August Net Worth Update (+$14,319)

Finally a month to get excited about. I am probably more excited about this month then any other month of the year. I made good progress across the board with probably my last semi-normal month of expenses for the year. The next 3 months will have significant wedding expenses in them and big changes from a cash flow perspective as my fiancee and I finally merge our monthly expenses together.

Assets	Jul-07	Aug-07	Change	%
Cash & Savings	$ 48,657	$ 52,152.07	$ 3,495.05	7.18%
Taxable Brokerage Accts	$ 63,078.29	$ 65,451.79	$ 2,373.50	3.76%
Roth IRA	$ 35,219.95	$ 35,992.26	$ 772.31	2.19%
Pre-tax Retirement Accts	$ 142,000.56	$ 143,977	$ 1,976.01	1.39%
Stock Options	$ 13,840.00	$ 18,672	$ 4,832.00	34.91%
ESPP	$ 29,649.34	$ 31,267.80	$ 1,618.46	5.46%
House #1 - Rental	$ 160,000.00	$ 160,000.00	$ -
House #2 - Rental	$ 128,225.00	$ 128,225.00	$ -
Receivable (Payable)	$ 2,290.53		$ (2,290.53)	-100.00%
Other Assets	$ -	$ -	$ -
Total Assets	$ 622,960.69	$ 635,737.49	$ 12,776.80	2.05%
Liabilities
Credit Card Balances	$ (13,685.73)	$ (9,367.20)	$ 4,318.53	-31.55%
House #1 Mortgages	$ (115,767.95)	$(115,581.49)	$ 186.46	-0.16%
House #2 Mortgages	$ (102,729.88)	$(102,617.39)	$ 112.49	-0.11%
Rental Deposits	$ (6,447.00)	$ (6,447.00)	$ -	0.00%
Additional Tax Liability	$ (3,460.00)	$ (6,535.20)	$ (3,075.20)	88.88%
Other Liabilities			$ -
Total Liabilities	$ (242,090.56)	$(240,548.28)	$ 1,542.28	-0.64%
Net Worth	$ 380,870.13	$ 395,189.21	$ 14,319.08	3.76%

Highlights for August

All credit card debt (except current month's purchases) is in the form of 0% APR balance transfers earning interest in my savings accounts.

I am most proud of my net cash savings this month. It goes a long way towards our house down payment goal.

I have been using Skype to communicate with friends and family back home and just purchased Skype Pro.

I unexpectedly got upgrade to a Vanguard Flagship Client.

I have also been struggling with the thoughts that I at least need a 5 year plan to financial freedom. More to come on this.

Additional Stock Investments August (Outside of 401k & ESPP):

$25 in ConocoPhillips DRIP
$600 in USG DRIP
$250 in Vanguard Roth IRA
$50 in Pfizer DRIP

You can see my previous monthly net worth updates here.

Related in Net Worth Archive:

May 2012 Net Worth Update (-$28,098) (Jun 10, 2012) Highlights for MayWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. Our properties are listed on our...

April 2012 Net Worth Update (+$2,763) (May 09, 2012) Highlights for AprilWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. We received $1,000+ in rewards cash...

March 2012 Net Worth Update (+$22,032) (Apr 11, 2012) Highlights for MarchWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. We are close to earning ~$1,000...

Comments (13)

Where did you get the cash for the nearly 8K change in cash/savings and paid off credit card debt?

Posted by Anonymous | September 7, 2007 11:56 AM

Congrats on a great month. If only all months could show +14k gain :)

Posted by dong | September 7, 2007 6:28 PM

Excellent! Keep up the good work and best wishes with merging finances. =)

Posted by Chitowngirl | September 7, 2007 7:44 PM

Congrats on an awesome month! I had a really good month this month too thanks to an extra paycheck (26 paychecks a yr equals 2 months with an extra paycheck).

Posted by SingleGuyMoney | September 7, 2007 8:28 PM

Stellar blog. Very impressive lifestyle and decision making. I am personally very interested in what an income statement or monthly statement of cash flows looks like (or even better, looked like) during your late 20's. As an active duty military member, I have no access to stock options or ESPP the way a business-person does. But I do try to save/invest a massive ratio of my income, and I am in awe of your buildup of taxable brokerage and pre-retirement accts. How did you build to $144K in pre-retirement accounts? And thank you so much for such motivating reading.

Posted by Tom the Sub Guy | September 7, 2007 10:38 PM

Very nice! 2 rentals and a solid job in China, good stuff.

How do you calculate your tax liability?

Posted by Jonathan | September 9, 2007 8:15 AM

Anon -- see the "Receivable (Payable)" line item from last month, I was reimbursed for some employer related expenses, hence more cash than usual.

Tom the Sub guy, 1st, thank you for what you do. 2nd to answer your question -- it sounds like your on the right track saving a high ratio of your income, regardless of how big it is. I have built up the $144k in pre-tax retirement accounts by contributing the maximum to my 401k every year and thanks to employer contributions.

Jonathan, Ad hoc at the moment. Right now that "bucket" only tracks taxes on the value of the stock options. I made an adjustment this month to more accurately reflect the tax rate on them. People can argue I am not being consistent with accounting for taxes on some things and not others, but this really helps dampen the effects of the option volatility on my net worth.

Posted by 2million | September 9, 2007 10:16 AM

Just found your blog and enjoyed it quite a bit. I was born and raised in China and currently living in Texas. Where in China are you wroking? My Net Worth is about the same as yours and I just don't see myself be able to get to 2million in 5 years. If you don't mind my asking, what's your salary in ball park number? I am new to the blog, so some of these questions may have been asked and answered, sorry if that's the case.

Posted by Li | September 11, 2007 1:05 AM

Keep your finances seperate! She'll spend it all!

Posted by Anonymous | September 11, 2007 9:30 AM

I am sneaking money into a USG DRIP too to get that dollar cost average down. Hopefully it will pay off with the housing market one of these days.

Posted by dave | September 11, 2007 10:31 AM

You might want to add a column that breaks out what you added to any accounts and separate the calculation of % growth to that from contributions and that from asset growth. Its also good to keep a visible reminder of what %'s each asset class is.

Posted by Thad | September 26, 2007 1:27 PM

one question for you 2 million, when you use credit card , doesn't it affect your credit score? this sound like a interesting idea, but i'm just afriad it might hurt my credit score if i have big unpaid credit card balance

Posted by 529pm | October 2, 2007 2:10 AM

Quite coincidentally, I came across your blog the day after I posted $2 million as my own magic number. (Of course, I'm more than twice your age and am a lot closer to that number, as I should be.) Just for perspective I remember reading an article in the mid-1980's by a CPA who left the rat race and did not expect to have to work again because he had accumulated $500,000. One word of advice.....children will derail your best-laid plans by years if not decades. Good luck!

Posted by Steve Yuen | October 3, 2007 12:58 PM