Welcome to our August Net Worth results. In the table below, I added a column for the previous month for more perspective. Our investment made progress after the July drop. With our assets increasing and the increase in our liabilities we now have a new all-time high for our net worth.
Net Worth: 2018-09-01
| ASSETS | 2018-09-01 | 2018-08-01 | % CHANGE |
| Cash Savings | $21,457.73 | $20,726.06 | 3.5% |
| Cash Back/Gift Cards | $936.77 | $864.10 | 8.4% |
| Brokerage/Crypto | $6,308.54 | $8,107.92 | -22.2% |
| Retirement | $507,487.03 | $471,016.12 | 7.7% |
| MOST 529 | $5,194.42 | $4,985.70 | 4.2% |
| House | $303,000.00 | $303,000.00 | 0.0% |
| Cars & Boat | $46,572.00 | $47,106.00 | -1.1% |
| TOTAL ASSETS | $890,956.49 | $855,805.90 | 4.1% |
| LIABILITIES | AMOUNT | AMOUNT | % CHANGE |
| Credit Cards | $7,573.28 | $6,255.93 | 21.1% |
| Car Loan | $16,800.00 | $17,400.00 | -3.4% |
| HELOC | $27,000.00 | $27,500.00 | -1.8% |
| Mortgage | $183,818.38 | $185,084.88 | -0.7% |
| Student Loans | $209,916.87 | $210,113.96 | -0.1% |
| TOTAL LIABILITIES | $445,108.53 | $446,354.77 | -0.3% |
| TOTAL NET WORTH | $445,847.96 | $409,451.13 | 8.9% |
Cash Savings
We increased our Synchrony High Yield Savings account by $2,100. We added $700 in cash and $1,400 from two different cash back credit cards. We decided that it was silly to let that money sit as cash back on the credit card when we could be earning 1.85%. We will most likely continue reducing these accounts to earn that extra interest. Baby SoS started a new school. We began cashing out our FSA to help pay for the monthly tuition. Even though we spent more last month, we managed to end the month with an extra $700.
Cash Back/Gift Cards
We have nearly $1,000 in cash back, airline miles, and gift cards. I plan to take cash back from any account when I am able to take at least $100 out and send that to our online Synchrony High Yield Savings account.
Brokerage/Crypto-Currency
These accounts are in such a sad state of affairs. I plan to contact my representative at my brokerage and see if I can close my brokerage account. I have a little less that $2,000 in that account and it is just sitting there, so if I can cash it out I plan to just use the amount to pay down on our HELOC. As for the Crypto, unless something amazing happens, we are going to have to count that up as a bad speculation. We are not going to cash out at the bottom, but are not planning on making our money back. If we do, it will be a surprise.
Retirement
Our retirement accounts reached half a million dollars. Despite that we are adding very little to these accounts, we are still up 7.7% for the month. Our single stock increased and I generated $2,781.79 I from options trades after fees and commissions.
MOST 529
We are still contributing $200 per month to this account and we are not losing any money having it in an interest bearing account instead of the market. I look forward to what happens to this account when there is a market decline.
House
For our home estimates, Xome is down and Zillow is up with the average slightly less than last month. The median home price in our zip code dropped to nearly the lowest since I began tracking it.
| Amount | % Change | |
| Xome Home Estimate | $354,331 | -1.2% |
| Zillow Home Estimate | $305,108 | 1.2% |
| Average Home Estimate | $329,719 | -0.1% |
| Median Home Price | $265,000 | -6.8% |
Cars & Boat
We saw a larger drop in our vehicle values from the previous month. Even Mr. O’s car dropped to the level it was last June. Is the car market cooling off before the market crash?
Credit Cards
Our credit card balance is higher than usual. Dr. SoS and I have not been able to take a vacation since our honeymoon, so we booked a few days in San Diego this October. Although we paid off some of our balance, we still increased the balance by nearly $1,400, which is how much the trip set us back thus far.
Car Loan
Dr. SoS recently had a birthday. As a surprise, I took her to the local Tesla dealership and we test drove the Tesla Model 3. We both would love to own a Tesla. Despite all the negative press, we are very impressed with what the company is doing to help the future of humanity. We did not buy a Tesla, but it was fun to drive and neat to see the new technology they created. As for my car, we have 28 payments (2 years 4 months) left to pay off my car.
HELOC (Home Equity Line Of Credit)
We paid interest and an extra $500 this month. We really need to make some better headway on this balance, but to do that we need to figure out how to spend less or make more. We have one credit card that is at 0% which only has 2 more payments and then we will use that $250 per month to increase the payment on this account to $750 per month. We sure are looking forward to adding to the snowball and reducing this balance even faster.
Mortgage
Only 122 more payments (10 years 2 months) to pay off our house. We are plugging along and it is fun to see the balance drop by over $1,250 per month.
Student Loans
We would not have the life we have without student loans, but anyone that still has them would probably agree with me that they really suck.
As of the first day of September 2018, we have a net worth of $445,847.96 up 8.9% from our net worth last month, $409,451.13, and up 24.6% from our 2017 net worth of $357,841.17. Our current net worth puts us in the top 37% at 237/643 bloggers on the Rockstar Finance Directory Net Worth Tracker.
If you have any questions, please comment or send us a message on our Contact page.
Keep saving and swimming!
Mr. SoS