Net worth change since 1-1-2012, the real question !

[studbucket]

Up 134%

However, I only started getting serious about my finances 2.5 years ago and only started investing for retirement 1.3 years ago. I've also been at my job 3 years and have received raises, the housing market is going up, we're paying extra on our mortgage, and most investments have gone up.

I'm sure my number won't be that high next year!

 

[Meadbh]

Up 134%

However, I only started getting serious about my finances 2.5 years ago and only started investing for retirement 1.3 years ago. I've also been at my job 3 years and have received raises, the housing market is going up, we're paying extra on our mortgage, and most investments have gone up.

I'm sure my number won't be that high next year!

Congratulations, but you are right. As your NW rises, the denominator goes up, therefore it becomes progressively more difficult to achieve a high percentage annual increase. It also makes the incentive to work one more year that much less!

My NW increased by ~6%, equivalent to over two years of RE expenses. What's really important is that I really don't want to see a significant decrease in NW during the first year or three of RE.

 

[NW-Bound]

Who cares about the complexity of your portfolio or your returns for 2012 ! The real question is, how much did your net worth change from 1-1-2012 to 12-31-2012 ?

As reported in the other thread, my 2012 return was 12.2%. As I withdrew 1.6%, to feed myself and the RV among other things, my net worth went up only 10.6%. The values of my houses might have gone up some, but who the heck cares about that?

Starting in 2013, I will be constantly reminded that whatever return I obtain will get that 3.5%WR deducted from it. And the inflation rate too!

The above almost makes a scroogy guy want to go back to work.

 

[JmfromTx]

If net worth means change in portfolio balance then mine is up about 2.5 percent. My investment return according to Vanguard was 7.5 percent. I had a new shop built for my woodwork this fall and that made a big dent. What really amazes me is that with the gains from savings and my pension I "made" more than the last year I had a job. Plan B is ready if things go south.

 

[ikubak]

Net worth up 17.1%...we are still working and accumulating...it was a good year.

 

[FIREd]

NW is up 25% if including only new contributions and market return, more if including a gift from my parents.

 

[FUEGO]

NW up 39%. Still working and saving a lot of our gross income.

We are at the snowballing stage of wealth accumulation where our investment returns are starting to be more than our new contributions to investment accounts (and greater than our gross earned income in 2012). Hitting 20+% investment returns for 2012 helped with that snowballing.

 

[Meadbh]

NW up 39%. Still working and saving a lot of our gross income.

We are at the snowballing stage of wealth accumulation where our investment returns are starting to be more than our new contributions to investment accounts (and greater than our gross earned income in 2012). Hitting 20+% investment returns for 2012 helped with that snowballing.

Congratulations Fuego, especially for reaching that stage with a young family. But keep in mind that many people never reach that happy stage, because they don't save enough, or they leave it too late.

 

[FUEGO]

Congratulations Fuego, especially for reaching that stage with a young family. But keep in mind that many people never reach that happy stage, because they don't save enough, or they leave it too late.

We just keep plodding away. At the rate we are contributing to retirement accounts, kid related expenses are relatively minor. Of course we haven't had to upgrade the house or cars yet, but a minivan or similar will probably be necessary at some point.

Being FI at 35 is looking more realistic.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

NW up 53% In 2012 on back of saving like a mad man, getting promoted 18 months ago and a huge run in company stock we were aggressive about cashing out.

More importantly, we pushed a couple of huge rocks over the goal line:
House is paid off AND the kids college is 105% funded.

My wife and I did a look back yesterday. Three years ago we owed $400k on the house and were $150k short on the college fund. We decided to focus and eliminate these big obligations. Boy does it feel good to have killed those off!

Still in accumulation mode, but now we can REALLY start to crank on FIREing because all the house excess and all the college savings can go to general savings...and we were big time LBYM before the promotion...so now all of that upside rolls into the general savings/retirement bucket too.

2012 was a good year Onward.

 

[Alan]

My NW increased by ~6%, equivalent to over two years of RE expenses. What's really important is that I really don't want to see a significant decrease in NW during the first year or three of RE.

I couldn't agree more. We are so lucky that we retired just after the 2008 crash. I expect we'll see similar in the future but. Each year that passes with net worth increasing increases the confidence that the financial part of retirement is going to work out just peachy.

 

[dmpi]

Up 12.7%. Still working.

 

[audreyh1]

Alright, you made me pull out the Quicken for a couple more reports...

Net worth grew 10.4% in 2012. Retired (which means no adding to the pot!)

Inflation was 2.02% thru Nov 2012 (still need Dec), so I think it was a REALly nice year!

 

[hpnutty]

I just calculated this yesterday. Our net worth is up 20.1%, Portfolio gained 12.7% overall. No kids in college this year so we saved more than usual during the year and increased our charitable giving.

 

[audreyh1]

Net worth is up 20.9%, but that includes contributions. Return on investment, however, was about 15.9%

In the net worth game, contributions definitely count for the score! Congrats!

 

[bondi688]

How can net worth be computed? If the home is part of NW, the price you put on it is highly imprecise.

 

[rodi]

Networth up 15% according to Quicken. Still working/accumulating/debt eliminating.

Of note - the $12k we put into the kids 529's doesn't count as net worth in my quicken model.

We do count the debt reduction (mortgage), but not the value of the house (since you can't spend a house and you have to live somewhere.) I'd rather not count on the "wealth" of my house. I live in Southern California- so it's theoretically worth a lot. But since I'm not selling, it's moot.

Our mortgage was reduced by 36k. (25k in extra payments the rest just regular P&I payments.)
Maxing out 401k and catch up contributions helped a lot.

Oh - and it doesn't count the 401k contributions in hubby's craptastic 401k. They haven't sent us a statement yet. (This is the plan I posted about with the outragious loads/fees). He's invested $5500 since he became eligable, and hopefully the company match will cover the loads. But it's not a lot of money in the overall picture.

All of this was from before updating quicken today. I like the numbers even better tonight, than I did Monday night.

 

[samclem]

Up 16%. Of that, about 6% was new money, the rest was growth of the existing pile. (Didn't count the house--gotta live somewhere)
With broad US and Intl equity indexes up 16-18% for 2012, our portfolio looks like a bit of a laggard. Maybe our slight small/value tilt hurt a bit--I haven't seen a 2012 total return depiction broken out by M* style grid yet.

And, those old 3+% real-return I-bonds hurt us a bit, but I won't be parting with those until Uncle Sam confiscates them.

 

[sheehs1]

All financial networth buckets up 11% (investment returns (stocks/bonds), savings, CD interest and Cash). This was after a BIG tax bite in December for tax estimates flowed out.

Not sure how to determine if there were any real increases in real estate and family business so I'll just leave it at that.

 

[clifp]

How can net worth be computed? If the home is part of NW, the price you put on it is highly imprecise.

That certainly is one of the problem for things like real estate and some of the Angel investment I make. For real estate I take the higher of the county assessor or in my case an offer I have on one of my properties.

Anyway my networth increased by 5.3% +/- 2%.

 

[catccc]

We don't have any real estate yet. Our cash and investments comprised NW went up 20.8%, from 306K to 370K. We are 33 & 35 w/ 2 toddlers, one income of $85K, and our expenditures for the year were 45K.

Not bad, but I was hoping to do better. My goal was 380K by the end of the year and we missed it by 10K.

 

[smurray5991]

26.1% increase in NW in 2012 (including new saving contributions as well as investment portfolio growth). It's the last year of significant w*rk income (and aggressive saving) for me before RE in 2013, so I'm glad it was such a good year --- definitely has increased my confidence in being FI enough to pull the trigger!

 

[devans0]

Total is up 22.6% for the year.
Contributions accounted for 5.2%.
Net gain is 17.6%

 

[calmloki]

8.44%

 

[JBmadera]

8.36% (did not include any RE appreciation). Actually kind of surprised, 2012 was the first year living off of investments and it sure FELT like it was going to be a tough year but in the end everything worked out according to plan.