June was a very stress-free month. With our credit cards paid off and only having three loans remaining to pay, we booked air travel for our summer vacation. Let’s take a look. Shall we?
Monthly Net Worth Update
Assets
Our assets only slightly increased during the month of June. This increase was due to automatic deposits into my 403b account with my employer and one options trade that I placed last week.
Cash Savings
Our total cash savings decreased by $160.74 during the month of June. This was primarily due to plane tickets for our upcoming vacation, birthday gifts, and a $500 cash graduation gift to our youngest son, Mr. O.
Cash Back/Gift Cards
Our cash back balance increased by $107.83 during the past month. Charges for utilities, plane tickets, gifts, and Costco purchases helped increase our cash back.
Cryptocurrency
We are still a far cry from our initial speculation on Ethereum (ETH), but I am not complaining with the fifth month in a row we realized an increase in our ETH balance.
Retirement
I continue to contribute to my 403b and HSA with my employer. I also made a successful options trade last week increasing my IRA by $567.90.
We hired a new accountant for Dr. SoS’s business. We plan to determine a salary for Dr. SoS, set up a Simplified Employee Pension Individual Retirement Arrangement (SEP IRA), and create a better plan for business taxes.
House
We typically keep the value of our house the same and change it once per year. After the assessed value of our house by the county leapt from $217,215 to $315,235 last month, I decided to increase the value in our home from $305,000 to $310,000. I believe with minimal updating we could sell our house for this amount and perhaps much more. That said, I believe the market is turning from a Seller’s market (higher home prices), to a Buyer’s market (lower home prices), so I did not want to increase the value to the full assessed value.
Cars and Boat
Kelly Blue Book decreased the value of my car by $741 and Dr. SoS’s car by $26. The NADA Guides shows a $245 increase for our boat. Overall, these depreciating assets decreased in value by $522.
Liabilities
Now that we are in savings mode the reduction in our liabilities for the time being is on autopilot. We only have the 0% loan on my car, the mortgage, and Dr. SoS’s student loan remaining. Last month, I increased our monthly payment on Dr. SoS’s student loan from $754.75 to $1,061.85. This change increased our debt payment on our three remaining debts to $2,409.64 per month. It will be a slow and steady slog, but we will eventually be debt free.
Credit Cards
I continue to pay off all our credit cards each week. I used to dread paying the credit card balances at the end of each month. After charging Costco groceries, grocery store groceries, mobile phones, and utilities, the balance could be as much as $3,000. That is a huge payment to stomach when we are also making sure we have enough to cover the mortgage and for Baby SoS’s school which both come out on the 1st of the month. I now take pleasure in paying off the much smaller amounts every week and getting all the balances back to $0. Have you tried it, yet?
Car Loan
Let’s face it. Car payments suck. The only redeeming thing about this one is that we are not paying any interest. We are down to our final 18 payments to pay it off. I hate to rush life, but December 6th, 2020 cannot get here fast enough for me.
Mortgage
We have 113 payments or 9 years 5 months remaining on our loan. For some reason this one does not bother me as much as the car loan. Perhaps it is because I know that we are on the fast track with our 15-year mortgage.
Student Loans
I mentioned previously that I increased the payment on Dr. SoS’s loan. Our plan is to increase the monthly payment by at least another $500 when January rolls around each year. Personally, I would like to increase our payment this next January by $1000, but we will have to see how we are doing with our savings and managing our expenses when we get to that point. Without any changes the current payoff is 284 more payments.
Summary
As of the first day of July 2019, we have a new net worth high of $590,977.43 up 1.49% from our net worth of $582,322.08 last month and up 35.48% from our net worth of $436,222.36 from the first of July 2018. Our current net worth puts us in the top 28% at 224/787 bloggers on the Rockstar Finance Directory Net Worth Tracker.
We compile this information each month to keep us accountable and to hopefully inspire others to spend less than they make, save more, and make wise investment choices. If you have any comments or questions, please leave a comment or contact us directly.
Thank you for reading!
Mr. SoS
Slow and steady wins. Great month!
Thanks Church. It just feels like running in place, but I know we are moving ahead.
i’ve been making several credit card payments a month for quite a few years now, even since we started to not carry any balances. in reality, ever since we got that straight i’ve treated those charges as if they were coming out of checking or like a debit and write ’em down that way and collect the cash back.
i hated having a car loan too. mine was only 0.9% a few years ago which cost only about 5-10 bucks a month in interest. when mrs. smidlap lost her job in ’17 i paid it off for the added cash flow. looks like y’all are heading down the right path. where are you going on vacation?
Hey there Freddy! Thanks for the comment. I wondered if anyone else I knew paid their credit cards off more than once per month. Like you, I find that paying it weekly or bi-weekly makes them feel much more like cash and keeps us on top of our budget while also collecting the cash back.
As for my car loan, although it is at 0% APR, I still would rather not have the loan. When we took on the loan our only thought was about how it would be at 0%. I know they still made money on the sale, which made up for the lack of interest. We do not plan on taking out any more loans and plan to save for future purchases.
Dr. SoS has family in Michigan. We have not visited in a couple years, so we are headed to North to visit family, swim in Lake Michigan, play on the beach, float down the river, and hike the sand dunes.
Good progress.
Observation: Just a $1.4k MoM increase in retirement accounts when the equity markets have jumped over 7%? Are you not mostly invested in stocks/stock funds?
Hey there NWA-non. Thanks for the question. The reason that our retirement accounts have not increased is because we are sitting in cash. I plan to purchase some stocks from my watchlist once they reach my buy price. Until then, I keep my eye open for good investment opportunities.