Wednesday, March 15, 2023

2022 Income and Year-End Net Worth

In a previous post, I gave a run-down on all my 2022 expenses, in the form of a total for Sweetie and me. It's a more accurate way to do it, otherwise it might look like my food budget was shockingly high, or some other expense shockingly low because Sweetie paid for it.

As for income, I don't have all Sweetie's numbers handy, so you're going to have to settle for just mine!

I earned $82,660 in gross salary from my job. I also got $4,058 in 401k matching contributions.

I earned $575 from website stuff. (Amazon affiliate commissions and Google Ads)

I received cash gifts of $400. ($200 for my birthday and $200 for Christmas, from my mom.)

I earned $317 in interest on cash in bank accounts.

And I received $77,204 in assorted dividends and capital gains in my various investment accounts, including retirement and non-retirement accounts.

So that's a total of $165,217.

I'm always kind of amazed at how the investment income has become so large-- almost half the total this year. In 2021, it was even larger! About $150,560 vs. $80,116 for all the other income. But that was an extraordinary year.

Either way, it shows the power of all those early years of saving and investing. That snowball effect is really happening now, especially when the markets are doing well. Though it also looks more significant because my salary is less than half of what it was before I retired, down-shifted, took a sabbatical, or whatever you want to call it. With all the craziness of the past 3 years, I have to say I'm really glad I'm working again. I feel more secure knowing I have income covering my expenses, and decent healthcare coverage.

As for my net worth:

This was a bit annoying to figure out. I've just had some annoying Quicken problems where various securities were duplicated, and even though I've now fixed everything, the errors somehow are going backwards and throwing off my net worth for year-end 2022, and even back through earlier years as well. Luckily, I did post on this site that my 2021 year-end my net worth was $2,232,684. 

Unfortunately, 2022 was not kind to my investments. I ended the year at $1,779,292, which is the biggest net worth decline I've ever had in one year. In percentage terms, it's even worse than I did back in 2008 during the financial crisis. But I have a lot more money in the markets now, and I had some pretty big gains in 2021 and 2020. With my lower salary, I also can't save as much as I used to, which would have helped offset some investment losses. But luckily, I'm still ahead of where I was at the beginning of 2020.

It's a bit weird to realize that I'm basically saying "Yeah, I lost half a million dollars in a year, but no big whoop!" Part of me is really freaked out by that! But this is what investing is all about, risk and return, ups and downs. I will take a look at all my investments a bit more closely to make sure I still feel comfortable with how they're allocated and whether I should maybe be a little more conservative since I'm getting closer to traditional retirement age. I'll keep controlling what I can control, like spending, and try not to freak out about the rest. 

My net worth is at $1,857,838 as of this writing, so I'm riding some pretty big waves. I still feel good about where I am, especially given that I had a couple years when I had to spend down some savings while I had no income from a job. As shown in my last post, my expenses aren't exactly bare bones frugality, but I'm living within my means, and my shared means with Sweetie. But 2023 isn't looking all that promising, so I don't even know how to guess at a goal for the end of the year. Let's say $2 million. We'll see...


2 comments:

Daddyofjrt said...

Happy to see that you are back. I've been following your blog for 15+ years now and I do pop in from time to time to check for new posts. It's refreshing to follow your story as you've shared snippets of your life over the years and we can all learn something from your wisdom. Hope that we see more of you before the end of 2023. :)

Anonymous said...

I too have been a reader for 15+ years and so happy to see your post today. Glad you’re doing well and thriving!