Net Worth Update (and FIRE NW)- September 2021

Last month our net worth hit 7 figures, and so I thought it was time to start tracking and sharing our FIRE net worth as well.

If you would like to see all net worth posts use this link here.

Firstly here’s a quick explanation of the difference between calculating your your total net worth and your FIRE net worth.

Calculating your total net worth is:

Total Net worth = Total Assets – Total Liabilities

Calculating your FIRE net worth is slightly different:

FIRE Net worth = FIRE Assets – FIRE Liabilities

FIRE assets are those that are invested, earning income and accessible to you now. These assets and liabilities don’t include your home, car, furniture, collectables, jewellery, and retirement accounts that you are unable to access until traditional retirement age (e.g. Superannuation for us Australians isn’t accessible until 60 years old).

Total Net worth September 2021 – $1,022,200 (up $2,200)

FIRE Net worth September 2021 – $287,865 (up $111,811)

Total Assets September 2021 – $1,499,791 (up $112,803)

Our assets increased substantially in September, and this was from a large purchase of ETF’s from funds we freed up as a result of our home refinance (we have started using debt recycling as part of our investment strategy to reach financial independence a little quicker than planned). We still have more to invest in the market, but are waiting to see how things go in October (which just so happens to be the most volatile months of the year). Obviously as a result of borrowing to invest we have also increased our liabilities so this increase to assets hasn’t resulted in the same increase to our total net worth.

So what did we do right?

In addition to the additional ETF’s we purchased via debt recycling we continued to invest our income into ETF’s. In September we invested a total of 5k (outside of super/retirement) via Pearler’s auto investment feature (we normally invest 2k a fortnight as per our investment strategy). We missed our goal of investing 6k as we had a few extra renovating expenses. We are still hoping to hit our super stretch goal of having 200k invested by the end of 2021 (we are 23k away from this goal, and we don’t count the debt recycling related ETF purchases towards this goal).

Our retirement funds continued to grow thanks to our generous employment benefits (My husband receives 17.5% employer superannuation contributions, and I receive 10% but also have deferred tax benefits for any super contributions that are made to my account).

So what did we change?

We started debt recycling. We have refinanced our home loan, and split our loan into two loans, and tapped into the equity of the house for the sole purpose of investing. This is not a strategy I feel educated enough to provide details on so I encourage you to seek out professional financial advice.

Total Liabilities September 2021 – $477,029 (increased $110,603)

Our liabilities increased this month as part of our debt recycling plans. Our interest rate is 1.99% and is a variable loan. We expect our liabilities to increase further in October as we continue to purchase more ETF’s via our investment loan to a total of 550k.

Total Net Worth Increase in 2021 (to date) = $262,542

End of 2021 Goal 1 million dollar net worth: Completed August 2021

How do I track our net worth?

I’ve tracked our net worth since mid 2019 and enjoy seeing it grow over time. I strongly believe that tracking can assist you on staying the course, because lets face it this getting wealthy business takes time (and it’s easy to feel like you’re not making progress and lose interest).

Being a bit of a spreadsheet nerd I track our net worth in a custom made spreadsheet which is available here for $5.50.

I also track it on a day to day basis on a free IOS app called ‘My Net Worth’ so I can see how I’m going over the month, and then I enter the details from the app into my spreadsheet.

How do you calculate net worth?

If you don’t want to download the free IOS app or use a spreadsheet you can calculate this manually.

1. Writing down all of your assets and liabilities separately.
2. Then add up all of your assets together to get a figure (write this down).
3. Then add up all of your liabilities together to get a figure (write this down).
4. Then take the sum of your assets and deduct the sum of your liabilities.
5. This is your net worth.

Net Worth = (Sum of your Assets) – (Sum of your Liabilities)

Happy Calculating !!!!! If you don’t want to do the calculations yourself the Net worth Tracker I use is available in my Etsy shop for $5.50 (click on the image below for the link). I’ve also just updated it this month to calculate your FIRE net worth as well. If you’ve already purchased this get in touch with me with proof of purchase and I will send you the updated version.

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