Last month, we officially passed the halfway mark on the $1M net worth goal. See that update here.
It’s now been 17 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 17th update on the progress of the goal. If you’re wondering why we set this goal, click here.
In the interest of better disclosure, I want to note that we do have a mortgage on our primary residence as well. When we bought our new house last year, our condo became a rental property. The mortgage goal tracks our progress on paying off the mortgage on the condo, not the house we live in now.
I’ve been meaning to somehow include both houses in these updates for a while. For now, I will keep the mortgage goal the same but include a small section below showing both of our mortgages to provide a clearer picture of how I arrive at the net worth calculation each month.
Net worth calculation:
Total Assets: $1,045,580
Condo (Rental property): $320,000
Primary residence: $510,000
Cash on hand: $19,291.94
Investments (including retirement): $196,288.06
Total Liabilities: $528,609.33
Mortgage on Condo (Rental property): $142,471.65
Mortgage on Primary Residence: $386,137.68
Net worth = $1,045,580 – $528,609.33 = $516,970.67
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.
This month, I decided to change the way I estimate the value of the real estate once again. The Zillow and Redfin estimates were too erratic and inaccurate. For example, Zillow estimates my condo is worth over $377k this month. From here on, I am going to use my knowledge as a realtor to provide more conservative estimates of value for our real estate.
Our net worth increased this month by $14,258.81 to $516,970.67. I have been working more overtime and have been more active and aggressive with some investments.
| 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 |
This month, we reduced the principal by $999. We are falling behind on this goal, but I think later this year we will make a large lump sum payment to bring us back on track.
| 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 |
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.
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
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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
- 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)
Photo source: Pixabay
You put $516,970 for your home value and mentioned Zillow is at $377,000. Is it just your area that sees such drastic difference?
Most of us use Zillow for Net Worth. Now am thinking is it even correct? (I do see that Zillow estimates my house $68,000 less than what Redfin does and realtor.com estimates even lower than Zillow but I use Zillow’s estimate for my house)
Zillow is ok to get a ballpark number but I’ve noticed it can be way off. I would check comparable sales in your area to get a better idea of value.
By the way, I valued the condo at $320k. Our total net worth including investments is $516k.