July Net Worth Update – travel continues

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July net worth update

Travel continues…

By MeTheMillennial

July Monthly Net Worth Update

Welcome back for another net worth update from Me The Millennial. Officially month four on this net worth series and financial freedom journey, and the pace is accelerating every month.

In this series, every month I track and lay bare, financially of course ;), my progress to reach $1.5M in net worth by age 35. I am now 30, so 5 years to get there. 

This will then allow me to coast and finally leave my corporate rat race job behind (strategy consulting), which although pays well – is definitely not something I want to do in the long term – in fact I am currently weighing up my exit options.

So read on to hear the latest on my progress towards that goal.

*As always, I am not an expert or financial advisor, so nothing on this website should be considered financial advice. These are just my opinions, everyone is different. Always do your own research and have your own independent thought process.

Life Update: July 2021

Similar to June, July was also a month of travel. Who says you can’t live your best life on the path to retiring early? Also the fact that Canadians loose their minds in the summer months when the weather is finally good – everything and anything is up for grabs, and that’s coming from an Irish man. Jump on the bandwagon I say!

This month we checked out Niagara on the Lake with some friends – a wine vineyard region (yes they grow wine in Canada) just outside of Toronto. I splurged quite a lot on food, wine ….lots of wine but it was worth every grape! 

Check out some of my photos below. Be warned, amateur photographer alert. 

Vineyard in Niagra on the Lake
Amateur cyclists alert

Why am I posting this on the internet for all to see? Especially given everything that is going on in the world right now, am I just gloating?

  • For starters, apart from my Mum I’m not sure how many people are reading my blog posts. I’m using the website as an almost therapeutic distraction from lockdown and the constant corporate grind to put my thoughts on paper.
  • Secondly I want to keep myself accountable to follow through on my goal to get out of the rat race at a relatively young age (35), keeping this website updated so I can track my progress going forward. Potentially turning this into a side hustle when I eventually, fingers crossed, do reach that goal.
  • Finally, and most importantly, I want to help people out there who are disillusioned with their career and the widely accepted requirement of grinding it out for 40 years in a job you don’t like all that much just to retire on a basic pension at the age of 65+. Surely life involves more than being chained to your desk, always having a boss and apart from 3 weeks vacation a year, having little to no control over where and how you spend your time. I want to show there is another way, if you are deliberate in your actions and work towards your set goal.

So what is my goal?

For me personally I’ve set a target of $1.5 million by age 35 (now 30). Going off the 4% rule – I could live off the dividends from my investments which would equate to $60k per year ($1.5M * 4%), and most importantly without ever touching the principal amount. This amount for me (the amount will differ depending on your circumstances) will give me the ability to spend my time where and how I want, the goal is to spend my time in an area I am genuinely interested and passionate about. Personal finance is one, teaching is another or being outdoors in general – the point is I want control over what I do and not be a slave to the dollar.

What do you mean by net worth update?

Well put simply, it’s how much I have saved and/or invested across my assets minus my liabilities. Assets include cash, stocks, ETF’s, REIT’s, Pension etc. Liabilities are recurring bills I pay each month such as credit cards, rents etc.

Net Worth is simply a snapshot of your total wealth at a point in time. Put simply, it’s what you own minus what you owe.

Okay, long intro – get on with it, how much are you worth then?

I have now hit $290k in savings and investments. Wow, every time I write an update these numbers still boggle my mind!

My short term conservative goal of $300k by Christmas this year has been reset to $350k, assuming the markets remain on this ride – and nothing happens with current employment situation (touch wood).

Above is July, 2021’s breakdown versus the prior month (in excel of all places, as if I don’t spend enough time there in my day job working in strategy consulting). 

Overall I have increased my net worth by nearly ~$16k or 5% in just one month. While I contributed $9.9k this month, that means $6k was due to increases in the stock market. That amount still amazes me, $6k in one month with no actual manual effort required to get it. Let’s hope we keep riding this bull market to early retirement and financial freedom.

Upon request from some readers, I have also included a contribution column so you can determine how much my increase/decrease was due to additional contributions versus gains from stock market movements.

Please let me know in the comments of any additional information that would be useful to also include.

Read on for a breakdown by category, and also what I spent for the month of July

Checking: $1.8k (+$0.3k) – I am continuing to build up my cash balance each month in my checking account. I want to increase my checking savings account by September, especially given my upcoming planned move to Vancouver and exiting my Consulting career. If I didn’t have this upcoming expensive move I would probably have a close to 0 checking balance. I don’t see a real need to hold any cash given my age and lack of mortgage/family etc.

Brokerage: $239k (+$11k) – Increase of $11k this month, which actually means I’m up overall in my brokerage by $4.5k this month as I contribute $7k monthly to this account. As you can see most (83%) of my financial net worth is in my brokerage. 

My brokerage is made up of the following (approximate %’s):

  • Index Funds – 33%
  • REITS – 12% (+2% this month, I’ve started investing more in Residential Housing REIT’s given the current inflation market – check out here why)
  • Bonds – 5%
  • Individual Stocks – 30%
  • Gold Stocks – 20%

Regarding the above allocation, it constantly changes. But I do want to increase my index funds and REIT allocation and reduce my single stock exposure to below 10%.

Bonds and Gold Stocks – I am content with my allocation. I want to protect myself from any upcoming market crashes, and having exposure to these will provide some upside when the rest of my portfolio could be crashing.

RRSP AND DPSP: $46.5k (+$1.1k) – Increase of $1.5k this month with contributions of $1.5k. This balance would be greater if I moved to North America earlier, but I am now taking full advantage of employer matches. I am pretty heavily indexed to equity stocks given my age and time horizon. I currently have an 80/20 split between equities and bonds respectively. This performance was very for the month of June.

Discounted Employer Equity Scheme: $4.3k (+$1.5k) – I contribute a portion to an equity scheme through my employer where I buy into company stock every 6 months at a 15% discounted price. This basically means an automatic 15% return on my contributions, a no brainer to take advantage of.

Rent and Credit Card: $3k (+1.1k) – Additional costs this month can be blamed on the travel pics noted above. Which included Winery tours and a few restaurant tours thrown in.

July 30th 2021, I am now worth, financially at least ~$290k which is an increase of approx $16k since last months update. The snowball effect is really starting to take hold, every month I am consistently making more gains than the previous month, the power of compounding. My short term goal of $350k by Christmas is achievable, and my ultimate goal of retiring and achieving financial freedom by 35.

Hopefully this will provide some value to you, and even help you keep you on track for your goals.

Calculate Your Own Net Worth

If you haven’t worked out your net worth before, or even if it’s just been a while since you’ve checked, do it now! Open up your accounts, and list down the key buckets of assets and liabilities (don’t sweat the small stuff to start, you can worry about this later).

The first step is having visibility into what your own financial breakdown looks like, and you can plan accordingly. Will also give you a realistic view of what you can achieve, and also what you need to cut back on to achieve your goal.

Let me know what you think of these net worth updates below. I hope you find some of these areas helpful in your own journey to whatever your goal is. For me that is having the ability to quit my corporate job in Strategy Consulting and spend my time how and where I want.

Follow along on my journey, I keep my net worth updated here.

Leave a comment or contact me if you would like to get in touch and update me on your progress towards your goals.

Have a lovely week everyone! 🙂 

2 thoughts on “July Net Worth Update – travel continues”

  1. Amit

    Hi,

    Great post! Are you comfortable sharing the name of the index funds, REITS, bonds and gold stocks that you invest in? I’m 35 and all my exposure is in individual stocks. Initially, I thought I’d be good at picking individual stocks but I’m beginning to realize that this is not the best strategy (I think I’ve already realized it but perhaps it’ll take a little longer for me to accept it 😬).

    Thanks!

    Reply

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