Welcome to the February 2024 edition of our net worth tracker, where we’ll track our net worth month over month. I first started tracking our net worth when this blog was started at the beginning of September 2019. I started by creating the Net Worth Baseline report.
You can view Previous Net Worth reports HERE.
February is over, and we’re already two full months into the new year. Winter briefly said hi in January but left us pretty quickly in February. The trees are budding, and flowers are growing.
Financially, February was an interesting month for us. The markets were up a good amount, but we also made a big investment, which I’ll talk about here shortly.
Monthly Roundup
Previously, I would go through my month and go over the highlights. These days, I’m doing it a little differently. Unless you convince me that you want to hear about my month, I’m not going to talk about it.
February 2024 Net Worth
Here’s how February compares to last month:
February Account Breakdown
Let’s take a quick look at what happened in February.
Cash ($6,15.68)
Monthly Blurb: This is where our paychecks get deposited. All our income goes into this account and then gets transferred to the proper accounts as set by my budget. As usual, I do the net worth report before transferring money to the appropriate accounts.
It was an average month for us both in terms of income and spending. We brought home about the same amount of money as last month and spent about the same, so that’s the main reason this is nearly the same.
Our spending was about average this month.
Investment Cash (-$300,489.01)
Monthly Blurb: All of our cash left over at the end of the month is transferred here and is considered part of our savings rate.
I told you February was an interesting month for us and that we made a big investment. Now you know what I mean by BIG investment.
This is where our leftover income usually goes, but in February, we finally bought our first investment property!
I’ve been saying for a long time: “I’m waiting for some opportunities to come up in the housing market.” Well, that offer I put in on a house was accepted.
Hence the new line item “Property” in the Net Worth chart under the Retirement section. So really, in the char, you just see money transferred from this account to another account.
This house could work as a rental, but I’m going to try to flip it. It’s too big of a house to use as a rental, I think. If the housing market tanks for whatever reason before it sells, it very well could be used as a rental.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) ($700.00)
Nothing exciting here. Just the usual. We are back to saving up for our property tax bill for when it’s due early next year.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s ($15,536.35)
February ended on a positive note. Substantially. The markets were hitting record highs throughout the month again. The same thing they’ve been doing for a few months now.
IRA ($15,764.17)
All market performance here.
Overall, that’s a gain of 4.96% between the 401k and IRAs.
College Fund ($3518.37)
The college fund is invested in mutual funds, just like the IRAs. It was up 4.61 percent.
Net Worth ($5,644.90)
I was pretty busy this month, so I didn’t really track the markets that closely. All I know is that February ended well into positive territory.
Our expenses were about the same as last month, except for some house-buying expenses that got factored in, which I’m going to say is our new average.
In total, our net worth increased a good amount. This includes the estimated value of our new investment property. We had an increase of approximately 2.85%.
The year started out on the right foot. Last year, in 2023, our net worth increased every month, and then we had three negative months in a row from August to September.
We’ll see how the market performs this year, but it would be nice to have a positive first half of the year. I need to be able to sell this house now.
Accessible Net Worth (-$299,873.33)
Monthly Blurb: This is the money we are 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 decreased, though, as a result of putting a bunch of money into an investment property.
We’ve been saving up a bunch of cash waiting for this very moment. Hopefully, in a couple of months, this cash will be liquid again… plus some added on top.
Liabilities
Status: None, as usual. They’re a burden, so I avoid them. The cars, the house, they’re all paid for. Student loans…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. Just depends on how many times I think about it.
Passive Income
January and February are very boring months for dividends. Just waiting to see what March brings now.
Last year was the worst I’ve had since 2017, and I have a lot more invested than I did six years ago. Let’s see how 2024 goes.
The interest rate in my savings account stayed the same this month, at 4.35%. Right now, the Feds don’t plan on raising the rate as long as inflation stays in check. There is talk about when to start lowering the rates. The Fed hasn’t said anything, but that’s the talk in the news.
Saving’s Rate
I track my savings rate in order to help keep my feet to the fire so that 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.
A couple of years ago, I had to adjust the savings goal to 50%. In 2022, we barely missed that goal, but we met it in 2023!
As a result of meeting the goal in 2023, I raised the bar to 55%.
In January, we missed the 55% goal, but we were over 50%.
As I mentioned last month, starting in February, we are saving for a car. We plan to put $2,000 aside each month for the rest of the year.
As a result, we are for sure not going to make the 55% goal. However, I’m going to keep track of two sets of Savings Rate numbers. One as if we didn’t spend the money, and two, as if the money were spent. The later is what you will see in the spreadsheet.
Of that 50% we are spending, Housing and Daycare alone eat up over 30%. We give 10%, so that means we are living on 10% or less for everything else.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for daycare.
Daycare has been decreasing every year, and we only have about eight months left of full-time daycare. It will mostly be gone at the end of the summer. Hopefully, we can get our savings rate up above 50% when that happens, and we have enough saved up for a car.
I wonder what other expenses will pop up once daycare is done.
Here’s how we did this month.
We were at 56.02% in February if you don’t include the car savings, making it 53.23% YTD.
Income ($9,929.43)
Right now, our only source of active income is through our full-time jobs.
This is what a slightly above-average income month looks like for us.
Expenses ($6,366.80)
Our expenses were slightly above average this month. Plus, we were saving $2K for a new car each month. We did have some car maintenance but no unexpected expenses, and we mostly kept the rest of our spending in check.
Here is a quick breakdown:
1) Home Escrow ($700.00)
The normal amount we put aside every month to pay for property taxes and insurance
2) Giving ($992.94)
The usual 10% we give every month. Plus 1% that we started to give on top of that.
3) Cost of living ($4,673.86)
This includes all our bills (Gas, Electric, Water, Internet, Phone), transportation, food, shopping, car insurance, and daycare. This also includes saving for the car.
Home insurance is paid for out of our Home Escrow savings account. Like last year, we are going to drain our dependent care account at the end of the year in one lump sum. Doing it that way is less paperwork for us.
In February, we had average expenses.
February 2024 Vs. January 2024 Expenses
February and January were very similar months in terms of finances, aside from buying a house. We spent about the same and made about the same.
Hopefully, March will stay smooth, and we won’t run into any major problems with the house. Other than saving for a car, we do plan on spending some money on our house.
Goals Progress
Financial Goals
The Roth IRA contribution is done, and the money has been transferred to the proper accounts.
Aside from the 401k, which is on automatic contributions from my paycheck, it’s the beginning of the year, so I’m not completely sure how the other goals are going to turn out.
I’m not sure about the Real Estate (RE) Investing goal since we bought a property. I’ll include the net profits here since that will become future investment money
So far, we’re looking good.
We’ll just ignore the savings rate goal.
Blog Goal
My goal of 12 articles this year is in the works. I’ve actually been working on some content for this site other than my net worth reports!
I didn’t get around to posting anything in February, but I posted one article in January and have more posts planned. I plan on publishing one every month for the rest of the year. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Personal Goals
I’m doing a reading goal again this year with only two 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!
And then there is my physical health. I didn’t get to where I wanted in 2021, 2022, …or 2023, so we’ll continue to try again this year. I want to lose fat, and part of that is going to be by eating healthier. January and February have been hit or miss. I’m still working on getting rid of all the sweets left over from December.
February 2024 Roundup
The month of February was another good. Nothing too unexpected happened, just a couple of days off school for the kids. And not because they were sick! We remained relatively healthy, which is always nice.
The weather was really great for February. We had a few cold days, but most days were warm, and we got to play/work outside some. I’m not sure I’m ready for the grass to start growing again, though.
I continue to be excited as we progress into the new year. As always, there’s really a lot to be thankful for.
Stay tuned for next month’s New Worth update!
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 money for my babies. Consider it their net worth summary.
- Home Escrow – This is Uncle Sam’s money. We don’t mess around with Uncle Sam and his money.
- Total income only includes our active income, which is currently our full-time jobs.