This is my official January 2018 Net Worth Update. Below are my actual numbers for ALL my investments and liabilities as of 01/31/2018. 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.

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TOTAL NET WORTH: $650,427

Quick Summary and comments: +$73,039

I LOVE doing my January net worth update!!  Why you ask? Because that is when I reassess all my property values.  I’m seeing a whopping $73k increase because of the appreciation my properties have seen over the last year.  That is pretty darn good!  I’m super excited about that.  There is nothing better than seeing huge gains in your net worth.  I just love that!!!

If you are wondering how I determined the market values of all my properties, I use my methods of finding sold comps for free.  That method works great in Indianapolis.  I had to ball park my Austin property and I am being conservative on all my properties.  I think it’s really important to not get ahead of myself and think my properties are worth more than they really are.   It’s better assess the values on the low-end then on the high-end in my opinion which is what I have done with these.

The real estate market in general has been on an upward movement for a long time now and it’s just a matter of time before it either corrects itself or just flat-out gets into a bear market!  Knowing this always gives me chills because it has the potential of really dropping my net worth but on the other hand, I feel quite confident that I am making enough cash flow on each one of my rental properties that they will all keep me afloat if and when the market ever declines.

If you are an investor, I highly recommend that when you purchase an investment property, that you make sure you are cash flowing a good chunk for each property.  It’s extremely important otherwise you could lose it all!

 

Personal Life Update:  My wife’s belly is just getting bigger and bigger and it’s getting harder for her to move around but she is doing great and life is really good right now.  Will need to keep my fingers crossed that it stays this way.  Baby is due in May.  I’m also planning on taking a trip back to Austin in February for my day job and I am really looking forward to eating some good ol’ texas food!  BBQ, tacos, queso, gulf oysters, and crawfish (if i can find any, still early in the crawfish season)!!!!

 

Real Estate Investing Update:   Well I still have that $50k tied up in hard money lending, still collecting the interest payments on that as well so I can’t complain.  As you may have read in my last post, I converted one of my rental properties into an AirBnB.  We actually have our 2nd guests in there right now and so far, it’s going great.  The future dates are getting booked just about every day now.  As a matter of fact, we already have 40 future nights booked on random nights for the next 6 months.  I think that is really good and am pleasantly surprised.   Stay tuned for future posts about this.  I plan on sharing all the numbers, experiences and details on how this airbnb project of mine turns out.

Okay enough about that, lets jump into my net worth categories.

Assets: Explanations of each of my assets.

Cash:   -$877

My cash position normally is always in the GREEN but not this month. Reason why is because we spent close to $10k in cold hard cash to get the rental property #8 converted to a vacation rental.  This included all kinds of stuff which you can read more about in that link above.  Outside of that, we didn’t spend cash in ways we don’t usually do.

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.

HSA account: +$388

Nice increase here.  This is actually more than normal but that is because I decided to increase my monthly contribution since I have a baby coming and all!

My HSA contributions are minimal right now but because of the baby coming, I may increase these contributions now.  Will speak to my wife to decide the best course of action.

Company Stock Options: +$2,501

Saw a price increase which is nice after having a down month last month.    Since I am not hard-core pressed for cash right now though I will just let it sit there.  Hopefully it will continue to grow.

These are stock options from my day job. I am fully vested.    

Stock Portfolio: -$866

My stock portfolio is built of precious metal mining stocks.   It’s super volatile but prior to this month, it was actually going up for a few months which was nice.   Unfortunately this is just the nature of the game for this industry.  These are highly volatile and I am keeping these until the economy crashes and gold sky rockets.  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 a long time ago when the precious metal sector was at its peak low.

I bought all my shares using tradeKing  which is now Ally.

401K: +$418

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.

Property # 1 (Indianapolis, IN)

All is good with my primary residence at this time.

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 $30k in renovations when  I moved into this house.  So all in for $100k, now worth about $160k.  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.    Here are more details on when I originally bought this one as a rental property.

Property # 2 (Austin, TX)

Rent paid on time, no repairs made.  I am expecting to replace the roof soon which will be a huge expense.  I guess I am just waiting for the very first sign of leakage but I shouldn’t do that.  I need to just pay the money and replace the roof ASAP before any damage incurs.    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.

This was my first rental property.  It’s actually the first house I ever purchased in general.  I bought it when I moved to Austin way back in the day and it was my primary residence for a long time.  I originally never had plans for it to become a rental property but when I discovered the beautiful world of real estate investing, I knew I would someday convert this one to a rental.   I expect gradual appreciation from this property because it is in the suburbs Austin which has been growing tremendously.  Love me some HOT markets!

Property # 3 (Indianapolis, IN)

Rent paid on time and another repair request made.  By far, these tenants have submitted the most repair requests out of any other of my rentals.  They are really picky.  This time they said the refrigerator was breaking down.  I approved the fix with my PM but I still don’t know what the cost was to fix it.  Will know soon though.

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.

Property # 4 (Indianapolis, IN)

This tenant decided to pay for me for 8 solid months back in July.  So rent payments are not an issue until the lease is up.  No repair requests were made.     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.

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.

Property # 6 (Independence, MO (KC))

At last!!! We finally got an approved tenant for this one after sitting vacant for about 3 months.  It was the longest I have ever gone with a vacant house on any of my properties.  Most of that to blame is because the turnover was during the holidays and it was just super slow.  I’m glad is filled and I can’t say I am super happy with the PM for this.   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.

Property # 7 (Indianapolis, IN)

Rent paid on time and zero repair requests.   This one was the property I originally wanted to convert to an airBnb but since the tenant renewed the lease I never did so I ended up converting property #8 into an airbnb instead.   This 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.

Property # 8   (Indianapolis, IN)

This property is now my latest project with AirBnb.  I officially converted it into an airbnb a few weeks ago and it has already started making me money.  We have our 2nd guests in there right now and already booked for this weekend also.  Exciting!  This was a traditional rental property which was rented for $950.  After a year of having it as a rental, I decided to convert it into an airbnb because of its great location.

I bought this house from a wholesaler here in Indy for $65k in a very popular Indy neighborhood (Bates Hendricks) back in late October 2016.   I put in about $20k getting it rent ready.    And an additional $10k to make it airbnb ready.

Property # 9  (Indianapolis, IN)

This is my newest rental and so far I have received all the rent payments on time.  No repair requests made.  I am not expecting any repairs anytime soon as I fully rehabbed this house.

I bought this home as a foreclosure off the MLS.  Paid in cash, fixed it up and rented it out.  Check here for all the numbers and details of this property.

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

This month’s chart shows a HUGE increase at the end because that is when I updated all my real estate values.   It’s beautiful!!   I love this chart though. It looks great and its nice and big.

 

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.