Fresh off our beach vacation, I am back at it and wanted to provide an update on our finances. Over the past several weeks, heavy rains have conspired to produce near historic river flooding on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near us. (Even though the river is only a few blocks away we are, thankfully, high and dry). In fact it’s pouring rain as I type this. Yikes!
It seems like every other year we have been dealing with near record floods. I know flooding levels are statistically based, but it’s incredible that we’ve had multiple “once in a lifetime” events in only a few years. Anyways, back on topic… did our net worth rise as much as the river in May?
The short answer is NO.
As always, you can check the latest and greatest info on the Track Our Progress page.
First, the numbers:
Net Worth:
- End of May Balance: $463,092 Down $13,179 (-1.40%)
- Year to Date (YTD): Up $71,254 (18.18%)
- Since January 2018 (this is when I started tracking our net worth): Up $158,092
Portfolio:
- End of May Balance: $316,684 Down $6,558 (-4.00%)
- YTD: Up $53,147 (20.17%)
- Since January 2018: Up $76,684
Monthly Contributions:
- $7,972 Up 73.3%
May broke the streak of 4 straight months of gains. The drop is almost entirely attributed to the stock market volatility. If it wasn’t for our contributions this would have looked a lot worse. Oh well, them’s the breaks, I guess.
The spike in contributions is primarily due to the lag in my wife’s 401k contributions from the last week in April which ended up falling into May.
May Highlights
Hitting the Beach
We took a much needed vacation to Gulf Shores at the end of the month. This also represented my first week off from blogging since November 2017! This is part of my quest to ensure I use all my paid vacation this year. We were blessed with great weather and smooth travels. Some sunburn and swimmer’s ear couldn’t derail our fun.
One useful hack that worked well for us on vacation was using grocery pickup to save time and cargo space during the road trip. We arrived, checked in, then picked up the goods. I estimate this saved us an hour or so.
Coming Up in June
The first payment for our new car is due in June. Since we are focused on saving for buying into my company at the end of the year we decided to finance the car purchase. Our plan is to pay off the loan balance as soon as the buy in is complete. All that said… it feels painful to have a monthly car payment again.
June is an action packed month when it comes to celebrating family milestones. We have our oldest daughter’s birthday, my mother’s birthday, my nephew’s birthday, Father’s day, and our wedding anniversary… all within the next three weeks. All this coming on the heels of vacation means my weight loss goals will be taking a beating!
Thanks for reading and happy June!
The stock market volatility has definitely been tough lately… for all of us who like to look at net worth. Ugh, nothing you can do except think long term and not worry about it.
You have the opportunity to buy into your employer’s company?
How cool. How did that opportunity come about?
Thanks Nate! The opportunity is part timing (older executive officers retiring and the business expanding) and part performance based. Being consistent and meeting annual goals has gotten me into the discussion.