October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 FOGA

Net Worth Update #8: September 2019

Net Worth

Hello FOGA Readers! Welcome to Net Worth Update #8: September 2019. September was an interesting month with many new directions. It brought some changes to what we were planning on for the longterm.

But, without further ado, onto the net worth update!

The Usual:
For anyone who is not aware, your net worth is your total assets minus your total liabilities. Also known as everything you own of value minus everything you owe.

I don’t share our specific income into these updates, but I am sure you will be able to tell the good months from the bad ones. I get paid twice a month if I have closings. If I don’t, I do not get paid. It tends to make things interesting around here.

Mr. FOGA has regular bi-weekly paychecks, so that keeps us afloat on my bad months.

Of course, there is not always going to be a lot of change with some of the sections here (like our house), but it will be helpful to see the fluctuations overall.

Let’s get into Net Worth Update #8!

Assets

Home- $254,000

The usual stuff: I don’t consider our home to be an investment. We live here, and that’s all. However, it does have a value, so I’ve added that as part of our net worth. Not to mention, since we have to include the mortgage, we might as well note the value of the home. Otherwise, our net worth is incredibly negative, and that’s no fun.

Our home is worth $279,900 according to Realtor.com and $288,924 according to Zillow. The appraisal we got when we refinanced our home put it at $254,000. We’re going to stick with the lower number for now.

One of the homes in our neighborhood closed! $285,990 on our street. It had on less bedroom but it was slightly bigger. One of the other two homes is under contract. Once we get 2-3 of them to close, we may be able to recast our current mortgage. Fingers crossed.

Investments- $97,441.19

IRAs went up a bit this month. Makes up for the loss they had last month. Now they are a few bucks higher than they were in July.

Both of our 401Ks did well. I did hear that the market took a little dip after I got these numbers, but whatever. That’s what it does right now. On track to max out my 401K.

The IULs are doing their usual thing. Someone did ask for more info on these, and I am happy to oblige. IUL stands for Index Universal Life. It is a type of universal life insurance that is tied to the performance of a market index. We cannot earn less than 1% on these accounts. So, if the market is -10%, we are still earning 1%. The downside is that if the market is earning 20%, we are capped at 14%.
We put in after-tax money, so, like a Roth IRA, we don’t pay taxes on anything we earn. Also, once we hit a certain dollar amount or timeframe, we can withdraw money from them with no penalty or taxes, and we are also not required to pay it back. It also has a tax free death benefit for your beneficiaries, so they won’t pay death or income taxes. All around, pretty cool!

Emergency Fund- $30,093.57

The emergency fund is maxed out and just gaining interest right now. Ally is currently at 1.9% so it is gaining slowly, but surely.

Ally has been doing well. We have earned over $324 so far this year in interest in this account. That’s 21.6 books at $15 each or 54 lattes at $6 each. If you don’t have a high-interest savings account, you should definitely get one. If not Ally, there are a few places offer higher interest savings accounts currently. Some are higher than Ally’s 1.9% interest rate.

Savings- $3,750

Here is where we keep the rest of our savings. This savings account is essentially an immediate emergency fund. If something comes up, we have easy access to some money, but not ALL the money. This account is also the funds we use for projects around the house and vacations. It’s partially regular savings and a sinking fund.

We add $5 automatically every month. Then we add whatever it takes to get it to the next hundred. That was a total of $99.98. We normally have it at $2500, but we keep it growing.

The normal rule is once it gets to $3000, we move the excess funds elsewhere, but this is where we are storing up investment funds. So, at $5500 we move it either VTSAX or Fundrise (I am torn again). 🙂

Total Assets- $385,284.76

Other Assets

Car Fund- $1,500.54

Welcome to the newest category. This section is an asset we have that doesn’t count towards net worth. It’s odd not to count it because it is part of the goals update, but it’s going towards a car.

The goal here is $25,000 for Mr. FOGA’s new car; it will probably be less, but creating some buffer. He has his eye on a particular make and model, and we are looking to buy it used. We are open to buying it new though since he will have the car for the next 10+ years.

I don’t count cars in our net worth. In my mind, they are a depreciating means to an end and don’t have any value beyond getting us to and from places. However, the money that is being saved to get the car is an asset, but because of where it’s going it didn’t feel right to count it in the net worth. This is the “other” category that made it make sense in my head.

I may remove it in the future, but wanted to include it this time.

I’ll take a poll on this. Should it exist? Should it not exist? Let me know.

Total Other Assets- $1,500.54

Liabilities

Mortgage- $225,687.49

It’s going down slowly. We pay $200 more a month towards the principal. If we keep this up, we will pay it off in 2038 (vs. 2044).

Since we made some new revelations about what we want out of life, it doesn’t really make sense to refinance the home unless we are saving at least 1%. We would also need to be removing the PMI on the mortgage and lowering the term on the loan as well. If all those aren’t happening, it’s not worth the cost to us.

The plan is to recast once the other homes in the area close. That way we would get the 20% loan to value to remove the PMI. It won’t change the interest rate, but it will make the payment better.

We’ll also need to check on whether we can pull taxes and insurance out of escrow. We’d rather pay it ourselves and be done with it.

Total Liabilities- $225,687.49

Net Worth

Total Net Worth- $159,597.27

Only $15,400 to go to get to the revised yearly goal of $175,000. Let’s do this!

In Summation

So that was Net Worth Update #8. A pretty good month. Hopefully, we keep this up. 🙂

Do you have a net worth update? If so, I would love to read it. Please put a link in the comments below.

If you like reading Net Worth Updates, check out these guys:
Route 2 FI
The Little Dollar
Poorer Than You
Millionaire Dojo
and the finale to end all finales, Budgets Are Sexy.

Also here are some of my previous Net Worth Updates:
August: Net Worth Update #7: August 2019
July: Net Worth Update #6: July 2019
June: Net Worth Update #5: June 2019

Otherwise, what did you think? Good? Bad? Any thoughts? Please share them below.

Until Next Time!

-Ms. FOGA