Welcome to the 2024 year-end edition of our net worth tracker. I’ll review our December net worth as usual and then take a look at how 2024 treated us overall. I started tracking our net worth when this blog started, which was at the beginning of September 2019.
I started by creating the Net Worth Baseline report.
You can view Previous Net Worth reports HERE.
Our December
December, as usual, was a hectic month for us. We did our regular work routine during the week, aside from Christmas week.
We remained healthy without any colds and fevers interfering with our weekend plans with friends and family. It was great that everyone was healthy for Christmas.
December 2024 Net Worth
Here’s how December compares to last month:

December Account Breakdown
Let’s take a quick look at what happened in December.
Cash ($3,765.94)
This is where our paychecks get deposited. All our income goes into this account and then gets transferred to the proper accounts set by my budget. I typically do the net worth report before transferring money to the appropriate accounts.
We made our average income in December. Not as much as we saw in November, but I can’t complain. This is what a normal month looks like for us. We had an increase in cash due to emptying our Dependent Care FSA into our bank account.
Investment Cash (-$4,319.32)
All our extra cash is transferred here and is considered part of our savings rate. This is where our leftover income went from November. It’s lower this month because we invested in some insulation for our house.
I can feel the insulation making a difference throughout the house. I have to wait till next month to see how it impacts the utility bills. Hopefully it’s noticeable after this artic freeze coming through .
This is cash we plan on using to invest in real estate or other investments in the near future (less than 5 years).
I said last year, that we’re at the point where we can afford some fixer-uppers. It finally happened in 2024. I bought my first house last year and fixed it up. Hopefully, we can sell it this year.
The housing market turned towards a buyer’s market, although it is still teetering and will probably go back towards a seller’s market this year. I’m hoping we can exit before a recession.
Starting at the beginning of 2025, we will pause transferring money towards this account and instead fund our Roth IRAs until they are maxed out. We try to save as much money as we can. Our future selves will thank us.
That means all our extra money from this month is going towards Roths, and you won’t see much of an increase in investment cash.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) ($2,864.82)
Nothing exciting here. Just the usual. The amount increased by about the same as last month since we’re just saving up for our property tax bill for when it is due in January. (This month! Yikes!) Also, I made the last transfer for our car savings.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s (-$14,172.76)
The markets did terrible in December, coming off all-time highs made in November and early December. Also, there was no Santa Claus rally this year!
IRA (-$10,582.35)
Another reflection that the markets had a negative month. The IRAs are all invested in mutual funds, which reflect the stock market’s decent for December.
College Fund (-$2,702.48)
The college fund is invested just like the IRAs. The 529s are fully funded, and we don’t plan on putting in any more cash.
The loss is equal to about 3%.
Net Worth (-$23,183.51)
December was a poor month in terms of the stock market. We brought home a decent amount of money, which helped offset the market losses.
Our decrease in net worth was directly a result of our investments. Our net worth decreased by a little less than 2%.
It doesn’t feel great, but it also doesn’t feel that bad, considering our net worth was up a significant amount for the year.
Accessible Net Worth ($1,571.90)
This is the money we were able to put away, not including the tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Our income was average, and our expenses were about average this month, but this number also accounts for the insulation we paid for.
Our accessible net worth increased because of the money we brought home, and we haven’t transferred any to Roths yet.
Liabilities
Status: None, as usual. They’re a burden, so I avoid them. The cars, the house, they’re all paid for. Student loans… I never used them. Credit Card debt? I only use one, and it gets paid off every month, and often, I’ll pay it off multiple times per month. It just depends on how many times I think about it.
Passive Income
Last year (2023), as a whole, was the worst I’ve had since 2017, and I have a lot more invested than I did six years ago. The tables turned in 2024.
In September, we set a personal record. We made the most we have ever made from dividends and capital gains in a single month.
More good news: December didn’t disappoint.
We set another new personal record! We made the most we have ever made from dividends and capital gains in a single month again in December.
Overall, it was a good year, putting us at 75% of our passive income goal. Everyone says it grows exponentially, so we’ll see how the next few years look for us. Looking at my own history, I see that it ebbs and flows.
I expect we’ll have a couple of down years before it jumps up again.
For now, we begin the dividend lull until March.
The interest rate in my savings account continued to fall, from 4.00% to 3.80% for the month. We started 2024 close to the high at 4.35%. The market is becoming more volatile, and it’s up in the air what will happen in 2025.

Saving’s Rate
I track my savings rate in order to help keep my feet to the fire, so later, I can be Gone on FIRE. As a bonus, you get a glimpse into my cash flow by looking at the income and expense rows.
In 2021, I adjusted my savings rate goal to 50%, down from 60%. It seemed like 50% was a more attainable goal.
2022 was terrible; Only a 35% savings rate. That was mainly due to us buying a house, all the expenses related to that, and the costs of having two houses simultaneously.
Without buying a house, we would have been right around 50%, so I kept the same goal for 2023.
In 2023, we met that goal with 54% (Rounded Up). As a result of meeting the goal in 2023, I raised the bar to 55%.
However, we decided in February to start saving for a car. We planned to put $2,000 aside each month for the rest of the year.
As a result, I knew we were for sure not going to make the 55% goal. However, I kept track of two sets of Savings Rate numbers. One, as if we didn’t spend the money, and two, as if the funds were spent.
Here’s how we did this month and for the year, as if the money for the car was spent.

Here is how we did this month and for the year if the money was put toward savings. Technically, the money is in savings. We have it in a Car sinking fund. We came sooooo close to 55%.

Income ($9,382.83)
Right now, our only source of active income is through our full-time jobs.
This is what a normal income month looks like for us.
Expenses (-$1,342.03)
Our expenses were well below average this month. In fact, we made more than we spent because of the dependant care FSA cash out and some items we returned. Even if we didn’t have that extra boost, our expenses were still a little below average for the year.
Here is a quick breakdown:
1) Home Escrow ($739.84)
The normal amount we put aside every month.
2) Giving ($938.28)
The usual 10% we give every month.
3) Cost of living (-$2,980.31)
This includes all our bills (Gas, Electric, Water, Internet, Phone), transportation, food, shopping, and daycare. Home insurance is paid for out of our Home Escrow savings account.
As planned, we drained our dependent care account at the end of the year in one lump sum. It is much less paperwork for us and a really nice way to end the year. It feels like getting a big bonus.
We have started to enter the cold part of the year (finally), so our water bills have decreased, and electric/gas bills have started to increase. January is typically our highest utility bill of the year.
Overall, December was a relaxing month, and we managed not to spend a ton of money. I thoroughly enjoyed December and spending time with the family.
I’m not sure how well we’ll do on expenses in 2025, as we have a lot of home updates we still want to get done. It would be great if we could keep our saving rate above 50%, though. I’m hoping that becomes routine for us.
December 2024 Vs November 2024 Expenses
November and December were quite different months. The DCFSA wiped out our expenses for December. November, we kind of spent a lot.
Hopefully, the economy won’t completely crash, and we will be able to sell our investment house early in 2025. We are done saving for a car, and now we’re just waiting for the right one to come along.
Goals Progress

Financial Goals
Aside from the Roth IRA contribution, most of the financial goals were year-long goals.
The Roth IRA contribution is done, and the money has been transferred to the proper accounts.
We missed our goal to save over $75,000 for real estate investing. We made it 64% of the way. We would have made it 90% of the way if we hadn’t put savings towards a car. I think we can meet the goal in 2025.
December was amazing in terms of dividends, a reversal from what happened last year. With that end-of-the-year push, we were able to crush the passive income goal!
I’ve been ignoring that savings rate goal, but now is the time to touch on that. If you include the car savings, our savings rate for the year was 54%. That’s so close that I’m debating on counting it. I’m not going to, but I want to! Haha.
We were able to reach three out of five of our financial goals.
Blog Goal
For 2024, I wanted to create more content. I created a few articles, but not much. AI took off, and I’m debating what to write and whether it’s worth it.
I’d appreciate any feedback y’all have for me so that I can produce more and better content you want.
Personal Goals
I did a reading goal again this year. My goal was to read 2 books.
Last year, I read 2, and that seems like a good amount for me. I’m done with the first book (Crucial Conversations), and I’ve already finished reading the second book (Good to Great). Goal Complete!
I also read a third book (Find Your Why). I’m such an over-achiever (sarcasm).
I started a fourth book, but it’s going to take me a while to finish. That will become my first book of 2025.
And then there is my physical health. I didn’t get to where I wanted in 2021, 2022, …or 2023. I want to lose fat, and part of that will be by eating healthier.
I started taking it more seriously in November and lost a few pounds. I lost a few more pounds in the beginning of December before I went nuts eating everything. Starting again in 2025.
December 2024 Roundup
The month of December was another good one. It was nice staying home with just the immediate family on Christmas day.
The markets were down, as was our net worth for the month, but our net worth was still up nearly 20% for the year.
Life is getting better each day as the kids get older and I get to watch them grow.
2024 Annual Results
This is the fifth full year of tracking all this data; now it’s time to share it! If you like stats, this should be exciting for you. It is to me.
That’s because our change in net worth for the year is positive. In fact, it’s very positive.
2024 Net Worth Increase: $206,438.08
We ended 2024 with a net worth of approximately $1,285,129.41.
We ended 2023 with a net worth of approximately $1,078,691.33.
We ended 2022 with a net worth of approximately $598,826.13.
We ended 2021 with a net worth of approximately $687,860.35.
We ended 2020 with a net worth of approximately $512,968.66.
We ended 2019 with a net worth of approximately $365,787.79.
In 2023, the markets were up over 20% for the year. The S&P was up about 25%. This year, 2024, the market was up over 20% again. That really helped with the net worth increase.
Let’s break down that net worth increase.
We saved about $71,000 of our take-home pay. That means from the money we brought home from paychecks, we put almost $57,000 towards investment and car savings and about $14,000 in our Roth IRAs.
I maxed out my 401(k) for a total of $23,000.
Thanks to market performance, we made more from stock market growth than we did from our own contributions. It feels much better than 2022, where we finally got to see a strong bear market and how that feels emotionally.
“As anyone who pays attention to the news, all the experts are predicting 2023 will be a rough year financially. “
Beginning of 2023
They were wrong.
This year, I’m seeing mostly positive predictions for 2024, with a few predicting a negative year.
Beginning of 2024
They were right, this time.
I’m seeing mostly positive predictions, again, for 2025. There is only one prediction that the S&P will end 2025 lower.
2024 Passive Income: $44,704.48
2023 Passive Income: $25,476.23
My goal was to have a passive income of over $30,000. In 2022, we didn’t even meet our goal of $15,000. Fortunately, in 2023, we met the goal of $25,000. In 2024, we crushed our goal of $30,000 by nearly 50%.
I’m going to set the passive income goal to $35,000. I don’t know what to expect in 2025, but I hope it’s better than 2024. They’re supposed to compound, right?
2024 Savings Rate: 54.0%
2023 Savings Rate: 53.7%
2022 Savings Rate: 34.5%
2021 Savings Rate: 52.0%
2020 Savings Rate: 48.5%
2019 Savings Rate: 57%
The 2024 number is adjusted for car savings as if the money went into our investment savings. Technically we still saved the money, it just went to a different sinking fund.
This is the one goal I said we weren’t going to make all year. However, we were soooo close to making our goal of 55%! I didn’t even realize how close we were.
Like I said last year, I think we can sustain 50% as long as we don’t have any major expenses, so 55% is a stretch goal, especially since our wages aren’t keeping up with inflation.
I’m going to keep the goal at 55% for 2025. Inflation is cooling, and I want to see what happens to our wages this year. If either of us gets big pay bumps and inflation stays low, I’ll increase the goal for 2026.
2024 Expenses: $61,000.85
2023 Expenses: $59,481.19
2022 Expenses: $88,261.70
2021 Expenses: $66,285.45
2020 Expenses: $58,433.45
2019 Expenses: $47,676.12
YoY increase ($): $1,582.66
YoY increase (%): 2.6%
We didn’t have to cashflow a baby, and the second child is out of daycare. That saved us quite a bit the last couple of years.
We did buy a house, but all of that money is accounted for in a separate account. The change in value is accounted for in our net worth with the properties line item.
Here are some charts to help visualize our 2024 expenses, with a comparison to 2023 and all the previous years. Notice the dip in home escrow compared to 2023.
In case you’re wondering why miscellaneous was negative in 2021, it’s because we put the income from the monthly IRS Child Tax Credit in that category. We payed it back the following tax season, so we didn’t count it as income.
The government didn’t pay that in the years after since it was a pandemic relief measure.
2024:


2023:


2022:


2021:


2020:


2024 Roundup
2024 was another excellent year for us all around, especially from a financial perspective. We can still call ourselves millionaires for the time being. A recession might bring us under that benchmark for a little while.
Our income was slightly higher, and both of us are still in jobs and workplaces that we enjoy. No foreseeable job cuts were coming up last year, but my wife did switch jobs, and that has been working out well for us.
2023 was the fourth full year of having to pay for daycare. 2024 was the first time since 2018 where we didn’t have daycare for the full year. With the start of the school year last August, we no longer have full-time daycare to pay for. Only sending them for school breaks.
That’s a big chunk of our budget that we can now devote to other areas
Let’s take a look at how our expenses break down.
Giving (22%)
It’s fantastic to see that giving is our highest “expense,” moving up from second place last year. It continues to reflect how blessed we are. I pray that we are good stewards of what we have.
Hopefully, we can continue the trend and increase our giving for 2025. It really is a lot of fun to be able to give. As the kids get older, I’m looking for more ways to give than just money. In fact, I’ve made giving with the kids a personal goal this year.
Housing: Home Escrow (18 26 %) & Utilities (7%)
Home Escrow is still a big slice of the pie but no longer claims the number 1 spot. Texas has high property taxes. In 2023, Texas passed a measure that lowered property tax rates, so, as I expected, taxes and other minor home expenses fell below a quarter of our annual expenses.
I anticipate that giving will continue to be our top category for the foreseeable future as a result.
I already know what our property tax bill looks like for 2024, and it’s even lower than last year. I’m still not looking forward to it, but it is close to half of what we were paying at our old house. What a relief!
We had a big house, and now we have a medium-sized house. That said, it’s an older house, so utilities will still cost a decent amount. Hopefully a little less now that we added insulation.
We try to be conservative with our energy usage. Turning off lights and bundling up in blankets for the winter, but there’s only so much you can do.
I expected that utilities would hover around the same amount for the foreseeable future, and last year, I anticipated a slight increase because we have two kids we have to provide for and keep comfortable.
The actual cost dropped slightly but stayed the same percentage of our take-home pay.
I predict utility prices will continue to climb as the cost of natural resources goes up, but I still expect that utilities will hover around the same amount for the foreseeable future.
We really like our house and where we live. Also, we don’t want to move too much with the kids. We like the daycare, and we live in a great school district.
That said, we are always looking for a property with some land. We would eventually like to have some space between our neighbors and ourselves.
I don’t see us moving while the kids are little, but maybe by the time they reach high school. We’ll see how it plays out over the next couple of years. It’s hard to predict one year ahead, much less 10 years.
Also, we would love to build our dream home one day. FIRE Goal!
Daycare (10%)
This category actually ticked up by 1%. That’s because we still had the daycare bill for 2/3’s of the year, plus we added a couple of kid’s activities. I’ll be changing the name of this category next year to just “Kids.”
Time to start reminiscing about the years the kids were in daycare.
This category should actually be lower in 2025, assuming we don’t add more activities.
Transportation (14%)
This year was more expensive, up 2%, due to repairs, insurance costs being higher, and me having to drive into the office. Fortunately, we didn’t have to buy new tires for both of the cars like we did in 2023.
In 2025, we do have some scheduled maintenance, but hopefully, nothing major comes along.
Miscellaneous (1%)
In 2022, we put some house-buying expenses in this category. It would have been close to 1% without adding the extra money. In 2023, that is pretty much what we saw. I’m a little surprised it hit 2%, but my wife did do some glass-blowing. Turns out that isn’t cheap. In 2024, we were back down because she didn’t do hardly any glass blowing.
In 2025, I think she might pick it up again, so it might break 2%. We’ll find out!
All the other categories
The rest of our expenses combined are 26% of our total outgoing expenses, with shopping accounting for 11% of that. I think we are doing a decent job in these areas, although I can probably reign in shopping a little more than I already have.
We could do a little better in the shopping category, but I’m trying to balance savings with what the kids need. I admitted to going a little overboard in 2022 and 2023, but in 2024 we spent $1,000 less than the previous year.
To be honest, I’m kinda getting tired of buying stuff, but throughout the year, I tend to find more stuff I think we’ll need or use at a good price.
I’m still finding the balance, but I expect I’ll have to spend about the same in 2025. I’m still waiting for my paycheck to catch up with all the inflation in the past couple of years.
FIRE Away!
Reminders:
- 2 big items not included in my net worth:
- House & Cars – Their value will be added to my net worth if and when I sell them.
- 2 accounts not included in the net worth total (even though they’re listed):
- 529 – This is my baby’s money. Consider it her net worth summary.
- Home Escrow – This is Uncle Sam’s money. We don’t mess around with him.
- Total income only includes our active income, which is currently our full-time jobs.