Welcome to the October 2024 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 is starting to change. I heard that this was the hottest October on record. We’ve had about four weeks of fall with no rain. I mean 0 inches! The next couple of weeks are supposed to be rainy, though. October ended with temperatures in the 70s.
Financially, October was a mediocre month due to the markets. The market was higher for most of the month and then started to tank. We ended the month slightly negative. We would have been positive if it weren’t for the last day of the month. Oh well!
It’s kind of funny. Looking at the charts it like August or September were flipped upside down.
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 2024 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 (-$6,911.03)
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 a good amount of money.
I finally remembered to transfer last month’s earnings into the savings account, so that’s why this is negative.
Our spending was above average this month thanks to paying for auto insurance.
Investment Cash ($9,582.44)
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 took our investment property off the market. We didn’t get any showings! I plan to leave it off the market until spring.
Remaining Cash Accounts (Emergency and Sinking Funds) ($2,862.41)
Nothing exciting here. Just the usual. We are just saving up for our property tax bill for when it’s due early next year.
We are also saving up for a new car. We planned on saving $2,000 a month for the rest of the year, but this will be our last month. I think we have enough saved up and can cash flow or save up again when we’re ready to get a new (to us) car.
Retirement Accounts
401(k)s (-$1,847.26)
Ouch, Don’t look! This month, we had our second decrease of the year. Fortunately, it wasn’t that. The markets were up for most of October but took a dip right at the end of the month.
IRA (-$8,805.24)
All market performance here.
Overall, that’s a loss of 0.73% 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 0.32 percent.
Net Worth (-$968.73.)
October was the second worst month of the year. I don’t want it to sound like I’m complaining too much, though. We are down by less than a tenth of a percent. That’s hardly anything.
Our expenses were nearly the same as month. We mostly kept our expenses down but had to pay for car insurance.
In total, our net worth dropped a little, with a decrease of approximately 0.08%. Not too bad.
Accessible Net Worth ($4,796.29)
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 above 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! April and May’s numbers were pretty average.
June was pretty good. It’s not as good as last year, but it’s still good.
July and August were pretty good as well, beating out last year.
September is where things typically get a little exciting. Last year, the mutual funds I’m invested in did NOT pay out any dividends or capital gains, for the most part.
This year, however, things were a lot more exciting! I made the most I’ve ever made from dividends and capital gains in a single month.
On top of that, we’re now on track to meet our passive income goal.
October was back to normal for the year.
Last year, as a whole, was the worst I’ve had since 2017, and I have a lot more invested than I did six years ago. Two months of 2024 left. Let’s see how it plays out.
As long as December isn’t the worst on record, we’ll meet our passive income goal. That feels nice to say because I’ve been uncertain about it all year.
The interest rate in my savings account continued to fall, from 4.10% to 4.00% for the month. The market is becoming more volatile, and now the question is how many more rate cuts there will be before the end of the year.
A rate cut is expected for November, and another is likely in December, so I expect interest rates in my savings account to continue falling.
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, but we met it in 2023!
As a result of meeting the goal in 2023, I raised the bar to 55%.
In January, we missed the 55% goal, but we were over 50%.
As I mentioned earlier this year, we started saving for a car. We plan to put $2,000 aside each month for the rest of the year.
As a result, we are for sure not going to make the 55% goal. However, I’m going to keep track of two sets of Savings Rate numbers. One, as if we didn’t spend the money, and two, as if the money were spent. The latter is what you will see in the spreadsheet.
Of that 50% we are spending, Housing and Daycare alone eat up over 30%. We give 10%, so that means we are living on 10% or less for everything else.
Now there’s no more daycare!
We have reached the light at the end of the tunnel for daycare. August was the last month, and it wasn’t even a full month of daycare. Moving on, we will only have daycare bills during school breaks.
Hopefully, we can get our savings rate up above 50% with daycare gone and after we have enough saved up for a car.
For October, we replaced the daycare expense with car insurance. We don’t really have a choice there.
I’ve been wondering what other expenses will pop up once daycare is done, and now I’m starting to see them. We’ve been doing gymnastics and now have ballet for one of the kids.
Those are relatively cheap compared to paying for daycare.
Also….. we will have some daycare expenses in November because of holidays the kids get off, but we don’t.
Here’s how we did this month.
If you don’t include the car savings, we were at 49.96% in October, putting us at 50.62% YTD.
Income ($10,121.60)
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 ($7,064.37)
Our expenses were close to average this month as well. Plus, we are saving $2K for a new car each month. We also put some money into the house to make sure the foundation is sound.
Aside from buying a laptop, we mostly kept our spending in check.
Here is a quick breakdown:
1) Home Escrow ($700.0)
The normal amount we put aside every month. We cleared out storage, so this will drop after October.
2) Giving ($1,012.16)
The usual 10% we give every month.
3) Cost of living ($5,352.21)
This includes all our bills (Gas, Electric, Water, Internet, Phone), transportation, food, shopping, car insurance, and daycare. This also includes saving for the car.
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 2024 Vs September 2024 Expenses
October and September were pretty similar financially. We made more in September, and we also spent more money. Both our income and expenses were lower in October.
September is a historically bad month for the markets. I had expected our net worth to be lower by the end of the month, but we ended positive.
October was the opposite and we ended on the negative side.
For November, I plan on putting money into the house. Have to take advantage of tax credits while I can. Hopefully everything else goes as normal and there are no unexpected expenses.
Hopefully, the economy won’t completely crash, and we will be able to sell our investment house early next year. We are done saving for a car. We still plan on spending some money on our home getting it up to code as needed and improving the insulation.
Goals Progress
Financial Goals
The Roth IRA contribution is done, and the money has been transferred to the proper accounts.
I’m starting to get a better idea of how the goals are going to turn out, aside from the 401k, which is on automatic contributions from my paycheck. Overall, it’s looking okay-ish.
I know we’re not going to hit the Real Estate (RE) Investing goal since we bought a property, and it’s not selling. Next year, I’ll include the net profits from selling the house here since that will become future investment money.
Last month, I didn’t think we were going to hit the passive income goal either, but I have a better outlook after September’s performance. There’s now a strong likelihood we will meet this goal.
We’ll just continue to ignore the savings rate goal.
Blog Goal
My goal of 12 articles this year is in the works.
I finally got around to posting in August. I posted one article in January, and it took me that long to post more. It’s not good, but I do have more posts planned. I just have to get them written.
I had planned on publishing one every month for the rest of the year. It’ll happen eventually. Take a look at what I have posted, and let me know what you think.
Personal Goals
I’m doing a reading goal again this year with only two books. Last year, I read 2, and that seems like a good amount for me. I’m done with the first book (Crucial Conversations), and I’ve already finished reading the second book (Good to Great). Goal Complete!
I started a third book, but it’s going to take me a while to finish.
And then there is my physical health. I didn’t get to where I wanted in 2021, 2022, …or 2023, 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.
I started taking it more seriously last month and have lost a few pounds. I lost a few more pounds this month, but I still have a ways to go.
October 2024 Roundup
The month of October was another good one. Nothing too unexpected happened. We remained relatively healthy and didn’t miss any school days.
The weather was really nice for October. Now, it’s starting to cool down to the point where we can do things outside again. I have to mentally prepare for all the leafs that are starting to fall.
I continue to be excited as we finish off the 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.