Welcome to the July 2020 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 the beginning of September 2019. I started by creating the Net Worth Baseline report.
You can view Previous Net Worth reports HERE.
It’s July now and the weather is officially hot, although it hasn’t been record breaking hot. I think we have had only a few 100-degree days, so we are doing good. Financially, July was a good month, although it may not have felt like anything happened.
And just like the last few months, I’m not going to talk much about what I did this month because, well, we continued to not do much. It was an overall calm and relaxing month for us with one little birthday party.
Monthly Roundup
We are officially required to wear masks anytime we enter a business. Traffic on the roads is back to normal, the grocery store is busy, and most things seem normal, until we have to go inside somewhere that isn’t our home. My wife continued her first month a maternity leave, and my two weeks breezed by. The baby is doing good and, overall, life is good. If you recently had a child, don’t forget to fund their college education. I use the Vanguard 529 plan. I need to transfer money into that soon!
July 2020 Net Worth
Here’s how July compares to last month:
July Account Breakdown
Let’s take a quick look at what happened in July.
Cash (718.09)
Monthly Blurb: This is where our paychecks get deposited. All our income goes into this account, 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.
My wife is on short term disability, but she still received a few paychecks because she has to use her PTO. As a result, we received some extra cash in our account this month.
Investment Cash ($3,405.73)
Monthly Blurb: All of our cash leftover at the end of the month is transferred here and is considered part of our saving’s rate.
We actually have to pay for the delivery of baby #2, but the bills still haven’t come in yet.. That means all of our extra money is going towards investments this month.
We now expect the bills to start coming in towards the end of August or maybe September. After that, we finally get back to normal and start to save towards investing. Hopefully some opportunities come up this winter. The foreclosure moratorium ended in July, so we see if their is a spike.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) ($1,095.45)
Nothing exciting here. Just the usual. We are just saving up for our property tax bill and HOA fees for when they are due early next year.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s (+$7,670.84)
Our 401(k) increased at a better clip than our other investment accounts this month. They’re normally somewhat close, but this month they were about double, percentage wise. They went up about 8%.
I must of missed it, but I guess the markets did okay this month. I know the S&P set a few records in July, but seeing the accounts increase at the end of the month is nice.
IRA (+$9,598.75)
This increase is all due to the rise in the markets. They rise matched last month at about 5% this month. No complaints there.
College Fund (+$2,139.68)
Just like the other investments, the college savings rose as well. Matching the IRA accounts around 5%.
Net Worth (+$21,393.41)
I’m continually amazed seeing how much our net worth can change in a single month. Again, it felt like nothing really happened. My curiosity remains about what is going to happen around election time. Hopefully all the world’s problems will disappear after the election.
In total, our net worth increased by almost 5%.
Accessible Net Worth ($4,123.82)
Monthly Blurb: This is the money we are able to put away, not including the tax-advantaged retirement accounts.
Our income was a little above average and our expenses were also a little above average this month. Our accessible net worth increased mostly because we continue shoveling money into our investment account.
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
The tension is building as the break until September continues. There are a lot of companies cutting dividends, but a lot of companies are reporting higher that expected profits, while very few are suffering.
The interest rate in my savings account is super low, as can be expected. My money is barely making any money sitting in that “high-yield” account earning 0.8%.
Saving’s Rate
Monthly Blurb: 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.
We missed our 50% goal this month thanks buying a cruise that we can hopefully go on next year. There was a great deal on a cruise, and we could actually afford to stay in a suite. I’m looking forward to the trip, and really, really, hoping it doesn’t get cancelled.
Our Year-to-date savings rate decreased slightly, but is still just short of 50%. I still anticipate the next few months will have a low savings rate though, since we are cash flowing the cost of a baby. Hitting that 50% target is going to be tuff!
Here’s how we did this month.
Income ($12,436.89)
Right now, our only source of active income is through our full-time jobs. We also have short term disability, which boosted our income a bit this month, on top of me receiving an extra paycheck.
This is what an excellent average month looks like for us.
Expenses ($6,586.70)
Our expenses were really above average this month.
Here is a quick break down:
1) Home Escrow ($1060.00)
The “new” normal amount we put aside every month.
We adjusted this due to an increase in home insurance. Without the increase, we would have a shortage come January if property taxes stay the same, or increase.
2) Giving ($1,243.69)
The usual 10% we give every month.
3) Cost of living ($4,283.01)
Previous Months: June: ($3,031.71), May: ($2,957.92), Apr: ($2,164.31), Mar: ($3,078.52), Feb: ($2,474.38), Jan: ($4,708.98), Dec: ($2,749.98), Nov: ($1,242.44), Oct: ($3,040.36), Sep: ($1,238.39)
Running Average: $2,815.45
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. Starting in July, we are going to use the dependent care account to pay for day care, so we should see a decrease in the cost of living after the medical bills are paid. We changed our mind about this and are just going to drain the account at the end of the year in one lump sum. This is less paper work for us.
Our gasoline bills stayed pretty low. We started to see our water bill go up to keep the lawn green.
Also, as I mentioned, we bought a cruise to go on. This really blew the budget.
July 2020 Vs June 2020 Expenses
July’s expenses were very similar to June, except for the part where we bought a cruise to go on.
Goals Progress
Financial Goals
We met our target to fund our Roth IRA’s by the end of March.
We met our target to fund baby #2’s 529 plan early, having finished at the end of May.
The remaining goals are year long goals. We’ll have to wait until the end of the year to see if we accomplish them.
As expected, I am on track to have a maxed out 401(k) by the end of the year. It’s all automated, so as long as my job status doesn’t change, we should be good.
I did not actively do anything to increase my passive income, other than contribute to retirement accounts. Hopefully this is happening passively. As expected, we saw a good portion in March, and a personal best in April. However, there are a lot of dividend cuts happening, and since this was a stretch goal to begin with, I’m not sure we will make this one.
My goal of having a savings rate greater than 50% is very close. I’ll have to see what the coming months look like.
Blog Goal
At the beginning of the year, I increased my presence on social media by being active most days of the week.
The increase seems to be increasing my followers on twitter, but not really to my blog. I’ve since decreased my twitter presence, as this is too time consuming for me. I also learned that Twitter doesn’t like when you send out links. That makes it hard to get traffic from there to my site.
Personal Goals
I’m officially behind on my reading goal by a month. Hopefully I can start to catch up this month. I’ve finished three books, but haven’t started a forth.
My weight didn’t improve this month. I had too much cake and ice cream! I’ve continued running at the gym, but I get bored after a couple miles. I can’t go the same distance I do outside, when it’s a reasonable temperature.
June 2020 Roundup
The month of July was a another good one. The weather was hot, but still nice, my net worth continued to grow, and I got to spend a bunch of time with my family, and I still have a job!
We’ll see how August goes, as the world delays its return to normal.
Stay tuned for next month’s New Worth update. In the meantime, comment and let me know what stats you would like to see.
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 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.