October Personal Net Worth Report

In Monthly Net Worth Reports by Shlomo Freund6 Comments

 

Here is my monthly post of our personal net worth progress for October 2018.

I’m sharing this to show how important it is to track your net worth and seeing the progress.

This is what I also expect and advise my clients. From tracking, you can learn of what works and what you should change in your finances.

This month our personal net worth was down by -1.3 %.

I had a feeling this month will not be great. Portfolios kept slashing and going down, so as our personal net worth. but if you read any of my personal net worth previous reports, I’m not worried. Got plenty of time for the portfolio to go up at the age of 39. Obviously the older you get you’d like to start shifting your portfolio to less volatile assets. I’m not there yet of course. 

Envestio started this month paying its dividends. It’s still small amounts but it’s 4 times more return than September. How cool is that?! And just thinking of those amounts compounding really feels great.

Envestio even had a project this month that paid 23.5% if you invested within 2 days in it (afterward it went down to “only” 22%). I had to skip this one as I had no money in my Envestio account. 

If you do decide to join Envestio through my link, you’ll get an extra 5 € bonus + 0.5% cash back for the next 270 days after you invest

I started calculating my savings rate on a monthly basis.

Why is this important?

Because the higher your savings rate is the sooner you can retire on the same lifestyle level you are at right now.  As I don’t see my lifestyle change tremendously (nor I want to), I know that my savings rate really reflects when I can be financially independent.

Here is a wonderful post from Mr. Money Mustache comparing savings rate and how long it will take you to retire.

So far I have two calculations I’ve made. Last month (September) we reached 53.7% of savings rate and this month it’s 40.85% .

Because savings rate is so crucial to early retirement, I’d like to optimize it to the maximum. So, I did the following things this month:

  • I tried negotiating my bank loans interests rates. They are already pretty low (1.5- 2.3%), but it never hurts to try and lower them even more. It didn’t work though. Apparently, at least in my bank, lawyers and accountants get the lowest interest rates (1.5%), but I’m neither of those and I figured out it’s not worth to go to school for 4 more years only for that.
  • Something that did work, is lowering our internet bill fees. It’s about ~$3/month for one year (~$32-$33 total), but not bad for a 5-minute phone call. I hope by the time this offer will end the rates will drop even more.
  • I moved to a new life insurance company cutting our payments to almost half for the same coverage. That’s $145 of yearly savings.
  • I canceled one of my health insurances. For a few years, I’ve had a double coverage. Not anymore! That’s a saving of about $390/year.
  • I just discovered that my credit card started charging me monthly fees. I never paid credit card monthly fees and I don’t intend to start doing so. More news on this next month. Let’s see. I’ll negotiate.

Let’s dive into the details of my personal net worth

OUR PERSONAL NET WORTH ANALYSIS

Loans: As I mentioned last month I was renegotiating my interest rates and this month I saw that I can’t get any lower than the rates I have with the bank. There is one more option I’m trying to get better loans through my IRA broker. Let’s see.

US & Israeli Stock portfolio: Last month was a bloodshed in that front. Did I panic and sold the whole portfolio. Hell No! I’m there for the long run.

US real estate: I got a message that some of the portfolio was sold and we suppose to get the money in October. It didn’t happen. I hope it will happen this month and see the money in the bank.

Bitcoin: The amount stayed about that same in last month. My Hashflare Mining is not profitable anymore.

The plan for the next couple of months is looking for more real estate investment to have a constant cash flow from that. I’m having a meeting about it this week, so I hope to give you some news on that front next month.

PERSONAL LIFESTYLE AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE UPDATE

Podcast Interview: I was a guest at the financial independence Europe podcast. It was a fun conversation. Check it out

 

Reading: I’ve been reading a lot in the past few months and today I reached my Goodreads goal for 2018!

2018 Reading Challenge

2018 Reading Challenge
Shlomo has completed their goal of reading 12 books in 2018!
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My goal was to read 12 books and I did it almost two months earlier. I invite you to follow my Goodreads profile and read along with me. I’d love to share ideas.

The last book was “Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason” by Alfie Kohn. It was a tough one to read as it’s very academic, but its message is crucial. As a parent, that book made me think, a lot.

Here is what I read so far and tracked on Goodreads. Hope you join me!

I invite you to follow my Goodreads profile and read along with me. I’d love to share ideas.

Shlomo’s bookshelf: read

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On ItThe Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed and OverworkedScaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don'tFreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of EverythingA People's History of the United StatesThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal ChangeYour Money or Your LifeEarly Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial IndependenceContent Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful BusinessesVirtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Businessגן עדן בפתח הבית80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making MoreExpert Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Finding Your Message, Building a Tribe, and Changing the WorldSimple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable LifestyleGive Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a TimeThe Trusted AdvisorMoonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering EverythingCrusade in EuropeThe Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big DifferenceThe Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

 

Traveling: AND….last but not least. Sri Lanka is still on for our next workation destination! Here are some more pictures to get you in the vibe!

NOW OVER TO YOU

Do you track your personal net worth? What insights did you get this month? Add it in the comments.

 

Comments

  1. Sounds like you had about a good of a month as the rest of us. Good to know you are keeping your head and focusing on the things you can control (ie interest rate reductions, lowering monthly expenses etc)

    Keep it up!

    1. Author

      Church, thanks for saying this. Indeed we all move with the market and as I’m young I”m not really worried about this. In fact, might worth buying more of the dropped stocks. BTW, I picked the worst day on the month to calculate my net worth for October (I usually do it in the last 2-3 days of each month). I looked at my US portfolio, It’s not at its record by was up nicely on the 30th and 31st of October ( I calculated on the 29th). So, at the same time, I could have reported we are breaking even or a bit up.

      Anyway, thank you for following! Checking out your blog now.

  2. 1. US stock over-valued. 9 yrs bull market already since Y2009. will it drop especially as the federal reserve has kept raising interest rate continually?

    2. why not buy chinese stock? it’s under-valued for a period.

    3. how do u value Israeli stock?

    tks!!

    1. Author

      Hellen, you are missing the point. The point in the stock market is investing long-term (at least 15+ years). So, as you saw on my report, I don’t mind that my portfolio is losing value currently, as I know what’s the average return for long-term investments (7-10% a year depends who you ask).

      No one, can predict the market and know it’s direction for sure. It’s useless trying to do that.
      So, to your question, it doesn’t matter that the US stock market is bullish. I have no idea, when it will drop and not trying to guess. I don’t care. I don’t value Israeli stock myself but using a service doing it for me. But even with that service, I’m not they for a short-term. That will not work with value investing. I’m on those investments for the long term. And indeed, some of the stocks, I’m holding for a few years now.

      For the Chinese market, I really can’t answer as there isn’t enough trading history there and also a lot of government intervention. So hard to say.

  3. shaloom ;P

    I am around 30 years Swedish Dentist who is a Dividend Investor, hence SWE DEN DIV IN. I am the guy on the path to Financial Independence. I am one of the only FIRE bloggers out of Sweden who posts in English and I post everything from my monthly net worth and all income and expenditures to information about the everyday work of a dentist.

    nice nice blog i will be checking ur greeting

    1. Author

      Glad to get to know the only FIRE English bloggers in Sweden! Thank you for visiting!
      Just checked your website, will also come back for more visits. 🙂

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