This is my official December 2015 Net Worth Update.   Below are my actual numbers for ALL my investments and liabilities as of 12/31/2015.  Explanations and quick summary below chart.  If you would like to see my previous months net worth posts, please visit my Net Worth Tracker.

 

 

TOTAL NET WORTH:  $345,775

Quick Summary and December comments:  +$4,136

 

Ladies and gentlemen, 2015 is officially over and its time to make way for 2016.  2015 was truly an amazing year for me financially, personally and better in just about every other category that I can think of.  Here are some of the things I was able to accomplish in 2015.

• Purchased 3 Rental properties
• Increased my monthly passive income to over $2,000 per month (on good months)
• Increased my net worth by $35k in 6 months.  I only started tracking my net worth 7 months ago.  My very first post actually.   Which leads me to….
• Started Cash Flow Diaries.  That’s right people, I started my blog mid 2015 and my life has changed for the better since I started blogging.
• Traveled to Mexico, Portland, Montreal, Toronto, Charlotte, Phoenix and New Orleans.   That is a lot of vacation for one year and yes they were all vacation except for Charlotte which was a half vacation.  I went to Charlotte to attend FinCon after I won a free new blogger scholarship.  I don’t really fully consider this business because I had a great time so that is why I will call that one a half vacation.
• Proposed to the love of my life.  If you guys didn’t check out my first post of this new year then you should, it’s the story of how I proposed over new year’s in New Orleans.

Now with that being said, how in the world am I going to top that in 2016?  Well knowing me, I will top it because my drive for success is like an 18 wheeler rolling down a hill with no brakes.   It can’t be stopped and the momentum is just too great to slow down.  I love reaching new heights and experiences and plan on making 2016 the best year ever!   Life has been good and it will only get better.   I haven’t actually thought about what my 2016 goals will be quite yet.  I have never actually created goals like that but am considering it for 2016 as I see all the other bloggers out there are doing the same thing.  Stay tuned for a possible future post about it.

Okay enough small talk!  Lets get down to the dirty nitty gritty little details about my December Net Worth Update.   As you can see in the spreadsheet image above, my net worth went up $4,136.   The fact that it went up at all is very nice to see because I knew I would be spending a lot of money in December.  December I imagine is hard on folks especially with the holiday shopping.  Lucky for me I did not have to spend very much money at all on Christmas shopping because I decided to only get my nieces and nephews gifts this year and as for my fiance.   Whoah!!  That feels weird to write that, I have a fiance!  Cool!

Okay anyways, as for my fiance, we decided not give each other gifts as well and instead to use that money on making our New Orleans New Year’s eve trip even better.  Which we did, and it was awesome!   The picture below is of an amazing Crab Imperial dinner I had for on New Year’s eve night.  It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time.  I am addicted to crab and this meal did not skimp out on the crab meat.  

I was kind of hoping I would close out the year at an even 350k net worth but ill take $345 with no complaints.  I really do need to figure out though how to increase my net worth by a lot more in 2016.   My next months net worth update will include the new home values for local market investment properties so I should get a nice little boost right there to start.

Assets: Explanations of each of my assets.

Cash:  +$3,427

Although you can’t tell by looking at the Personal Capital chart at the bottom of this post.  My net worth did go up and mostly because of my cash.  I make decent money at my day job and it allows me to save a good amount.  If I really tried to save money and put a lot more effort into it I bet I could save a lot more.   The problem is I just enjoy life too much and find myself spending too much money on junk.   We had a $200 sushi dinner a few nights ago and that was brutal.   Im hoping we don’t spend as much money on expensive dinners in 2016 as we did in 2015.

My cash as noted above in the spreadsheet consists of two different checking accounts.  My normal checking account and my REI (Real Estate Investing) checking account.      Satisfied!

HSA account:  +22

I usually have an extra $100 in this account but I had to actually use money from this account in December to cover some medicine I had to buy.   My HSA deductible is $1300 for the year and I have close to $5k in this account so with that being said, since I am maxed out already 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:  -$2,407

Now that I have been tracking these stock options for half a year I can clearly see how volatile it is to invest in the stock market.  At least with traditional common stock.  The prices fluctuate like crazy for no good reason half the time.   Last month these stock options were up $5k and now they are down half of that.   Crazy!

These are stock options from my day job.  I am fully vested.   I am not planning on selling this stock anytime soon and will just hold it for the long haul so whether it goes up or down it is not really affecting my life.  It is pretty much only affecting my net worth updates.    Not Satisfied!

Stock Portfolio:  +$3,014     **NEW**

Okay so I decided that I want to start dabbling in the stock market in 2016 because of some articles I have been reading which have me really intrigued about what might happen in 2016 and how I can benefit from it.   For fun and games, I made a $3000 deposit into TradeKing and started making a few purchases to familiarize myself with the platform and trading in general.  I have also already completed reading one book on how to invest in wall street and are about halfway through a 2nd book.   I have 3 total books that I am reading to get me up to speed on how all this works.   Once I am done with probably this 2nd book, I will publish a post about my plans to invest in the stock market.   Satisfied!

401K:  –$156

I lost a little money in the old crappy 401k but it’s not really a big deal because I do not contribute any money in this account.  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.  I really don’t like the idea of having an account that punishes me to take money out because of age.   Satisfied!

Property # 1

I will be updating this home value in January’s net worth update.  Looking forward to the net worth increase I will get from this one.

This is my primary residence.  The market I live in is extremely hot and I expect the appreciation on this house to continue to grow however I will only update the market value once a year, the next time being probably at the end of 2015.  I have it listed as a conservative $240k right now based on MLS comparisons in my neighborhood.  If I were to sell it I know I could get at least 250k for it but ill stick with  240k for the spreadsheet to be safe.  Satisfied!  Here are more details on this future investment property.

Property # 2

I will be updating this home value in January’s net worth update.  Looking forward to the net worth increase I will get from this one.

No issues, repairs and rent paid on time on this one for December.  This is my first rental property.  It used to be my primary residence.  I expect gradual appreciation from this property as well because it is in the suburbs of this HOT market I live in.  Love me some HOT markets! 150K is about what its worth now based on MLS comparisons.  I will update the market value of this property in early 2016.    Satisfied!

Property # 3

Rent paid on time.  No issues or repairs.   This is my first turnkey rental property I purchased out-of-state.  I do not expect much appreciation on this property.  I purchased this for CASH FLOW purposes only.     Satisfied!

Property # 4

This rental property looks like it  might be a problem for me.  To date, I have not been paid my December rent however the property manager says it has been paid and they just haven’t processed the ACH payment.  I had already been considering dropping this PM and transferring this house to my other PM (the same as properties #1 and #3) so with this issue, now for sure I will be dropping this PM after the lease is up for this tenant.   The lease is up I believe in April for this one so I look forward to writing a post on how to switch property managers in the future.   Stay tuned.

This my 2nd turnkey rental property.   I do not expect much appreciation on this property.  I purchased this for CASH FLOW purposes only.    Not Satisfied! (Until I get my December pay!)

Property # 5

Mortgage paid on time.  No issues.   This is a note that I own from a house that I sold via owner finance.   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

I got December rent paid on time.  I also had a $160 repair bill in December for this one because of a break in reported in the garage a few months ago.   This is my 3rd turnkey rental property, I purchased it in early June 2015 and I absolutely love this house.  I do not expect much appreciation on this property.  I purchased this for CASH FLOW purposes only. Satisfied!

Property # 7

Rent paid on time, no issues, no repairs.  This is my most recent turnkey rental property, I just 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!

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!

Car Loan

I purchased this vehicle before I had the proper knowledge on how to be totally awesome with finance and investments so that is the only reason why I have this loan.  If I knew then what I knew now, i would have purchased a used vehicle all cash.  It is not worth it to me to pay this loan off because the interest rate on this loan is 2% and I would rather use that money to buy more rentals where I will make a much greater return.  I will continue to pay it down slowly.  Satisfied!

Last 30 days net worth graph from Personal Capital

I really do love this chart, it looks great and its nice and big.  As you can see, there is just a nice steady increase pretty much the whole month.  That is exactly what I want to see each and every month in my Personal Capital account.

 

If you want to set up and track your net worth online like I do, create a FREE account at Personal Capital.  **Affiliate Link**

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.