How low did we go? Q4 – 2018 Net Worth Update

Check-In Time!

This makes 12 quarters in a row since I started publishing Net Worth updates on this site and the first where our Net Worth has dropped over the course of 3 months. Even though we knew this would happen eventually, I am mildly surprised how quick it can turn. I can see why people who aren’t prepared to see their balance drop panic sell.

I will dedicate a full post to this – but seeing ~$15,000 at one point carved off your total in a short amount of time makes you take a hard look at two things

• Emergency fund
• Income Streams

I don’t know if this a correction, a bear market or a recession – but I want to make sure we can weather any of them. Looking at cash flow (through our 9-5 jobs) and our Emergency Fund felt like something we needed to do.

Before the Number fun, here are some random updates from the AE household

• We had a great holiday season and got to spend time with every side of our family. In total we had 5 different Christmas events – it took us a full 2 days to put our house back together. I am convinced there is no such thing as relaxing with 2 kids under 2, but we got as close as possible.
• Survived a 5-hour car ride each way with the two girls to visit some family for the holidays
• We had some serious 4-month sleep regression going on for about a month. Mrs. AE and I alternated long nights with the littlest one. It’s crazy how fast you forget how shitty getting up multiple times in the middle of the night is.
• Everyone is entering the new year healthy and that is what really matters

Numbers below!

For anyone that has not seen this done before, I hold myself accountable by posting my net worth progress for everyone to see. I firmly believe there is more value in setting and tracking goals, but like to check in on our progress quarterly.

Q4 $227,395.58 – 2018 Net Worth  – DOWN $9,014.92

Breaking down the numbers:

• Q4 was the first quarter we had a drop, a total of -3.81%
• 6.1% drop in our cash/invested assets
• Total growth for 2018 was 21.2% – Can’t complain about that, most of that was due to our contributions with some debt dropping off. 
• I keep our house at the initial valuation after we built. It has definitely gone up since then but I want to keep the valuation conservative since it is not easy to get at the equity.
• Continuing to focus on building our taxable brokerage account alongside our retirement tax-advantaged accounts.
• We have shifted to caring more about our investment/cash balance as that is the wealth building fuel that gives us options. The equity in our home is great but we need somewhere to live.

At face value – a drop of just over $9K doesn’t look that bad given the headlines we have seen

Net Worth Quarter by Quarter

BOOOOOOOO.

Ruined such a pretty trend line. Gives it some character I suppose.

Net Worth Update  – The Good

Student Loans Are STILL Gone FOREVER

We paid the last $7K+ off my student loans in Q1!

Last time I will include this, I just love seeing it every time I write these posts.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

My companies insane year (up over 100% at one point) fell along with the rest of the market. I am still up from all my buys, but we shaved 18% off since the end of Q3. I have never been burned by buying through our ESPP plan so will keep investing short-term to

Travel Hacking

I am pulling the details right now and will put together a full post. Credit card and travel hacking is by far the easiest money I have ever made. Looking forward to doing more next year (waiting on 5/24 to pass in February).

Maxed out 401k for the first time

Officially maxed out my 401k for the first time. Actually got a refund on my last check for overpaying into the account.

Both Roth IRAs will be fully funded for 2018 by the April Deadline.

Net Worth Update – The Bad

Medical Bills

We are all healthy, but we did have some significant PT/Ultrasound bills on top of all the delivery/hospital bills we paid after number 2 was born. The PT and Ultrasounds were precautionary and turned out to be non-issues. But still expensive even after hitting deductibles earlier in the year.

We are also done having kids, and I made that………….permanent this year 🙂

Not paying for the birth of a kid for the first time in 2 years sounds pretty good.

Market

“Bad” might not be the right word since we are long-term investors and a long ways off from living off our portfolio. But in terms of our net worth report, it had a significant negative impact.

Blog Updates

• Rockstar Finance featured my post Why You’re Not Rich Yet (Or may never be) in Q4
• Not a lot going on, just chugging along trying to write as much as possible.

Do you track your Net Worth? How was your Q4?