by Monthly Net Worth Update – January 2017
Well its been a good month for me so far. Luckily for me here in Australia we are a little ahead in time compared to you folk from the USA. That being said, I hope I can be one of the first to get my net worth out. Overall, I have had a great month of savings and investing, I’m hoping this can stay fluid over the next year or so to boost my overall net worth, month on month.
Without further ado, here is my net worth for the end of January 2017. I’ll give a breakdown in the section below.
Figure 1: Total Net Worth January 2017.
ASSETS
Stock Value:
Unfortunately, my stocks didn’t do too well, especially one, RBO. This lost 25% of it’s value, which isn’t much when you realise the stock is trading at just 13.5c when I purchased and is now roughly around the 10c mark. I am still bullish on this so no need to panic sell for me. Like I have stated before, I am not planning to sell anytime soon, I am a Buy and Hold Long kinda guy!
New Stock Purchase:
I made a post about this, I bought $1304.10 worth of an Australian REIT called Arena REIT. Check out the post if you would like to see more on it.
Cash:
Not much to say, was able to stash some cash away towards a deposit for my first home. This will be used at some point in the near future year or two.
Retirement:
This also increased due to my employer contributions. I am not currently adding to this. My employer adds an extra 9.5% on top of my wage into this account.
Vehicle:
This depreciated as expected. This is a set amount from the Australian Government site that I used.
Total Assets:
This increased by 5.25% overall.
DEBTS
Personal:
No added personal debts.
Vehicle:
This was paid off in December as a last payment. Doesn’t that feel good?!
Student:
Our student loans are paid differently here in Australia. A little bit each pay (2 weeks) gets taken out of my wage and goes towards paying off student debt. I do not see this money leaving my account as it is taken via our tax system. This works well for me. This is slowly getting paid down but will take some time.
Total Debts:
Decrease of debts by 1.84% which is a good thing, we want a decrease in debts.
TOTAL NET WORTH
My net worth from December 31st 2016 to January 31st 2017 has increased by a whopping 16.61%. This is an increase of $3241.41 in the month to bring my total net worth up to $22,753.78.
Another increase, how good! Lets keep this train churning. Very happy with this, how is your January shaping up?
Great rise on your net worth in one month. Keep going!!!
Thanks DD. Will keep saving and investing to keep these numbers growing.
Hey BHL,
Can you give me a brief summary of the Australian housing market? How much cash would you need to save up for a down payment? Looks like things are trending up! Do you think you could hit 40k-50k Net Worth in 2017?
Erik
Hi Erik, I’m trying for 50k by the end of 2017 but it will be close.
The housing market varies drastically from city to city. Somewhere like Sydney is way out of my reach, you’d be lucky to get a place under a million. Where I’m looking places are roughly 400k or so. I’m looking for a fixer upper and a small deposit but not so small it puts a strain on my finances. Cheers.
Congrat on your nice increase and finishing paying your vehicle debt.
My January month have been great on the financial side. 🙂
That’s excellent to hear. I’ll check your site out for some more details. Cheers
Anything over 10% in increase over a month is awesome, if you are able to maintain that same growth/increase for the rest of the year, you should be able to crack the 50k in networth 🙂
Hey D4F, that is my goal. It’s going to be a close one but I think I can reach it. Be sure to check back every now and then. I’ll be doing monthly updates. Cheers.
Congrats on the great increase in just one month. I hope the news few months can be just as good!
Tristan
Thanks Tristan, I am hoping for all green (positive) months for the entire year. Fingers crossed.
I wouldn’t worry too much abut the stock dip. The market is still in a weird presidential transition phases. There will likely be a bunch of ups and downs over the next few months.
Thanks IH, there will always be those blips but I am more concerned with the Long Term Gain. Hence my name. Cheers
Good job and congrats on the increase net worth. Hope to see it grow into a big portfolio in a couple of years from now.
Thanks Jay. I am actively searching for new shares to add and trying to work hard to be able to save the money to buy them. Thanks for your comment.
Congrats on the great progress and thanks for sharing the journey.
Thanks D10, definitely trying to increase this over the next year.
Awesome job getting rid of that car payment. That’s another few hundred that you can use to pay down that student debt or invest in stocks.
Thanks TITM. I’m not too concerned about student debt. Gets taken out of tax and only has interest around 1-2%. Definitely can beat that using the market. Cheers.
A very, very nice month indeed. Man you have no idea how jealous I am that you were able to pay off your car debt. How nice is it going to be to have that cash flow free again for investing or other income producing uses. You are really going to start seeing things push forward now. Just wait until you see your student loans fly out the door as well….
Bert
Thanks Bert. Not too concerned about student debt. Interest rate is very low and I can beat it using the market. Cheers.
Glad I found your site! Keep it up! And welcome, 😉
Passive Income Dude
Thanks, appreciate it.
Great job on the net worth increase! Double digit gains are awesome! Any reason why you decided not to contribute to your retirement account?
In Australia, I can’t access this money till I’m 67 or so. If I take it out early I am taxed 49% on it. So I figure I could use the money elsewhere a little more liquid if something were to happen. Thanks
what % interest are your loans? Do you get the option to pay them off early, or are you forced to wait for them to paid out of your wages?
The student loans are indexed by CPI in Australia. Which has been typically low for the past few years (<3%) so I am not concerned about the loan costs. You can pay off your student loan voluntarily for sure. I choose not to. Cheers
Great work with the increase of net worth and congrats on paying off the car. That will help free up more cash flow for stock purchases or pay off other debt. I actually put my car in the liabilities category since it only costs me money (gas/ parts/ repairs/ etc) and decreases in value. But everyone calculates differently. As long as that net worth number is going up, your doing something right. Thanks for sharing!
That’s quite interesting, I guess it could be classed as both really couldn’t it. I say it’s an asset as I could sell it. But then you’re right that asset costs you money so is it an asset or a liability? Cheers
Yeah true, you can classify it as whatever you wish. For me, I just think in terms of cash flow. I define an asset as anything that either generates cash flow or increases in value. So stocks, bonds, rental properties generate income. And a house increases in equity or value. A car for the most part will never increase in value therefor a liability. However, it is kind of a necessity for most of us so there is a grey area.
You make a very compelling point. My only reasoning to have it as an asset as it is (almost) liquid to me. I could sell it and get a cheaper car if needed and have some left over cash. But you make a good point, it is not an income producing asset.
I agree. And without trying to get our conversation too lengthy here. I don’t know the circumstances behind your car, but as soon as you drive a car off the lot (if its new anyway), it immediately decreases in value probably by a few thousand. So when calculating its value, wouldn’t you value it at the price you can actually sell it for instead of the value you bought it for? Since I believe that is how net worth is calculated. Liquidate all assets against liabilities and give it a dollar figure. But that’s just my take. You do you haha. Keep up the good work!
Thanks mate. I do actually depreciate the car every month according to our government website tools. This allows me to guesstimate what the value of the car is. It’s just a rough figure that helps with figures.