Due to my little break its been a while since I’ve posted a net worth update. I hadn’t posted an update for June or July so both will be included in this single update. As well I feel its necessary to do a midyear review to get some insight into my progress thus far.

It’s also fitting that I do this review now because we are done with the wedding. One of the biggest hindrances for us this past year has been our ability to save and grow our net worth organically. Rather then moving money over to our savings account we were keeping the money in our chequing which isn’t being tracked as part of our net worth. Now that everything is over with I hope to see our savings increase as well since the wedding has been nearly completely paid for. The only outstanding item is the final payment for the photographer which will be settled once we receive the photos.

June

In June we manage to squeeze out an increase of 1.78%. Unfortunately we had very little money go towards savings. The wedding was creeping up and money was flowing out. The only saving grace was the increase in our investment accounts. The markets continue to go up and so do the value of our investments accounts.

July

July turned out to be a better month with an increase of nearly 6%. Cash continued to flow out but we ended up on top due to the generous wedding gifts from family and friends. I wish we could continue to see savings increase in this fashion but that will most likely have to wait until after August. Like I said earlier, we have just a few more things to pay for from the wedding and the honeymoon and then we are done. July was another great month on the markets and it helps make up for all of those lows earlier in the year. I know this can’t last forever but I’ll be smart about it and enjoy these market increases while I can. July also turned out to be a 3 payment month on our mortgage. This allowed use to pay more of our principal than normal. Yah to that!

Midyear Review

Ah yes the midyear review. I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs the last 7 months and this review will help provide a clearer picture of whats happened thus far. Overall things have been good up to this point with an increase of nearly 30%. I’m happy to say that most of that was not from the amazing upswing in the market even though I had an increase of almost 55%. At first glance it may appear that we haven’t done so well on savings with only a $3800 increase. However at the beginning of the year I was hording my RRSP contributions in a savings account which was then moved over to my RRSP account in February. This pretty much means there was a big drop in savings from the beginning of the year which we had to replenish. Overall I’m happy with our progress this year but I also realize its unsustainable. All we can do is work hard and let the coins drop where they may.

Savings: We currently maintain $4500 in our personal checking accounts so we don’t have to pay any banking fees. The rest in our accounts is being set aside for an emergency fund which we hope will reach $30k.

Mortgage: There is debate on how one should include their home in their net worth. Some people try and track the present value of their mortgage and others prefer to use their purchase price and leave it at that. I’m in the latter camp. I feel tracking the value of your home on a month to month basis isn’t worth while. We have no intention of selling since we need a place to live and it takes away from true net worth growth of saving and investing properly.

Line of Credit: This is a line of credit that I took out to invest in the market. This will remain the same as I will continue to only pay the interest since I’m claiming it on my taxes. I will eventually pay down the loan I just haven’t decided on when.

Vehicle: We are currently leasing our vehicle. This is preexisting to my fiance and I meeting. Our intention is to ultimately purchase the car once the lease expires. We won’t be tracking its value as it is a depreciating asset and serves no purpose in helping us achieve our goals. It’s benefit comes in the way of us running this car for as long as possible allowing us to save and invest more.

-mfd-