In addition to tracking my networth performance on Mint.com and PersonalCapital.com, I also twice monthly track every single asset in one Google spreadsheet. I’ve been obsessively doing this for the past four years. It helps me keep a reality check on how my stocks are performing and if I’m overspending in terms of preventing reaching my goals. Every year so far I have met or exceeded my goals. This year, I’m concerned I won’t make it. And this is the biggie — $250k in networth by 30.
My spreadsheet basically adds up my total networth minus any debts and breaks down the amount I have to save per month to hit my goal. The good news is, I’m making progress. At the beginning of this year to reach my goal I had to save $9981 per month. Today, I only have to save $7,376 per month. This is largely due to the performance of my stocks as well as increasing my early contribution to my 401k this year.
But $7376 per month is still about $3000 more than my take home pay per month! That means I somehow have to make up for $27k in the next nine months, plus, of course, all the money I spend each month to live. So really I need to make up about $40k in the next nine months to hit my goal. Seems impossible.
Let’s see..
If I earn 3% return on my networth for the rest of the year that’s $6300
If I get my maximum bonus for the next three quarters, after taxes that’s about $9000
That still leaves a gap of $25k to hit my goal.
Basically, if the above holds true, I need to save an average of $3k per month for the next nine months to hit my goal.
Ok, that’s hard but doable.
But all of the above must actually come to fruition. Hitting my top bonus each quarter is very hard. And I’m not sure I’ll be earning a 3% return on my networth over the next nine months. At least I can set some goals for myself here, saving $3k per month to get somewhat close to my goal. My biggest challenge right now is what to do about my car. I want to buy a new (used) car but feel like I should wait until I hit my goal to do this. If the stock market performs well or suddenly AAPL takes off I can easily increase my networth quickly — but of course that means I can easily also lose it as fast. Last thing I want to do is get to the end of 2013, look at a networth of $200k with 0% growth yet plenty of investment over the year, and meanwhile I’m still driving the same beater. I’m tempted to sell 50% of my AAPL stock to cover a new car, but then there’s no way in hell I’m making my goal for the year.
If you need your car, you should sell your stocks and buy one, especially if you are still making a profit.
We try not to hold ourselves to hard and fast deadlines like that since so much of it is outside of your control. If the markets take a dive, you’ll take a paper hit, but until you sell it’s not really a loss in the same way. In the same way, until we sell, all of our stock gains are just paper gains, so they’re not really all that impressive, either.
If it makes you feel better, I drive a 13 year old beater named Moose and I love him. He’s only got about 120,000 miles and worth maybe $3,000, but he’s great all the same.
Don’t worry about the NW goal so much. Check back once at the end of the year and see where the cards fall!
Best,
Sam