Goal Update: End Of July 2018

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 July, 2018
Current value: $48,409
Change from last Month: +$2,285
Percent of Goal:  44.52%

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:

My SQL courses on Udemy generated $128.15 of income. My courses on SkillShare earned $92.80. Big gains this month came from stock appreciation. It was a relatively quiet month in terms of online income, but summer months typically see a slowdown in student enrollment. I do have one piece of rather big news to share, but I'm going to hold off until next week for that.

Net Worth Update

Our net worth hit another all-time high, rising almost $30,000 to $876,448. This completely surprised me, as I haven't made any changes in my saving plans. In checking the numbers, it seems the biggest increases came from my emergency fund account and general retirement accounts. These are invested solely in a Vanguard index fund and a Schwab S&P 500 index fund.

I think I've reached some sort of critical mass of investments where I'm going to start seeing huge swings in value each month depending on how the market moves. The change in value caused by market fluctuations dwarfs any increases caused by my monthly contributions. (Hopefully, these will be fluctuations to the upside!) In other words, an inflection point. This is something many FIRE bloggers talk about. A good post about it can be found over at The Green Swan.

In a surprise development, the value of our house actually dropped by about $3,500. I think that's the first time it has dropped since we bought it about 8 months ago!

June 2018

July 2018

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