Our net worth increased by $85K in 2023. This works out to $25K retirement contributions & a $60K increase in stocks. I am depreciating our autos aggressively but that is offset by mortgage paydown. Home values remain steady.
Re: my sidebar big picture goal, this leaves $35K to come up with in the next 3 years.
I am looking it up and I have $32,000 of kids' gift money sitting in investments in our name (included in our net worth). In addition to $38K I have loosely earmarked for college. That's $70K we may be drawing down over the next 4 years. So it may be more realistic that we need to come up with $105K (35K + 70K) over the next 3 years, to stay on track.
Estimate Net Worth Change for 2024:
Mortgage: Paydown $10,000 <--Regular payments + $2,000
Retirement: Contribute $24,000
Investment Gains: $26,000 <---Investments doing the hard work for us
TOTAL INCREASE: $60,000
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.
I am just presuming that other savings/investing and college spending will mostly be a wash. As I type this out, just wondering aloud if I should adjust this estimate downwards. But as I think it through, 2024 will likely be a wash. It's going to be a much bigger college hit in 2025 or 2026.