Net Worth Update - October 2021

Net Worth Update - October 2021

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.

After September's pullback October brought about an impressive rebound for the S&P 500.  The index climbed a whopping 6.9% during the month which definitely helped out the net worth.

During October my net worth increased $67,447.17.  

Total Assets: $1,164,527.99
Liquid Assets: $485,394.47
Total Liabilities: -$148,855.25

Net Worth: $1,015,672.74

During October my net worth climbed 7.1% and has risen 22.1% YTD.  

We officially crossed over into the double comma club for our net worth.  It seems like it's taken forever as we had been painstakingly close since the end of April but we finally did it.  It's hard to believe that in July 2010 when I first started tracking my net worth it was -$1,663 and we're now up over the $1 M mark.  

Things were moving along pretty quickly up to the $400k mark just 4 years into the journey, but the pace of milestones drastically slowed afterwards.  The reason being that we were dealing with medical issues leading up to and after our son was born.  At that time money was the least of our worries or priorities.  

Then in 2016 I was laid off from my job which was a welcomed break as we welcomed our oldest daughter into the world in July.  However, I didn't return to work until February 2017 as I enjoyed the stay-at-home-dad life so all gains were effectively just changes in the markets.  After I returned to work it was then time to start replenishing the savings account and very little was being pushed towards investing.  

Admittedly it took longer than I expected at around 11 1/4 years, but there was a good 3-4 years in there where savings was negligible or going towards debt reduction.  All in all we're in good shape and I'm still ecstatic about reaching this milestone, but there's plenty more work to do.  

With our non-mortgage debt officially gone as of February we don't have much of a goal as far as the balance sheet.  So it's stock pile cash for a possible down payment on some land/house or a business venture and continue funneling savings into the brokerage account.

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.  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 31.9% equity in our house based on our purchase price from 2013.  According to Zillow our house has increased in value around $107.3 k from our purchase price which is a nice bonus, although I keep the purchase price as the value in the net worth equations.  I'm not holding my breath on being able to get that kind of sale price in the market though.  Based on Zillow's estimate the equity in our house jumps to 54.3%.

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.

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).

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 October our debt to equity ratio is 15% and our debt to total capitalization is 13%.  Not bad, but I can't wait to get that debt down to ZERO!

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Have you reached any net worth milestones in 2021?  

Please share your thoughts below!