Even with an extra Leap Day last month, the month went by quickly. The last week was quite tumultuous in the stock market. During this difficult time, we managed to continue to increase our net worth by saving and paying down debt.
Monthly Net Worth Update
Assets
Our assets increased this month due to our increased savings with a slight boost from cryptocurrency.
Cash Savings
YNAB helps us save increasing amounts of money. We finished the month with our Age of Money up to 40 days with a high during the month of 42 days. Our total cash savings increased by $2,128.69 in the past month. This alone increased our savings balance by 14%.
Cash Back/Gift Cards
We redeemed our Costco cash rewards decreasing our cash back balance by $168.56 for the month.
Cryptocurrency
The Kansas City Chiefs went to the Superbowl this year, whatever that means. I am being facetious because the only sport that truly interests me is swimming. My mother is the biggest Chiefs fan that I know. She wanted to place a wager on the game. The only way she could do this was by placing a bet online with an international gambling web site. Unfortunately, after she won the bet, the gambling company only paid out in Bitcoin (BTC). My advice is do not gamble.
Mom did not want to open a cryptocurrency account, so she asked if she could transfer the BTC to my account and I could convert it to USD for her. I decided to just hold on to it, but paid her in cash. This is part of the reason why my balance is up 32%. I figure I will hang on to it and see what happens.
Retirement
Despite an 8% to 10% market drop last week, our retirement is up from my 403b contribution including company match during the month. We are down a little from my purchase of Berkshire Hathaway last month, but still ended up ahead. We plan to attend the meeting as we mentioned in my latest stock valuation post and needed to become shareholders to obtain our passes.
529
Not much is happening with this account until we decide to contribute again.
House
Although we did not change the estimated value of our house, the market value increased to $345,597. Last month, we had a construction company lay a section of asphalt filling in the area where we had a tree removed a couple years ago at the end of our driveway. This semi-permanent solution will keep the mud from flowing onto our driveway from the area where they removed the tree. It also creates additional parking to our driveway. This was a planned $2,000 cash expense.
Cars and Boat
My car dropped in value by $128. Dr. SoS’s car increased in value by $101. Our boat increased in value by $65. The result is that we are up by $38 for these depreciating assets for the month.
Liabilities
We paid off an additional $2,449.52 in the last month across our three debts.
Credit Cards
We continue to pay off our credit cards weekly. YNAB helps ensure we always have the money to pay off the cards because we only spend what we have in our checking account. It is an amazing feeling!
Car Loan
Each month brings us closer to paying off my car. We have 10 more $600 payments at 0% interest until no more car payments. With only $6,000 remaining on the loan, we could pay it off today, but now that our emergency fund continues to increase, we do not have a reason to stop taking advantage of no interest on this loan.
Mortgage
We have 8 years 9 months (105 payments) to pay off the $160,449.01 balance paying off $1,327.20 against the principle last month. At the beginning of last month, I contacted our mortgage company and canceled our escrow account. We set up a plan for our home owners insurance payment due in June and our increased property taxes due in December. Our insurance premium decreased due to the change. This temporarily increases our savings rate before we pay each of these large amounts, but we now enjoy the added benefit of collecting interest by saving the amounts ourselves!
Student Loans
We have 23 years (276 payments) to pay off the $203,318.74 balance paying off $522.32 against the principal last month.
Savings Rate
I started calculating our savings rate in the February 2020 Net Worth post. Our percent of debt payments to income was 25.57% for our mortgage, Dr. SoS’s student loan, and my auto loan. Our personal savings rate was 9.89%, which includes our contributions to our HSA and my 403b. After including my company match our savings rate increased to 12.94% of our income. When you add our debt payments and savings rate together the total is 38.51% of our income.
Summary
As of the first day of March 2020, we are up 1.01% to a new high of $624,283.05 from our net worth of $618,033.94 in February, and up 12.35% from our net worth of $555,657.87, from March 2019. Our current net worth keeps us in the top 27% at 216/787 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.
Thank you for reading!
Mr. SoS