It’s been 13 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 13th 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 my 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: $1,027,961.52
Condo (Rental property): $316,314
Primary residence: $511,342
Cash on hand: $18,412.61
Investments (including retirement): $181,892.91
Total Liabilities: $540,938.32
Mortgage on Condo (Rental property): $152,177.53
Mortgage on Primary Residence: $388,760.79
Net worth = $1,027,961.52 – $540,938.32 = $487,023.20
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 decided to use the estimate on Zillow (aka Zestimate) for the estimate of value instead of a static value that I set when I started this blog. As a realtor, I’m going to remind you that the Zestimate is definitely not a precise value, but it can provide a decent ballpark estimate of your home’s value, especially in areas where there is more activity. For my purposes here, the Zestimate will serve just fine for this blog and provide a dynamic value that changes along with the market.
Our net worth increased by $8,512.58 to $487,023.20 this month. It’s been almost a month now since my wife quit her full-time job as a consultant. Since then, she has picked up a part-time job at our church. We are finally starting to build up our cash reserve to a more comfortable level, allowing us to start paying a little extra on the mortgage again.
Related: My Wife Quit Her Job!
| 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 |
Mortgage progress:
This month, we paid an extra $1,000 in principal on the mortgage. I hope to increase this amount going forward, but it will definitely be a little more difficult as our household income has decreased a good amount. We reduced the principal on our condo by $1,411 this month.
| 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 |
Goals for 2017
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.
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
- Be able to do 100 situps in 2 minutes
- 55 situps (1/19/17)
- 61 situps (2/17/17)
- 70 situps (3/17/17)
- Achieve a 1000+ rating in Table Tennis (817 as of 12/19/16)
- 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
- 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)
- 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.
- 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)
Photo source: Pixabay