Posting each month about miniscule net worth updates and half-baked money moves seemed a bit excessive, so instead, let me welcome you to my newly-established quarterly net worth and news update posts!
Review
At the beginning of the year, I laid out a pretty simple list of goals I wanted to achieve for 2023.
- Acquire a 3rd rental property
- Finish rehab renovations and have all three rentals placed in service
- Pay down ~25% (14k) of outstanding personal credit card and HELOC debt ($56k)
As we approach the end of March, I’m happy to say that we’re well on track! Back in January I decided to finally pull the trigger on an abandoned property that was down the street from one I already owned. This meant taking out a personal loan for $25k to avoid dipping into my menial cash reserves (thanks, SoFi), but once rehab renovations are complete I expect to be able to cash-out refinance almost the full amount of my total investment, so it should be worthwhile.
Now that I’ve got three properties, the focus is on getting them rent ready — which is the hard part.
I’m also happy to report that at the same time, we’re making good headway into putting a dent in our consumer debt (although I feel it’s unfair to label it all as consumer debt since at least 60% of it is from remodeling our primary home, but whatever). We’ve paid down roughly $4,000 since the beginning of the year — so, about 28% of the $14k goal.
2023 is the year we achieve all our goals — because I purposely made them easy to achieve.
Look, after the hot mess that was 2021 and 2022, I think I deserve to throw myself a bone, alright?
Net Worth and Spending Trends
| Net Worth | Liabilities | Net Worth |
| $237,536 | $192,281 | $45,255 (+2.09%) |
| Assets | |
| Cash | $16,951 |
| Investment Accounts | $580 |
| Retirement Accounts | $19,005 |
| Real Estate | $167,000 |
| Vehicles | $34,000 |
| Liabilities | |
| Mortgages and HELOCs | $100,975 |
| Credit Cards | $33,526 |
| Loans | $57,780 |
| Total Net Worth | $45,255 |
Net worth hasn’t changed much, and is actually a bit misleading because I’m not calculating the actual value of my rentals that are being rehabbed — I’m only counting the amount that I bought them for. Also, I’m not considering the thousands of dollars I’ve put into them already, but that will all come together when the final appraisals are done.
Aside from no longer having rent or student loan payments, nothing has really changed as far as spending trends go. Outside of debt obligations, our biggest monthly expense is food, by far. It’s our guilty pleasure, and honestly, we’ve kind of stopped fighting it. As long as we can stay under $900, we don’t complain. Oh, I did decide to get my notary certification, so there were some extra professional and business expenses this month for that.
Looking Forward
Regarding my latest two property purchases, the original plan was to have my contractor (let’s call him Pete) complete one rehab, and use the cash out refinance funds towards the other rehab. Unfortunately, Pete is insanely behind schedule, so I’ve brought in another more professional contractor (let’s call him Gary) to work on the other house. It sucks because it means I’m paying out of pocket in the meantime until I refinance both properties and pay myself back, but on the bright side Gary should have the property completed within 2 months (versus Pete’s 5+ months…), so it’ll be rent ready before summer. Great!
I’m also half-heartedly looking into the prospects of overemployment in order to achieve my FIRE goals sooner than later. It’s scary, but intriguing, and half the time I feel like I’m simply sitting around twiddling my thumbs at my current job… so why not use the extra time I have earning more money? Then again, I like having all the free time I can get to take naps, play video games, and do quite literally anything besides working… so, we’ll see.
Until next time!
Alex
Neurotic Finance 