August came and August went. And with it, I now have a child in Kindergarten! What a mind job! While I begin to adjust to yet another reminder that I am getting old, let’s take a step back and dissect the month that was.
As always, you can check the latest and greatest info on the Track Our Progress page.
First, the numbers:
Net Worth:
- End of August Balance: $383,464 Up $8,617 (2.30%)
- Year to Date (YTD): Up $78,464 (25.73%)
Portfolio:
- End of August Balance: $281,611 Up $14,707.00 (5.51%)
- YTD: Up $41,611 (17.34%)
Monthly Contributions: $5,561.22 Up 99.1%!!
The green streak continues for the 5th consecutive month.
I thought it was bit odd that the portfolio went up so much but the net worth only went up about 58% of the portfolio.
It turns out the culprit… is our real estate. The Zestimates of our primary and rental house have been dropping over the past couple months. Why is that? Well, it could be a sign of a housing recession. But most likely it’s just the end of the spring housing market. In our experience the local market is very seasonal here with the majority of moves and home sales occurring in the spring and early summer while the weather is nice and to get kids into different school districts during the summer break.
August Notes
Where did the extra contributions come from?
In August we had our first complete month of full-throttle 401k contributions. These contributions make up the lion share of the total number. Additionally, by following our Cash Flow Budget process we determined that we could save some additional bucks (even taking into account a large expense as discussed below). As a result, we were able to add a little over $1,000 to our taxable account.
As I stated earlier, our oldest started kindergarten in August. This was a pretty big deal for us and for her, obviously. However, I’m pretty sure it was more traumatic for my wife and I than it was for her. I may or may not have freaked out a bit trying to figure out the drop off procedures. And I may or may not have been yelled at by a teacher on Day 1 for parking in the bus line…
Sidebar: I now have so much respect for parents with multiple kids in school. The amount of “stuff” and responsibilities for a single Kindergartner is astonishing.
Anyways, a happy side effect is that we are now saving about $100 a week in daycare costs.
Oh how the mighty have fallen…
I’m referring to our giant pin oak tree, of course.
If you recall from last months update I was getting bids to taken down our dying tree. The first 3 bids came in well north of $2,000. Thankfully, my wife convinced me to check in the the tree guy we used at our rental house last year. I didn’t think he would take work this far away… but I was wrong, and he was about $700 lower than the next guy. Normally, this would make me very suspicious, but he came highly recommended by our property manager and did good work for us last year.
Coming Up in September
Beefing Up the Emergency Fund – We’ve determined that we want to increase emergency fund. So we will focus on building it back to at least 3 months of expenses. But we aren’t going to stop there…
Hoarding the War Chest – We will need a big chunk of liquid cash available for a possible work-related investment opportunity. As I mentioned in my previous post How to Compare Short Term Savings Strategies, I suspect this money will be needed within 2 years. So extra cash is going to be diverted to our money market savings account for now. Evaluating some online high yield savings accounts is next on my to-do list to see if we can squeeze a few extra bucks of interest out of these funds.
Thanks for reading and check back in next week!