Welcome to the January 2025 edition of our net worth tracker, where we’ll track our net worth month over month. I first started tracking our net worth at the time this blog was 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.
January is over, and we’re already a month into the new year. 8.33% of the year already gone. It’s been a fairly warm winter so far, but we did have one day of light snow, and the kids got to have a snowball fight. School was closed for a couple of days because of that. Similar to last year, we ended the month with temps in the high 60s.
Financially, January was a good month. It started great, then got a little rough, but recovered towards the end. It was enough to wipe out our December’s losses. The markets still aren’t sure what to think about the new president.
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.
January 2025 Net Worth
Here’s how January compares to last month:

January Account Breakdown
Let’s take a quick look at what happened in January.
Cash (-$162.67)
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 above-average month for us both in terms of income and spending. We brought home more money than last month thanks to each of us receiving “extra” paychecks. That’s the main reason this is only slightly negative. December is typically our highest take-home month because we cash out the dependant care savings account.
Our spending was about average this month.
Investment Cash (-$5,350.28)
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.
This is where our leftover income usually goes, but I funded our Roths for 2025.
I’ve been saying for a long time: “I’m waiting for some opportunities to come up in the housing market.” Well, I finally put an offer in on a house. I’m not sure it’s going to go through, but that is the second reason investment is down: the earnest money.
January 2024
This time last year, we were buying our first investment house. We weren’t able to sell it last summer, so I’m going to try again this spring. I’m praying that it sells for a decent price and that our returns are higher than if we had put the money into mutual funds.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) (-$3,598.54)
Nothing exciting here. Just the usual. Taxes were paid this month. Now, we are back to saving up for our property tax bill for when it’s due early next year.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s ($13,317.69)
January ended on a positive note. The markets are back to hitting record highs.
IRA ($25,673.60)
Typically, this is all market performance here, but this month, a good portion of the increase is due to my contribution to our Roths.
Overall, that’s a gain of 4.90% between the 401k and IRAs.
College Fund ($2,677.40)
The college fund is invested just like the IRAs in mutual funds. They made it back to positive territory this month. The college fund was up by 3.11 percent.
Net Worth ($34,882.86)
January started pretty lousy but ended up rebounding quite nicely into positive territory. All of the retirement accounts are positive for the month.
Our expenses were about the same as last month if you don’t account for the dependant care reimbursement. We mostly kept our expenses down but had a few car maintenance items to take care of.
In total, our net worth is up substantially for the month. We had an increase of approximately 2.71%.
The year started out on the right foot. We’ll see how the market performs the rest of the year. There was a lot of uncertainty last year, and I feel like that sentiment is rolling into 2025. Last year, the markets were up over 20%.
Accessible Net Worth (-$4,108.43)
Monthly Blurb: This is the money we are able to put away, not including the tax-advantaged retirement accounts.
Our income was above 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 the Roth IRAs.
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. It just depends on how many times I think about it.
Passive Income
January and February are very boring months for dividends. Just waiting till March gets here.
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! We met the goal 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.
I’m keeping the goal at 55% for 2025. In January, we exceeded that goal thanks to our “extra” paychecks.
Starting in February, we need to start beefing up our travel fund for some vacations we would like to go on. I may adjust this number, but we are going to start by setting $200 aside each month for the rest of the year.
I’m trying to keep the travel savings low so that we can still achieve our 55% savings rate goal.
Of that 45% we are spending, We give 10%, and property tax is another 10%, so that means we are living on 25% or less for everything else.
Housing and daycare alone used to eat up over 30%. Fortunately, property tax has gone down and now there’s no more daycare!
We have reached the light at the end of the tunnel for daycare. Moving on, we will only have daycare bills during school breaks until the kids are old enough to be left alone.
Hopefully, we can get our savings rate above 55% with daycare gone, although other kids’ activities have started. We’ve been doing gymnastics and now have ballet for one of the kids.
Those are relatively cheap compared to paying for daycare.
Here’s how we did this month.

Income ($15,194.65)
Right now, our only source of active income is through our full-time jobs.
This is what an above-average income month looks like for us. Each of us brought home an “extra” paycheck this month. We get paid every other week, so two months out of the year, there are three pay cycles instead of two.
Expenses ($5,091.92)
Our expenses were average this 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 ($1519.47)
The usual 10% we give every month.
3) Cost of living ($2,872.46)
This includes all our bills (Gas, Electric, Water, Internet, Phone), transportation, food, shopping, and car insurance. Home insurance is paid for out of our Home Escrow savings account.
Like last year and years before that, 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.
December 2024 Vs. January 2025 Expenses
December and January were very different months in terms of finances. We spent slightly more in December and cashed out the DCSA, but we made more money in January. The markets were down in December but were up in January.
Hopefully, February will stay smooth, and our net worth will continue to grow. Other than saving for vacations, we plan to put more money into the house and make use of the energy tax credits.
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 entirely sure how the other goals are going to turn out.
So far, we’re looking good.
And this year, I won’t ignore the savings rate goal. Haha.
Blog Goal
I have a goal of 12 articles again this year. To be honest, I haven’t worked on any articles at all yet.
Personal Goals
I’m doing a reading goal again this year with two books. Last year, I read 2, and that seems like a good amount for me. That seems to be my sweet spot.
I’m most of the way through my first book (Developing The Leader Within You). I’m still trying to decide what the second book will be. I’m leaning towards one of these two: Build The Life You Want by Arthur Brooks or Cues by Vanessa Van Edwards.
And then there is my physical health. I didn’t get to where I wanted in 2021, 2022, 2023, …or 2024.
I was actually doing fine in 2024, and then I went crazy eating whatever I wanted from Thanksgiving to the end of the year. I at least proved to myself that I can lose fat.
I want to lose fat, and part of that is going to be by eating healthier. January has been on target. I’ve been tracking my eating and exercising regularly.
January 2025 Roundup
The month of January was another good one. Nothing too unexpected happened; it was just a couple of days off school for the kids. We did have a few sick days but remained relatively healthy overall.
The weather was overall nice, especially considering it was January. We had a few snow days but no icy days where we had to worry about driving on slick roads, and the power stayed on.
I continue to be 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.