December 2013 Net Worth Update (+$24,052)

Highlights for December

We close 2013 with a fantastic year of growth for our balance sheet. Our balance sheet grew $248K, more than any previous year for our family (see net worth growth for a nice summary of previous years). Another 4 years like this and we'll be financially free; if only!
Our properties are listed on our balance sheet based on their cost basis, not current market value. We have done this during the the real estate market highs and lows. I believe real estate is too illiquid to list based on recent sale transactions. For those interested, our December Zillow property estimates are: $210,482; $126,824; $295,330; and $238,678 (total: $871,314).

Our December net worth growth is driven by paper gains in the stock market and one time employer reimbursements from our move back to US. Expenses should be catching up with us in January.
My employer changed its 401k match contributions in 2013 to be paid fully at year end vs each paycheck. It turns out these funds won't show up in my 401k until Jan 1, 2014. That is a bit of pain from a balance sheet reporting perspective as we will end up getting ~$10k in 401k matches reported in 2014 vs 2013. We still get the match so I can't complain too much.
Leaving our house idle for 7 months while we were on assignment has been more costly than I expected. Upon our return both our cars needed work, our well/plumbing system needed some repairs, and several other things around the house are not working. Not to mention the 6+ months worth of maintenance work I now need to catch up on. Still it feels good to be home for a bit.
Career planning should be a major theme for me in early 2014 as I figure out what I'm going to do next now that my assignment is complete.

Related in Net Worth:

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Comments (3)

Nice work. The net worth growth chart is a little confusing. I recommend you create another column for additional investment (each year) and change the "port. return" column to IRR (Internal Rate of Return - which models cash in/cash out/cash value).

It is useful to differentiate between additional investment (from positive cash flow) and return on investment (capital growth). For example how do you characterize employee match of 401K? It is just another form of income and if you save it all, it is additional investment.

Posted by bill | January 6, 2014 8:51 PM

Great site. Great progress. It's inspired me to track our net worth on an annual basis.

Question: Do you max out all your retirement accounts? I noticed that you have a big chunk in the taxable brokerage accounts. If you don't max out your retirement accounts, is there a benefit to having taxable accounts?

Posted by Fred Manly | January 13, 2014 2:42 PM

Bill,
Thanks for your feedback -- Its a lot more work tracking net investment -- I did it 5-6 years ago and too many moving parts unless its a full time job :-). However I do have some additional data I've been collecting since 2009 so maybe to add this for the last couple years - stay tuned.

Fred - thanks for your comment. I do max out retirement accounts as follows - Roth IRAs max contribution for my wife and I, pre-tax 401k max contribution for myself, and employer SEP IRA contributions. I could potentially tweak a bit more for example with moving to Roth 401k - but prefer to have a heathly amount in taxable accounts for future flexibility with our early retirement/financial freedom plans.

Posted by 2million | January 13, 2014 7:54 PM