Wednesday 1 April 2015

March 2015 Net Worth: $549,000 (+2.2%) and Goal Tracker

I love updating my month end net worth post.  I actually don't spend that much time during the month focusing on it because unless I'm actively changing something in portfolio it does me no good to keep track of where I am day to day.

This post includes a category of liabilities I included recently called "future liabilities" which is where I account for the fact that I have committed to spend a certain amount on different activities and that some of the cash on the 'assets' column of my balance sheet are actually already accounted for.  At March 2015 my future liabilities balance sits at $52,000 - a significant drop compared to last month.

March 2015 Net Worth: $549,000 (+2.2%)


Value
% Change
Assets
$964,000
-0.1%
Liabilities
$415,000
-3.0%
Net worth
$549,000
+2.2%

My performance this month was actually much better than the $540,000 I was originally aiming for.  It was really driven by a reduction in my future liabilities balance (which I discussed above) with some other small positives along the way.

Below I have outlined some of the positive and negative factors which affected my performance

Positive factors

  • A significant reduction in my future liabilities balance
    • My future liabilities balance decreased by ~$13,000 this month.  Although some of this reduction was offset by cash (or an increase in credit card debt) to pay for the expenses, a lot of the expenses were also borne by my fiance
    • We are planning a wedding together and a large part of the liability relates to the wedding and honeymoon expenses
    • For the sake of simplicity I include the whole liability on my balance sheet however she has been saving and paying for significant parts of the wedding and honeymoon as well
  • A large reduction in my credit card bill
    • My credit card balance was abnormally high last month and I have managed to bring this down slightly this month (although not nearly as much as I should have)
  • Continued savings towards my employee share plan and emergency fund
    • My employee share plan is the only guaranteed return I will ever get in my life and I continue to contribute the maximum amount that I can 
    • I will discuss this below but I also continued to save towards my emergency fund
  • A particularly good outcome on a recent share purchase plan
    • I have historically had pretty bad luck when it comes to my share purchase plans however one finally went well for me.  I will write about this in more detail soon.

Negative factors

Unfortunately this month had a slew of negative factors which affected my result including
  • A significant step up in my capital gains tax liability
    • As mentioned before I am starting to feel uncomfortable with the levels the stock market is currently reaching and I am taking the opportunity to sell some of my more overvalued stocks
    • However this has the downside of crystallizing capital gains tax liabilities which I will have to pay at the end of the financial year
    • Although I have to pay this tax I still think it is the best thing to do
  • I didn't sell my current car when I purchased my sports car
    • Originally my plan was the sell my current car to fund my sports car however I actually haven't sold my current car yet which has two impacts 
      • I'm now paying for 2 cars; and
      • I had to pay out of pocket for my sports car (above what I had saved cash for it) because I didn't have the cash from old car
  • Limited contributions to my savings
    • Given the significant credit card debt I was paying down this month I didn't actually get to contribute very much to my savings at all
    • In fact I've had to dip into my savings in order to pay for essentials this month.  I'm hoping this will revert soon

Overall I was pretty happy with this month.  In the coming month I expect to continue to sell shares and realise capital gains liabilities which will have a negative impact on my net worth.  However in a net sense I shouldn't see too much impact from large expenditures given that most of them should be wedding related.  On that basis I am hoping for a net worth of $553,000 for April 2015.

March 2015 Goal Tracker


This year I am not tracking every dollar I spend.  It is far too hard when you start to integrate finances with your partner and so I'm just tracking my performance against my financial goals for the year.  This month I didn't actually progress significantly against any of my goals.  The increase in honeymoon savings was actually driven by my partner (I personally only managed to save $1,000 this month towards it).

A quick note on the value of my share portfolio.  The value of my invested capital is actually significantly less than shown as I sell out of shares however I plan on reinvesting them and keep the cash in a separate share trading account which is why you haven't seen the balance fall as much as you might ordinarily.


GoalMar 152015 Total2015 TargetRemainingAchieved?
#1: Get Married+$0$5,000$5,000$0YES
#2: Honeymoon+$3,000$3,000$20,000$17,000No
#3: Home Deposit+$0$0$40,000$40,000No
#4: Emergency Fund+$833$2,500$10,000$7,500No
#5: Share Portfolio-$480$268,264$276,000$7,736No


6 comments:

  1. Hey 90M,

    Really good to see the goals, it is actually or seems like it is easier to connect to it this way rather than purely looking at number and not having an aim with them..

    Well done on the net worth increase and interesting that you're aiming @ a 4K increase rather than a larger aim? That's less than 1%

    I suppose there is the home deposit and the honeymoon to be paid for though :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jef,

      It's so much easier to track when I just have a few goals instead of trying to track every dollar. That being said...my discipline has definitely fallen away somewhat!

      The problem with having a net worth target month to month is that you have no idea what the share market is going to do in that time. All I can control are my income and my expenses and it's on that basis that I'm hoping for $4k for the month

      Actually it may turn out to be worse than that because I'm realising some significant share investment profits at the moment which is creating a tax liability

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  2. Agreed it's easier to track when you've got a few goals, have actually started recording every, or most $'s that I spend & although I'm not 100% sure it's reduced spending, it's really made me conscious of the amount that I am spending and creates a realistic view

    Fair call on the share market and 4K a month is a great objective to aim for!

    Settled on the property last Thursday as well, feels surreal and not even that big of a step, ironically feels bigger to be having my wisdom teeth taken out next week :O

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    Replies
    1. Hey Jef - I think you'll find that as you become more conscious of how much you spend on certain things that you will subconsciously start to limit that spending.

      Nice work on the property! Was it in Brisbane like you originally planned? How was it working with a buyers agent?

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  3. Hey yeah agreed although still struggling somewhat to keep a hold on what is being spent.. It could be the case that I need to re-allocate some of the budget spending however will give it 6 months to see how it goes

    Yes, it's in a suburb called Zillmere, about 15km's north of Brisbane. If you'd like more info shoot me a note and would be happy to discuss

    Turns out they were okay in the end, they really shortcut the process and in theory do the research for you, which could be perceived as the lazy way out but it made sure I acted rather than doing analysis paralysis :)!

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    Replies
    1. Congratulations! That's great news Jef! Will definitely shoot you an email to get more information.

      I'd love it if you could keep me up to date on what it is like to own an investment property interstate. I couldn't get my head around it so would love to hear about your experiences over time

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