October NET WORTH Update – turning losers into winners!

October 2021 NET WORTH UPDATE

Turning Losers into Winners

By MeTheMillennial

October Monthly Net Worth Update

Now 7 months into tracking and publishing my monthly net worth breakdown. Follow along with the ups and downs of my financial freedom journey and pick up some tips you can action across your own journey. 7 months…where has that time gone?

So a month into moving cross country and quitting my 200k Strategy Consulting job, life has been pretty good.

Am I regretting the decision to leave my corporate job? Definitely not.!

I literally feel like a 100kg weight has been lifted off the back of my shoulders. The Sunday night scaries and work dread have finally subsided. Actually I shouldn’t have waited so long, I already feel happier, rested and excited again for the next chapter – which I will update you soon about (it’s an exciting career change).

As you may know in this series, every month I track and lay bare, financially of course ;), my progress to reach $1.5M in net worth by age 35. I am now 30, so 5 years – I will need all the help I can get through smart investing and the following the basics of the FIRE movement – sign up to my newsletter to support the journey.

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: October 2021

So I took a month off having quit my job. I used this time to do nothing other than recharge and reevaluate what I wanted it life. Plenty of outdoor hikes and hanging with friends and making the most of the most amazing landscape I am surrounded by having moved to Vancouver. I forgot how nice waking up on a Tuesday morning with no plans and nothing to do could be! Not rubbing this in, but with so many people experiencing burnout, try to take some time without planning commitments!

I made no plans. Just to go with what I felt like on that particular day.

This is something I see of and hear so often, if you have time off to recharge – make sure you actually recharge. Don’t stress about having to be somewhere and planning down to the nth level of detail. Make sure you actually get a chance to relax both your mind and body.

I also wrote out some priorities and I would encourage you to do the same, take stock of what you want to work towards and what you value in life.

For me they include:

  1. Being happier and healthier 
  2. Not letting work define who I am 
  3. Work to live, not live to work (As cliche as that is!)
  4. Embrace nature and nurture friendships 
  5. Enjoy the journey not the destination (cliche number 2 here, but I have a tendency to always look forward to where I want to go – rather than enjoying the actual journey)

These are the guide-rails I am going to continually revisit, and hopefully will bring more passion and enjoyment to the people around me and my life. 

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?

I have now hit $331k in savings and investments. 

Below is October, 2021’s breakdown versus the prior month.

Overall I have increased my net worth by nearly ~$16k. While I contributed $11.5k this month thanks to some nice payout of holiday pay that I had built up before quitting my job… and yes I invested all of it.

This month my portfolio increased by about ~$5k after accounting for contributions. The stock market has been pretty flat in October.

But as always – I am at a point now where even if that market dropped by 20%, it would not mentally affect me, I would see it as an opportunity to deploy capital and buy up stocks at a discounted price.

You may be asking – what the hell you just quit your job why have you not a bigger cash buffer? Well I will update you soon on the exciting career change out of Consulting which will start bringing in income, and therefore doesn’t require me to have a large cash balance right now.

October 2021 Net Worth Breakdown

Breakdown by category, and also what I spent for the month of August

Checking: $1.5k (-$0.5k) – Paid off some credit card bills from drinking way too many coffees out during my time off work. I should probably practice what I preach more in this regard and cut down on discretionary expenses but for the month thats in it, acceptable.

Brokerage: $279k (+$14k) – Increase of just under $14k this month. But the vast majority of this was due to increased contributions from vacation balance pay out, and also rolling my previous employers equity scheme into this bucket. In terms of real growth from the markets – I roughly gained about $4k. 

On a side note – I took advantage of some single stock losers to offset selling some single stock winners where I had made +30 – +50% or greater on. Check out how I took advantage of tax loss harvesting here.

I will give an updated breakout of my brokerage next month, as I am currently in the midst of rebalancing.

RRSP  $53k (+$3.3k) – Increase of $3.3 this month with contributions of $1.5k.  Given that I left my previous job, I rang up my pension provider and rolled my pension split (previous 80/20 between equity and bonds) into a single index tracking US equities. This will reduce my expense overhead and also given my time horizon and age, 100% equity is an appropriate strategy.

Discounted Employer Equity Scheme: Discontinued – rolled into brokerage

Rent and Credit Card: $1.9k – no real change month to month here.

October 2021, I am now worth, financially at least ~$331k which is an increase of approx $16k (5%) since last months update. 22% 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 goal.

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! 🙂 

2 thoughts on “October NET WORTH Update – turning losers into winners!”

  1. Interesting update, and mirrors my own experience after the Q3 market dip followed by a relatively flat October. :/ I’m also intrigued because I seem to have followed a very similar game plan – taking some time off work to rest and recalibrate (parental leave in my case), and also using the time to jot down my own priorities (many of which overlap with yours). I’m also planning a career change next month, so this period of downtime has been helpful to rest and recharge before plunging into an exciting new adventure. I’m on the other side of the world to you, but isn’t it interesting how similar our experiences are?! 😉

    1. Glad you are taking the time off to rest and recalibrate and writing out your own priorities.

      Too few people actually take the time to put pen to paper. So interesting that you are also on a similar path.

      Keep in touch, stay the course and financial freedom will come our way!

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