Welcome to the February 2026 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.
Let’s dive straight into this month’s report.
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 2026 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 ($1,087.94)
Monthly Blurb: This is where our paychecks get deposited. All our income goes into this account and is then transferred to the appropriate accounts as set by my budget. As usual, I do the net worth report before transferring money to the appropriate accounts.
It was a lower-than-average month for us in terms of income. We also spent less money than last month, so that’s the main reason this is up.
Investment Cash ($6,255.14)
Monthly Blurb: All of our cash left over at the end of the month is transferred here and counted toward our savings rate.
This is where our leftover income goes, plus all earnings from having the investment cash invested in an ETF. As a reminder, a portion of the investment cash is now invested in an S&P 500 index fund.
Our gains this month are mostly from transferring money from our bank account to here.
In February 2024, we bought our first investment property. We put it back on the market in February 2025. It didn’t sell in 2025 as we had hoped, but we did receive an offer on the house in January. We accepted the offer, and we finally closed in February!
For this month, that income is accounted for in its own line item. Next month, that money will be accounted for here, in investments.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) ($1,174.27)
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.
We are putting $200 a month into our travel fund. There is no end date set, and we are planning more vacations, so this may go up at some point. Or I may just cash flow it, like I did this month.
We are also putting $200 a month into car savings, rather than saving it all at once. That way, we have the savings ready when we need it and it doesn’t completely blow up our savings rate for the whole year! Check out 2024 if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
Our current cars will hopefully last us until 2030, although I’m starting to get an itch, and I’m looking at some newer EVs.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s ($7,828.79)
February was overall a flat month, and the markets ended slightly down. My 401k ended the month slightly up, mostly due to contributions.
IRA ($2,640.45)
All market performance here.
Overall, that’s a gain of 0.99% between the 401k and IRAs.
College Fund (-$252.80)
The college fund is invested in mutual funds, just like the IRAs. It was down 0.26 percent.
Net Worth ($19,439.08)
February ended in positive territory, thankfully.
Utilities have hopefully hit their peak for the cooler months, and they should start to go down next month.
The income from selling the house, as accounted for in the budget, was around $1,000. So, not that much of a bump.
In total, our net worth rose. We had an increase of approximately 1.24%.
From what I’ve seen so far in March, the markets are not performing well.
Accessible Net Worth ($7,790.49)
Monthly Blurb: This is the money we are able to put away, not including the tax-advantaged retirement accounts.
Our income was below average this month, while our expenses were above average. Thanks to the extra cash in December making it into our bank accounts, our accessible net worth increased.
Next month, the cash we put into the investment house will be accounted for here.
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. Nothing exciting until March, when we get a bump in dividends.
The interest rate in my savings account remained at 3.30%. The market is still volatile, as it keeps getting spooked by AI concerns and anything other small change.
There are still talks about a rate cut, so interest rates on my savings account may take another hit.
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 set 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 2024, we missed the 55% goal by about .5%, if you include our car savings in our total savings number. Otherwise, we were around 35% in 2024.
In 2025, we ended the year at just under 49%.
I want to start spending more money, so I decided to set our 2026 goal at 50%.
In January, we fell short of the goal, coming in at 40.66%. Paying for the cruise dropped our savings rate by 15 percent.
In February, we spent a lot and made a few thousand less. We semi-imulse bought a couch and a treadmill. They’re both items we’ve been thinking about buying, and we happened to find some at a good price. We ended the month with nearly the same savings rate as January, coming in at 40.48%.
Our forecast for March is pretty grim for our savings rate. We are going on a road trip. That means less income and more expenses.
Of the 50% we are spending, we give 10%, and property tax is about another 10%, so that means we are living on 30% or less for everything else.
Housing and daycare alone used to eat up over 30%. Fortunately, property taxes have gone down, and we only have daycare during the summer for now.
Hopefully, we can get our savings rate above 50% with daycare gone and lower property taxes. Both of the kids have now dropped one of the activities, so we are left with only doing gymnastics.
Here’s how we did this month.
We were at 40.48% in February, bringing our YTD to 40.58%.
Income ($10,428.45)
Right now, our only source of active income is through our full-time jobs.
This is what an average income month looks like for us.
Expenses ($6,207.10)
Our expenses were above average this month.
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 ($854.05)
The usual 10% we give every month.
3) Cost of living ($4,653.06)
This includes all our bills (Gas, Electric, Water, Internet, Phone), transportation, food, shopping, and car insurance. Home insurance is paid from our Home Escrow savings account.
As we did last year and in previous years, we will drain our dependent care account at the end of the year in one lump sum. Doing it that way saves us from having to complete more paperwork.
The biggest expense in February was a couch, followed by a treadmill. We also took a weekend trip, which cost a few hundred.
There were no other major expenses for February.
January 2026 Vs. February 2026 Expenses
February and January were somewhat similar months in terms of finances, aside from how much came in and where the money went. We didn’t bring in as much in February because we didn’t have an extra paycheck. The extra expenses went to shopping instead of travel this month.
Hopefully, March will stay smooth, and we won’t run into any problems during our trip.
I plan to continue funding my after-tax account at work and to do a Mega Backdoor Roth at the end of the year.
Goals Progress
Financial Goals
The Roth IRA contribution will be taken care of in March. I forgot to make the transfer in February. I’ll transfer the money from our investment account.
Aside from the 401k, which is on automatic contributions from my paycheck, it’s the beginning of the year, so I don’t have much of a clue about how the other goals are going to turn out.
Hopefully, our savings rate starts moving up after March. We’re not doing a great job this year.
Blog Goal
I have a goal of 12 articles again this year. I’ve worked on a few, but they’re still not ready to publish yet.
Personal Goals
I’m doing a reading goal again this year with two books. I’ve read 2 books each year for the last couple of years, and that seems like a good amount for me. That seems to be my sweet spot.
I’m still working on The Happiness Files by Arthur Brooks.
There are a few I want to read: Build The Life You Want by Arthur Brooks, Cues by Vanessa Van Edwards, and Millionaire Mission by Brian Preston.
And then there is my physical health. I didn’t get to where I wanted in 2021, 2022, 2023, or 2024. But I finally made it in 2025!
I still want to lose body fat, but gain muscle mass, all while maintaining my weight. I have to make sure I’m eating healthier and exercising. I have been on target so far this year.
February 2026 Roundup
It was a good start to the year.
The kids got a couple of days off from school due to winter weather. Seems like it’s becoming an annual occurrence now.
The weather was overall nice. There was a storm or two that rolled through, but nothing too crazy.
There were no sick days, like we had last month.
I am excited as we continue 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.