This is my first net-worth updates report for the year 2018. For those new to my finance journey, net worth update is a simple report I post every month which tracks the progress of my journey to reach my financial goals.
My ultimate financial goal is to become a self-made millionaire by December 2024 (10 years plan). I have a strong believe that I can achieve this goal by saving and investing in high quality dividend paying blue-chip companies. I am a strong believer of ‘compounding’ power, and I believe if I can push myself now and build a decent net-worth, then the ‘compounding effect’ will give a heavy lifting in later part of my journey.
I am posting all my financial information in this website because I love to inspire and motivate people to start their own journey to reach their financial freedom. You could learn from my successes and failures (experience) and improve your financial knowledge.
Along the way, I make financial mistakes and will share my experience here with you. So, you could learn something, avoid those mistakes and save money.
Also, I like to publickly track my progress and get valuable advice from like-minded people.
In net-worth point of view, the past few weeks have been difficult for many investors. Many income generating stocks have been hit hard by rising bond yields.
Income point of view, the past few weeks have been great as many companies posted record high earning and hiked their dividend payments. As results, my estimated passive income keeps growing every single week, even though my portfolio value is down a bit from its recent high.
This is not the first time I experience this downward pressure. My Canadian portfolio had been hit few times in the past, but this is the first I have been going through the market storm with over $200K investment assets. Sometimes it is good get these types of experience in a long journey, so we can learn new things, experience all the ups & down and move forward toward the target.
My investment portfolio is built with high quality dividend growth stocks from multiple sectors. Majority of the companies from my portfolio had been going through all type of corrections, bear markets, wars, recessions, all type of rate environments, etc, etc. Thus, I believe they can survey with any short-term issues and keep moving up for longer-term.
Past performance is not guaranteed for future results. But history is our friend. It will give us good guidance about the unknown future.
As an income-focused investor, I am willing to hold my stocks over the long-term. When I look back these news 5 years from now, these fear of share price volatilities will be just a story.
In January 2018, my net-worth up by $1000 or 0.51% from the last month updates, thanks to annual home price adjustment. My home value is much higher than posted value here. It is impossible to find any homes under $400K in our area; however, I just wanted to adjust my house value with average inflation rate of 2%. I feel it is more reasonable and very conservative approach to calculate my net-worth.
Also, my debt is down by $800. I just need to bring down my debts to below $300K by end of 2019, but I ran into deficit in February to take advantage of market corrections, and I will discuss this in my next month update.
Net worth update as of January 31, 2018 ()
Assets: $522 300 ()
- Cash: $500 ()
- Home: $280 500 () – Yearly adjustment with average inflation rate of 2%
- Canadian Stocks: : $184 300 ( )
- U.S. Stocks: $40 500 ()
- Employer’s Pension Plan: $16 500()
Liabilities: $326 300 ()
- Mortgage : $177 200 ()
- Student loan: $21 800 ()
- Margin loan: $75 900 ()
- Credit card 1:$6200 (no change) (low interest credit card – 1.99% special rate for 8 months – will be expired in July 2018)
- Credit card 2:$0 () (low interest credit card – 1.99% special rate for 12 months – will be expired in March 2018 – PAID OFF)
- Credit card 3:$10 700 () (low interest credit card – 0.99% special rate for 12 months – will be expired in March 2018)
- Line of Credit 4: $4600 (no change) (low interest credit card – 0% special rate for 12 months – will be expired in June 2018)
- Credit card 5: $6000 (no change) – (low interest credit card – 1.99% special rate for 10 months – will be expired in October 2018)
- Credit card 6: $8600 () – (low interest credit card – 2.99% special rate for 8 months – will be expired in August 2018)
- Credit card 7:$500 ( ) – (regular expenses)- high interest rate of 19.99%.
- Line of Credit 1 :$14 800 () – (low interest credit card – 2.99% special rate for 12 months – will be expired in December 2018)
- HELOC: $0 (no change) – (low interest of 3.95% – primte + 0.5%)
Net worth :$196 000 () as of January 31, 2018
My net worth up by since my last update.
Note
- all amounts are rounded to the nearest $100;
- all numbers are in CAD; and
- Conversion rate 1.00 USD = 1.2294 CAD
I have a huge credit card debts because I take advantage of low balance transfer promotion rate and invest in high quality dividend stocks. Learn, earn, save,invest and leverage your skills are the keys to become wealth.
Thank you so much for being in my finance journey and for your support.
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Keep up the good work! The markets went down 10% since 2018 began buy your net worth kept growing, it only shows that you know what you’re doing and it’s always good to take advantage of the bearish trend in order to buy high quality stocks for cheap prices.
Your approach of evaluating your house’s worth according to inflation will prove itself right in the long run, as in the long term (for real estate it’s always 20+ years) houses’ worth always go in line with inflation, also, many signs show that the Ontario real estate bubble is about to burst and at the end of that process your house and all the houses in your neighborhood will adjust themselves to match their worth when they were built adjusted with inflation.
You definitely have enough time to bring your debt below $300K by the end of 2019 and considering your progress you leverage is in the healthy area.
Thanks for sharing your results,
Alan.
Thank you very much Alan for your positive feedback!
My diversified portfolio didn’t drop as much as market did. Usually financial sectors perform well in rising rate environment, which is my largest sector (around 20%) in my portfolio.
As you said, real-estate and gold go in line with inflation in long run. That is the reason I adjust my house value with inflation to avoid large swing in my net-worth.
Thank you once again for your comments,
Best Regards,