Welcome to the October 2023 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.
October is over, and the weather changed fast. We had about a week of fall and went straight to winter. October ended with freezing temperatures.
Financially, October was a bad month due to the markets, but not as bad as I thought before doing our budget.
The markets have been down 5 of the past 6 weeks. The numbers look a little better because stocks had a little rally on the last trading day.
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.
October 2023 Net Worth
Here’s how October compares to last month:
October Account Breakdown
Let’s take a quick look at what happened in October.
Cash (-$5,216.19)
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 spending and income. We brought home more money than last month, and I forgot to transfer last month’s earnings into the savings account, so that’s why this is positive.
Our spending was above average this month.
Investment Cash ($10,692.05)
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 went from September and August (since I actually remembered to transfer it).
I’m still waiting for some opportunities to come up in the housing market, although I’m not that optimistic. The housing market is still fairly strong, but winter is coming up, so we’ll see.
I put a bunch of money in a CD back in February, so hopefully, nothing too exciting pops up while that money is locked away. It will be available in January, assuming I don’t roll it into another CD. I don’t think I will at this point.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) ($916.063)
Nothing exciting here. Just the usual. We are just saving up for our property tax bill for when it’s due early next year.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s (-$902.43)
Ouch, Don’t look! This month we had our third decrease of the year. Fortunately not as bad as last month. The markets were down pretty sharp for most of October but recovered some right at the end of the month.
For those keeping track, that’s three months in a row now.
IRA (-$8,805.24)
All market performance here.
Overall, that’s a loss of 1.77% between the 401k and IRAs.
College Fund (-$1,882.31)
The college fund is invested just like the IRAs; in mutual funds. The college fund was down by 2.9 percent.
Net Worth (-$4,154.43)
October was the second worst month of the year. I didn’t complain about August being slightly down, and September hurt. October being down isn’t so bad compared to last month.
Our expenses were nearly the same as month. We mostly kept our expenses down, but had a few splurges, compared to September.
In total, our net worth dropped a little, with a decrease of approximately 0.42%. Not so bad compared to September, which was 2.04%
The year started out great, with our net worth increasing every month in 2023, but now it has dropped three months in a row. That’s a whole quarter of a year now!
Accessible Net Worth ($5,553.24)
Monthly Blurb: This is the money we are able to put away, not including the tax-advantaged retirement accounts.
Our income was average, and our expenses were average this month. Our accessible net worth increased as a result of our earnings and not having too crazy of expenses.
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 a record-breaking month.
May, just like April, was pretty mediocre, as it was just interest in my investment accounts.
August, June, and July, in addition to account interest, did turn out a few dividends, but nothing mind-blowing.
September is where things typically get a little exciting. That was not the case this year. The mutual funds I’m invested in did NOT pay out any dividends or capital gains, for the most part.
October, like the beginning of the year, is pretty boring. It gets a little more interesting in November, but not by much. Hopefully, we end the year with an exciting December.
The interest rate in my savings account stayed the same this month, at 4.30%. The Feds right now don’t plan on raising the rate anymore as long as inflation stays in check.
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%, which we didn’t achieve. In 2022, we barely missed that goal! I’ve set the same goal for this year.
Last month we missed the 50% goal by the largest margin this year, and now are average for the year is even further below 50%.
I’m almost certain that we will not meet the 50% goal in November because of some planned car and home expenses. The car needs new tires, and we need to buy a water heater.
I’m still hoping we can bring it back up by the end of the year. Hopefully, we won’t have too many unplanned expenses.
Of that 50% we are spending, Housing and Daycare alone eat up about 30%. We give 10%, so that means we are living on 10-15% for everything else.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for daycare, but these Texas property taxes kill me. The good news is that the state legislature passed a bill in July that is supposed to give some relief. I finally got my property tax bill, and my taxes are lower by a significant amount.
Daycare will decrease every year until it’s mostly gone at the end of the summer of 2024. Hopefully, we can get our savings rate up above 50% when that happens.
I wonder what other expenses will pop up once daycare is done.
Here’s how we did this month.
Income ($10,395.36)
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. Income for September was above average.
Expenses ($5,689.59)
Our expenses were above average this month. We did have some car maintenance, but no unexpected expenses, and mostly kept the rest of our spending in check. There was one impulse buy I made that was fairly expensive. I don’t plan on doing that too often.
Here is a quick breakdown:
1) Home Escrow ($988.00)
The normal amount we put aside every month. We cleared out storage, so this will drop after October.
2) Giving ($1,143.49)
The usual 10% we give every month. Plus 1% that we started to give on top of that.
3) Cost of living ($3,558.10)
This includes all our bills (Gas, Electric, Water, Internet, Phone), transportation, food, shopping, car insurance, and daycare. Home insurance is paid for out of our Home Escrow savings account. Like last year, 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.
In October, we had above-average expenses.
October 2023 Vs September 2023 Expenses
October and September were pretty different months in terms of finances. We spent slightly more in October but made more money in September.
Hopefully, November will stay fairly smooth, and I won’t make any more impulse purchases. There are two big purchases that we have to make, tires and a water heater.
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, I’m not completely sure how the other goals are going to turn out.
We’re three-quarters of the way through the year, and I still can’t tell. That’s how close some of them are.
After September’s performance, I’m not sure we’ll hit the passive income goal.
I’m on the fence about whether we’ll be hitting the savings goal or not. We have fallen behind, and there’s not a whole lot of the year left. November is going to be below 50%, so we have to make up the difference in December. I’m not sure if we’ll catch up.
The savings rate goal has become a thorn in my side, and we’re no longer positive for the year. We’ll see if that’s enough motivation to actually reach the goal. Maybe we can meet our goal two years in a row?
Blog Goal
My goal of 24 articles this year is in the works. I’ve actually been working on some content for this site other than my net worth reports!
I posted a bunch of articles in March, and there were more posted in the last couple of months. I plan on publishing a few every month for the rest of the year. Take a look and let me know what you think.
I plan on achieving this goal, and I’m not too far off from that now.
Personal Goals
I’m doing a reading goal again this year with the same number of books. Last year I only read 2, but I know I can do 3. I’m done with the first book. I finally started reading a second book….
And then there is my physical health. I didn’t get to where I wanted in 2021, …or 2022, so we’ll continue to try again this year. I want to lose fat, and part of that is going to be by eating healthier. So far, that hasn’t happened.
October 2023 Roundup
The month of October was another great one, and nothing unexpected happened. One of the kids did have to stay home from school for a day or two, so our healthy streak is over!
Six months in a row, now we’re back at 0.
The weather had been constantly hot, with pretty much no breaks. In October, we saw a little bit of everything, from hot summer days, to nice fall ones, to even a blistery winter week nearly freezing one of those days.
I continue to be excited as we progress into November and finish up the year. As always, there’s really a lot to be thankful for.
Only one more net worth report before the end-of-year summary!
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.