Goal Update: End of August 2017

At the end of each month, I post an update of my goals, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred during the month. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog.

Last updated: End of August, 2017
Current value: $33,865
Change from last month: +$1,583
Percent of Goal:  31.14%

Note that the funds in this account are invested in stock, so there will be fluctuations in value that are outside my control. I never withdraw money from this account, so any dips are purely due to stock price changes.

Events Of Note Last Month:

I saw an increase of just over $1,500 this month. Net income from my online courses was $113.03. No new income from my ebooks, but I will have some next month.

Apart from my regular savings contributions, the only income in August came from my selling cash-backed naked puts, as I talked about two weeks ago. This trade is looking like it will turn out to be a good one. I sold 5 put contracts on Realty Income at 55, expiring Sept. 15. With less than 2 weeks before expiration, the stock is currently trading at 58. Assuming it stays over 55, it looks like I will be able to keep the premium I collected ($266.70) and repeat this process next month.

Relocation Update

My family and I are now officially Washington residents! My house in AZ sold and we are living in the Evergreen State. Last week, despite the crazy real estate market here, we found a house we liked and managed to get our offer accepted. This was no small feat! More details on that in an upcoming post. Suffice it to say that it is such a seller's market here, I had to do things I never would do in any other type of market.

We close escrow on our new house at the end of the month!

Net Worth Update 

Our net worth took a dive this month, at least according to Mint.com. We show a drop of $48,440! Yikes! But all is not doom and gloom. We put a $20,000 earnest money deposit on our new house. Because we don't actually own it yet, that property does not show up in the net worth calculations, but the drop in cash does. So we're really only down $28,440. Gee. I feel so much better.

Some of the rest of the drop can be explained by a couple of things. My 401(k) provider changed their website, so Mint can't yet get current data from it. It's about $2,000 below what it really is.

We also paid for half of our moving expenses in August. As I mentioned back in the February 2017 update, my wife got a relocation bonus and we're using that to pay for our move. Our net worth has been artificially inflated the past couple of months as we held on to that money. Now it's time to spend it, so our net worth will be dropping. We'll pay the second half of the moving costs after we get into our new house and the movers deliver our stuff. That should be sometime in October, if all goes as planned.

July 2017

August 2017

Note: Mint.com categorizes our HELOC as a credit card debt, not a loan, hence the apparently high credit card balance. No more HELOC so I can finally get rid of this note!

Take a good look at that Loans figure - ZERO DOLLARS! It won't be that for another 30 years! Cash is also at an all time high due to the money we received from selling our Arizona house.

If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, please drop me a line in the comments section!