End of Year

[EvrClrx311]

I think most everyone here keeps a spreadsheet of their own to record progress (if not on paper, than at least in their minds). Over the years I've tracked my own progress, and it's fun to reflect on the ride from then to now. I'd say I'm about half way (in terms of years) towards FIRE. I do enjoy getting my own thoughts down to paragraph form about this, however I'm also curious to hear what metrics others use to track their progress. Please share

Details below, but first the parts, and why they are in there..

Balance - recorded retirement account balance as of the 31st of each year. No real reason to explain why this is there...

SSA Income - what my income was for the given year, according to the SSA website (I've obfuscated that in this chart, but have it filled in for my spreadsheet). It's interesting to look back at the growth of income, as well as the total lifetime income earned, as a percentage of my nest egg. I suspect around the time I FIRE, my retirement total might just about reach my lifetime income earned. At least I kind of assume that'll happen around the same time - remains to be seen.

DIA Exponent- the DOW point as of Dec 31st of the given year. I thought about changing this to S&P500, or including others, but there is something about the DOW... it's always in the news. The best use for this, is in downturns, recognizing that my retirement is simply a factor of the overall market, which flows up and down. As long as my exponent (multiple) of the DOW is rising, then I'm in good shape. If it's going the opposite way, then I'm either playing it too safe, or in the wrong investments. Closer I get to retirement the less interesting this will be, as changing AA will tend to make an account lag behind the DOW, for now it's my goal/hope to outpace it...

Income Exponent - This is the ratio of my retirement to my current years income. It's just the first row divided by the second. The hope is to see this rising every year, although big raises work against that. Can't really complain about those though, so long as the extra income doesn't creep into spending too much. Which leads to the better metric in my opinion...

$75K Exponent - Same idea, except this is simply my retirement value divided by $75,000 (my first years base salary in 2005). I remember at the time contemplating retirement and wondering... after a long career if $75,000 would be something I could live on. I figured inflation will do a number on that... but that at a minimum it would be fun to get to the point where I could replace my entire net salary from my first year. I keep waiting for this to get to 25... which would mean I've accomplished that (assuming a 4% WR)

DIA Exponent - another way to compare my current retirement account to the DOW. this one divides them to give a ratio... as mentioned above, the goal is to keep pace with (or hopefully do better than, in my younger years) the DOW So far so good.

Inflation and Inf Product - keeping an eye on inflation, which I mathematically apply across periods of time on this chart to compare various things... good to know, what the value of the dollar is doing as you mark down account totals along the way.

In - My contributions for the year (including work matches, and profit-sharing)

Out - that stupid 401k loan (I did pay it back) and divorce (ouch). Hopefully, never again on both accounts - I can see in these charts how they put speed bumps in my progress

Dividends - Keeping track of distributions, they have always been reinvested. I'm curious to see how they change over my lifetime. I understand that dividends used to be much higher. I wonder if those days will ever return (pun intended) .

Dec 31st of	Balance	SSA Income	DIA	IncomeExp	75Kexp	DIAexp	Inflation	Inf-Prod	In	Out	Dividends
2005	$7,500.00	$xx,500.00	10,717.50	x.xx	0.10	0.70	3.4	1.034	$7,500.00		$351.75
2006	$24,993.00	$xx,452.00	12,463.15	x.xx	0.33	2.01	3.2	1.067	$15,750.00		$1,172.17
2007	$44,112.00	$xx,643.00	13,264.82	x.xx	0.59	3.33	2.8	1.097	$17,750.00		$2,068.85
2008	$41,546.00	$xxx,415.00	8,776.39	x.xx	0.55	4.73	3.8	1.139	$17,507.22		$1,462.92
2009	$80,113.00	$xxx,240.00	10,428.05	x.xx	1.07	7.68	-0.4	1.134	$18,715.68		$1,397.75
2010	$117,763.00	$xxx,619.00	11,577.51	x.xx	1.57	10.17	1.6	1.152	$19,458.24		$1,899.69
2011	$92,010.00	$xxx,415.00	12,217.56	x.xx	1.23	7.53	3.2	1.189	$27,982.63	$50,000.00	$2,420.31
2012	$134,414.00	$xxx,754.00	13,104.13	x.xx	1.79	10.26	2.1	1.214	$26,456.99		$2,884.36
2013	$200,620.00	$xxx,481.00	16,576.66	x.xx	2.67	12.10	1.5	1.232	$27,709.81		$4,805.84
2014	$248,183.00	$xxx,072.00	17,823.07	x.xx	3.31	13.92	1.6	1.252	$37,253.75		$8,674.33
2015	$200,237.00	$xxx,839.00	17,425.03	x.xx	2.67	11.49	0.1	1.253	$50,203.89	$110,282.71	$7,841.68
2016	$276,832.00	$xxx,198.70	19,762.60	x.xx	3.69	14.01	1.3	1.270	$50,241.03		$6,371.35
2017	$375,758.00	$xxx,097.44	24,732.00	x.xx	5.01	15.19			$50,964.00		$6,565.36
2018
Total		$x,xxx,726.14							$367,493.24	$160,282.71	$47,916.36

 

[sengsational]

Thanks for sharing your tracking thing. I'm always interested in what goes into people's tracking spreadsheets. I can't say I've every had anything quite like yours.

When working, I did have a sheet that I updated quarterly to track how much I contributed to savings and how much I spent. The purpose was to make sure I was saving "enough". I didn't adjust that one for inflation, or compare to indexes. Each position I held did get it's own IRR measurement over various periods (1yr, 5yr, etc), so and I might sometimes compare those returns with indexes, but the indexes were not in the spreadsheet. Never had anything with inflation while working.

Now, no longer working, I have a sheet that tracks "all-in" return, and I DO have columns that adjust for inflation and spending. The motivation for this one was originally to raise awareness of the "sequence of returns" problem. Luckily, so far, that's not been a problem. Now the purpose is mostly to be able to post to the YTD return thread on this board, lol!

 

[thumbs]

Very cool... thanks for sharing that! I track my net worth and update it quarterly. I have a google document that I save on December 31 every year so I can look back and see where I was. I don't have near the detail that you do. Mine has a list of assets (9 properties and 2 businesses, savings/ investment accounts) and the debts on them (if any). I then have each asset showing how much it adds to our net worth and how leveraged it is, and my overall debt ratio. I have goals each year, and want to keep my leverage at a comfortable level. Your breakdown is very in depth. I wonder, is your level of detail something that you find helps you progress? Or is it more for interest /entertainment value? Either way.. Thanks for sharing!

 

[LiveBelowMeans]

I have always had a net worth excel spreadsheet which I updated in January of each year. I include house value (net of mortgage), brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, bank accounts etc. I then project the next 3 years with varying growth rates for each account. This gives me some sense of where I am heading. It is interesting to see how certain accounts will beat the projections I had. Good Luck.

 

[Clone]

A few things that I think would be worth adding-

Document what your effective tax rate and your incremental tax rate was. Easy to add to the sheet each year, a bit of a job to go back and find. I did this recently and was surprised at how high those tax rates were.

While you are at it, cost for a gallon of gasoline, a gallon of diesel, a kwh of electricity, other cost of living type things.