While cash flow is more important when it comes to financial independence, it's still good to look at the balance sheet too, which is why I provide these net worth updates. Since more and more of my net worth is tied to the markets, there's a larger correlation between my net worth and the markets but in the long run as I continue to save and invest the net worth trend should be higher even though short term fluctuations can vary wildly. As a dividend growth investor I'm not overly concerned with the short-term gyrations as long as the dividend stream remains in tact, but the markets' effect is noticeable.
The S&P 500 marched higher yet again during July climbing higher by 3.6%. Since the majority of my net worth is tied to the performance of the markets my net worth moves in line with the markets. So good months in the markets typically turn into good months for the net worth and vice versa. Of course I love getting to see those dividends roll in each month because they're always a positive portion of return. In July I received over $270 in dividends across all 3 of my accounts.
For the month our net worth decreased $2,432.54.
Current Assets: $664,546.69
Current Liquid Assets: $243,468.04
Current Debts: -$183,788.40
Net Worth: $480,758.29
I can hear it now I said earlier that good months in the markets mean good months for my net worth. Well, normally that's the case and if we looked at just the investment accounts it held true. Across all of my investment accounts there was a $10k+ increase or about 2.7%.
So why the decrease? Well, it's a bit hard to make up for an extra $8,700 one time expense, especially with no income source. That was the cost of getting a new roof put on our house during July. So I'm okay with seeing a $2k decrease when our expenses were almost $9k higher than usual.
For July our net worth decreased 0.5% and year to date it's risen 16.4%.
At this time I don't see the point in paying extra on the mortgage at this time given our relatively low interest rate as well as the tax break on mortgage payments and think we'll come out much further ahead investing the extra cash flow. So the liabilities side of the net worth equation will be slow moving. However, once the FI portfolio is able to get to a self-sustaining level of dividends then the plan is to aggressively pay down the mortgage.
As of the end of July we have 23.7% equity in our house based on our purchase price from 2013. According to Zillow our house has increased just over $15k in value from our purchase price which is a nice bonus, although I'm keeping the purchase price as the value in the net worth equations. Based on Zillow's estimate the equity in our house is 28.5% thanks to the appreciation.
The following chart shows my assets and liabilities, as well as my net worth, since January 2012. While I have accurate records for my net worth dating back to July 2010, I didn't keep track of my assets and liabilities on a monthly basis until the start of 2012.
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| Net Worth History through July 2016 |
Let me know what you think of the new Net Worth Breakdown graph!
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| Net Worth Breakdown - July 2016 |
Adding in the gross income earned from blogging/writing added another $143.54 to the monthly non-day job income total. That's a total of $406.85 of income that's not related to a regular 9-5 job. We've still got a long ways to go to reach our goal of financial independence, but we're heading in the right direction. Year to date we've generated over $5k outside of traditional employment sources.
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How did your net worth fare in July? Did you ride the markets higher or take a dip like us? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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