Welcome to the July 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.
July 2026 Net Worth
Here’s how July compares to last month:
July Account Breakdown
Let’s take a quick look at what happened in April.
Cash ($4,009.95)
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.
Cash was up this month because we both received an “extra” paycheck. I’ll have to check if I paid off the credit card or not…
As usual, cash being up or down mostly just depends on timing and what has or hasn’t been transferred yet.
Investment Cash ($4,159.80)
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 due to interest and me remembering to transfer money over. The markets were nearly flat. The portion invested here was up by about $3K this month.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) ($1,174.71)
Nothing exciting here. Just the usual. We are still 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 (again).
We have all the upfront costs of the cruise paid for now, so no more travel expenses until our cruise. The cruise is next 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.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s ($12,655.51)
June was a pretty flat month for the market. July was similar, but ended on the positive side officially, although not all of my accounts reflect that.
The 401(k)s had a mediocre month. The gains this month are mostly due to contributions and some from market performance.
IRA (-$15,456.89)
The IRAs were down this month.
This was entirely due to market performance. This sector of the market just happened to do worse than the one of the 401k’s.
Overall, there was a loss of 0.23% between the 401k and IRAs.
College Fund ($494.07)
The college fund is invested in mutual funds, just like the IRAs. However, this mutual fund ended up for the month. It was up 0.47 percent.
It’s a swap from last month, where the Roths were up, and the College Fund was down.
Net Worth ($5,819.44)
July ended in positive territory, fortunately.
Utilities are at their peak as we get through the summer months. There will be another month or two of high bills.
In total, our net worth rose. We had an increase of approximately 0.33%.
Not as good as the last two months, but we managed to squeak by in positive ground. I’ll take it.
Accessible Net Worth ($8,620.82)
Monthly Blurb: This is the money we are able to put away, not including the tax-advantaged retirement accounts.
Our income was above average this month, but so were our expenses.
Accessible net worth increased this month, thanks to the extra paychecks.
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.
March was record-breaking for that month alone.
April also broke its record!
May was about as expected.
There is usually a lull until September, but June was better than expected. We had another record-breaking month (for that month alone)!
July fell back to expectations of the summer lull.
For the year, passive income is now up to $14,575.15. That puts us at 36.4% of the way toward the $40,000 goal.
Interest rates on my savings accounts remained at 3.00%.
Savings 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.
March was pretty grim for our savings rate. We saved only 36.7% of our income.
April was a much better month for the savings rate. We ended the month at 54.00%.
May wasn’t that great for our savings rate, but it was higher than our average for the year. We came in at 43.53% for the month
June was right at where our goal is, coming in at 50.12%. That said, we will need stronger months to pull up our annual average.
July wasn’t that great for our savings rate because we spent a lot. Daycare and travel mostly. It was very similar to May. We came in at 41.87% for the month.
That brings our 2026 YTD savings rate to 43.99%.
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.
Summer break is just about over, and school will be starting back soon. We only have a week of daycare to pay for in August, so we should start to see the savings rate go back up.
Hopefully, we can start to keep our savings rate above 50% with daycare gone and lower property taxes. The kids are currently only doing gymnastics.
Here’s how we did this month.
We were at 41.87% in July, bringing our YTD to 43.99%.
Income ($13,083.36)
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.
Expenses ($7,605.98)
Our expenses were well above-average this month. We had to pay for a full month of daycare and wrapped up our cruise expenses. We paid for all of our excursions, cruise parking, and all those miscellaneous things that come along with it.
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 ($1054.44)
The usual 10% we give every month.
3) Cost of living ($5,851.54)
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.
This month also included daycare and travel expenses. I decided to cash flow the travel expenses instead of taking it out of the sinking fund.
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.
July and the rest of the summer months are typically rough for our savings rate, as this month showed. I think July will actually be our worst month. (Knock on wood!)
There were no other major expenses for July.
July 2026 Vs. June 2026 Expenses
June was better than July from a savings rate standpoint.
Income was slightly lower, and expenses were way lower in June. The market didn’t perform as well in July, but that’s okay.
June was a pretty normal month, whereas July had more expenses, thanks to kids and travel, which kept the savings rate from moving up towards 50%.
Hopefully, August will stay smooth. Expenses should drop back down towards normal. We will still have to pay for one week of daycare, but that is minimal compared to a full month.
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 contributions were taken care of in March.
The 401k is still on automatic contributions from my paycheck, so that will continue moving along throughout the year.
The passive income goal is at $14,575.15, which puts us at 36.4% of the way toward the $40,000 goal.
The investing goal is at $19,164.99, which is 25.6% complete.
The savings rate goal declined this month, bringing the YTD number further below 50%.
Hopefully, our savings rate is maintained through August and starts moving up in the fall.
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.
I am still at 0 published posts for the year, so I need to get moving here.
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 have finished The Happiness Files by Arthur Brooks.
Now I have to figure out what to read next.
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.
A friend suggested reading The 4-Hour Workweek. I got through the intro before another book caught my eye. So far, I have read neither book.
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, but I’ve started to relax during the summer.
July 2026 Roundup
July was an okay month financially. We ended with more money than we started with, so I can’t say it was a bad month.
The market remained pretty cool, like June. Our savings rate improved, and passive income continued to move in the right direction.
There’s still work to do, especially with the blog goal and getting the YTD savings rate back over 50%.
The weather is officially hot now.No more rolling showers. Just 100-degree days, day after day. I don’t actually mind it that much, but it does cost a lot running the A/C.
There were no sick days, which is always nice.
I am excited as we get into the back end of the year and get to do some extra activities with the kids. We are all looking forward to the vacation next month. 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.