Starting Net Worth: $69,575
The momentum from the end of the year kept going as December delivered yet another strong month in the markets. Thanks to continued growth and our aggressive investment strategy, we set another new personal record for the largest net worth increase in a single month. Each December, I like to look back at our year-over-year progress. In 2023, our net worth grew by an incredible 96.2 percent!. Watching that kind of growth unfold is both motivating and deeply satisfying, especially knowing it came from consistent habits and intentional financial choices.
This month was also a huge personal win for Natasha. She officially graduated with her master’s degree, showing incredible focus and determination through what was already a busy and demanding year. As a bonus, her new credentials also led to a raise at work. The only downside was taking on a new student loan balance of $6,949 to cover the cost of her final coursework, but it’s a tradeoff we’re happy to make given the long-term benefit.
We continued contributing $1,300 each month to our money market account as we work toward our next big goal: buying a single-family home. We’re starting to look at summer 2024 as a realistic timeframe for this move. On the tax planning side, I completed another Roth conversion within my 401(k), converting the entire pre-tax balance to Roth. I’m doing this because I’d rather pay taxes now, while our tax rates are relatively low and our income is still moderate. This way, all of the retirement funds I’ve built so far will grow tax-free going forward. With about 40 years until retirement, that long runway of tax-free compound growth is something I want to fully take advantage of.
We also wrapped up the year by updating our property values in our net worth tracker. We do this every December to keep things as close to fair market value as possible. For our duplex, we used Zillow’s estimate, which led us to increase the home value on paper by $8,935. For our vehicles, we turned to Kelley Blue Book, which resulted in an increase of $1,404. The car values went up because we had been depreciating them monthly at a rate of 20 percent per year, and Kelley Blue Book showed that their market values had not dropped as much as we had estimated.
December capped off a year full of big transitions, continued progress, and new milestones. With the foundation we built, we were excited to see what 2024 brings.
Ending Net Worth: $84,697
None of the above information is a recommendation. This blog is purely intended as commentary on things that have happened along our financial journey.