I hope everyone had a great holiday. December saw some good performance in the stock market. US economy added 155,000 jobs in December, unemployment rate stayed at 7.8 per cent. This means all the government stimulus and spending in the past has halted, and now the pressure is on the private sector to create jobs and generate new taxes to help pay back the money borrowed from those stimulus programs. Overall I feel pretty confident about the global financial outlook in 2013.
- Part-Time Work = $1,100
- Dividends = $400
*Discretionary Spending:
- Eating Out = $100
- Others = $2,500
*Net Worth: (MoM)
- Assets: total = $497,500
- Cash = $1,000 (–$19,200)
- Stocks = $68,700 (+$1,300)
- RRSP = $29,800 (-$700)
- Home = $248,000
- Farm = $150,000 (New)
- Liabilities: total = $357,200
- Mortgage = $204,500 (-$300)
- Farm Loan = $112,000 (New)
- Margin Loan = $20,900 (unch)
- Line of Credit = $19,800 (New)
- RRSP Loan = $0 (-$1,000)
*Total Net Worth = $140,300 (+1.67%)
Net worth on Dec 31st, 2011 = $102,300
So year over year change = +$38,000 (+37.1%)
I finally used all the money I had in a trust account to pay for the down payment on a farm so my net worth statement will have some new additions. Also the $2,500 expenses under the “Others” spending category is the legal fees associated with purchasing the farmland. Last year at this time I had just broken the 6 figure net worth mark. This year I am $38,000 wealthier and continuing on my way to financial freedom.
* Numbers are rounded to the nearest $100.
Good Job ! 🙂 How much do you think you will be able to accumulate in 2013 ?
My goal for 2012 was to increase my net worth by $40K which I was just shy of. So in 2013 I will aim for a $50K increase, because this year I have a lot more appreciating assets so I’m counting on their value to grow :0)
Just curious – is the margin loan for stock purchases in one of your brokerage accounts? Just curious what your terms are there and what you had the confidence to purchase on margin.
Yeah, included in my “stocks” category I have 3 accounts, a TFSA (Roth IRA equivalent), cash account, and margin account. I have about $33K in that margin account, so about $12K in actual equity in there because $21K is debt. The current interest rate is 4.25% to borrow on margin and in this account I have Canadian banks which I believe pays an attractive and safe dividend, some oil and gas companies, and Cineplex, a theater company.
Looks like you are off to a great START!!! ;-0
Thanks, hopefully I can pay down some of my newly accumulated debt throughout this year.
Wow that’s a great net worth! Hopefully you’ll be able to hit your 50k increase goal this year. I’d love to finish up the year with a positive net worth, which I think will be doable.
Good luck. I think you’ll have no problems doing that.
Fantastic. My goal for 2013 is a $50K net worth increase.
Mine too. Let’s see if we can both knock it out of the park this year :0)
Nice job! I’m looking forward to breaking the 6 figure mark one day. But first… the student loans. :/
Good thing interest rates are low so you can pay them loans back faster.
Excellent job tracking your net worth. I think it is such an important activity to undertake.
I particularly like that you graphed your progress. I find it so much more satisfying looking at it on a graph – I am a little weird like that :s
I’m a visual person myself so I prefer graphs too. I think tracking earnings, spendings, and net worth are really important to improving one’s finances.
Great work! That kind of an increase is nothing to sneeze at. 🙂
Ah-choo! (>.<)
You sure have a very good head start for a young guy like you! If you’re averaging $40k every year for the next 10 yrs, you’ll accumulate $400k more by the time you’re 35!
I only got 4 yrs away to 35 and no where close retiring! Maybe I’ll aim for 45 as my goal. I plan to save $1k each month for 2013 and onwards… dunno if I can do that when i have mortgage after 2014 though -_-
$400K by 35 would be awesome. Using the 4% rule I’ll have $16K of passive income every year from my stock portfolio :D. I was lucky and had a bit of a head start :0) A mortgage will slow down savings, but if interest rates continue to stay low then that would mean more of your monthly payments would go into your principle which is like additional savings.
This is a great achievement towards your financial independence, Liquid. Congrats!
Particularly with your diverse investments.
How are you going to invest your additional savings in 2013? Paying off mortgage and debts or investing some where else?
Haha, you know me, If interest rates continue to be this low then I am going to take all the money I can to invest and not pay down any debt if I can help it. I’m not sure how I plan to invest in 2013 yet, I guess it will depend on new opportunities that arise. If there are none then I will work on my long term goal of buying dividend paying stocks. I plan to make at least $10K a year from dividends by the end of 2015.
You’re doing great – particularly with the amount you’re managing to save. Very few people have the perseverance to set that money aside – particularly people in their 20’s! 🙂 You’re net worth graph has been quite linear so far, but soon you should start to see some exponential growth once compounding kicks in.
Hope you’re right about the compounding kicking in soon. I actually plan to grow my net worth by $50K this year, which is $10K more than in 2012. We’ll see how it goes :0)
I always love it when I stop by here and you are optimistic! It makes me feel optimistic!
Glad my optimism is showing through ヽ(^o^)丿
Awesome! You are a much smarter investor than I at your age. I maybe 40 and retired now, but you my friend will be in a much better position at my age, so be prepared. Last year my famlies networth grew by 11%, which if I look over the last 7 years data, is about 1% less than my running average of 12% annually – although that is including the market meltdown of 2008 at -13% for us… Cheers to you my friend and good luck (of which we both know luck has very little to do with it – more like good honest research and planning) in achieving your 2013 goals! (^U^).
I like your smiley face lol. That’s how you know you have really reached the target of financial independence, when you are not working 9 to 5, and still have your net worth go up double digits annually 🙂 Once you’re well balanced and diversified, even a major recession will only be a bump on your continuous life of retirement. I hope to get there too in 10 to 20 years.