June NET WORTH UPDATE
Third net worth update, on the road to $1.5M by age 35
By MeTheMillennial
June Monthly Net Worth Update
Welcome to another net worth update from Me, The Millennial. Officially month three on this net worth series and financial freedom journey, and we are not slowing down any time soon.
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 coast and finally leave my corporate rat race job behind (strategy consulting). Which although pays well – is definitely not something I want to do in the long term, in fact I am currently weighing up my exit options.
So read on to hear the latest on my progress towards that goal.
*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: June 2021 (Travel is back!)
June was the month of travel, finally!… After 18 months of lockdown, myself and my partner finally boarded a flight again. God I missed it so much. Even the packing and the commute to the airport, genuinely I missed the whole process and build up.
We were fully vaccinated, even after the slow start in Canada, and we set out on an adventure to Western Canada, more specifically the Rocky Mountains (Banff and Canmore). For anyone who hasn’t been before and is into hiking and the outdoors, this should be on your list. Feel free to reach out to me in the comments below or contact page for any recommendations.
That Coors Light ad (“brewed high in the rockies”) for anyone who remembers is actually very accurate, the mountain, wildlife (bears, moose, you name it, we saw it!) and general scenery was breathtaking.
Check out some of my photos below. Be warned, amateur photographer alert!
Net Worth Update (June, 2021)
So overall I have now hit $274k in savings and investments – I have now updated my short term conservative goal of $300k by Christmas this year to $330k, assuming the markets remain on this ride – and nothing happens with current employment situation (touch wood).
Why am I posting this on the internet for all to see? Especially given everything that is going on in the world right now, am I just gloating?
- For starters, apart from my Mum I’m not sure how many people are reading my blog posts. I’m using the website as an almost therapeutic distraction from lockdown and the constant corporate grind to put my thoughts on paper.
- Secondly I want to keep myself accountable to follow through on my goal to get out of the rat race at a relatively young age (35), keeping this website updated so I can track my progress going forward. Potentially turning this into a side hustle when I eventually, fingers crossed, do reach that goal.
- Finally, and most importantly I want to help people out there who are disillusioned with their career and the widely accepted requirement of grinding it out for 40 years in a job you don’t like all that much just to retire on a basic pension at the age of 65+. Surely life involves more than being chained to your desk, always having a boss and apart from 3 weeks vacation a year, having little to no control over where and how you spend your time. I want to show there is another way, if you are deliberate in your actions and work towards your set goal.
So what is my 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, long intro – get on with it, how much are you worth then?
Okay, this is my third net worth monthly update. Above is June, 2021’s breakdown versus the prior month (in excel of all places, as if I don’t spend enough time there in my day).
Overall I have increased my net worth by nearly ~$14k or 5% in just one month!
Read on for a breakdown by category, and also what I spent for the month of June.
- Checking: $1.5k (+$0.3k) – I am continuing to build up my cash balance each month in my checking account. So my cash goal is to bring it up to $10k in my checking savings account by September, especially given my upcoming planned move to Vancouver and exiting my Consulting career. If I didn’t have this upcoming expensive move I would probably have close to $0 in my checking account. I don’t see a real need to hold any cash given my age and lack of mortgage/family etc.
- Brokerage: $228k (+$9k) – Increase of $9k this month, which actually means I’m up overall in my brokerage by $2k this month as I contribute $7k monthly to this account. As you can see most (85%) of my financial net worth is in my brokerage. My brokerage is made up of the following (approximate %’s).
Regarding the below allocation, I want to increase my Index Funds allocation to above 50% over the short term, and reduce my Individual Stocks holding overall percentage below 10%. I also want to increase my REIT exposure, to hedge against inflation and because I believe there is growth potential for REIT’s specifically invested in heartland America. Bonds and Gold Stocks – I am content with my allocation. I want to protect myself from any upcoming market crashes, and having exposure to these will provide some upside when the rest of my portfolio could be crashing.
- Index Funds – 35%
- REITS – 10%
- Bonds – 5%
- Individual Stocks – 30%
- Gold Stocks – 20%
- RRSP AND DPSP: $45k (+$5k) – Increase of $5k this month with contributions of $2k. This balance would be greater if I moved to North America earlier, but I am now taking full advantage of employer matches. I am pretty heavily indexed to equity stocks given my age and time horizon. I currently have an 80/20 split between equities and bonds respectively. This performance was very for the month of June.
- Discounted Employer Equity Scheme: $2.9k (+$.7k) – I contribute a portion to an equity scheme through my employer where I buy into company stock every 6 months at a 15% discounted price. This basically means an automatic 15% return on my contributions, a no brainer to take advantage of.
- Rent and Credit Card: $3k (+1.1k) – Additional costs this month can be blamed on the travel pics noted above. Which included AirBnB accommodation, pretty much dinners out every night, and car rental. We hiked every day so the costs on the adventure side were mostly free. The extra costs were so well worth it, as we had such a fun time. Definitely had one too many cocktails a few of the nights but you live and you never learn 🙂 As always, where possible, use a credit card to take advantage of cashback points and travel points. You can earn surprisingly good returns by signing up to the right credit cards. I signed up to a new travel credit card this month – so aiming to pay for my next vacation with the points from this card.
Overall Net Worth
June 30th 2021, I am now worth, financially at least ~$274k which is an increase of approx. $14k since last months update. Not bad for a 30 year old. ⅙ of the way towards my goal of $1.5M, getting closer ever month.
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. I hope you find some of these areas helpful in your own journey to whatever your goal is. For me that is having the ability to quit my corporate job in Strategy Consulting and spend my time how and where I want.
Follow along on my journey and make sure to sign up to my email newsletter. You will receive some great free content such as a first steps to financial freedom guide and an overview of the Easiest sites/places to invest, While also staying up to date on my latest blog posts to show you the path forward. I post at least weekly and no spam I promise 🙂
Leave a comment or contact me if you would like to get in touch and update me on your progress towards your goals.
Have a lovely week everyone! 🙂
Great progress! I’m also a strategy consultant at your age. Goal is also to FIRE. I’ve been wanting to guess which firm you work for, and I am 70% sure you work for ACN now 😛
Awesome – glad you enjoyed it! Great that you are on the journey too, I hope you achieve it too!
I work in the Strategy team at ATK, recently relocated to Vancouver.
Make sure to follow along the journey!