Net Worth 2017 Q1
Hello and welcome to the Q1 recap of 2017! It was a good first quarter overall. We took a family trip to Japan which was not nearly as expensive as our Europe trip last year but set us back a couple thousand although our plane tickets were on last year’s expenses. Also, my wife had to take a couple extra masters classes for her license which cost about 4k. Going forward, there are not any big expenses we anticipate besides the inevitable vehicle purchase sometime soon.
We currently have 4 retirement accounts. My wife recently became eligible to contribute to her 401k, we have my 401k, and both of us have Roth IRAs. I decided I am going to take a step back from active trading this year to focus on learning and also redirect the money I would contribute to my account to loans. We are also beefing up our savings account to be ready to buy a car without taking on more debt.
ASSETS (Over last Q)
| Retirement savings accounts | Brokerage account | Liquid cash | |
| Q1 2017 | $39,630.84 | $5,178.10 | $9,048.12 |
| Q4 2016 | $34,601.87 | $6,290.73 | $8,030.22 |
| % Change | +14.5% | -17.7% | +12.7% |
(YOY)
| Retirement savings accounts | Brokerage account | Liquid cash | |
| Q1 2017 | $39,630.84 | $5,178.10 | $9,048.12 |
| Q1 2016 | $23,199.80 | $6,363.87 | $7,960.31 |
| % Change | +70.8% | -18.6% | +13.7% |
Current Assets = $53,857.06
I am happy about the increase in our retirement accounts YOY. This was also despite me stopping the contributions for most of the year to my Roth to put towards loans. I recognize that a fair amount of the growth was also due to favorable market conditions and investments. On any given year, it may be flat or even down and we have to be mentally prepared for that.
Extra payments to loans were minimal this quarter due to paying for our trip to Japan as well as paying for the extra classes for my wife. Due to raising interest rates, the highest percent loans we have now sit at 6.8%, which makes up almost half of our remaining loan balance. We are looking to ramp up our payments with every increase in income.
Liabilities (Q over Q)
| Student loans | Credit card | |
| Q1 2017 | $134,025.57 | $521.66 |
| Q4 2016 | $135,605.97 | $0 |
| %Change | -1.2% |
(YOY)
| Student loans | Credit card | |
| Q1 2017 | $134,025.57 | $521.66 |
| Q1 2016 | $144,561.57 | $323.05 |
| %Change | -7.3% |
= –$134,547.23
Net worth: 53,857.06 – 134,547.23 = -$80,690.17
This last stat serves as additional motivation to our loan situation. It is difficult paying so much each month but hardly making a dent on the initial balance due to the incredible amount of interest. This is the remaining loan balance and the amount we have paid off including interest.
| Loan Balance | Paid towards loans |
| $134,025.57 | $80,051.33 |
The goal is financial independence. The key for us right now is to get out of debt. But, we are also balancing saving for retirement, keeping our expenses low, and still allowing to have some fun from time to time. It is encouraging to look back even a year or two and see the progress we’ve made and I look forward to seeing what the future has in store.
I named this blog Wealth for Tomorrow because I am showing that with wise choices, discipline and patience, anyone can dig themselves out of a financial hole and build wealth for tomorrow.