December Net Worth Update…I got COVID

December net worth Update... I got Covid

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

By MeTheMillennial

December Monthly Net Worth Update

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Whew, what a weird year 2021 was. 

Let’s put it firmly in our rear view mirror and hope we can hit 2022 with the ground running. Reaching milestone after milestone on our financial independence journey. 

Breaking free from the shackles that financial insecurity imposes and taking back the initiative for how you want to live you and your families lives.

Welcome to the final net worth update from Me The Millennial for 2021.

This is the 9th official entry into this net worth series, and this month is a juicy one.

As you are hopefully well aware, In this series, every month I track and lay bare, financially of course, my progress to a goal of $1.5M in net worth by age 35. I am now 30, so 5 years to get there. 

This will then allow me to spend my time to follow my passions and not the directions of our overlord corporate bosses.

So read on to hear the latest on my progress towards that goal and some tips and motivation that will help you achieve financial independence.

You Are The Average Of The Five People You Spend The Most Time With (or in this case read the most content), so make sure to sign up to my newsletter so you never miss a post. It also helps me out more than you can ever know!

*As always, I am not an expert or financial advisor, so nothing on this website should be considered financial advice. These are just my opinions, everyone is different. Always do your own research and have your own independent thought process.

Life Update: December 2021

Well what can I say about December? 

It was an interesting one. I would sum it up as one of my favourite Clint Eastwood movies … ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. 

 I spent my first Xmas away from my homeland, (Ireland- the land of the shamrocks and 50 shades of green) and family.

I found it weird at times waking up on Christmas, but to say we made the most of it is an understatement. 

Let’s start with The UGLY.

We (group of 4) booked a week in Whistler, Vancouver to ski ourselves silly through the holidays.

It was awesome. 

I am by no means an advanced skier as the following photo demonstrates, so I spent a large majority of the time tumbling down ‘blue’ hills. 

It was an ugly spectacle, and at one point I ended up inverted with my head and hands buried in the snow. 

Couple that with an arctic outflow of weather which brought the ‘it feels like’ temperature down to -30 Celsius. Yes -30!

But, that didn’t keep us from hitting the slopes. What great fun we had.

For anyone who gets an opportunity to ski or snowboard, take full advantage. I will be coming back again and again. 

It definitely hurts the wallet. Skiing is an expensive hobby, but for me, the experience was worth it. You have to enjoy life too on this journey, especially during the holidays otherwise what’s the point of it all?

But at the same time don’t do something to the excess, and definitely not if it puts you into debt or financial insecurity doing it.

I would recommend booking well in advance and to rent your gear (with damage waiver insurance) to save on costs. Also take a lesson before you go with friends, it will pay dividends 😉 … I do love a cheeky financial reference.

Check out some of my photos below. Be warned, amateur photographer alert.

The BAD

I got Covid! 

Yes, after being so careful for so long and being fully vaccinated I tested positive a week ago.

I actually experienced one of the more severe cases from reading up about it as a youngish, relatively fit male. 

On days 2-6 of my symptoms I could not leave my bed. 

I had fevers, chills, sore throat, dizziness, severe headaches. 

On day 5 it got so bad I lost my voice and had extreme pain every-time I swallowed. I was very worried and ended up getting through to a physician by phone who said I should be okay to stay at home because there were 2 main symptoms I was not experiencing.

These were Confusion and Breathing issues.

Thankfully I am now on the road to recovery and feeling better every day. I really wouldn’t wish this on anyone, and my thoughts are with anyone you know that has went through it.

Your health is your wealth. Remember that!

That’s why this financial freedom journey is so important to me. 

Achieving financial independence gives you the freedom to say no to a job you ‘re only staying in for the money.

The GOOD

Okay, enough misery. The good part of this month, among other special moments, has been the massive rebound in my financial portfolio.

As you may have seen, my net worth declined last month for the first time in a long time.

But we bounced back strongly like Tyson versus Holyfield this month.

Net Worth Update (December, 2021)

 I have now hit $347k in savings and investments. 

This is awesome, I had an extremely aggressive goal of 340k by the end of 2021. I have now hit that goal.

More to come in my next post on how to set financial goals at the start of the year..the process genuinely works!

As a reminder, what is my Financial Freedom Goal?

For me personally I’ve set a target of $1.5 million by age 35 (now 30). Going off the 4% rule – I could live off the dividends from my investments which would equate to $60k per year ($1.5M * 4%), and most importantly without ever touching the principal amount. This amount for me (the amount will differ depending on your circumstances) will give me the ability to spend my time where and how I want, the goal is to spend my time in an area I am genuinely interested and passionate about. Personal finance is one, teaching is another or being outdoors in general – the point is I want control over what I do and not be a slave to the dollar.

What do you mean by net worth update?

Well put simply, it’s how much I have saved and/or invested across my assets minus my liabilities. Assets include cash, stocks, ETF’s, REIT’s, Pension etc. Liabilities are recurring bills I pay each month such as credit cards, rents etc.

Net Worth is simply a snapshot of your total wealth at a point in time. Put simply, it’s what you own minus what you owe.

Okay, get on with it.. how much are you worth then?

Below is December, 2021’s breakdown versus the prior month. In a lovely little powerpoint image, drawing on all of my skills from nearly a decade working in strategy consulting…lol

Overall I have increased my net worth by nearly ~$20k or just over 6% in just one month. 

While I contributed only $2.8k this month due to increased expenses on skiing trips and Xmas presents. That means $17k was due to increases in the stock market alone. That amount still boggles my mind, $17k in one month with no actual manual effort required to get it. 

My portfolio amount of nearly $350k is really starting to snowball now. The movements every month are so significant and vastly outnumber how much I actually contribute to my investments each month.

This is both scary and exciting. 

The experience from now doing this for many years, gives me the mental strength to not panic during a down day or week. This is how I cope with losing money in the stock market.

Read on for a breakdown by category, and also what I spent for the month of December.

-Checking: $1.5k (+$0.3k) – As noted previously, my opinion is ‘Cash is Trash’. I don’t see any benefit of holding a significant sum given my age and risk tolerance and current inflation levels. So I don’t.

-Brokerage: $291.5k (+$18k) – Whopping increase of $18k this month, which I only actually contributed $2k of. As you can see most (84%) of my financial net worth is in my brokerage. Which means I can access it at any time…. with the caveat that I would be hit with a hefty tax bill.

My brokerage is made up of the following (approximate % allocations):

Regarding the above allocation, it constantly changes. But I do want to increase my index funds and REIT allocation further and reduce my single stock exposure to below 15%.

Gold Stocks – I am content with my allocation. I want to protect myself from any upcoming market crashes, and having exposure to Gold along with REIT’s and Consumer Staple stocks will provide some upside when the rest of my portfolio could be crashing.

-RRSP (Pension): $56.5k (+$3k) – Pretty strong growth here. Given my fund selection, as a reminder when I quit my previous job I simplified my pension investing strategy. I placed all of this money into one equity  fund that tracks the US stock market. Given the strength of the S&P 500, my pension is doing well.

-Rent and Credit Card: $2.9k – yes, I spent a lot this month on the skiing trip which drove most of this increase, but it was worth it.

December 2021, I am now worth, financially at least ~$347k which is an increase of  $20k (6%) since last month’s update. ~23% of the way there to my $1.5m goal by age 35.

Hopefully this will provide some value to you, and even help you keep you on track for your goals.

Calculate Your Own Net Worth

If you haven’t worked out your net worth before, or even if it’s just been a while since you’ve checked, do it now! Open up your accounts, and list down the key buckets of assets and liabilities (don’t sweat the small stuff to start, you can worry about this later).

The first step is having visibility into what your own financial breakdown looks like, and you can plan accordingly. Will also give you a realistic view of what you can achieve, and also what you need to cut back on to achieve your goal.

Let me know what you think of these net worth updates below and post in the comments where you are on your financial independence journey.

I would love to hear from you guys+gals!

I hope you find some of these areas helpful in your own journey to whatever your goal is. Follow along on my journey and subscribe to my newsletter and never miss a post, I keep my net worth updated here.

Have an awesome start to your 2022 🙂 

MeTheMillennial

2 thoughts on “December Net Worth Update…I got COVID”

  1. Dang, sorry to hear about COVID. Any idea how you got it?

    I haven’t gotten it yet, nor has my family. But we don’t do any group activities indoors. The most I do is play softball with 21 other people outside.

    Then powder looks great!

    Sam

    1. Hi Sam,

      Thanks for the note, we have been trying to figure that out ever since.

      Assuming we got it somewhere in Whistler as it was supposed to be a bit of a hot bed over the holiday period. But impossible to tell.

      I was just very unlucky at how my body reacted and had really bad symptoms, I was double vaxxed but I was waiting my booster so that probably didn’t help. Thankfully I’m now fully recovered.

      It was the first time we got it too. Hopefully you guys stay clear of it.

      Softball is awesome by the way! And yes the powder was actually really really good, we good fresh snow on our first stay. Still didn’t stop me falling down the blue tracks but really enjoyed it.

      Cheers Sam – loving the more frequent posts from you too!

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