May Net Worth

Let me start by explaining why I have two screenshots of my net worth. If you look closely, you'll see that I've added another asset up there, namely, my CAR!

I put a very conservative estimate for my car's value under assets so it should cover a year's worth of depreciation without me needing to change it every month. Since the car is already paid off, there is no corresponding balance attached to it under Liabilities.

But getting back to the first screenshot (without the car's addition), can you believe I increased my net worth by over 80% in just one month?!? Even I was a bit surprised at that as I did not expect it COULD increase like that in such short a time. Being in the red for quite some time before I started this blog, I'm quite giddy and excited with this revelation and it just motivates me even more to keep on doing what I'm doing.

A bullish month in the markets gave me an 8% increase in my investments inside my retirement vehicles. But a more important reason of my net worth jump seems to be because I paid down debt without acquiring too much more in this last month!

If you compare the screenshot from this month's and last, you'll see that I've also rearranged where some of my funds are held. I rolled over a previous employment's pension savings plan into my 457(b) and another previous 401(k) into a rollover IRA with Vanguard. This way, there are two less places that I need to look in to check my balances.

I've also increased my contribution to my 457(b) by $200 a month which shows me saving almost 27% of my monthly paychecks into my retirement accounts.

Despite these steps forward, I think there are several more things I can do to improve the way I save and monitor my net worth. The best way is still to spend less than what I'm making and save what I net from that excercise.

Also, I'm still looking into using an aggregator like Yodlee or Wasabi to better streamline how I check my balances.

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