may NET WORTH UPDATE
May 2021
By MeTheMillennial
May Monthly Net Worth Update.
Whew May 31st! One day away from the official start of the summer, another month in the books and another step towards financial freedom. Also some good news on the lockdown, we are finally starting to open up – which is also why you will notice an increase in my credit card bill below. Overall I have now hit $260k in savings and investments – I have set a short term conservative goal of $300k by Christmas this year, let’s keep the momentum going and hope this bull market continues!
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 second net worth monthly update – I’m continuing to keep it quite simple with a month to month comparison. Above is May, 2021’s breakdown versus the prior month (in excel of all places, as if I don’t spend enough time there in my day job working in strategy consulting)
Checking: $1.2k (+$1k) – Okay I know what you’re thinking, why is your checking so small, where is your emergency fund? And you’re right, I am beginning to build this up starting this month. Goal is to bring it up to 10k in my checking savings account by August, especially given my upcoming planned move to Vancouver and exiting my Consulting career.
Brokerage: $219k (+$6k) – Increase of $6k this month, which actually means I’m down overall in my brokerage by $1k given I contribute $7k monthly. As you can see most (85%) of my financial net worth is in my brokerage. Which is primarily made up of stocks. I will provide a more detailed breakdown in future posts. But primarily I’m invested in ETF’s (examples include Vanguards VTI, VOOV and VEE) along with some specific individual stocks providing some downside protection (Examples include Barrick Gold and Flutter Entertainment) along with some US treasury bonds. I’ve continued to invest in REIT’s also, to gain some Real Estate exposure, given the market wide prediction of increased inflation to come, Real Estate tends to perform well in periods of high inflation so I want to increase my exposure here. They also tend to pay a pretty high dividend which I reinvest immediately.
RRSP AND DPSP: $40.5k (+$2k) – Increase of $2k this month with contributions of $1.6k. 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.
Discounted Employer Equity Scheme: $2.1k (+$.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: $1.9k (+.6k) – Additional costs this month due to booking flights away (I know right, we can actually start travelling again – at least within Canada). Other than flights, these are my main bills that I pay each month, I haven’t included other items such as food, internet etc. I don’t drive which is a big cost saver, I live downtown in Toronto and it’s easier to cycle. Everything, where possible, is put on 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.
May 31st 2021, I am now worth, financially at least ~$260k which is an increase of just over $8k since last months update. Not bad for a 30 year old. ⅙ of the way towards my goal of $1.5M.
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, I keep my net worth updated here.
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 posts. What REITs do you invest in?
I’ve invested in a number of REIT’s who primarily are investing in Heartland America (Texas etc.) – I see huge growth opportunities there for the Real Estate market, along with generating consistent dividend payouts.