Welcome to the 2025 year-end edition of our net worth tracker. I’ll take a look at how 2025 treated us overall and then review our December net worth as usual. I started tracking our net worth when this blog started, at the beginning of September 2019.
I started by creating the Net Worth Baseline report.
You can view Previous Net Worth reports HERE.
2025 In 30 Seconds
Ending net worth: $1,512,277.70
Investable/accessible net worth: $194,876.27
Accessible net worth = cash + brokerage/investment cash (non-retirement), excluding house/cars, 529, and home escrow.
Savings rate: 48.61%
Passive income: $39,683.97
| 2025 | 2024 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Worth | $1,512,277.70 | $1,285,129.41 | $227,148.29 |
| Investable Net Worth | $194,876.27 | $189,917.44 | $4,958.83 |
| Passive Income | $39,683.97 | $44,704.48 | -$5,020.51 |
| Savings Rate | 48.61 % | 53.96 % | -5.35 % |
| Expenses | $69,756.42 | $61,000.84 | $8,755.58 |
What Changed This Year
At a high level, 2025 was another strong year for us financially, driven primarily by market gains and continued retirement contributions.
While we saved a meaningful amount from our paychecks and maxed out multiple tax-advantaged accounts, the stock market ultimately did more of the heavy lifting than our own contributions.
Our savings rate came in lower than the past couple of years, largely due to unexpected medical expenses and a conscious decision to loosen the purse strings a bit and enjoy time with the kids.
Passive income pulled back compared to the record-setting year we had in 2024, but December was a standout month and the strongest passive income month we’ve ever had, which is an encouraging sign heading into 2026.
2025 Annual Results
This is the sixth 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. It’s like an extra Christmas present I get at the end of the year.
Net Worth
One of the reasons I’m looking forward to it is because I know our change in net worth for the year is positive. Very positive.
2025 Net Worth Increase: $227,148.29
We ended 2025 with a net worth of approximately $1,512,277.70.
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%. In 2024, the market was up over 20% again.
The markets cooled off a bit for 2025. They were only up 16% for the year.
Here’s how that $227,148 net worth increase breaks down:
- Total contributions (all investing): ~$89,500
This includes money saved from take-home pay, Roth IRA contributions, maxing out my 401(k), and after-tax 401(k) contributions that were later converted via a mega backdoor Roth. - Market growth (net): ~$135,000
The majority of our net worth increase came from investment growth. Despite a cooler year compared to 2023 and 2024, the market still did more of the heavy lifting than our own contributions. - Other / timing items: ~$2,600
This captures smaller items like interest, dividend timing, and cash-flow timing differences (such as the dependent care FSA cash-out).
Total 2025 net worth increase: $227,148
We saved about $46,000 of our take-home pay. That means from the money we brought home from paychecks, we put almost $32,000 towards investment savings and $14,000 in our Roth IRAs.
I maxed out my 401(k) for a total of $23,500. In addition, I did a mega backdoor Roth conversion at the end of the year. I contributed to an After-Tax 401k from every paycheck, totaling close to $20,000.
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.
I’m seeing mostly positive predictions, again, for 2026. They’re predicting 8-10% returns. There are no predictions that the S&P will end 2026 lower. Over the years, I’ve noticed that the predictions usually match the previous years results.
Passive Income
2025 Passive Income: $39,683.97
2024 Passive Income: $44,704.48
My goal for 2025 was to have a passive income of over $35,000.
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%.
As a result, I raised the goal to $35,000. We beat that goal by 13%
Savings Rate
2025 Savings Rate: 48.6%
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%
This is the one goal I was doubtful about all year once we had those medical bills come up. That played out to be true.
As I said for a couple of years now, I think we can sustain 50% as long as we don’t have any major expenses (we did this year), 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 2026, knowing that it is a stretch goal. I want to see what happens to our wages this year. If either of us gets a big pay bump and inflation stays low, I’ll increase the goal for 2027.
On top of that, I want to loosen up the purse strings, just a little, and splurge every now and then with the kids while we still can. We have enough invested that our contributions aren’t making that big of a difference.
Expenses
2025 Expenses: $69,756.42
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: $47,676.12
YoY increase ($): $8,755.58
YoY increase (%): 14.4%
The change from last year is mainly due to medical expenses, otherwise we spend about the same as in 2024.
We didn’t have to cashflow a baby, and the second child is out of daycare. That saved us quite a bit over the last couple of years.
We do have a second house that we have to pay taxes on, but all of those expenses are accounted for in a separate account.
Here are some charts to help visualize our 2025 expenses, with a comparison to 2024 and all the previous years.
2025:
2024:
2023:
2022:
2021:
2020:
2025 Roundup
2025 was another excellent year for us all around, especially from a financial perspective. We can still call ourselves millionaires for the time being. It would take a decent-sized recession to bring us under that benchmark now.
Perhaps in a couple more years, we can call ourselves multi-millionaires.
Our income was slightly higher thanks to inflation adjustments, and both of us are still in jobs and workplaces that we enjoy. No job cuts were on the horizon this year.
2023 was the fourth full year of having to pay for daycare. 2024 was the first time since 2018 that 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.
2025 was the first year the kids stayed home for winter break. I’ll have to send them to daycare for summer break, still, though.
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 (17%)
It’s fantastic to see that giving continues to be our highest “expense”. It continues to reflect how blessed we are. I pray that we are good stewards of what we have and manage it wisely.
Hopefully, we can continue the trend and increase our giving for 2026. It really is a lot of fun to give. As the kids get older, I’m looking for more ways to give than just money.
Housing: Home Escrow (12 %) & 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 have fallen.
Having a smaller house also helps.
I anticipate that giving will remain our top category for the foreseeable future.
I already know what our property tax bill will look like for 2025, and it’s even lower than last year’s. This year, the state increased the homestead exemption, and our assessed property value decreased.
I’m still not looking forward to it, but it is now about one-third of what we were paying at our old house.
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. Adding an electric car to our household has also increased our utilities slightly.
I expect utilities to hover around the same amount for the foreseeable future until we replace some doors and windows. We also have two kids to provide for and keep reasonably comfortable.
The actual cost of utilities increased slightly, but stayed the same percentage of our take-home pay.
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 us.
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!
Kids (8%)
This category ticked down by 2%. That’s because we had no daycare bill for winter, but still had the daycare bill for the summer, plus all the other kids’ activities.
This category was previously labeled Daycare, but we have relabeled it to Kids because it’s more than just daycare.
This category should be about the same in 2026, assuming we don’t add more activities.
Transportation (14%)
This year was more costly, but the same percentage-wise. We didn’t have any major repairs, but we did get two used cars, new tires, and higher insurance costs, and I had to drive into the office.
We’re at a total of three cars now. Our two daily drivers are small EVs, and we have a 7-seater gas-powered SUV for longer trips or when we go places with the grandparents.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to buy new tires for both of the cars like we did in 2023.
In 2026, I may swap out one of the EV’s for something with slightly better range. We’ll see what happens.
Miscellaneous (12%)
In 2025, my wife did pick up glass blowing again, but not much. The bulk of our miscellaneous expenses is medical bills. Hopefully, I don’t have as many of those in 2026, and we can get this category back to 1 or 2%.
This category being so high skews the percentages of all the other categories.
All the other categories
The rest of our expenses combined are 30% 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 rein in shopping a little more than I already have.
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 2025 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 (-$1,230.34)
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. Nearly the same as we saw in November. This is what a normal month looks like for us. We had an increase in cash from emptying our Dependent Care FSA into our bank account, but it was net negative because I finally got around to transferring money from October and November.
Investment Cash ($6,549.83)
All our extra cash is transferred here and is considered part of our savings rate. This is where our leftover income went from November (and October).
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 a couple of years ago that we’re at the point where we can afford some fixer-uppers. It finally happened in 2024. I bought my first house and fixed it up. Hopefully, we can sell it in 2026. I have it priced incredibly low.
The housing market turned towards a buyer’s market, although it is still teetering and will probably go back towards a seller’s market sooner rather than later. I’m hoping we can exit before a recession.
Starting at the beginning of 2026, as usual, 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.
Emergency and Sinking Funds ($644.88)
Nothing exciting here. Just the usual. The amount increased by about the same amount as last month, since we’re just saving up for our property tax bill, which is due in January. (This month! Yikes!) The reason it is negative is that I bought plane tickets for a little vacation we’re taking soon.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s ($7,960.78)
The markets did okay by the end of December, coming off all-time highs made mid-month. Also, for the second year in a row, there was no Santa Claus rally!
IRA ($2,086.08)
Another reflection that the markets had a mediocre month. The IRAs are all invested in mutual funds, which reflect the stock market’s direction for December.
College Fund (-$200.31)
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 0.21%.
Net Worth ($13,982.10)
December was an okay month in terms of the stock market. We brought home a decent amount of money, which helped mask the fact that the markets didn’t really have much positive performance.
Our increase in net worth was a 50/50 result of our investments and the DCFSA. Our net worth increased by a little less than 1%.
Accessible Net Worth ($3,935.24)
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.
Our accessible net worth increased because of the money we brought home plus the money from the DCFSA, 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 (2024), we set record after record. In September 2024, we set a personal record. In December 2024, we set another one. The result was a record-breaking year.
In 2025, we had a bit of a pullback. September was good, but not record-breaking.
The good news: December was a record-breaking month!
We made the most we have ever made from dividends and capital gains in a single month in December.
Overall, it was a good year, putting us at 66% of our passive income goal. Off from the 75% we made in 2024. 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 high-yield savings account stabilized around 3.40%, falling from 3.80% from the start of 2025. The market was volatile for the majority of the year, with concern over an AI bubble. As always, it’s up in the air what will happen in 2026. As of right now, all the brokerages forecast a positive year ahead.
Savings 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%.
In 2024, we came sooooo close to 55%, ending the year at 54% (Rounded Up)
2025 started with some unexpected medical bills, leaving us in the hole for the remainder of the year. I also wasn’t as tight on the purse strings, so we ended the year at 48.6%. Without the medical bills, we would have been nearly the same as last year.
Income ($8,266.97)
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 ($151.13)
Our expenses were well below average this month. In fact, we almost made more than we spent because of the dependent care FSA cash-out. Even if we didn’t have that extra boost, our expenses were still a little below average for the year.
2025 was the last year we will be able to take full advantage of the DCFSA, since we only plan on putting the kids in daycare during the summer.
Here is a quick breakdown:
1) Home Escrow ($739.37)
The normal amount we put aside every month.
2) Giving ($826.70)
The usual 10% we give every month.
3) Cost of living (-$1,375.57)
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 our 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 did do more shopping than my wife would like, though. I thoroughly enjoyed December and spending time with the family. It was nice having the kids at home instead of daycare.
I’m not sure how well we’ll do on expenses in 2026, since we still have a lot of home updates we want to get done. It would be great if we could keep our savings rate above 50%, though. I’m hoping that becomes routine for us.
December 2025 Vs November 2025 Expenses
November and December were very similar months, aside from the DCFSA. The DCFSA wiped out our expenses for December. Otherwise, the numbers were about the same
Hopefully, the economy won’t completely crash, and we will be able to sell our investment house early in 2026. I plan on continuing to fund my after-tax account at work and doing a Mega Backdoor Roth at the end of the year.
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 62% of the way. We made it 88% of the way if you count the after-tax 401k contributions. I think we can meet the goal in 2026, though I’m broadening the category.
December was amazing in terms of dividends, similar to what happened last year. With that end-of-the-year push, we came just shy of the passive income goal! Just over $100 short. It’s close enough that I’m going to say we met this goal.
I’ve been ignoring that savings rate goal, but now is the time to touch on that. Our savings rate for the year was 49%. It would have been 54% if we didn’t have medical issues, so that’s my goal for 2026. Avoid major medical expenses. Haha.
We were able to reach three out of five of our financial goals.
Blog Goal
For 2025, I wanted to create some content while watching what AI was doing. I created a few calculators, but no other content. AI is continuing to grow, and I think content worth writing is slim.
Anything original you create is getting scraped. I’m leaning more towards video content to support written content.
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 (Emotional Intelligence), and I’ve finished reading the second book (From Paycheck to Purpose). Goal Complete!
And then there is my physical health. I didn’t get to where I wanted in 2021, 2022, 2023 …or 2024. I want to lose fat, and part of that will be by eating healthier.
I’ve been tracking my eating and exercising regularly, and I’m down about 20 pounds so far. I stayed steady with where I was last month.
My goal to start was to lose 20 pounds. Now I want to regain some muscle mass while maintaining my weight. My goal for 2026 will be to maintain or increase my weight while decreasing my body fat percentage.
December 2025 Roundup
The month of December was another good one. It was nice staying home with the kids during Christmas break, and it was also nice spending time with my parents on Christmas evening, now that they live closer.
The markets were up a hair, as was our net worth for the month. Our net worth was up close to 18% for the year.
Life is getting better each day as the kids get older and I get to watch them grow.
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.