+$105,000!
Wow, what a year! My money worked harder than I did this year, for sure.
{We've many times had six figure real estate increases in a single year, but have never had these kind of stock market gains}.
It was a good year to have this win. I had taken a pay cut and we had some significant expenses. Which makes it all the more incredible how the year turned out.
I was just excited and wanted to make sure to crunch numbers first thing to see where we landed.
We paid down the mortgage by $9,000 and the rest was stock market contributions and gains. (If you are wondering why I'd rather invest than pay down my mortgage more rapidly, this is probably a good illustration. Maybe especially considering that we have also had many $100k+ gains with a mortgaged home).
Today we could pay off our mortgage and still have $340,000 cash/investments. For the first time, we could do this with only cashing out about 1/2 our ROTH IRA and all of our taxable investments. It's the first time we could leave everything else intact (emergency fund, kids' college, rest of retirement, etc.). I am not tempted yet, but honestly, if I had an additional $50k in investments, we could pay off our mortgage AND leave six figures in our ROTH IRA. At that point, I would probably be tempted. Especially with just cashing out at a peak. Taking the money and running. I've always said there is a tipping point. I just have never been so close to the tipping point. If my stocks go up $100k next year, I wouldn't rule it out. (We seriously considered doing this with our house in 2005, but we just missed the boat. We had literally decided to move and cash out our house, doing a second "moving to a significantly lower cost region" move, but the market started to tank before we executed the move. We clearly weren't the only ones who had this idea). I am afraid we are probably in "will just miss the boat territory" this time too. Will see...
P.S. I'd honestly rather the market go down and be able to buy stocks cheaper. While it's fun to see big numbers on the balance sheet, I don't think of this huge stock market run up during my prime working years as being terribly useful to my long-term wealth.
We need our net worth to continue to increase (on average) $50k per year to reach our Financial Independence goal at age 50.
Estimate Net Worth Change for 2020:
Mortgage: Paydown $7,000
Investments: Contribute $4,000
Retirement: Contribute $21,000
Investment Returns: $18,000 (would need 4% gain)
TOTAL INCREASE: $50,000
Our net worth changes never look anything like our estimate (it's rare any asset class actually has an average year). But, I go through this exercise just to make sure my goal is realistic and doable.
P.S. We will likely hit the $1 mil mark with our assets this year. Just $30k to go... That will be a very exciting milestone.
P.S.S. Good Riddance to 2019! I wish I was more optimistic about 2020, but it's shaping up to be very difficult. I can only hope for some space whatsoever to breathe and process anything that is happening.
Net Worth Update
January 1st, 2020 at 03:12 pm
January 1st, 2020 at 05:03 pm 1577898184
January 1st, 2020 at 07:50 pm 1577908212
Butterscotch - California passed a minimum wage increase several years ago: minimum wage is increasing to $15 in annual increments. For 2020, it goes to $13 per hr for employers with 26 or more employees, $12 per hr for employers with 25 or fewer employees. Answering your question just in case Monkey Mama does not come back for awhile, and you are on pins and needles meanwhile (and because I just happened to see it).
January 2nd, 2020 at 01:30 pm 1577971815
Butterscotch, your question is timely because I am updating all of our spreadsheets today for annual #s. So it's right in front of me anyway, my husband has had a 40% raise in income since he took job. Some is working more hours, but most of it is minimum wage increases.