This is my official August 2015 Net Worth Update. Below are my actual numbers for ALL my investments and liabilities as of 8/30/2015. Explanations and quick summary below chart.
TOTAL NET WORTH: $329,097
Quick Summary: -$1,176
My first negative month! Nooooooooo! What a bummer! Freaking stock market!! I was not expecting for my stock options to drop like that and it really made a dent in this month’s net worth post. I have full confidence that the stock options will go back up though. Hopefully sooner than later. For now all I can do is ride it out. At the end of the day, it’s still basically free money because as I indicate below, these stock options were granted to me at a dirt cheap price. Another reason for my negative net worth is because I spent a lot of money in August paying for future trips. I bought plane tickets for 2 upcoming trips, I also went on vacation in early August and spent quite a bit of money there. So all in all, I guess I’m really not that surprised but it’s just so painful to see. I’m looking forward to see how other net worth posters do as well as I imagine a bunch of them got hit hard with the stock market fiasco that has been happening the past week. (Black Monday)
Assets: Explanations of each of my assets.
Cash: +$6,134
This constitutes two different checking accounts. My normal checking account and my REI (Real Estate Investing) checking account. This is now my 4th month posting my net worth and my cash continues to go up at a very decent level. This is awesome to me because I am now ready to purchase a new rental property. I actually just went under contract on a turnkey rental in Kansas City. If all goes well, this will be my first rental property in KC so I’m hoping it works out and am looking forward to writing about it in the coming weeks. Very Satisfied!
HSA account: +$100
My HSA deductible is $1300 for the year so with that being said I am only taking a very small amount out from my dreadful 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: -$6,691
These are stock options from my day job. I am fully vested. This number can go up and down it has pretty much just always kept going up until this past week. I’m guessing almost every single stock went down this past week due to Black Monday so at least I don’t feel left out. It’s easier to go through struggles when you know others are going through the same thing. Kind of a messed up thing to say huh? Oh well! Anyhow, I am not planning on cashing these out unless it’s an emergency situation and I’m hopeful these will go back up later on. Not Satisfied!
401K: -$306
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. I am not surprised that this number went down and I honestly have no idea what it will do in the future. I suspect it won’t significantly impact my net worth. Not Satisfied!
Property # 1
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
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 the spring of 2016. Rent paid in full and on time. I replaced the oven on this rental this past month and the tenant is still paying on time and appears to be a happy camper. As am I! Satisfied!
Property # 3
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. Rent paid on time. No repair or issues reported this past month. Tenants are happy, my PM is happy and I’m happy. Satisfied!
Property # 4
This my 2nd turnkey rental property. I do not expect much appreciation on this property. I purchased this for CASH FLOW purposes only. Rent paid on time. There was actually a plumbing issue on this house that occurred in August that ran me about $240 to fix. It was unexpected but that is the name of the game with these rental properties, things will just come up. I was prepared for it obviously and overall, this investment is still going strong. Satisfied!
Property # 5
This is a note that I own from a house that I sold via owner finance. Mortgage paid on time. No issues. 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
This is my newest rental, just purchased it in early June and I absolutely love this house. I do not expect much appreciation on this property. I purchased this for CASH FLOW purposes only. I got August rent paid on time. No repairs or issues for August. 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
Bunch of ups and downs this month with me spending a lot of cash and also my dang stock options taking a dip. Down overall for the month but not by a lot and I have full confidence that this chart will continue rising as the year progresses.
If you want to set up and track your net worth online like I do, create a free account Personal Capital. **Affiliate Link**
There you have it folks! How was your month? Did you get bit hard with the stocks also? Subscribe here if you would like to recieve emails on future posts including more net worth updates.
Look forward to hearing about your purchase in Kansas City! That is a market I have definitely considered investing in. Lots of opportunity there.
Hi Roland! Ha yes I am very excited about this new turnkey. I am still in the early stages but I have fully vetted the turnkey provider and PM so Im hoping I have a winner here. Will know more in the coming weeks and no worries, I will be writing all about it for sure. I really like KC too and am planning on getting at least 5 total turnkeys there.
The good news on all investments you are in them for the long term so no need to worry. 🙂
Yes you are right! Deep down inside I know Ill be okay with it because I will ride out any storms. Just kind of sucks when it happens.
I think we all suffered losses in August due to the market correction, this normally happens every 18 months so no surprise. Last month lots of people were freaking out so I wrote a blog post about market corrections:
http://www.weretiredearly.com/Blog/2015/08/24/market-correction-dont-freak-out/
It’s all about the long game!
Hey Steve, Yeah you know actually read your article. Was very timely and a good read. August was brutal and I really like how you put it “Dont freak out”. Haha. Thanks for the comment.
Nicely done, even though it was a down month.
Thanks John! I appreciate it. I have a feeling next month will not be a down month. Ill keep my fingers crossed!
I also took a small hit on the correction, I don’t think it is over with just yet either.
Instability in the market has made for some really great buys though. I had 25% returns in ONE WEEK just by taking advantage of the fear people had.
I do a lot of things… not sure why but Real Estate has never been an area I really wanted to invest in. How are your mortgage payments so low?
Nice work!
Hi Nathan, that is awesome you were able to take advantage from the “fear” like that. I wish I knew more about stocks to be able to do that. Yeah real estate is definitely not for everyone. Its typically more work then stocks for example but the returns can be much better too. My mortgage payments are so low because the houses im buying are pretty cheap and I have really good credit so I am getting good interest rates.
Wondering why you didn’t include
the other properties here.
Hi Common,
Can you clarify what you mean? What “other” properties do you speak of? They are all there.
Yes as the markets go down, we all take a hit on the Net Worth. 5 Properties in total seems like a lot to juggle, what is your end goal in real estate? Have you considered diversifying some of the company stock, into another dividend stock to avoid risk? Good Luck with the KC property.
Hey EL! Thanks for the feedback! 5 properties does seem like a lot but its really not that much work. If you have a good property with good tenants, most of the time Im just stilling back collecting rent payments. My end goal in real estate is to have enough passive income from the rent to be able to retire early. Right now Im thinking I would be happy at about 100k per year. Which would probably be about 20 total rentals. We’ll see though, this could change. For now, Im just going to keep on going.
I have not actually considered diversifying some of my company stock into dividends but now that you mention it, that does not sound bad at all. Maybe Ill wait for the market to finish correcting itself though.
If I have a car paid off, would that be considered an asset?
Hi Krista!
A car is one that can go either way it just depends on what your preference is. I choose not to include even a paid off car because it is a depreciating asset and I would rather not include it at all then to watch it depreciate every time I do a net worth update. I know one day that that car will be worth zero. So technically it is an “asset”, just a depreciating asset which is not ideal.
Anyhow, yes you could include your paid off car in your net worth, you just need to get the blue book value and check it each time as it will go down from time to time.