net worth fare during October's sell off?  

Please share your thoughts below!