Welcome to the November 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.
November was refreshing since the election is finally over. No more political ads! Add to boot that the markets actually went up.
I’m not going to talk much about what I did this month because, well, we didn’t do much. It was an overall calm and relaxing month for us.
Weekly Roundup
Normally, I kinda go through my month, and go over the highlights. This month I’m going to be doing it a little different. I think I can some up my whole month in one or two paragraphs.
Thanksgiving!
The world continues to “sheltered in place” right now, as COVID cases begin to rise again. However, the roads are still busy, as we all still have to make a living. Even still, we were able to celebrate thanksgiving with a select few. The entire family did not get together like normal.
Reflecting back on the year, there is a lot to be thankful for. Mostly for my wonderful family, and the new addition we had this year. Her name means, “To emerge in the joy of the father”, and she is doing just that. Her constant smiles bring so much JOY, on top of all the joy that her big sister brings.
November 2020 Net Worth
Here’s how November compares to last month:
November Account Breakdown
Let’s take a quick look at what happened in November.
Cash (+$1666.44)
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.
This is a little more than the amount we expected to have at the end of the month, mostly due to overtime I was able to work. Also, this was a month where we both received an “extra” paycheck, which resulted in lots of cash in our bank account.
Our spending was a about average this month.
Investment Cash (+$2,556.70)
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.
This is where our leftover income went from October. We had a few medical bills last month, but did not have to pay any for November. You’ll see a huge chunk transferred into our investment fund next month.
I’m still hopeful that some opportunities will come up this winter for investing. The foreclosure moratorium lasts until the end of the year. I don’t know if it will be extended again, but I expect the market will be flooded with properties a few months later. That excess in supply should result in low prices.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) (+$2,479.78)
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. There is a glitch in one of the sinking fund accounts that I’m working to fix. This increase is double what it should be, as the account was not accounted for the last couple months.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s (+$16,554.47)
The markets are back on the rise after two months of our 401(k)s are dropping like a rock. I said we would be fine in the previous months, and look, we are fine!
This is the first recession I’ve gone through in my working career, so I’m excited to see what my accounts look like once we’re in a bull market again, and the markets have more than fully recovered.
Looks like the stock market sale is over. Back to paying full price…almost.
IRA (+$18,620.19)
Wow, the market performance was better than I think anyone would have expected.
Gain of nearly $19,000 in one month!
That’s a gain of about 5.5% between the 401k and IRA’s. Hmm, I’m really thinking that buying the discounted mutual funds is already starting to pay off.
College Fund (+$5,471.43)
The college fund is invested just like the IRAs; in mutual funds. It didn’t take as big of a hit as the retirement accounts, and it looks like the inverse is true as well. The gain is equal to about 11.5%. Still, not a bad month.
Net Worth (+$40,817.58)
Looks like our net worth is back on the mend, at least for this month. Hopefully it continues, but I’m a little doubtful because it’s an election year.
In total, our net worth increased by slightly over 8%.
Accessible Net Worth (+$5,642.92)
Monthly Blurb: This is the money we are able to put away, not including the tax-advantaged retirement accounts.
Our income was great and our expenses were about average this month. Our accessible net worth as a result.
Liabilities
Status: (Other than the hospital bills.) 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
September was a record month for dividend income. and the lull until December is finally over. Hopefully with the next net worth report I can report record annual dividend income.
We’re now only $800 or so away from passing what we made last year in dividends ($9,242.21). We should easily pass that this year, but you never know! For the last five years, our December dividends have been far greater than $1,200 (like double).
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 0.4%.
Saving’s Rate
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.
Earlier this year I adjusted my savings rate goal to 50%, down from 60%. It seemed like 50% was a more attainable goal, but now it doesn’t look like we’ll reach that goal this year.
This month however, we beat that goal! Now if only it would bring the average up enough.
On the downside, next month is a normal paycheck month, and we will not make enough money to raise our savings rate above 50%.
Here’s how we did this month.
Income ($9,481.75)
Right now, our only source of active income is through our full-time jobs.
This is what a fairly normal income month looks like for us, aside from getting that stimulus check. That was a nice little boost.
Expenses ($3,381.08)
Our expenses were slightly above average this month.
Here is a quick break down:
1) Home Escrow ($1060.00)
The normal amount we put aside every month.
2) Giving ($1,127.06)
The usual 10% we give every month.
3) Cost of living ($1,372.91)
Previous Months: Oct: ($6,397.83), Sep: ($2,602.07), Aug: ($2,835.56), July: ($4,283.01), 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)
Running Average: $3,068.62
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 are going to drain our dependent care account at the end of the year in one lump sum. (That’s this upcoming month!) This is less paper work for us.
Our gasoline bills continued to stay pretty low. We have a pretty good idea of what it will cost each month now with my wife going back to work. We have started to enter the cold part of the year is over, so our water bills should decrease, and electric/gas bills will start to increase. The next few months is where our gas bill starts to go up as we heat the house.
I expect we will have to finish paying the medical bills sometime in December.
Other than that, we tried not to spend too much. We STILL have some big bills to pay. We’ll continue to try and not spend too much. We always do, but more so than normal until those bills are paid! Also, we’re just busy. We don’t have as much time to shop!
November 2020 Vs October 2020 Expenses
November and October were pretty similar in terms of our expenses, aside from medical bills. October was all about paying them bills. There was a hiatus in November, but that just means it continues into December. Hopefully we will have a clean slate to start next year.
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.
NEW: We met our target to max out my 401(k)! Now if only I could find a way to save that money tax free for the rest of the year…
The remaining two financial goals are year long goals. The end of the year is only a month away now!. We have a pretty good idea if we are going to accomplish them. Looks like we’ll meet the passive income goal, but miss the savings rate goal. I’ll have all the official numbers with next months income report.
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. and a new personal best AGAIN in September. Hopefully this trend continues into December. I’m fairly confident that we will beat the goal of having passive income grater than $10,000!
My goal of having a savings rate greater than 50% was very close, but not after cash flowing a baby. It would take a windfall of cash for us to meet this goal this year. August through October have really pulled that number down. November ended up helping to raise it slightly, but not enough.
December may pull up the numbers, but we still have a few medical bills to pay. Even without those, we would have to make double our normal income to hit that 50% target. I don’t think our savings rate will be high enough in December to bring it back over 50%.
Blog Goal
No new updates this month.
I’ve made a few changes behind the scenes on where I want the direction of this blog to go. My goal was to provide more value to you, so I’ve made some changes in the way I’m going to style blog post in an effort to create post that are more relevant to you. Now I just have to start creating and publishing those posts. I didn’t do much in November.
Personal Goals
I caught up on my reading goal in August, but haven’t done much reading since then. I’ve read four books for the year, and I think that is where it is going to stay.
My weight dropped slightly this month, but I think my body fat went up. That means I’m loosing muscle mass. I really need to make time to go work out, which I didn’t do much of in November. Instead, I ate a bunch of delicious food. Seemed like the right thing to do at the moment.
November 2020 Roundup
The month of November was a another good one. All the election ads are over! Yay! Also, there is light at the end of the COVID tunnel. All of the vaccines seem to be delivering promising results.
I’m excited for December, as we wrap up the year. Our cash flow is maintaining a positive direction, and the bills are nearly paid. Aside from a world-wide pandemic, life should be normal by the end of December. Even the pandemic shouldn’t last too long into 2021.
Stay tuned for next month’s New Worth update, which will also include stats for the whole year of 2020. 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 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.