Once again I will joke about how January was certainly a long year. Now we prepare for the shortest month of the year! February is here and the excitement of Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras is in the air. Yes, I’ve already eaten about three king cakes and still have another week to go. #noragrets
Well we may be getting close to Valentine’s, but the market is not showing any love. The market has finally brought some pain on its investors. As of writing this (February 5), the Dow has dropped 1175 points. I feel as though my update numbers have dramatically changed, but I will go ahead and report them anyway.
Finally, it is time for a net worth update!
The totals in this update represent the market at the end of day on January 31, 2018.
Cash $3,527.39 (-$925.89)
The cash stash went down this month after I aggressively funded my Roth IRA. I can proudly say I can mark this off my 2018 goals as the Roth IRA 2018 contribution is now fully funded. My plan was to use the 2018 funds to purchase REITs. I like the idea of REITs in the Roth IRA because they generally pay a higher dividend. The higher dividends will help compound, and as long as I don’t touch the money before 59 1/2, I won’t have to pay any taxes.
Taxable $14,501.47 (-$2,597.86)
The only reason this account went down is because I was holding $3,000.00 in my brokerage account in which I sent over to the Roth IRA. Once again the 2018 Roth contribution is now complete, so any gains and losses for the rest of the year will be from market movements and my contributions.
Roth IRA $81,803.37 (+$8,686.93)
My contributions of $5,500.00 along with the stock market going up contributed to a pretty nice gain.
403b $26,642.64 (+2,957.97)
I work for a non-profit organization, which is why I have a 403b plan. I will contribute $800 a paycheck to this until this contribution limit of $18,500.00 is maxed out. So $1600.00 of these gains is from my contributions, and the remaining is from market appreciation.
401a $1,565.93 (+$30.35)
My company opens a separate account in which they contribute 4% of the employees salary. They contribute this money no matter how much the employee is contributing to his/her 403b plan. They contribute one lump payment at the end of February, so I will be receiving my 2017 contribution from them at the end of this month. The gains here are completely market appreciation.
Total Assets $128,040.80 – Total Liabilities $606.34 = Net Worth $127,434.46 (8,111.87)
Well the higher the market goes, the more impressive these numbers look. Now that the market has tanked two days in a row, and looking like today will be no different, it could be a sad February. We will cross that bridge when we get there.
For now, I’m very happy with these numbers. Hard work and consistent saving is certainly paying off.
Below is my individual income and spending for January:
Some people may think it’s weird, but my wife and I have both a joint account and separate account for our finances.
We both contribute $600 on the 1st and 15th of every month into our “House Fund.” This money is used to pay the mortgage/bills along with our restaurant visits/outings on the weekend.
I am still working on updating my budget page that will have a breakdown of our monthly spending. Hopefully, that will be out later this month.
Two things I must note:
My second paycheck is higher thanks to the tax cuts.
My side hustle income from waiting tables is normally not this high. It usually runs between $500-$700, depending on how much I work and how generous people are with their money ;).
