Net Worth Update - January 2020

Net Worth Update - January 2019

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.

Surprisingly the S&P 500 did a whole lot of nothing to kick off 2020.  For the month of January the S&P 500 decreased 0.2%.  Unfortunately, my investments didn't fair so well nor did my net worth.  Luckily though we set a personal best for a quarter beginning month for dividends so we had that going for us.

During January my net worth decreased $12,392.05.

Total Assets: $854,131.21
Liquid Assets: $326,466.56
Total Liabilities: -$172,533.54
Net Worth: $681,597.67

After 2019's explosive move higher I'm not surprised to see that 2020 couldn't keep pace.  While in the short-term it's tough to stomach a $12k+ decrease, I'm still not worried about since I'm playing the long game here.  Especially since year over year our net worth is still higher by $145k.

We've got quite a bit of work to do to hit any new milestones for our net worth.  We're roughly $20k shy of a $700k net worth and $46k shy of $900k in assets.  

For January my net worth decreased 1.8%.




Our main goal for 2020 will be raising cash and paying down debt, although I do expect to still find some cash to invest throughout the year.  2019 saw us get rid of one car loan and we've been working on paying down the second.  After January's payment our non-mortgage debt balance is down to $17.2k.

At this time I don't believe it makes 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 outside of the car loans.  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 January we have 28.9% equity in our house based on our purchase price from 2013.  According to Zillow our house has increased in value around $25.7k 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 36.4%.

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 January 2020

In order to give you a general idea of the breakdown of my 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 and deeply discounted (they don't really move the needle at all but I have them in my spreadsheet because I was bored).

Net Worth Breakdown - January 2020

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.  At the end of January our debt to equity ratio is 25% and our debt to total capitalization is 20%.  Not bad, but I can't wait to get that debt down to ZERO!

Make sure you sign up to receive new posts to your email so you don't miss anything.  And be sure to follow me on Twitter@JC_PIP to get up to the minute news of new purchases for my portfolio.  If you prefer Pinterest or Facebook I'm on there too!

How did your net worth fare during January?  Did you get 2020 started off in the right direction?

Please share your thoughts below!