My Seventh Net Worth Overshare
I've spent the past few days in Santa Fe, New Mexico celebrating my mother's 60th birthday. And it's an absolutely enchanting place. There are stunning things everywhere — the Sangre de Cristo foothills, Pueblo-style architecture, Southwest-inspired artwork, colorful wildflowers, and vivid, star-filled night skies.
Being here reminds me of why I relentlessly work toward my financial goals. Even when I stumble. Because financial freedom and location independence will be worth it. And in the future, I'll have more time to visit places like the Santa Fe School of Weaving, the Earthships of Taos, and the White Sands National Monument.
Until then, I'll continue to hustle, save, and track my progress.
Income
Ever since FinCon, I've been even more motivated to increase my income. And that means stepping up all aspects of my side business. I'm writing, consulting, and blogging with much more purpose than before. I have no doubt I can reach my $10,000 side income goal before next year's FinCon.
Expenses
It's been an expensive few months!
Between a friend's wedding, an impromptu trip to Maine, FinCon, and my mother's 60th birthday in Santa Fe, I've been blowing through a lot more money than usual. And, consequently, my September monthly budget took a hit.
But my family's talking about a gift-free Christmas. So, once I buy my flight home, there shouldn't be any more large expenses for the next few months.
Cash
You may have noticed my cash has been slowly increasing. I've been saving to make home improvements over the next year. How much will that cost? And what are the financing options? We've barely started doing the research. But I'll be slowly adding to this fund.
Investments
We've seen some rough waters in the markets lately. But I keep reminding myself of my long-term investing strategy. And I try not to be distracted by day-to-day market fluctuations.
Recently, I've started using Personal Capital to monitor my net worth. And I love seeing all my accounts in one place! Plus, it's great to see a clear breakdown of how much I'm paying in investment fees.
Note: If you sign up for a free account through my affiliate link above, I may receive a small bonus. I'd never recommend a product I don't personally save time with and enjoy!
Home Value
East Nashville's growth doesn't show any signs of slowing down. It's been crazy to watch my home's value climb $30,000 over the past 10 months. Even crazier? An increase of $72,000 over the past six years!
We've talked about renovating the basement by adding an additional living space for several months.
This would serve two purposes:
- A source of rental income via Airbnb or VRBO.
- Offer our families a free place to stay when visiting Nashville.
My home is my most valuable asset. And I love to use it to add another source of revenue.
Goals
My goals are simple — increase income and cut back on expenses. And my next milestone? $200,000. I'd love to get there over the next quarter.
Readers: How did your net worth change over the third quarter of 2015?
Discussions — 53 Responses
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Very positive outcome @kate and happy visiting of Sangre de Cristo and keep it up hope you will get $200,000 milestone soon.
Thanks so much for the encouragement, Jenifer!
When I did a “where should I live” quiz online, santa fe came up as #1, which totally surprised me because I’m a water girl through and through. But, I did read about it and it looks really pretty. Hope you enjoyed your time there! I think Nashville has just exploded in popularity. My goal is to find the next Nashville/Austin ish type place and move while it’s still cheap. I keep missing the boat. lol!
Santa Fe is absolutely beautiful, Tonya! You should check it out. I hate that places like Nashville and Austin have become so expensive. My sister was saying the same thing yesterday!
When you’re ready to start really thinking about renovations, give me a shout. For now, start looking at Pinterest and pin anything that looks remotely interesting. There are so many awesome ideas there that can really add value to your home, without breaking the bank.
Awesome, Mrs. 1500. I’ll definitely reach out to y’all when the time comes! 🙂
Santa Fe sounds like it was amazing! I can’t say I’ve ever been there, but your description has me sold to go sometime. 🙂 Good luck on your goal to $200,000! When you have that focus of increasing income & cutting back expenses it seems to balance out incredibly.
Thanks, Alyssa! It’s been an expensive few months. But hopefully, things will balance out a bit over the next quarter. I’m ready to save!
It’s nice to see your net worth increase over time. My net worth is still in the negatives for now. I don’t know why I haven’t signed up for Personal Capital yet but I really need to get on it.
One day at a time, right? Personal Capital has been great so far. A big time saver!
[…] Cashville Skyline @ $190,983 […]
Great to hear about your progress and your motivations, it’s good to get reminders every so often of what you’re working towards.
Definitely, Jim! It’s great to take a step back from the grind every so often and think about why we’re working so hard.
I hate that the value of retirement accounts is down right now, but at least we have a long time until retirement and the market will probably bounce back. Thanks for the overshare, Kate. 🙂
I hear you, Cat. It’s definitely been a frustrating year for investors. I keep reminding myself to stay the course and stop obsessively checking my Personal Capital account 😉
Your house is doing really well! That must be a good feeling. The car seems to be depreciating rapidly but I’ve seen cars go for way more and way less than they should.
Definitely, Will. I guess it’s not so bad for a 2006 Toyota Corolla. Hopefully, I’ll drive it for another 10 years!
I love it. Well done. I have no doubt you’ll hit $200,000 by the end of the year! And keep us posted on all your hustlin’ – it sounds like you’re doing quite well! I’ve never been to Sante Fe, but as a huge “Newsies” fan growing up, I always wanted to go there. 🙂
It’s absolutely beautiful, Maggie! I’m already dreaming about my next trip back.
I think it’s super impressive that you’ve set such ambitious goals for your side hustling. Good luck hitting that target, and great job with the net worth growth. Considering how far down all of our accounts are, I’m impressed when anyone shows gains in the last quarter!
I hear you! It can definitely be disheartening to see these kinds of losses. But I have to stick with my plan and stay the course.
A gift-free Christmas sounds awesome! I had been thinking of that as well, but my mom came up with one request so far (a steamer), which I don’t mind. I’m very glad I don’t have to buy a plane ticket home for the holidays as a tank of gas is much cheaper, but this trip to NY isn’t without its costs! It seems like your spending is still in line with your values (family/friends/travel) and you’ve got your eye on it. Love the part about improving and using your home as it’s your best asset.
My parents haven’t agreed to a gift-free Christmas yet. But I’m hoping they come around after our Santa Fe trip. My sister and I are both on board. Travel always has a way of creating unexpected expenses, huh? Even when you’re trying to be frugal.
Kate,
Nice work on adding ~$50K in net worth YTD. It looks like that’s coming primarily from your home, but you take what you can get – right? I think you are really on the right track by trying to get AirBnB going on your basement once renovated. That should provide some nice income for minimal ongoing work and help you get to your goal of >$10K a year on side-hustles.
I am checking out more about Earthships now. I saw a youtube about it a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t connect the dots with Taos. Very interesting stuff!
Those Earthships are cool, huh? I can’t wait to go back to New Mexico to check out Taos. And thanks for the encouragement about my house!
I haven’t crunched the numbers yet, but our net worth did go up at least marginally. Like you, we had a rough September. I missed some work after FinCon to hang out with my mom, so even a semi-bad credit card bill has us scrambling to avoid dipping into savings.
August was a pretty punishing month too. Just a ton of things piling up at once.
Point being, I don’t think we made much of a dent, but we moved forward. In the end, that’s about all I can ask for.
I need to check on the value of our house. About a year and a half ago it was worth $125,000 with a major cosmetic issue we’ve fixed. That’s still a $30,000 jump from the value when we bought the house four years ago. Housing prices continue to climb, so I’m guessing it’s worth at least $130k now, maybe more.
That’s encouraging about your home, Abigail. I hope to make some progress in Q4 that’s not related to my home. The next two and a half months should be less expensive!
Good luck on your new milestone! I’m really trying my best to save more and to cut back on some of my expenses too.
Nice, Kate! Best of luck with your goals. You can’t go wrong with cutting expenses and saving more.
I have to be honest – I haven’t checked my net worth in a while. I tend to avoid checking when the stock market is doing crazy things!
Ugh, I know! It’s kind of hard to watch. You’re smart to ignore the market fluctuations and keep hustling!
I think adding value to your home is a great idea for earning “passive income.” I’d eventually like to do the same thing,
I’m not at the pint of checking my net worth, the main reason being I’m in denial of my massive debt number.
One day at a time, right? Best of luck with your goals this quarter, Shirria!
Hey, great job, you will be at $200k soon. Nicely done.
Steve’s Latest post: http://www.weretiredearly.com/Blog/2015/10/13/financial-independence-101-what-are-bonds/
Thanks for the encouragement, Steve!
Santa Fe is one of our favorite destinations to recharge and relax. It is definitely a worthy FI motivational vision. Its nice that our housing was at least shielded from the recent market beating. It took courage to check your net-worth after that. I just looked at my end of month statement and was glad I waited until now when the market has recovered a little before doing so.
I hear you, Tommy! The market’s been rough. It’s nice that there’s been at least a small recovery.
Wow you are close to hitting $200k. If you keep up this growth rate you will be there before you know it. I loved the positive vibes of this article and now I want to publish a net worth article of my own haha Sante Fe looks amazing!
Isn’t it funny how a taste of financial freedom motivates us to achieve it faster? I am sitting on a vacation (for a wedding) in West Palm Beach right now relaxing, reading some articles, and having a great time with my fiance. If this is what financial freedom has in store for me, I’ll take it. Althoguh, I’m sure it’ll be at a much more affordable place than here.
You are making amazing progress. Keep up the great work and keep finding ways to achieve FF sooner. I’m sure those basement renovations are going to do wonders as you turn your biggest, most valuable asset into a cash flow generating machine.
Bert, One of the Dividend Diplomats
Thanks so much for the encouragement, Bert! And you should totally post your net worth. I love tracking it every quarter to get a complete picture of how my finances are looking. Enjoy the rest of your vacation! 🙂
That’s a great bump in the 3rd quarter considering the market drop. $200k seems very achievable.
Thanks so much for the encouragement, Tre! I’m trying to keep my eye on $200K for the next few months.
Congrats on increasing the cash you have on hand, and I’m sure you will reach 200K soon. The dedication to stay focused will pay off in no time. Yeah September was a budget buster for me as well.
Thank you, EL. September seems like it was a rough month for everyone! Let’s stay focused for the next 10 days 🙂
Great job with your net worth! You’re making a ton of progress every quarter. It’s much harder for us to make progress when the stock market is in decline because our net worth is so dependent on it. I’d be happy to stay flat this year.
Best wishes
Thanks for reading and commenting, Joe! And I totally agree about the stock market. Hopefully, things will improve over the next couple of months or so. I’d also love to be flat for the year!
I love watching your cash continue to increase. I know it got to some scary zones while you were going through your career change, but I love that you have made up for that and continue to move forward. You are totally going to hit your income goal and I can’t wait to see how you do it!
Thanks for the continued support, Shannon! You’ve really motivated me. I think about our FinCon chat all the time 🙂
Sweet increase! I’m around 55k and would love to double it by next year.
Nice, Stefanie! I have no doubt you’ll reach that goal. You’ve been killing it with all your hustling.
Man, Kate, you are killing it! I can’t even imagine being up around 200k yet. 70k is kind of what I’m hoping for over the next year, and considering my weird employment options and a few other expenses I know I’ll have to deal with… it’s looking pretty unlikely.
Nashville seems like a really awesome place. I’m hoping some tour I’m on will cross through there someday. I really loved Memphis.
Thanks, Mel. And $70,000 is a fantastic goal. Please hit me up if your show comes through Nashville. I’d love to take you out for a glass of whiskey 🙂
[…] touched on a few trip details in My Seventh Net Worth Overshare. But it’s worth restating how stunning the city is. And how grateful I am to have spent […]
Well done on the progress, and on making the real figures public so regularly.
I only manage percentage changes for total net worth, and only once a year.