This is my official April 2017 Net Worth Update. Below are my actual numbers for ALL my investments and liabilities as of 04/30/2017. Detailed explanations and a quick summary can be found below. If you would like to see my previous months net worth posts, please visit my Net Worth Tracker. I have been tracking my net worth monthly since May 2015. If you want to learn how to track net worth then check out how I am doing it.
How To Track Net Worth
TOTAL NET WORTH: $513,911
Quick Summary and comments: -$7,706
Hey Everyone!! Time for my monthly net worth post. I always love doing these because I can see very clearly how much money im spending/saving. It’s not often I have negative months but my net worth in total went down almost $8k this past month. Ouch!! I can’t blame anyone but myself though. The reason it went down so much is because my wife and I spent half the month travelling, I paid my nasty yearly tax bill and I also paid off my mother’s credit card debt. While travelling, I stayed with my mother for a bit and we had a nice financial discussion about debt. Turns out she was only had about $4k worth or credit card debt. I was expecting a lot more. I decided to be a good son and just pay it all off for her. And honestly, IT FELT GREAT!! My poor mother never had an education, barely makes $40k a year and is the sweetest woman in the world. The least I could do is pay off her credit card debt. One day, I want to buy her a house so she can live with no mortgage.
Real Estate Investing Update: Last month I revealed that I am in full steam search mode for my next rental property. Well I pretty much still am but I have made multiple offers on houses with no luck so far. I’m still waiting to hear back from one though and will be submitting another offer tomorrow. Hopefully I will land one of these. It’s definitely getting harder and harder to find deals in Indianapolis and the numbers aren’t as good anymore as they were when I first started buying here. But at the end of the day, the numbers are still far better them most major US cities and I still am adamant about buying more and more rental properties while I am living here. I love Indy!!
Okay enough about that, lets jump into my net worth categories.
Assets: Explanations of each of my assets.
Cash: –$11,009
I actually spent close to $16k if not more this past month in total. What you don’t see is my salary being spent as well since that was not accounted for obviously. It’s a big hit in my cash position but its a necessary evil. Most of that (about $9k) went to pay my yearly taxes. I waited until the last day to file my taxes and I went ahead and just paid all that I owed right then and there. I also spent probably close to $4k just on travelling in April. My wife and I went back east and were there for a week. We spent most of the time in Frederick, MD which is a charming little historic city in western/mid Maryland and we also spent a week in Washington State where I spent 3 whole days fishing the rivers in Forks, WA. It was the best fishing trip I have ever been on. We hired a fishing guide to take us and had so much fun. I ended up catching 12 Steelhead Trout which apparently is very good for 3 days of fishing.
My cash as noted above in the spreadsheet consists of my wife and I’s checking account and my REI (Real Estate Investing) checking account. Not Satisfied!
HSA account: +$77
Slight increase in my HSA account from my paycheck contributions. Nothing crazy.
My HSA deductible is $1300 for the year and I have close over $5k in this account so with that being said, since I am maxed out already with my yearly deductible, I don’t see a need right now for depositing more funds. I am only taking a very small amount out from my day job paycheck to fund this account. Any money after that deductible will just sit in that account not making me money. I know I can use the money that I don’t put in there to get better returns as long as I invest it in more real estate. This number should increase each month a tiny bit. Satisfied!
Company Stock Options: +$2,635
My company stock options never seem to stop amazing me. It has reached all time highs again, more than I ever thought it would go. Lucky for me, I still have some shares available and although I am in a freeze right now, I am highly considering selling a bunch more as soon as I can to take advantage of the price.
These are stock options from my day job. I am fully vested. Satisfied!
Stock Portfolio: –$1,498
My stock portfolio is built of precious metal mining stocks. It has been a roller coaster ride with these as expected. I saw another decrease in these this past month as I did the last month. I’m not too worried about what these do in the short-term. I’m in it for the long haul on these as I think it’s just a matter of time before the precious metal sector takes off. Overall I am still profiting from these stocks as I bought them for dirt cheap.
I bought all my shares using tradeKing. Satisfied!
401K: +$106
I made an executive decision awhile back to take money out of my 401k and no longer contribute any more money to it. Mainly because I do not get matched contributions from the dreadful day job. But also because I KNOW I can make better returns using that money on rental properties. Any movement you see in this asset is only from market fluctuations. I am not able to withdraw the remaining amount in here until I quit my job. I really don’t like the idea of having an account that punishes me to take money out because of age. Satisfied!
Property # 1 (Indianapolis, IN)
My primary residence in Indianapolis. This was originally a turnkey property I bought back when I lived in Austin. I bought this house for $67k almost 2 years ago. Spent an additional $30 in renovations when I moved into this house. I love the location, the size of the house and because my mortgage on it is less than half of what I was paying when I was living in Austin, TX. Super Satisfied! Here are more details on when I originally bought this one as a rental property.
Property # 2 (Austin, TX)
Rent paid on time (early again actually) and no repair requests. The perfect tenants as far as I’m concerned. I screened them myself and I am proud. 🙂 This is the property I self manage in Austin. Even now that I live in Indy, I will continue self managing this one. I think I can do it from afar and if in the future I realize that I can not continue being my own property manager, then I will probably just find a PM to handle it. So far everything is going great. I have not heard a peep out of them and they locked in for a 2 year lease so I’m hoping this one is a cash cow for a long time.
This is my first rental property. It used to be my primary residence at one point. I expect gradual appreciation from this property because it is in the suburbs Austin which has been growing tremendously. Love me some HOT markets! Satisfied!
Property # 3 (Indianapolis, IN)
Rent paid on time and no repair requests made. Thankfully! These tenants are super picky and the lease is up in a few months. I’m not sure if they will renew it or if I will be finding new tenants yet. Should know more by next month.
This is my first turnkey rental property I purchased out-of-state in Indianapolis. I do not expect much appreciation on this property. I purchased this for CASH FLOW purposes only. Satisfied!
Property # 4 (Indianapolis, IN)
Rent paid on time. This tenant had recently renewed for his 3rd straight year however I just received notification a few days ago that they will be buying a house and want to break the lease. I have proposed to allow the tenant to break the lease as long as they keep paying the monthly bill up until I can find a new tenant. It is really putting myself as the owner and the tenant in a bad situation by doing this. We’ll have to see what happens but looks like I will having my first turn over on this property in over 2 years of owning it. Not too bad really. This property was the one that I fired my property manager from originally when I first bought it as a turnkey rental properly.
This my 2nd turnkey rental property in Indianapolis I do not expect much appreciation on this property. I purchased this for CASH FLOW purposes only. Satisfied!
Property # 5 (Austin, TX)
Mortgage paid on time. No issues. This is a note that I own from a house that I sold via owner finance in the Austin area. If you notice though, the reason why this asset will continue to go down from the spreadsheet above is because it is a note and the principal balance on it goes down each month as the buyer pays me. Remember, I’m the lender on this one. Satisfied!
Property # 6 (Independence, MO (KC))
Rent paid on time and no repairs on this one either. This is the last turnkey rental property I purchased located in the Kansas City area. I bought this in late October 2015. I purchased this property also for CASH FLOW purposes only. I am not expecting appreciation gains on this one. Satisfied!
Property # 7 (Indianapolis, IN)
Rent paid on time however a repair call has been made just a few days ago. It seems the chimney is leaking which is causing damage to the drywall around the old unused chimney. I’m having a chimney company come out to take a look. This will be my first real repair made to this property since I bought it and I’m guessing it’s going to be costly. We’ll see how much it costs to fix all this. All in all, I am still very happy with this rental property. The tenant actually also just renewed his lease and this will be the tenant’s 2nd straight year. That is always a huge win in my book when a tenant renews. This one was the property I wanted to convert to an airBnb but since the tenant is now renewing the lease, I will put the airbnb venture on hold. The tenant has been great so far and I don’t want to ruin that. Easy cash flow baby!!
I bought this rental property from a wholesaler here in Indy after I moved here. I paid this one in cash and it came with a properly screened and paying tenant which was great. The property needs some fixing up however I won’t mess with it until after the tenant moves out or submits repairs. This is the one I really want to convert to an AirBnB.
Property # 8
Rent paid on time and no repair requests. Life is good!
I bought this house from a wholesaler here in Indy for $65k in a very popular Indy neighborhood back in late October 2016. I finished the rehab on this one in late November/early December 2016 and got it rented out for $950 just in time for Christmas. December is not easy to find a qualified tenant. Not only did my property manager find a qualified tenant but the tenant signed an 18 month lease so that we both don’t have to deal with a vacancy/move in December again. Talk about a Christmas miracle!!!
Liabilities: These are self-explanatory so I wont dive too deep into these however I would like to include the items below for informational purposes.
Credit Card
I only use one credit card (rewards card) that I use to purchase my everyday expenses. I pay this off in full every month. I am receiving 1.5% cash back on this card and am very pleased with it. Satisfied!
Last 30 days net worth graph from Personal Capital
I really do love this chart, it looks great and its nice and big. Good stuff!
If you want to set up and track your net worth online like I do, create a FREE account at Personal Capital.
There you have it folks! How was your month? Subscribe here if you would like to receive emails on future posts including more net worth updates.
Other than the cash hit looks like a great month. Nice Trout! I appreciate what you did for your mom. It always feels good helping someone in need. Is she on a path not to get back into debt? I’m a fan of personal capital too. Love having all my accounts aggregated in one place.
Thanks Brian! That trout was awesome! My mother definitely knows now not to use her credit card like she was using it. I specifically told her actually that if I pay it off for her, then she is no longer allowed to use it unless its for emergency purposes and to call me if she thinks otherwise or gets in a jam. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully she will be good from here on out.
Good luck to your mom! I had similar conversation and help with my mom after my dad passed away. It’s nice to be in a position to help.
Wow Alex – I’ll admit, I haven’t checked in on your progress in a few months, and I’m impressed by your progress. When you started out blogging in 2015, I was inspired by your story and your success in the rental property game. Congrats on #7 and #8 and thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks Erik!! Actually I think I am hitting my 2nd year anniversary on blogging this week. Crazy!! Didnt even realize until just now. Its been an entertaining ride for sure and the goal has always been to increase my passive income which so far is working out pretty good. Just need to keep at it! Ill be financially free someday for sure!
That’s great you were able to help your mom out. It’s pretty cool what financial freedom can provide. It doesn’t have to be sleazy, chasing after money you don’t need. It can be doing some traveling and helping out your loved ones!
Hey Brian!! Thanks man, it felt so good to be able to do that for her, ill probably write a post just on that in the near future.
It always feels good when you help other people, especially for your love ones. Thanks for sharing your thought and experiences with us! These changes in a month look fantastic as well ?
Thanks Linh!
Uhm, I think you win the Best Son of The Year award. 🙂 I can’t imagine how wonderful it must have felt to help out your mom. I’d love to be able to help out my dad like that one day. It’s all about giving back!
Ha, I will take that award thanks!
Love your blog! I’ve been a semi-long time reader, but have never commented. I’ve been interested in turn-key properties for a few years now. Talked to Ali from hipsterinvestments.com and also been to a few webinars from maverickinvestorgroup.com. Just wanted to stop by and comment this time around and say great stuff man. It’s awesome that you’re in a position to help out family. I prioritize my own family too. 🙂 What do you think of turn-key rentals still in this inflated housing market? I guess you mentioned it’s all about cash flow anyway and you’re not really worried about appreciation. I saw that fifighter.com has actually been selling in fear of the current inflated market. Anyway, good stuff Alex! 🙂
Hi Oliver! Thanks for commenting and loving the blog. I truly appreciate that. 🙂 I think turnkeys are still a great way to invest if you are buying out of state properties. Yes its getting harder and harder to find really good deals but every once in awhile you can score something really good. At the end of the day, it really is all about the cash flow for me so if the numbers work, then its a winner as far as im concerned. And assuming of course its not in a high crime area.
Yeah I noticed FiFighter is selling one of his rentals but that one is in the bay area and i agree that the prices are inflated there. I dont blame him one bit. But here in the midwest, the prices are not inflated at least in my opinion and you cant find the kind of price to rent ratios anywhere else but around here so I am going to keep buying!
I think FiFighter is correct that Bay Area real estate is over valued. I see people making some bad decisions out here , like this POS going for almost 700k https://www.redfin.com/CA/El-Cerrito/6822-Lincoln-Ave-94530/home/1532290
Those kind of houses almost always go for over asking out here. This will all level off and soften however, then again they have been saying that for years now.
Also agree midwest is a great place to buy. I currently like Indiana , Georgia, and Florida. Some people say Detroit finally starting to make a comeback too….we will see.
Great post. I love that you are up to 8 properties now. That motivates me to keep on building my portfolio. Do you have any plans to refi any of these in the near future to buy more or pay off ? Also, do you ever consider paying off ? I am closing on my 5th property now and wonder if the 6th mortgage will be tricky to get…
Thanks John! Well the last two I purchased were all cash and my next one will also be an all cash purchase. I think from here on out, I am just going to try and purchase all cash always and when I feel that I have enough properties, then I will start paying off all the existing mortgages using the snowball method.
I dont have any plans of doing refi’s as of now but you never know what might happen in the future, it just depends on how bad I want to buy another property if I dont have the cash to mess around with you know?!
If you already have 5 mortgages I dont think you will run into any problems with the 6th. When you get to 10 then you will run into problems though.