January Net Worth & Debt Update

Photo by Nicole Ditt via Unsplash.com

With another month passed, I’m officially only 2 months (or 5 payments) away from becoming #debtfree. This process has been both humbling and inspiring. Sticking to a tight budget has shown me what I’m capable of doing with money and what is really worth spending on. It has also stretched my self-discipline and determination, so I can’t imagine the inner strength it takes for people with 30k, 70k, 100k, and over to buckle down and take this journey. My hat is eternally off to you. 

My total debt has moved from $5,350 to $3,978, totaling a hefty $1,382 paid off this month, as planned (stick to that budget, people! It works), and including interest.

As for my net worth, my December 2018 total was a seemingly-tiny but exciting-to-me $131. Like I said in my blog post, I was just glad to be out of the red 🙂

Here are the totals for this month:

What I own 

Emergency fund: $1,510

Other savings: $2,916

Pension (forgot about this one in the last post!): $1,652

Retirement contributions (457): $1,774

Ripple XRP (like I said before, I don’t believe investing in cryptocurrency is a secure way to build wealth, but my dad gifted me some money for the sole purpose of investing in XRP because he believes in it): $122

What I owe

Just that $3,978 in student loan debt!

So own – owe = $7,974 – $3,978 = 

… a net worth of $3,996!

Reflection

It’s so encouraging to see these huge increases in my net worth. Granted, some of this money I had in my pension during the last post I wrote, but forgot I had it (having money automatically deducted from your paycheck can have this pleasant-surprise effect). Even considering that, my net worth moved by a few thousand dollars as a result of paying down debt and saving. Considering it was around -$9,000 when I graduated college, my net worth has increased by about $13,000 after only 5 months of starting my career (and, of course, working a summer job before that). This increase has happened entirely through active planning and saving, so I look forward to the days when I’m debt free and my net worth will grow more passively through investments. 

Here’s to 2 more months on this step of my journey!