April 2010 Net Worth Update +$18,016

Wow another great month riding on the coattails of the stock market. After a record setting month in March, April continued to build on the huge gains with even higher stock valuations. I'm not nearly as confident as Mr Market, but I'm quickly warming to the higher valuations of our portfolio.

Assets	Mar-10	Apr-10	Change	%
Cash & Savings	$ 23,837.01	$ 26,602.88	$ 2,765.87	11.60%
Taxable Brokerage Accts	$ 117,261.19	$ 123,583.51	$ 6,322.32	5.39%
Roth IRAs	$ 57,207.34	$ 59,475.79	$ 2,268.45	3.97%
Pre-tax Retirement Accts	$ 217,716.34	$ 223,732.20	$ 6,015.86	2.76%
Stock Options	$ 27,936.00	$ 28,536.00	$ 600.00	2.15%
ESPP	$ 21,432.76	$ 21,558.09	$ 125.34	0.58%
House #1 - Rental	$ 160,000.00	$ 160,000.00	$ -	0.00%
House #2 - Rental	$ 128,225.00	$ 128,225.00	$ -	0.00%
House #3 - Sold	$ -	$ -	$ -
House #4 - Primary	$ 300,000.00	$ 300,000.00	$ -	0.00%
Receivable (Payable)	$ -	$ -	$ -
Other Assets	$ -	$ -	$ -
Total Assets	$ 1,053,615.64	$1,071,713.48	$ 18,097.84	1.72%
Liabilities
Credit Card Balances	$ (1,080.49)	$ (4,216.89)	$ (3,136.40)	290.28%
House #1 Mortgages	$ (134,065.49)	$ (133,345.70)	$ 719.79	-0.54%
House #2 Mortgages	$ (10,434.97)	$ (10,236.88)	$ 198.09	-1.90%
House #3 Mortgages	$ -	$ -	$ -
House #4 Mortgages	$ (237,173.74)	$ (236,808.69)	$ 365.05	-0.15%
Rental Deposits	$ (4,657.72)	$ (4,657.72)	$ -	0.00%
Additional Tax Liability	$ (10,615.68)	$ (10,843.68)	$ (228.00)	2.15%
Other Liabilities	$ (2,000.00)		$ 2,000.00
Total Liabilities	$ (400,028.09)	$ (400,109.56)	$ (81.47)	0.02%
$2million Goal Progress*	$ 592,761.29	$ 608,412.61	$ 15,651.32	2.64%
Net Worth	$ 653,587.55	$ 671,603.92	$ 18,016.37	2.76%

Highlights for April

All credit card debt (except current month's purchases) is in the form of 0% APR balance transfers earning interest in my savings accounts. We paid off the last of our 0% balance transfers in January 2009. The well has dried up for now, but we are ready to take advantages if any offers come our way.
We track our real estate properties according to our cost basis.
April was a rather quiet month compared to March where I received my annual bonus and we received our hefty federal tax refund. We still haven't received our state tax refund although we filed back in early March.
The stock market was up again strongly for the month, and our taxable actively managed holdings performed very well compared to our benchmark. Our retirement funds at Vanguard performed espically poorly for the month and as a result our overall holding were inline with our benchmark. The full details of our investments will be posted shortly.
Our cash position is definitely improving and I'm placing an increasing preference to holding cash at this point.
I took a business trip this month back to China and Taiwan, hence a significant bump in our credit card purchases. We always payoff our credit cards balance each month.

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 (3)

Wow you really did have a great month! Hopefully the market can rebound from its incredibly rough early May.

Side note: I;d be interested in reading your endeavors with renting. How you got started, if you think it's worth it, what type of properties, etc. I'm considering doing the same.

Posted by MyFinancialObjectives | May 9, 2010 2:20 PM

I notice you use the equity in your house as your net worth.

Should you really do this?

Posted by garrett | May 10, 2010 9:42 AM

Hey Garret,
Thats certainly up for debate. I have decided to include the equity (based on our property cost basis, not market value) to help normalize our net worth growth. You'll notice I include a separate line "$2 million goal progress" which does not include our home equity.

Posted by 2million | May 10, 2010 10:10 AM