Comments on: Net Worth Update: $503,939.92 (Half-A-Million Mark!)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 11:12:21 +0000

In reply to Sandi.

Oddly enough you’re the second person who pointed out the car stuff here :) It def. helps! Though unfortunately we’re about to go back INTO debt w/ cars as it’s time to upgrade my hoopty to a more family-friendly ride :) But I’m cool with it – I know it’ll get paid off again now that I pay attention to my $$ more!

By: Sandi

Sandi — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 07:24:01 +0000

Do you know what stood out to me most about this list?! The value of your cars. This makes a very clear point that car loans keep you in a cycle of debt. My car is only worth abt. $4000 and paid cash. I was reading somewhere that most millionaires drive older cars like this because they make their money work for them, they don’t work for money. Most people statistically don’t get rich working for someone else either. Only when you start working for your own cause can you be rewarded, in so many more ways than just financially.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 11:38:27 +0000

In reply to Finance Guy.

Income and expenses don’t go in net worth calculations – assets and liabilities do. So things like rent, netflix, food, clothes and anything else you need to live are omitted here. Do they still affect your total wealth? Of course. The more you spend the less you’ll have to save or invest into assets later – thereby growing your wealth – but the cash flow stuff doesn’t go into your net worth, it goes into your budget. If you notice, you’ll never see monthly mortgage payments in someone’s net worth either – only the amount of mortgage *debt* they have as that’s a liability counted against your wealth.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 11:24:41 +0000

In reply to MrSLM. Congrats!! :)

By: wealthfromthirty

wealthfromthirty — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 03:58:24 +0000

Congratulations on the awesome progress JM. It has been a delight following your journey the past year, good luck on the next 0.5mln!

By: Finance Guy

Finance Guy — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 12:26:26 +0000

You’re doing a great job and I applaud you for engaging your readership on this important topic.

I just have a minor quibble with your f/s presentation. You don’t show any liabilities, because you recently sold your house and got rid of the mortgage. However, you’re still incurring housing expenses, right? They’re pretty much guaranteed, right? All you’ve done is changed the form, but the substance is likely similar.

So, in reality, the liability is still there unless you decide to live in a tent. In this case, the liability should be the present value of all your future rent payments from now until you die.

The value of owning a house is that eventually those house payments stop. But rent payments never do until you decide to own again. They are a claim against your resources, and given the size of the claim, should not be ignored. Doing so overstates your true financial position.

By: MrSLM

MrSLM — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 17:26:34 +0000

Congrats on the big milestone and I wish you success on the road to a full million :) Funnily enough, we just hit the exact same milestone! I opted for a nice craft beer instead of champagne though hehe.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 11:35:03 +0000

Thanks guys – really appreciate it :) Hoping y’alls journeys are going well too!

By: Darrell Stempke

Darrell Stempke — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 20:30:38 +0000

In reply to J. Money. Let me do the math for you! Give me an estimate of how much you'll add to your retirement accounts each year, what you feel is a fair nominal return on the market and I'll play with the math for you! Also, if you remind me what your annual expenses are, I'll tell you when you might retire, too!

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 12:52:17 +0000

This has been a long time coming. Congrats!!!

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