Monday, June 08, 2009

May 2009 Net Worth

I was planning to do a full net worth and expense wrap-up, but discovered that I somehow didn't paste my expense info into the spreadsheet I emailed myself at work, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. Today we'll just do the net worth.

And the net worth news is pretty good: up 3.85% in May, to about $347,209. (As always, a reminder that my home equity is somewhat in question. I've seen many stats that suggest that the value I use is not inflated, but to be on the safe side, my net worth could be $325-$347,000. Or maybe more! Or maybe less! Who knows... it's not the piece of my net worth I'm focusing on most these days, and it never hurts to be openminded.)

Cash and Bank Accounts $47,072, down 1.59%
Stocks/Mutual Funds (not incl. retirement) $14,008, up 10.29%
Bonds $4,860 (unchanged as I haven't checked the value in a few months-- actually the number would be higher.)
Retirement $189,382, up 6.21%
Home equity approx. $93,980, up 2.54% as I made an extra principal payment this month.
Credit card $2,093 balance at month end, but always paid in full when the bill comes.

Given the amount I have in cash/bank accounts right now, I'm starting to think I might want to shift a little of that back into the stock market. I still want to have a good emergency fund, given the somewhat shaky state of the industry in which I'm employed (publishing), but I have more than a year's cushion in cash right now, which I don't think is really necessary.

All in all, it's just nice to see things going in a positive direction again for the last few months. Let's hope we don't have another big crash... but at least I know I'm running a fairly tight ship! Onwards and upwards!

Expense wrap-up to come soon...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

a serious comment - not snarky or anything. I always thought that a house shouldn't be included in net worth. A home is a liability - a debt to be paid. And even if you own it outright, or a large portion of it, it's not liquid. And it's only worth what someone will pay for it, so you have to sell it to get that value. And even paid off, you have to pay property taxes, maintenance, etc.

Clearly, there are advantages to owning a home, especially once it is paid off and you have no monthly housing payment. Not arguing that one.

I guess I just don't see the benefit of considering home equity in a net worth analysis ... except as a feel-good, I'm paying down my debt feeling.

Nobrainerdeals said...

Congrats on your net worth this month. I am glad to see that you are up across the board

Jeremy Burlingame said...

I think in the Millionaire Next Door, they exclude home value?