September 2012 Net Worth Update (+$33,420)

September was an all around fantastic month for us with positives across the board!

Highlights for September

We 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 balance sheet based on their cost basis, not current market value. We did this while the real estate market was riding high and we continue to do it now during the slide. I believe real estate is too illiquid to list based on recent sale transactions. For those interested, our October Zillow property estimates are: $195,012; $126,354; $288,446; and $232,711.
My wife and I were blessed with our 2nd daughter in September. We are all still getting settled and I'm using a couple weeks of vacation I saved up to help with the adjustment.
September was an awesome month for our investment portfolio and we performed nicely compared to our benchmark (+3.47% vs +2.50%) for a change. I'll post our investment report shortly.
September also marks the third month in the row with an above average ($20k+) jump in net worth. We are now a stone's throw away from being millionaires (on the balance sheet at least). Assuming the economy stays on track we will hit the million net worth mark before year-end. Its a big motivator for me for the last couple weeks and I'm starting to relish the moment as its been a long time coming. I'm thinking its important to somehow celebrate the milestone with my wife to recognize everything we've done and sacrificed to get here in our journey to financial freedom. I'll have to give that some thought - let me know if you have any ideas.
We reshuffled some mortgages to reduce our overall cash flow requirements. With the payoff of the primary mortgage on House #1, I received a $2,500+ payment for the escrow balance from the mortgage (for property taxes/insurance) and applied those funds to the equity line on property #2. I plan to pay the property taxes from that equity line at the end of the year.
Part of our cash increase for the month was the result of submitting all our health expenses for the year to our flexible spending account. Its a nice little cash boost.
We locked in on a 3.5%, 30yr fixed, no closing cost refinance on property #4 during the last week of September (we are currently at 4.325%). Im hoping this will further help us free up additional cash flow, but don't want to bank on it just yet. I'll post further details once we get further into the refinance.

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Comments (6)

Hey 2million -
What a great deal on your refi -- 3.5% 30yr with no closing costs! What bank did you end up going with - I can't remember from your recent posts if you mentioned.
Also - congrats on the second little one. It's a blessing, even if it sometimes feels like managed chaos at home :) Good luck!

Posted by Mike @ SendMeThatRecipe | October 4, 2012 4:32 PM

Good going 2million, you are so on your way to the finish line. It is nice to get across the 7 figure mark. It really looks nice on spreadsheets with that extra digit and comma. :) Congrats again!

Posted by freedom5 | October 4, 2012 10:45 PM

Could you open up a bit more your cash flow situation? I was just wondering how much did you really earn this month because your cash & savings increased by 5000$ and your liabilities decreased by the same amount. Does this mean that you earn over 10000$ this month?

P.S. Good luck for the 1 million, I'm not even near there yet. :)

Posted by Jack | October 5, 2012 12:59 PM

Mike - Thanks! I use a local mortgage broker, but believe the loan will be through Freedom mortgage.

Jack - Good catch. It was a particular strong month regarding our cash flow. Probably the easiest way to net it down is in terms of major cash contributions: $5k salary, $3.4k rental income, $2.6k escrow refund, $2k FSA withdraw/reimbursement, plus the normal dividends/interest and some other items such as web site income, etc. So we had nearly $5k (FSA/Escrow) in 1 time transfers that moved onto our balance sheet this month.

Posted by 2million | October 5, 2012 4:59 PM

For a true net worth calculation, you may want to consider the 6% real estate agent fee you have to pay when you sell your properties.

Posted by John G | October 6, 2012 6:29 PM

Do you have the rental properties in a llc or own? When you did a refi, was it a investment mortgage? Probably not, 'coz 3% 30yr is a great rate.

Posted by unimax | October 9, 2012 11:47 AM