Net Worth Update - Q1 2022

Net Worth Update - Q1 2022

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 markets, by way of the S&P 500, was down 5.0% during the first quarter.  Considering it was down over 12% YTD into March, that's a pretty impressive rally to close out the quarter.  My net worth, thanks to additional savings and some uncorrelation with the S&P 500 fared much better.

During 1Q my net worth decreased $7,379.98.  

Total Assets: $1,168,880.65
Liquid Assets: $482,671.54
Total Liabilities: -$147,229.32

Net Worth: $1,021,651.32

During the first quarter my net worth declined 0.7%.

We're also back up over the $1M mark after spending much of the quarter below.  While I hope that would be the last time we're in the single comma club, I'm also realistic that we don't exactly have a lot of cushion at this time so we're very likely to dip back below at some point.

With our non-mortgage debt officially gone as of February 2021 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 March we have 32.6% equity in our house based on our purchase price from 2013.  According to Zillow our house has increased in value around $148.5 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 59.9%.

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.

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 March our debt to equity ratio is 14% and our debt to total capitalization is 13%.  Not bad, but I can't wait to get that debt down to ZERO!

Going forward I plan to only update my net worth after each quarter barring any substantial changes to the balance sheet.

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!

With the market volatility in the first quarter, how did you net worth fare?  

Please share your thoughts below!