I am starting my own little series of net worth reports all the way to seven digits. I hope to start being more active on the site again not just to hold myself accountable, but to help you obtain the knowledge necessary to take action. Going forward, I do have a list of ideas for posts and other series Iāll start.
I donāt have some insanely high salary by any means, so hopefully you donāt think that is what it takes to reach the millionaire milestone. It sure helps to have one, but Iāve heard of people whoāve reached it and have never made more than $50,000 annually in their life. While you donāt need to have a high annual income, that doesnāt mean you should settle for the lowest amount necessary to get there. Take a time like now during this crisis to learn a new skill.
This is my first progress report, so thereās not a prior report to compare. Looking back at my Personal Capital account, which is a great site for consolidating all your accounts in one place, my net worth at the end of April was approximately $54,000. This represents about a $7,000 increase, which mainly came from price appreciation of my stock portfolio.
May 2020 Activity
I get paid biweekly and May was one of two months of the year where I get paid three times. There really wasnāt a whole lot of activity in May for obvious reasons. Itās been that way for a couple months. While being stuck at home, thereās not really a whole lot of places to spend money. All my purchases were made on my credit card, which were largely made up of food and gas. The rest was just fun money. Only other expenses for the month was rent and my car payment, which combine for about $900.
Looking aheadĀ
For the next few months, I plan on taking a break from stocks (unless I see an insanely attractive price) and building up some cash. Part of the reason is that I donāt really see any attractive prices in the stock market at the moment. Weāre at historic unemployment numbers and yet the market has continued to rise. The other reason is that I have some big expenses coming up for the next few months. One of them is replacing all my tires, which is one of those hidden expenses that you always need to consider when thinking about your true monthly payment for the car. So thatāll put a decent dent in my wallet.
Another upcoming expense is a CPA exam review package. Iāve recently passed 150 credit hours, which I believe is the last thing I need to be eligible to take the exams. This review package will help me prepare for all four exams Iāll need to pass to obtain my CPA license. This can be in the range of 2,000-$3,500. This might seem like a lot, but CPAs can make between 10-15% more than non-CPAs. If you ask me, thatās a good bang for your buck.
Finally, Iām going to pay off a decent size chunk of my student loans. As mentioned, thereās not really any stocks Iām interested in at the current price levels, so Iām going to pay off the loans that are accruing interest. You could look at this as a guaranteed return since I wonāt have to pay interest that I would have otherwise had to pay. Plus, decreasing student loans from five digits to four digits is going to help anyone sleep better at night.
Stock PortfolioĀ
Since the huge dip in late March, my portfolio has been red hot. Iāve been pretty aggressive during that time span, and itās about time I take a little break and worry about some upcoming expenses. This doesnāt mean I wonāt be paying any attention to it. Even at work, I have my portfolio spreadsheet open at all times (yeah, Iām a little obsessed). However, individual stocks make up about 75% of my portfolio, so I need to keep up with whatās happening. Like I mentioned in my previous post, itās basically a second job.
I plan on going into more detail of my portfolio in another post in the not-so-distant future. Iāll go over what Iāve been buying and selling lately and what I have on my watchlist. I have Excel spreadsheets for my portfolio and net worth, so Iāll share a template for you in the future that you can have for personal use. I might start a āStock of the Monthā series where Iāll choose a stock and analyze the financials (Iāll try not to bore you too much) and go over what I like and donāt like about the company overall. I got some other ideas in the works, so stay tuned for those.