It’ s been 8 months since I’ve done a net worth update. That’s not 8 months since I’ve shared, it’s been 8 months since I’ve bothered to check for myself. Let’s see how I’ve done.
This is where I was sitting in January:
Assets
- House: $255,400. Estimated market value according to the county tax assessor.
- Cars: $23,445. Kelly Blue Book suggested retail value for both of our vehicles and my motorcycle.
- Checking accounts: $2,974. I have accounts spread across three banks.
- Savings accounts: $4,779. I have savings accounts spread across a few banks. This does not include my kids’ accounts, even though they are in my name. This includes every savings goal I have at the moment.
- CDs: $1,095. I consider this a part of my emergency fund.
- IRAs: $11,172
- Total: $298,865
Liabilities
- Mortgage: $33,978
- Car loan: $1,226. This will be paid off this month.
- Credit card: $23,524. This is the next target of my debt snowball.
- Total: $58,728
Overall: $240,137
Here is my current status:
Assets
- House: $252,900 (-2500 ) Estimated market value according to the county tax assessor. If I lost $2500 in value this year, why are my property taxes up?
- Cars: $19,740 (-3705) Kelly Blue Book suggested retail value for both of our vehicles and my motorcycle.
- Checking accounts: $1,342 (-1632) I have accounts spread across three banks. I don’t keep much operating cash here, so this fluctuates based on how far away my next paycheck is.
- Savings accounts: $5,481 (+1156) I have savings accounts spread across a few banks. This does not include my kids’ accounts, even though they are in my name. This includes every savings goal I have at the moment. When I hit some of the goals, I will stop saving for them and redirect the money elsewhere.
- CDs: $1,101 (+6) I consider this a part of my emergency fund.
- IRAs: $10,838 (-334) I lost $1500 recently. I wonder how that happened? Also, my company stopped the IRA program and I have procrastinated the heck out of setting one up independently. Bad, Jason.
- Total: $291,402 (-7463)
Liabilities
- Mortgage: $31,118 (-2860)
- Car loan: $0. (-1226) Woo!
- Credit card: $20,967 (-2557) This is the current target of my debt snowball. It hasn’t gone down as much as I would have liked, due to $4000 in vision therapy bills.
- Total: $52,085 (-6643)
Overall: $239,317 (-820)
My big hits were obviously my house–whose value is subject to bureaucratic whimsy–and my rapidly depreciating cars. $4000 to a vision therapist didn’t help, either.
My debt goal is to have that credit card paid off by next August. $21k in a year on top of my mortgage isn’t crazy, is it? Since 4/15/2009, I’ve paid down $37,947.06. That is not the total of payments made, but the difference in total balances over that last 28 months. That means I’m reducing my total debt by an average of $1355 every month.
My savings goal is to boost that by at least $2500 over the next few months.
My immediate goal is to get an IRA rolling. I’m kicking myself right now for ignoring it for as long as I have.
The debt reduction you’re undertaking is awesome. You’ve gotten rid of over 10% of your outstanding debt in the eight month time frame. I think we’ve gotten rid of about 2.5 – 3.0% of our debt in the same time frame and I’ve been happy with that, so you’re doing great.
As far as the home value, I use a combination of our asessed value, Zillow estimates, our bank’s ‘estimated appraised value’ and a ballpark figure based on home sales in the neighborhood. The best answer I have to your question is that assessed values tend to lag plus they’re done on a high-level basis. You really won’t know the ‘true’ value of your home until you actually sell it, so the best you can do is make the best estimate possible.
Thanks.
I don’t worry too much about the value of my home and cars. They aren’t getting replaced or borrowed against, so the value doesn’t affect me much.
Although, it would have been nice to see a big boost on the total net worth. 🙂
8 months is not bad for doing a net worth check up. Expecially when you are factoring in the value of cars and houses which really shouldn’t fluctuate much. But you definitely need to get that IRA going!
The IRA will start rolling at the end of them month, when I go over my budget again.
That’s not bad in 8 months – a car loan going down and a few thousand on the credit card. Sometimes the debt repayment slog is a long road, but it’s worth it. I havent had much luck since jan either, but have had a GREAT August so far. I cant wait to update my net worth at the end of this month.
You are doing great. I can’t believe your home value hasn’t plummeted much more than it has. You must be in a really great area…and to only owe $33K on the property has to be a good feeling.
Most of the people I know are underwater. And my parents watched all of their equity in their home evaporate over the last few years. It is a sick feeling, but they have lived the good life and have good savings so there is no worry…not to mention their pensions.
Anyway, best of luck with your goals. Seem like you are well on your way and way ahead of most people!
I do live in a great area. It’s a relatively affluent, low-crime, first-ring suburb. I’m 2 miles from downtown Minneapolis.
I am impressed by your mortgage amount. Glad to hear you are working on getting out of debt, we are only three days away from a final payment.
Your net worth is lookin’ good.
I’m hoping to have the mortgage zero’d out in about 2 years.
good that home and car are almost paid off. Now you can soon start asset building
Definitely.
Good job on paying down the credit cards to where you have. How long have you been in your house? you are close to having it paid off, that would make me feel great.
You are doing great. Sometimes tracking these things reminds us all of what we need to do to safeguard our assets.
Great job on the mortgage loan. Once that’s paid off, life will be so nice.
Holy shit you only have a 33K mortgage? and aren’t you younger if I remember correctly?
WOW! Why the lazer focus on it?
I can’t take credit for that one. Our equity was built with an inheritance.