Beard and net worth update, Month 2
Once again, I have to keep up with the Money's. J. Money at Budgets are Sexy keeps posting his net worth for the whole world to see, so I have to suck it up, belly up to the table, and lay all of my chips down, too.
Since RockStarFinance keeps tabs on money bloggers' need to satisfy the money voyeurism of the internet, and that little page sends me traffic each month, then it behooves me to continue to sassify your need for more cow bell.
So in this post I'm going to lay everything out. What assets we have, what debt we're carrying, and our net-worth goals. Then, I'll show you the beard as it sits today. Surprise. It's longer.
I've had this analysis done for a few days now, but we've been traveling around the Czech Republic this weekend and it's been rough finding some WiFi to send the electrons through.
We're hanging out in Brno today in this MONSTER flat right outside the main square courtesy of AirBnB. Next week we'll be staying in Malta in the bay on a mutha-f-in' boat. AirBnB, I love you. (Get $20 $35 travel credit signing up with my link.)
Ok. Done with the shameless promotion. Now, on to the net worth!
The Beard Family Net Worth
Ok ... let's start with the net worth. Below is a recent snapshot from our Mint.com dashboard, taken right at the beginning of April.
Let's start with the bottom line: $140k. That's a fantastic increase in net worth for one month. Let's review from last month: we had a net worth of $130,961.79. That means we are up $9,166.97 in one month. Kinda awesome.
Notice that big, fat stack of cash. It's sitting in our Capital One 360 savings accountearning 0.75%. This is both our emergency fund, and were we stash cash that will be going somewhere else soon. In this case, a lot of that cash will be paying off our only car loan, as I'll tell you more about in a moment. (Sign upfor your own Capital One 360 account and get $25.)
Let's see where the new money is coming from. Check out the table below showing the change in each asset and debt class:
As you can see, the big change was in the credit card debt. We paid off every last tiny piece of that devil debt this past month. We dropped a significant chuck of coin slaying that dragon, and then just filled that cash stash right back up.
Our assets come mostly from our house. We have an absolutely huge and fancy 5 BR, 3 BA house with a giant yard and 2-car garage in a fairly up-scale neighborhood. It's value went up about $650 according to Zillow, for some reason.
The investments are up over $2.2k to a hair under $78k. This is a result of 401(a) contributions and a rebound in the market since January.
The largest loan we have is the mortgage. It sits a little than last month, but not much. We only shaved about $250 from that loan. My student loans still total an eye-popping $50k, since we made the minimum payment once again.
The car loan WAS still hanging around when I did this analysis. It was our last big consumer debt, and I'm happy to report that as of today it is now GONE. We sent Bank of America a fat check from that stack of cash you see in the figure above and they will soon be sending us our title. Tomorrow I get to log into eSurance and KILL that comprehensive coverage, that's even more useless since we haven't driven in months.
I didn't bother to factor in the Acorns account, because it's pretty small considering I only started it last month. I really need to do a full review of Acorns soon, because it's awesome. I've automagically invested over $50 this month. Robots took that money and I never even missed it.
Basically, last month's big win was paying off the credit card debt. This month's big win will be paying off that car loan. Next month, we'll be building the cash savings to something the wife is comfortable with, and then we get to hammer away at our investing goals for the rest of the year.
Were did all that money come from?
If I could maintain a $10k change in net worth per month, then we'd be talking about a $120,000 increase for the year! That's a little ... well ... that's probably not going to happen considering that's more than my income. The market would have to be going bananas to keep that up.
So where did we come up with all of that money, you ask. Here you go, in table form:
My base salary is from my full-time job. The second row in the table is what I'm getting paid to live and travel around Europe speaking and consulting with various folks. My full-time employer is providing me a paid sabbatical while I pursue these other things. Did I ever mention how awesome it is to be an academic?
Unfortunately, next month (May) will be my last month, and last check, with that gig. So no more doubling my base salary for doing the same amount of work.
My corporate consulting is for a small educational products company for whom I've been consulting and creating content. I have several more months worth of work on the project I'm helping them with right now. Last week I came up with an idea that I'm going to be pitching that I hope will extend that income stream for about 6 more months.
I didn't include the blog income because, well, it sucks. Let's just say I had a few beers to celebrate and now it's gone.
The big take-home message here is that my side hustles have outperformed my full-time job for the second month in a row. I'm looking to keep that up until at least September!
Those side hustles are allowing us to make BIG debt destroying cash payments. And now that we've gotten that consumer debt destroyed, we'll be looking to max a 457 plan, an IRA, and begin beating that student loan to death.
My advise to you: Get a side hustle going TODAY!
Beard growth
How about that beard?
Looks like I'm right on track with the model I developed for beard growth early last month. It's longer by about 0.5 inches.
Here's me sitting on the balcony of my Brno Pad I rented for the week through AirBnB. Three bedrooms for the whole family, full kitchen for frugal savings on meals, and two bathrooms, which everyone with multiple kids knows is essential. Cost less than one shitty hotel room.
Do I look a little like the logo yet?
What's next for the Beards
Hopefully, we add ANOTHER $10k to the net worth next month. I don't expect as good a rally in the market next month compared to this one, but I do expect to add another $8,000 - $10,000 in savings to the stash.
As we all know, the real path to wealth is saving more, spending less, and if possible, building multiple income streams.
I plan to let the beard grow wild for another month. Other than a few strays getting clipped, I've let it go now for about 3 months. We'll see what we have next month.
Have you looked at your net worth lately? How much have you improved since last month?