Net Worth - 12/2013

Typically the New Year is a time of reflection for me.  It gives me an opportunity to reflect on all that I accomplished in the prior year, and to make plans and set goals for the new year.  While I do this for many aspects of my life, one that is particularly exciting is around money.  For many, many years (probably up until 2011) my husband and I were so riddled with credit card debt and no assets that our net worth was certainly in the negative.  That time of reflection wasn't very fun as I spent most of my planning centered around paying down credit card debt using the snowball method.  But those days are past us and now we have the opportunity to really obtain financial freedom and make a difference in the world.  

Below is a look at where we stand today.  I have to admit I was shocked to see how much progress we have made.   Much of that progress has come in the form of our 401k plans where each of us increased our contributions at the beginning of the year to 10% (matched at 4%).  In addition we saw a pretty significant increase in our Stock Options and Restricted Stock that I receive from my employer.  The majority of this is not vested but will become vested over time as long as I stay with the company.

One area that was very frustrating for me this year was the increase (or lack of) to our savings account.  We are currently saving for a 20% down payment on a home.  I had planned on being several thousand dollars ahead of this number by the end of the year.  We are buying new construction and anticipate the home being done around August (2014).  Our down payment will need to be $87,500.  We really have a long way to go in a short amount of time.  Our lack of savings is really only attributed to overspending of our budget so we have made a commitment to stick to a strict budget for the next eight months.  We will still be short by around $18,000 but I have a back-up plan for that.

In addition to comparing our numbers year over year, I decided to also do a projection for the end of 2014 as well.  I am excited to see where we end up!

Here are some assumptions for my projection:
-We will have purchased a home for $437,199 and put 20% down payment in cash
-Our cars will depreciate by $4,000 each (this is really just a guess- and how I backed in to the 2012 number)
-401k is based on continued contributions/match and a 12% return
-Stock is based on a 6% increase in stock price
-No additional payments will be made to debt besides the minimum