It’s now been 22 months since we set a goal to pay off the mortgage (on our condo) and to have a net worth of at least $1M by 2020. This is the 22nd update on the progress of the goal. If you’re wondering why we set this goal, click here.
Here are the totals for the two years I’ve been tracking these financial goals:
2016: Net worth increased by $126,419 to $438,004; Mortgage principal reduced by $24,304 to $155,000;
2017: Net worth increased by $118,077 to $556,081; Mortgage principal reduced by $31,989 to $123,010;
Mrs. FrugaLee quit her job in February of 2017, but it’s interesting to see that our net worth still increased by a similar amount to 2016. We were even able to pay more on our mortgage this year.
Our investments performed well, and our childcare costs greatly decreased in 2017, thanks to Mrs. FrugaLee having more time. I worked more overtime since each marginal dollar wasn’t taxed as much as when we had dual incomes. Technically, we still have dual incomes now as Mrs. FrugaLee works part-time for our church, but it is substantially less than what she was bringing in before.
We are still on track for the net worth goal as our assets (real estate and investments) have been appreciating. Income becomes less of a factor in increasing net worth as assets start to take on more appreciation.
Net worth calculation:
Total Assets: $1,061,910.04
Condo (Rental property): $325,000
Primary residence: $515,000
Cash on hand: $8,694.94
Investments (including retirement): $213,215.10
Total Liabilities: $505,829.10
Mortgage on Condo (Rental property): $123,010.45
Mortgage on Primary Residence: $382,818.65
Net worth = $1,061,910.04 – $505,829.10 = $556,080.94
100% of our debt is mortgage debt at 3.25% interest; the condo is on a 7/1 ARM and our primary residence is on a 30-yr fixed.
Net worth progress:
Net worth = assets – liabilities, or everything we own minus everything we owe. I’m not including our cars here, which are both paid off, to keep the calculation a little simpler. I am including an estimate of home equity.
I am using my knowledge as a realtor to provide estimates of value for our real estate.
Our net worth increased this month by $5,740.22 to $556,080.94.
| Date | Home equity | Investments | Cash | Net Worth |
| 2/19/2016 | $140,695 | $149,076 | $21,813 | $311,584 |
| 3/19/2016 | $145,519 | $164,791 | $23,512 | $333,822 |
| 4/18/2016 | $150,007 | $171,697 | $17,457 | $339,161 |
| 5/17/2016 | $153,000 | $171,305 | $21,672 | $345,978 |
| 6/20/2016 | $160,100 | $174,881 | $23,094 | $358,075 |
| 7/19/2016 | $162,000 | $185,621 | $27,689 | $375,311 |
| 8/22/2016 | $163,000 | $192,479 | $24,437 | $379,916 |
| 9/20/2016 | $261,403 | $144,694 | $3,657 | $409,754 |
| 10/27/2016 | $261,806 | $151,425 | $5,735 | $418,966 |
| 11/21/2016 | $262,855 | $155,877 | $10,364 | $429,096 |
| 12/19/2016 | $264,290 | $162,281 | $11,432 | $438,004 |
| 1/19/2017 | $285,534 | $172,862 | $8,751 | $467,147 |
| 2/17/2017 | $286,865 | $178,666 | $12,980 | $478,511 |
| 3/17/2017 | $286,718 | $181,893 | $18,413 | $487,023 |
| 4/19/2017 | $290,196 | $184,580 | $16,472 | $491,247 |
| 5/15/2017 | $290,941 | $189,092 | $11,453 | $491,487 |
| 6/19/2017 | $293,950 | $187,627 | $21,135 | $502,712 |
| 7/17/2017 | $301,391 | $196,288 | $19,292 | $516,971 |
| 8/17/2017 | $312,523 | $195,913 | $21,981 | $530,417 |
| 9/19/2017 | $320,769 | $200,956 | $16,914 | $538,639 |
| 10/19/2017 | $326,848 | $204,144 | $10,283 | $541,275 |
| 11/20/2017 | $328,010 | $210,841 | $11,490 | $550,340 |
| 12/19/2017 | $334,171 | $213,215 | $8,695 | $556,081 |
This month, we reduced the principal by $494 by making only the minimum payment. We are going to spend a few months increasing our emergency fund. I may have some different plans for 2018.
| Date | Months left | Intermediate goal | Actual balance | Principal reduction |
| 2/19/2016 | 58 | $179,304 | $179,304 | – |
| 3/19/2016 | 57 | $176,700 | $174,481 | $4,823 |
| 4/18/2016 | 56 | $173,600 | $169,993 | $4,488 |
| 5/17/2016 | 55 | $170,500 | $167,000 | $2,993 |
| 6/20/2016 | 54 | $167,400 | $159,900 | $7,100 |
| 7/19/2016 | 53 | $164,300 | $158,000 | $1,900 |
| 8/22/2016 | 52 | $161,200 | $157,000 | $1,000 |
| 9/20/2016 | 51 | $158,100 | $156,597 | $403 |
| 10/27/2016 | 50 | $155,000 | $156,194 | $404 |
| 11/21/2016 | 49 | $151,900 | $155,789 | $405 |
| 12/19/2016 | 48 | $148,800 | $155,000 | $789 |
| 1/19/2017 | 47 | $145,700 | $154,000 | $1,000 |
| 2/17/2017 | 46 | $142,600 | $153,589 | $411 |
| 3/17/2017 | 45 | $139,500 | $152,178 | $1,411 |
| 4/19/2017 | 44 | $136,400 | $145,746 | $6,432 |
| 5/15/2017 | 43 | $133,300 | $143,909 | $1,837 |
| 6/19/2017 | 42 | $130,200 | $143,471 | $438 |
| 7/17/2017 | 41 | $127,100 | $142,472 | $999 |
| 8/21/2017 | 40 | $124,000 | $137,000 | $5,472 |
| 9/19/2017 | 39 | $120,900 | $129,416 | $7,584 |
| 10/19/2017 | 38 | $117,800 | $124,000 | $5,416 |
| 11/20/2017 | 37 | $114,700 | $123,504 | $496 |
| 12/19/2017 | 36 | $111,600 | $123,010 | $494 |
I set a bunch of non-financial goals for 2017. I have been working on some of these for some time now, but I wanted to keep a record of progress for myself. I also thought it would be interesting to keep a record of the books I’ve read somewhere.
I realized that I set way too many goals for 2017, so I made progress on many but only completed one. I need to focus a little more on just one or two things in 2018.
Goals for 2017
Here’s the status of all my goals for 2017.
- Be able to do 100 pushups in 2 minutes (currently at 25 as of 12/19/16); inspired by a friend who joined the 1000 lb club at age 36 (sum of bench, squat, deadlift)
- 35 pushups (1/2/17)
- 47 pushups (1/19/17)
- 50 pushups (2/16/17)
- 45 pushups (3/17/17) – regressed a little here
- 41 pushups (4/19/17) lack of training
- 45 pushups (5/15/17)
- 49 pushups (6/19/17)
- 53 pushups (7/17/17) – new high
- 63 pushups (8/21/17) – new high
- 62 pushups (9/19/17)
- 62 pushups (10/19/17)
- 58 pushups (11/20/17)
- 62 pushups (12/19/17)
- Be able to do 100 situps in 2 minutes
- 55 situps (1/19/17)
- 61 situps (2/17/17)
- 70 situps (3/17/17)
- 58 situps (4/19/17) – lack of training causes regression
- 66 situps (5/15/17)
- 70 situps (6/19/17)
- 68 situps (7/17/17)
- 75 situps (8/21/17) – new high
- 77 situps (9/19/17) – new high
- 79 situps (10/19/17) – new high
- 63 situps (11/20/17)
- 76 situps (12/19/17)
- Achieve a 1000+ rating in Table Tennis (817 as of 12/19/16) – GOAL ACHIEVED in April 2017 with a 1018 rating!
- 904 rating (1/4/17)
- 948 rating (1/19/17)
- 972 rating (2/16/17)
- 940 rating (3/17/17) – I feel like I’ve been getting better, but the competition has been improving too
- 1018 rating (4/19/17) – I finally got a membership and started to play more often over the past month, which has made a difference.
- 1005 rating (5/15/17)
- 984 rating (6/19/17)
- 1010 rating (7/17/17)
- 1009 rating (8/21/17)
- 1030 rating (9/19/17)
- 1030 rating (10/19/17) – haven’t been able to go this past month
- 1068 rating (11/20/17) – first time back in a while; surprisingly won matches
- 1068 rating (12/19/17) – didn’t play this month
- Read 20 books (my rating and a brief synopsis beside it)
- 1. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley – COMPLETED Dec. 2016 (9/10 – shows us that most millionaires don’t live the flashy lives portrayed in the media but are actually much more frugal than most people)
- 2. The Prodigal God by Tim Keller – COMPLETED Dec. 2016 (7/10 – a different perspective on the parable of the prodigal son where the elder brother is just as lost as the younger brother)
- 3. The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life by J.L. Collins – COMPLETED Jan. 2017 (9/10 – details a simple way to invest and emphasizes low-cost index funds like VTSAX; lots of great information too)
- 4. Half Retire – How to Escape the Rat Race Without Waiting to Win the Lottery! by Marcus Arce – COMPLETED Jan. 2017 (5/10 – goes through different ways to avoid typical full-time employment that usually lasts until traditional retirement age)
- 5. PUSH – A Guide to Living an All Out Life: The Story of Orangetheory Fitness by Ellen Latham, MS – COMPLETED Jan. 2017 (9/10 – written by the founder of Orangetheory Fitness; goes through the journey of how she came up with the concept and the franchise; lots of excellent testimonials and inspiring stories)
- 6. I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi – COMPLETED Jan. 2017 (7/10 – covers a wide variety of concepts; would be more useful to recent grads or those new to managing finances)
- 7. Is That Really You, God? by Loren Cunningham with Janice Rogers – Completed Mar. 2017 (9/10 – required reading for Daniel DTS class I’m taking; tells the story of how YWAM began and tells amazing stories of how God used them in the early years)
- 8. Entitlemania: How Not to Spoil Your Kids, and What to Do If You Have by Richard Watts – COMPLETED July 2017 (10/10 – author who has personal experience working with many wealthy families teaches parents what to do and not to do to prevent spoiling your kids; the responsibility mainly falls on the parents, NOT the kids)
- 9. My strategy to retire early: My journey to become financially independent and retire in my early 30s by Benjamin Davis – COMPLETED July 2017 (6/10 – author describes his strategy to retire early; interesting because I have similar goals but not as relevant for me because he plans to retire in Portugal)
- 10. unWorking: Exit the rat race, live like a millionaire, and be happy now by Clark Vandeventer – COMPLETED December 2017 (9/10 – really inspiring and great read; author discusses his hard times as well as the good; more about living life now, and that we don’t need money to be happy)
- 11. Passive Income by George Pain – COMPLETED December 2017 (6/10 – very quick read; not much new for me, but it quickly describes the well known ways to make passive income)
- 12. 50 Ways to Lose Weight by Colin Stuckert – Completed December 2017 (7/10 – quick read; outlines 50 ways to lose weight; most I already knew, but some new ones in there that were pretty good)
- Run a 5k in under 20 minutes (6:26/mi)
- 24:22 (7:51/mi) – 2017 Celebrate Community 5k (Alexandria, VA; Jan. 15, 2017)– first race after recovering from ankle surgery. Goal here is to set my baseline for the year and improve from here.
- 23:30 (7:29/mi) – self-timed using Strava App on May 13, 2017 in Greenbriar neighborhood in Fairfax, VA
- 24:34 (7:55/mi) – 2017 Potomac River Birthday Bash 5k (Fairfax, VA; July 23, 2017) – Fairfax Corner; hot day and lack of training
- 24:36 (7:56/mi) – 2017 Glory Days XC 5k – (Centreville, VA; October 7, 2017) – fun cross country race but didn’t train
- 24:05 (7:46/mi) – 2017 Dominion Consulting Veteran’s Day 5k – (Fairfax, VA; Nov. 12, 2017) – Fairfax Corner; nice, cold day
- Run a marathon in under 4 hours
- Get my weight under 155 lbs and keep it there
- 158.0 lbs (12/19/16)
- 158.0 lbs (1/19/17)
- 159.6 lbs (2/17/17)
- 157.8 lbs (3/17/17)
- 155.0 lbs (4/19/17) – starting doing some track workouts and played more table tennis
- 157.2 lbs (5/15/17)
- 154.2 lbs (6/19/17)
- 154.0 lbs (7/17/17)
- 159.2 lbs (8/21/17) – gained a lot of weight from traveling a lot this month
- 157.6 lbs (9/19/17) – traveling a lot these next few months
- 155.0 lbs (10/19/17) – ate better for part of the month
- 155.4 lbs (11/20/17)
- 156.4 lbs (12/19/17)
Photo source: Pixabay