November Net Worth Update (+$19,882)

Assets	Oct-10	Nov-10	Change	%
Cash & Savings	$ 35,915.39	$ 39,011.99	$ 3,096.60	8.62%
Taxable Brokerage Accts	$ 126,644.67	$ 127,337.67	$ 693.00	0.55%
Roth IRAs	$ 63,616.09	$ 65,123.28	$ 1,507.19	2.37%
Pre-tax Retirement Accts	$ 240,893.00	$ 248,911.94	$ 8,018.94	3.33%
Stock Options	$ 25,135.00	$ 24,065.00	$ (1,070.00)	-4.26%
ESPP	$ 17,007.48	$ 17,338.21	$ 330.73	1.94%
House #1 - Rental	$ 160,000.00	$ 160,000.00	$ -	0.00%
House #2 - Rental	$ 128,225.00	$ 128,225.00	$ -	0.00%
House #4 - Primary	$ 300,000.00	$ 300,000.00	$ -	0.00%
Receivable (Payable)	$ -	$ -	$ -
Other Assets	$ -	$ -	$ -
Total Assets	$ 1,097,436.63	$ 1,110,013.09	$ 12,576.46	1.15%
Liabilities
Credit Card Balances	$ (3,185.99)	$ (4,134.42)	$ (948.43)	29.77%
House #1 Mortgages	$ (105,347.08)	$ (97,939.55)	$ 7,407.53	-7.03%
House #2 Mortgages	$ (10,380.34)	$ (10,285.81)	$ 94.53	-0.91%
House #4 Mortgages	$ (255,655.16)	$ (255,309.07)	$ 346.09	-0.14%
Rental Deposits	$ (4,697.72)	$ (4,697.72)	$ -	0.00%
Additional Tax Liability	$ (9,551.30)	$ (9,144.70)	$ 406.60	-4.26%
Other Liabilities			$ -
Total Liabilities	$ (388,817.59)	$ (381,511.27)	$ 7,306.32	-1.88%
$2million Goal Progress*	$ 664,274.20	$ 683,810.89	$ 19,536.69	2.94%
Net Worth	$ 708,619.04	$ 728,501.82	$ 19,882.78	2.81%

Highlights for November

We like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers earning interest in my savings accounts, but that well has dried up for now. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new offers on 0% APR on purchases as an additional arbitrage opportunity.
We track our real estate properties according to our cost basis.
We took the proceeds from the IBM stock we sold and paid down the primary mortgage (3yr fixed 5.6%) on House #1(rental).
My wife and I took our first cruise and really enjoyed it. We summarized our cruise expenses and posted some tips on maximizing cruise value.
Major purchases in November included a 47" LCD TV ($700). Its amazing how much the prices have come down on these in the last few years. Back 2007 I highlighted my 32" LCD TV purchase for ~$463 which I thought was a fantastic deal at the time. This time I just took advantage of a CyberMonday sale. In either case I still think you can save money with HDTV by dropping cable. Over the past couple years we have likely saved enough to pay for our new TV.

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 (7)

fun site! Did you really pay down your primary mortgage $7k this month? Why? That's the cheapest money you will ever see.

Posted by chris | December 19, 2010 1:13 AM

Chris,
Its a rental property - I had recently refinanced our primary home' mortgage taking out additional cash @ 4.375% and using the proceeds to paydown the rental mortgage at 5.6%. I believe a portion of that $7k was lingering from that refi plus some additional cash flow put towards it to improve our overall debt picture.

Posted by 2million | December 19, 2010 12:30 PM

Gotcha. Makes sense.

I really do love your site. You think the way I do and may actually be a little geekier than I am about it. Interestingly enough I had also set my goal as 2 million and we're progressing well towards that. We're just a tad ahead of you but you are a couple years younger. Well done!

How do you value your rentals and how often do you adjust those values? We own a couple rental apartment buildings and I find myself doing all kinds of CAP rate gyrations to guess at values each year.

Posted by chris | December 27, 2010 1:32 PM

Rental and primary home valuations are based on our cost basis. I'd rather error on the side of conservative for those and will be happy to recognize a if a ever sell them. I'd be curious to hear about your rental buildings - how long have you had them, did you start with apt buildings or move up to them, etc. I've looked at some quadplexes in the past, but never too seriously.

Posted by 2million | December 27, 2010 9:28 PM

Fell into apartment buildings accidentally. Owned several single family homes in a college town which we managed ourselves. Eventually found a great 12-unit building in a perfect location. We 1031'd the others into it and then have expanded a little from there. I'm not afraid of work but I love having a management company deal with everything. We are now beginning to search for another. I've found that I need to keep re-leveraging or the cash-on-cash return starts to decrease. We have averaged a 19% wealth return on our real-estate with no plans to sell.

Posted by chris | December 28, 2010 10:46 AM

Looking through your stock portfolio I see that you don't do any options? Is that because you simply like being long or because it's not something you are comfortable with? I've become an "in the money" covered call investor and I find it's a great way to secure solid returns and protect myself when I don't trust the market.

Posted by chris | December 28, 2010 12:46 PM

Chris,
The only options we have are employer stock options. To be honest I'm not comfortable yet with stock options to really use them.

Ive come around to your view on having a mgmt company deal with them - up until the year or so I have done everything myself for our rentals, but am now seeing the value in outsourcing as much of that as I can - wish I had done it a bit sooner!

Posted by 2million | December 30, 2010 2:19 PM